Spanish Court Etiquette was “Medieval”

The little stranger is a girl, and therefore a disappointment, and also, if it survives, a sure source of difficulties, political and otherwise.  —Public domain image of María de las Mercedes,

Princess of Asturias

THE SPANISH BABY

Queen Christina has a baby, and Spain is shaken to its foundations. The little stranger is a girl, and therefore a disappointment, and also, if it survives, a sure source of difficulties, political and otherwise. Its birth was a very solemn and ceremonious affair, and the mother must have been wretchedly uncomfortable amid all the fetish Spanish court etiquette holds to be necessary on such occasions. 

The affair is chiefly interesting because it gives the civilized world an opportunity of witnessing an example of the follies and mummeries which hedged about royalty everywhere a few years ago, but which have almost disappeared from all countries but Spain, which is the most nearly medieval of any pretending to civilization. It is very doubtful whether the Spanish Infante will live to exercise any important influence upon human affairs, for the disposition of mankind to be governed by divine right is rapidly vanishing, and the growth of the democratic spirit menaces the most presumptuous and archaic institutions. 

Meantime there is nothing unrepublican in the expression of a hope that the young mother may come safely out of her trouble, and that the baby may take kindly to its Andalusian foster-mothers, of whom, we believe, there are at least three in waiting. — Sacramento Daily Union, 1880

 

🍽️Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette, is the Site Editor of the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia