An Intrusive Royal Court Etiquette

“Etiquette and custom require that the Queen of Spain shall not nurse her own child. According to immemorial custom, a wetnurse is obtained from the provinces of the Asturias, in Northern Spain, where the Royal family originally came from, and where the people are very vigorous. A nurse possessing the requisite qualifications has already been engaged for Queen Victoria. The reasons for entrusting the baby to a nurse are that the province of the Asturias has a historic right to care for the Royal progeny, that the Queen may not be capable of nursing her own child, and that, being a foreigner, she may not be disposed to give it that care which child of the blood Royal of Spain requires.” – 1907

BARBARIC ORDEAL FOR NEW BORN ROYAL CHILD

Nowhere in the world has the barbarism of traditional etiquette reached such depths as in the Royal Court of Spain. There it strips privacy from that which one considers most sacred. It insisted that King Alfonso should woo the Princess Ena of Battenberg in public. It will not allow the Queen to become a mother in private, and when she dies it will not permit her to pass through her last agony without official witnesses. 

The etiquette of the Spanish court is not only barbaric, it is medievally absurd. This publicity, according to modern and especially American ideas, is nothing less than revolting. It is part of the Court etiquette of the most ceremonious Court in the world, and has been handed town practically unchanged since the middle ages. It utterly destroys the privacy of what most civilized people regard as the most intimate and delicate of all family occasions. It must cause unutterable distress and embarrassment to the mother, if she possesses the most rudimentary feeling of modesty, and must seriously endanger her life.

The publicity begins as soon as the probability of an addition to the Royal family becomes apparent. King Alfonso ordered a three days’ festival at Madrid in honor of the approaching event. In the churches, prayers are offered that the new baby may be a boy; he will be named Alfonso; if a girl she will be named Isabel Christina. It is anticipated by the doctors that there may be twins. Spanish law and Court etiquette require that an immense number of officials shall be actually present at the birth of the Queen’s children. 

Among these are all the higher officials of the Royal household, representatives of the various classes of Grandees, the Prime Minister and all the members of the government, the ambassadors of foreign powers, representatives of the two houses of the legislature, the mayors of Madrid and of various municipalities that have a historic connection with the Spanish Monarchy. As soon as the probable hour of the birth is known, notification is sent to all these functionaries and they hasten to the Royal Palace. 

These important persons fill the great saloon, which looks on the Queen’s bed chamber,while the stairs of the Palace are crowded with legislators and municipal councilors and the court yard is filled with ordinary Madrilenos. The sensations of the poor Queen at such a time in presence of a large assemblage of men of all kinds, most of whom are total strangers to her, are indescribable. One purpose of this publicity is to make sure that the child is really born to the Queen and not a changeling, for, at least in earlier times, the people would have considered themselves very seriously defrauded if a baby not of the Royal blood had been palmed off on them. Etiquette and the national custom require that the doctor in attendance on the Queen shall be a Spaniard, even though he may have had no previous experience with her. Queen Victoria has had this rule modified so far that her English doctor is permitted to work with his official Spanish colleague.

As soon as the birth takes place, a salute of 21 guns, if the child is a boy, is fired from the Palace grounds to announce the fact to the people. The babe is immediately placed on a huge gold plate and handed to King Alfonso. In this way, the King carries the tiny, blinking, new baby to the head of the line of waiting functionaries, at the head of which is the Prime Minister. The Spanish doctor keeps his hand on the right hand side of the gold plate and the English doctor stands on the left. Accompanying the King are the Duke of Sotomayor, who is Majordomo of the Palace and the highest of all Court functionaries, and the Duchess of Medina de la Torres, who is Mistress of the Nurse, in national costume, stands near at hand, in order to render service when required. The King marches up to the old Prime Minister and shows him the baby. The old gentleman bows profoundly, adjusts his eyeglasses, and robes and the chief female official of the household. The Spanish veteran examines the little red infant carefully. 

Then, if his examination warrants it, he exclaims: “It is a Prince! God bless the Prince!” Prolonged applause from the line greets this remark. The King passes the long line of officials and ambassadors and exhibits the baby to each of them in turn. As the baby is presented, each of them bows profoundly. Finally the baby is shown to a notary, who has a book prepared relating the ancestry and parentage of the child for the last 500 years. He now makes an entry of the sex of the child, the date, hour and place of its birth. This is witnessed by the Archbishop of Toledo and the Majordomo of the Palace. When this task is accomplished, the King hands the baby over to the Duchess of Medina de la Torres, Mistress of the Robes, who may, if she sees fit, intrust the infant to the nurse. The child now has been exhibited to a great many more strange old men than is good for him. He is at last handed back to his unfortunate mother.

Etiquette and custom require that the Queen of Spain shall not nurse her own child. According to immemorial custom, a wetnurse is obtained from the provinces of the Asturias, in Northern Spain, where the Royal family originally came from, and where the people are very vigorous. A nurse possessing the requisite qualifications has already been engaged for Queen Victoria. The reasons for entrusting the baby to a nurse are that the province of the Asturias has a historic right to care for the Royal progeny, that the Queen may not be capable of nursing her own child, and that, being a foreigner, she may not be disposed to give it that care which child of the blood Royal of Spain requires. 

The nurse, or “ama,” as she is called in Spanish, wears a short velvet skirt, trimmed with scarlet velvet and gold braid; low shoes, with silver buckles; silk stockings, satin apron, gold embroidered bolero over lawn chemisette, hair in the Spanish national style and knotted behind under flowing ribbons; long earrings, and a shower of chains about her neck. A professional nurse has also been engaged for Queen Victoria. She is Miss Gertrude Bunting of Nottingham, England. She has a high reputation for efficiency on occasions of this character. She is a Catholic and recently acted as nurse at the birth of the Marquis of Bute's daughter, Lady Mary Stuart. The Marquis is one of the richest noblemen in England and a leading Catholic. 

“I shall nurse my own child,” declared Queen Victoria, when this custom of the substitute mother was pointed out to her. For a time it seemed that she would win her way despite the tradition of fifty Spanish dynasties. But the King, who sided with her in her claim of motherhood, found that little short of an uprising was threatened unless he yielded to the law. Finally the Royal couple compromised. A woman of English extraction was found in the Kingdom who would nurse the child according to custom and still comply with the Pope's demand that it be taught nothing but Roman Catholic tenets from the day it first begins to lisp. Already this woman has been brought to the castle, where she diets daily under the eye of the Royal physician in preparations for her pseudo motherhood.– Marysville Daily Appeal, 1907

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia