Refusing a Queen and Tea

Madame Antoinette Sterling was born in New York State in 1841. In her early years, she developed anti-British prejudices, due to hearing and reading patriotic stories of the destruction of tea cargoes in Boston Harbor. She soon resolved never to drink tea, and kept the resolution all the days of her life. Even a tea set, gifted to her by Queen Victoria, couldn’t sway her opinion.
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Refused the Queen’s Invitation

Madame Antoinette Sterling, the American singer, once unconsciously committed a breach of etiquette, which is recorded in the son's recent memoir of his mother. Queen Victoria commanded Madame Sterling to sing before her. Without any thought of offending, the singer replied simply that she was sorry, but on the evening designated she was engaged to sing for a charity; she would be pleased to sing for Her Majesty the next week.

The consternation among Royal Court officials was great. What would have happened if the singer had not been prevailed upon to break her engagement and comply with the Queen's behest, only a Lord Chamberlain knows. Even a Lord Chamberlain could not prevail on her to break her rigid resolution against wearing a low dress at a concert, and Court custom had to yield to her.

The Queen took unconscious revenge on the American by presenting her with a tea-service, for Madame Sterling kept all her life a childish resolution never to drink tea because the spilling of the tea in Boston Harbor was the symbol of American defiance of England.– Mariposa Gazette, 1906

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