Ladies-In-Waiting

For most of Kate Middleton's public life, the term lady-in-waiting served as the linchpin for cruelly punning headlines about her.
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The early modern Princely courts in Germany were modeled after the imperial Austrian court model.


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After the end of the German Roman Holy Empire in and the establishment of several minor kingdoms in Germany, the post of Staatsdame married ladies-in-waiting were introduced in many German princely and royal courts. At the Imperial German court, the ladies-in-waiting were composed of one Oberhofmeisterin in charge of several Hofstaatsdame or Palatsdame. The only specifically female dignity was that of the Zoste patrikia , the chief lady-in-waiting and female attendant of the empress, who was the head of the women's court and often a relative of the empress; this title existed at least since the 9th-century.

The Kingdom of Greece was established in and its first queen Amalia of Oldenburg organized the ladies-in-waiting of its first royal court in one Grande-Maitresse, followed by the second rank dame d'honneur , and the third rank dame de palais.

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Prior to unification, the greatest of the Italian states where the Kingdom of Naples, later called Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The ladies-in-waiting of the of queen the Two Sicilies where, in composed of one Dama di Onore or 'Lady of Honor', placed in rank as number two after the Cavaliere di Onore , and followed by three Dama di Compagnia or 'Lady Companions' number four in rank after the Cavalerizzo and a large number of Dame di Corte or 'Court Ladies'.

Italy was united in to the Kingdom of Italy in In Japan, the imperial court offices was normally reserved for members of the court aristocracy and the ladies-in-waiting or palace attendants were commonly educated members of the nobility. During the Heian period — women could hold court offices of substantial responsibility, managing the affairs of the emperor. During the Sengoku period — , the highest rank of a lady-in-waiting was "female assistant to the major counselor", who ran the affairs of the daily life of the imperial household.

In contrast to China, women palace attendants managed the palace of the imperial harem rather than eunuchs , and could hold high court offices in the emperors personal household. Gungnyeo literally "palace women" is a Korean term referring to women who wait upon the King and other royalty in traditional Korean society. It is short for gungjung yeogwan , which translates as "a lady officer of the royal court". Gungnyeo includes sanggung palace matron [32] and nain assistant court ladies , both of which hold rank as officers. The term is also used more broadly to encompass women in a lower class without a rank such as musuri lowest maids in charge of odd chores , gaksimi , sonnim , uinyeo female physicians as well as nain and sanggung.

Queen's Lady-in-waiting mistaken for the Queen

The court of the Duchy of Burgundy, which was situated in the Netherlands in the 15th-century, was famous for its elaborate ceremonial court life and became a role model for several other courts of Europe. In the 16th-century, the ladies-in-waiting in the courts of the Habsburg governors of the Netherlands, Margaret of Austria and Mary of Hungary governor of the Netherlands , was composed of one hofmeesteres 'Court mistress' or dame d'honneur who served as the principal lady in waiting; one hofdame or Mere de filles , who was second in rank and deputy of the hofmesterees as well as being in charge of the eredames maid of honour , also known as demoiselle d'honneur , fille d'honneur or Junckfrauen , and finally the chamber maids, kameniersters , all with different titles depending on language in the multilingual area of the Netherlands.

The Kingdom of the Netherlands was founded in , signifying the organisation of a royal court.

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In the 19th-century, the ladies-in-waiting of the Dutch court was headed by the Grootmeesteres 'Grand Mistress', equivalent to Mistress of the Robes , of second rank was the Dames du Palais married ladies-in-waiting , followed by the third rank Hofdames 'court ladies', equivalent to maid of honour. During the union of Denmark-Norway from until , the Danish royal court in Copenhagen was counted as the Norwegian royal court, and thus there was not royal court present in Norway during this period.

During the union between Norway and Sweden from to , there were Norwegian courtiers appointed who served during the Swedish royal family's visits to Norway. In the court of Muscovite Russia , the offices of lady-in-waiting to the Tsarina were normally divided among the boyarinas widows or wives of boyars , often from the family and relatives of the Tsarina. The group of ladies-in-waiting were collectively above the rank of the Svetlichnaya , the tsarina's sewing women; the postelnitsy the tsarina's chamber women and washing women and the officials who handled the affairs of the staff.

In , this system was abolished and the Russian Imperial court was reorganized in accordance with the reforms of Peter the Great to Westernize Russia, and the old court offices of the Tsarina was replaced with court offices inspired by the German model; see Lady-in-waiting of the Imperial Court of Russia. The royal court of Castile included a group of ladies-in-waiting for the queen named camarera in late 13th-century and early 14th-century, but it was not until the 15th-century that a set organisation of the ladies-in-waiting is confirmed.

Definition of 'lady-in-waiting'

The early modern Swedish court, as well as the Danish equivalent, were re-organized in the early 16th century according to the German court model, in turn inspired by the Imperial Austrian court model. They were headed by the normally married kammarfru Mistress of the Chamber, roughly equivalent to a Ladies Maid , often of burgher background, who supervised the group of kammarpiga Chamber Maid [5].

There are now only one statsfru , and the other ladies-in-waiting are simply referred to as hovdam 'Court Lady'. Queen Silvia of Sweden has only three hovdamer 'court ladies'. Her chief lady-in-waiting is the statsfru. These are a list of particularly well known and famous ladies-in-waiting of each nation listed.


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