LADIES IN WAITING by Anne Somerset (non-fic)

I love library sales and remainders' tables in bookstores.  You never know what will turn up.  Ladies in Waiting was written back in the 80s and it might be out of print by now.  I checked on Amazon and it is still listed at the very low bargain price of $1.98, and if you are interested in British history from a different perspective, you may want to pick this book up.  It ranges in time from the Tutors through the modern era.

In her introduction the author writes: "Until the present century the court was one of the few British institutions where women had a role to play, and one moreover that was not purely ornamental.  At a time when virtually every profession was an exclusively masculine preserve, the position of lady-in-waiting to the Queen was almost the only occupation that and upperclass Englishwoman could with propriety pursue."

The most interesting eras were those where court intrigue was rife and morals were loose.  During the reigns of the Tutors and the Stuarts one could be sure that it was the rare young woman who left the service of a Queen still a virgin.  Because the monarchs were still powerful, the many woman who surrounded the Queen wielded influence far in excess of their position.  Often the waiting ladies became mistresses of either the King or one of the powerful men who surrounded him.  Money and bribes followed influence.  This situation led as one might expect to petty jealousies and jockeying for power.  Lies, sex, envy and duplicity became the name of the game.  For this many a high born female was willing to take on the arduous duties of waiting on the Queen in a menial capacity such as food taster, mistress of the wardrobe and other duties that chambermaids performed in highborn households.  The more things change, the more they remain the same.  All through the ages the same greed and shallowness occurred.  Even the great Queen Elizabeth I was unable to control the women who came to court.  Many a noble-born female retired to obscurity in the countryside, disgraced by a scandal.  Many a husband turned a blind eye to his wife's indiscretions in order to further his own ambitions.

If you want a peek at the hidden side of royal history, you will find this book interesting and may even find that some events in history were born of events behind the closed doors of the royal palaces.