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Queen Alexandra. Maids of Honour
Posted by Beth on December 24, 2020, 6:31 am
According to the media, during the reign of Queen Victoria, Maids of Honour who married while in service to the Queen traditionally received one thousand pounds. Perhaps that is one reason why the Queen was known not to favour marriages among her Maids of Honour.
King Edward and Queen Alexandra varied the custom giving gifts of jewels instead of cash.
When Dorothy Vivian and Mary Dyke married Douglas Haig and Captain Bell respectively in July 1905 both King Edward and Queen Alexandra attended their wedding and presented each lady with a tiara as a wedding gift.
Detail
Unfortunately I could not find any photos or sketches of the wedding gifts each bride received.
Neither bride wore a jewelled tiara for their wedding, although Dorothy Vivian wore a jewelled necklace, but I don't think it is the tiara which she can be seen wearing in later years.
Mary Dyke (Mrs Bell) is not featured frequently in the press after her marriage, and sadly I couldn't find any images of her wearing a tiara.
Dorothy Vivian (Mrs Douglas Haig) has a much more visible presence, perhaps because her husband became a renowned general.
Tiara she wore for formal portraits can be seen being worn by her descendants, but whether it is the one given to her by Queen Alexandra is unknown. Perhaps it is.
Irene Haig as a bride in 1945
When Adrienne Morley married the then Earl Haig in 1956 she too wore the Haig family tiara.
Detail
Dorothy Vivian (Lady Haig) had one other interesting jewel seen in photos: a pearl necklace. It seems to have been her principal necklace.
Can someone tell me what the difference between a maid of honour and a lady in waiting/lady of the bedchamber? Is it the status of being married?
Ladies of the bedchamber with the possible exception of Charlotte Knollys (I'm not sure what her position was) all seem to be titled where as Charlotte wasn't. Yet the ladies of the bedchamber don't even seem to be daughters of a lord or even a Viscount as they don't even have the title of "honourable".
The gifts though are extremely extravagant as cultured pearls hadn't been developed yet and natural pearls were worth more than diamonds. I suspect the gifts were perhaps to allow the ladies to be properly attired at court where whilst not obligatory tiara's were expected to be worn by women who had married.
Previous Message
According to the media, during the reign of Queen Victoria, Maids of Honour who married while in service to the Queen traditionally received one thousand pounds. Perhaps that is one reason why the Queen was known not to favour marriages among her Maids of Honour.
King Edward and Queen Alexandra varied the custom giving gifts of jewels instead of cash.
When Dorothy Vivian and Mary Dyke married Douglas Haig and Captain Bell respectively in July 1905 both King Edward and Queen Alexandra attended their wedding and presented each lady with a tiara as a wedding gift.
Detail
Unfortunately I could not find any photos or sketches of the wedding gifts each bride received.
Neither bride wore a jewelled tiara for their wedding, although Dorothy Vivian wore a jewelled necklace, but I don't think it is the tiara which she can be seen wearing in later years.
Mary Dyke (Mrs Bell) is not featured frequently in the press after her marriage, and sadly I couldn't find any images of her wearing a tiara.
Dorothy Vivian (Mrs Douglas Haig) has a much more visible presence, perhaps because her husband became a renowned general.
Tiara she wore for formal portraits can be seen being worn by her descendants, but whether it is the one given to her by Queen Alexandra is unknown. Perhaps it is.
Irene Haig as a bride in 1945
When Adrienne Morley married the then Earl Haig in 1956 she too wore the Haig family tiara.
Detail
Dorothy Vivian (Lady Haig) had one other interesting jewel seen in photos: a pearl necklace. It seems to have been her principal necklace.
Mistress of the Robes and Groom of the Stole Usually a duchess or a future duchess. Chief lady in waiting. Only a queen has a mistress of the robes Ladies of the Bedchamber Lady in waiting who is the wife of a peer Women of the Bedchamber Usually related to a titled family but a daughter who has not married a peer.
Extra refers to part time or someone who is only called for certain events such as a state banquet.
Bedchamber refers to the tradition when virtually the only only room that was private was a bedroom. It was therefore a position of influence where she could speak to the queen privately and ask for favours
The mistress of the robes was a role that included the job of ordering and caring for clothing which used to be incredibly valuable. She might also be given old clothing which could be sold for profit.
A maid of honour at court has been a much more social and ceremonial function than to fulfill a real task. A queen (or a lady of high rank) surrounded herself with them as kind of female trabants, necessary at the usually very masculine courts where women had not an equal position and number – something we tend to overlook from our time, social structure and our interest in jewellery. The entourage got a little more splendour especially when the queen lost it by herself. Maybe Queen Marie Therese would have had rarely a visit from Louis XIV if she would not have had took care for fresh maids. On the other hand sometimes a queen had to accept a young maid who was in need of an official position at court because the girl had catched the eye of the king. It sounds a little bit cynical but a court since the middle ages is a ballet for power and positions choreographed by etiquette.
To be a maid of honour of a queen (or a woman of powerful position, seldom enough) might have been a chance to get a training in ladylike behaviour, the etiquette and everything a wife of a nobleman at court needed to know, the chance to make contact to other people with connections (networking was important at all times) and with some luck a good match. Sometimes a queen could give a girl a jump-start, an orphan, or when the family had merits but no fortune. To give a generous present at wedding had its history in this. When a lady of the high nobility took a girl into her care in this way, it was also for her own benefit, since the girl's family was thereby obliged to her. That's the way politics work(ed).
An example is a young girl send in 1513 to the Netherlands at the court of the regent Margarete of Austria, a powerful, very well educated and clever woman. The father, a diplomat, was able to arranged for her to become a maid of honour to Margarete, who take care of her and gave the father reports of her progress and behaviour. Later she was transferred to France to the same position for Henry VIII. sister Mary, than Queen of France and after that to Queen Claude of France. She learned a lot and took her chances as well as she could. Her name was Anne Boleyn.
The maid of honour could not fulfil the same functions and doings as a lady in waiting because those took care of the needings of the body of the queen of which unmarried women were expected not to know of. They were ladies in training.
By the time of Queen Alexandra maids of honour might lost a lot of her meaning at court.