It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, so it is my great pleasure to finally do another virtual book tour post and to have it be for my friend Heather Shanette‘s new book Elizabeth I’s Ladies, Gentlewomen and Maids: The Women who Served the Tudor Queen!
You can purchase the book through the publisher Pen & Sword and through Amazon UK and Amazon US.
Please enjoy this Q&A with Heather about the book!
1) What were the main roles for women at the court of Elizabeth I?
There were three main roles: Ladies of Honour, Maids of Honour, and Ladies and Gentlewomen of the Privy Chamber. Ladies and Maids of Honour served the Queen in public whereas Ladies and Gentlewomen of the Privy Chamber served her in private. There were also laundresses, silkwomen and starchwomen, and gentlewomen of the household who performed the more menial tasks of attendance. There was also a Mother of the Maids who was responsible for supervising the Queen’s Maids of Honour.
2) Were Ladies and Gentlewomen of the Privy Chamber essentially ladies-in-waiting?
They are what we might think of as ladies-in-waiting, although the term was not in common use at the time and Ladies of Honour might also be described as such. Ladies and Gentlewomen of the Privy Chamber were so named as they attended upon the Queen in her private apartment known as the Privy Chamber. There were subgroups of attendants amongst them such as Ladies and Gentlewomen of the Bedchamber, Chamberers, and Maids of the Privy Chamber. There were also unofficial positions in the Privy Chamber, such as lady carver and lady taster, and semi-official positions such as Keeper of Her Majesty’s Jewels and Groom of the Stool. My book goes into great detail about the duties of each role and lists all the women known to have served in each position.
3) Could a woman serve in more than one role?
It was quite usual for a Lady of the Privy Chamber to also serve as a Lady of Honour, and it was quite usual for a Privy Chamber women to hold more than one position within the Privy Chamber. It was quite unusual, however, for a Maid of Honour to serve in another position. There were exceptions, for example Lady Katherine Grey served as a Lady of Honour and as a Maid of Honour, but in general Maids of Honour were limited to that role.
4) Did all serving women receive a salary?
Most women did but some positions were honorary. Ladies of Honour, for example, were not paid, and neither were honorary Ladies of the Privy Chamber. The rest of the Queen’s women were paid according to their position, as some positions paid more than others, and according to their employment status. Permanent members of staff, known as ordinaries, received a regular wage, whereas reserve attendants, known as extraordinaries, were only paid when their services were required.
5) What was the most prestigious role?
Probably that of Chief Lady of Honour. Ladies of Honour escorted the Queen in grand processions and on state occasions. They were all titled ladies and the Chief Lady of Honour had the privilege of bearing the Queen’s train and of sitting beside her, very much as a consort might do. The Chief Lady of Honour was either the highest ranking woman present, such as a duchess or a marchioness, or the closest in royal blood to the Queen.
6) What was the most prestigious private role?
Chief Lady of the Bedchamber. The Chief Lady of the Bedchamber was in charge of the royal bedchamber, one of the most exclusive rooms in a Tudor palace, and the role was probably created especially for the Queen’s beloved first cousin, Kathryn Carey, Lady Knollys. Kathryn was the only daughter of Anne Boleyn’s sister, Mary Boleyn, and the Queen was very close to her. Indeed, the Queen preferred to be served by her maternal relations in private as she did not trust her paternal cousins who had a claim to the throne.
7) Who was the longest serving of the Queen’s women?
In continuous service, Blanche Parry. Blanche served for an amazing 56 years and worked her way up from a rocker or nursemaid in Elizabeth’s nursery to Chief Gentlewomen of the Privy Chamber. She was totally devoted to the Queen and rarely left her side. The longest serving intermittently was Mary Hill, Lady Cheke. Mary was a childhood companion to Elizabeth and served her, in several roles, for over 60 years. Indeed, Mary was one of only a handful of women to serve at both the Queen’s coronation and funeral.
8) Did the Queen’s women live at court?
Permanent attendants generally did, like salaried Ladies and Gentlewomen of the Privy Chamber and Maids of Honour, but reserve attendants only lived at court whilst serving. Ladies of Honour usually lived on their country estates, or in their London houses, and visited court rather than living there.
9) How were woman recruited into the Queen’s service? Did she personally choose them?
The Queen officially chose all the women admitted into her service. In reality, however, most women were appointed by recommendation and were drawn from the Queen’s circle of close family and friends. For security reasons it was impossible to be admitted into the Queen’s inner circle without being connected to someone already in it.
10) Was Elizabeth a good mistress to work for or was she, as some history books tell us, jealous and mean and sometimes cruel?
My book paints a much more positive picture of life in the Queen’s service than most books do. The Victorians, for example, did not have a high opinion of Queen Elizabeth so in many of their books, which have influenced ours, the Queen is a terrible mistress to work for. She is jealous and vain, cruel and spiteful, and the women in her service have a miserable life. Most of these stories have little foundation in fact and I have an article in my book explaining why Nugae Antiquae, a very popular eighteenth century publication from where some of these stories come, is a problem source.
11) If you could have served Queen Elizabeth, what role would you have chosen and why?
That is a good question! I think I would have chosen to serve in the Privy Chamber. Although it might have been fun to serve as a Maid of Honour, especially in the Queen’s golden years before scandals and misfortunes befell them, it was a very public role. I’m very much a behind the scenes person, so even if I had met all the criteria necessary to be a Maid of Honour (confident, accomplished, beautiful, charming), I would have been happier attending to the Queen, or looking after her beautiful clothes and possessions, in the privacy of her apartment. I definitely would not have wanted to be Mother of the Maids. Being responsible for the virtue of the Queen’s maids was risky!
12) What would you say is important, or different, about your book?
I believe my book is important because it is the first book to give a comprehensive overview of every position of attendance from laundresses to governesses. I spent several years researching these positions, compiling lists of all the women who served in them, and in identifying as many of the women as possible. I believe my book will be of particular use to fiction writers, to students and researchers, and to those who want to learn more about the hierarchy of the Elizabethan court and the place of women within it.
