Royal Poise and Etiquette

The author is correct. All 4 of the Crawley women do appear a bit awkward in this early press photo from Downton Abbey– They look uncomfortable in their long gloves. They should be clasping the finger tips together when standing. It would be a less unattractive pose. - Photo source, Pinterest

“But what shall I do with my hands?” asks the girl who is conscious of this part of her body when she is in the drawing-room. She should try folding them together in her lap when she is seated and clasping the finger tips together when standing. This position is, of course rather stiff when assumed by an awkward girl. But it is the least unattractive pose for her to begin with, and gradually she will find herself unconsciously assuming characteristic poses which are more or less graceful.

The same teacher finds that nearly every member of her classes in deportment needs to be told how to enter and leave a room. American girls have been severely criticised after they have been out in society, for their bad manners upon ceremonious occasions. Those who are presented at court have to be instructed in every detail of entering a room, withdrawing from it, managing a long train and particularly in walking backward as they must do in the presence of royalty. It is astonishing how few girls and women there are, who can walk backward, even for a few steps, without cutting an awkward figure. In many of the best schools, girls are now taught these simple rules of court etiquette. For one never knows who may be favored by an invitation to appear before royalty.

Fancy dancing and the making of bows and curtseys, help to improve the carriage and poise. And they also teach one how to carry one’s self correctly while facing the hostess and taking one’s departure at the same time. Almost any exercise which develops grace and cultivates self-possession is helpful along this line. For this reason, girls are learning a greater variety of fancy dances than during their class work last year, and gymnasium work, that makes for grace quite as much as physical development, is having unusual stress laid upon it this winter. If when greeting a friend the head and shoulders are brought forward from the waist without bending them the entire figure assumes a new expression. It seems to denote a graciousness that can not be expressed by shoulders and head kept in the same vertical plane with the rest of the body. The forward movement means graciousness, while the stiffer position means awkwardness and ungraciousness.

Over-cordiality is not considered in good taste, except among intimate friends and families, but graciousness is never out of place. It is not easy to express however, without words. This can be done without exaggeration by this simple change of position, and usually the art is taught in the dancing class or in special deportment lessons. Much has already been said about the American girl’s walk. It has been called ungraceful, too athletic, and many more similar things. In spite of foreigners’ disapproval of her carriage, the American girl has a freedom in her walk as she swings along the avenue that is not without attraction. With head held up, shoulders bent ever so slightly forward, she walks with a quick, firm step. In the country she is permitted to swing her arms for exercise. Physicians claim that this part of the walking exercise is most beneficial, because the constant movement expands the lungs and makes deep breathing necessary.

Each step should be taken from the hips, not from the knees. A knee walk is awkward, incorrect and does not give the proper exercise, and, above all, it is tiring. For the drawing room the out door athletic stride must be toned down considerably. There are physical instructors who find it necessary to caution their girls about walking athletically when in the city. They feel nervous and ill at ease if they are compelled to walk sedately into a drawing-room with their hands and arms in repose after they have grown accustomed to swinging them freely. The teacher must decide whether it is wiser to suggest giving up the athletic, outdoor style for the indoor, or to sacrifice the drawing-room repose for the outdoor freedom. With a little training, however, it should not be too difficult for girls to walk in both of these approved fashions and to express the greatest possible freedom in their sports and games and walks, for, after all, these help toward the cultivation of future grace. – San Francisco Call, 1911

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

Etiquette for Court Presentation

John Randolph, (or as he was known “John Randolph of Roanoke”) was a late 18th and early 19th centuries Congressman from Virginia, who not only served in the House of Representatives, and the Senate, but also as the Minister to Russia in 1830.

John Randolph’s Court Presentation

John Randolph, of Roanoke, dressed very eccentrically while he was at home, and his dress during his mission to Russia was hardly more extravagant than what he wore at Roanoke. 

In writing of it he says: “My dress on presentation to their Imperial Majesties was a suit of the finest mack cloth that London could afford; and with the exception of a steel capped sword it was the dress of Mr. Madison during the late convention." It was ornamented with gold shoe and knee buckles, and Randolph says that he was as well dressed as Prince Talleyrand, who was presented at the same time. Josiah Quincy visited Russia some years after this, and in his life there is a story related concerning this presentation of John Randolph.

Says this authority: “When he was presented to the Empress she put out her hand and Randolph went down on his knees to take it. He wore, however, tight gauntlets and he did not attempt to get those off before he fell upon his knee. It was contrary to etiquette to touch the lady’s bare hand with a gloved hand, and it look him so long to get his tight glove off, that her Majesty smiled at his predicament and the courtiers laughed out aloud.” 

Randolph soon took his leave of Russia and returned to the United States. Before he did so, he had a pleasant interview with the Emperor, and he made a remark which it is said, made the Empress laugh most vociferously. He bowed himself out backward as he left, and “it was lucky” said he, “that I happened to be near the door.” —Frank O. Carpenter in American Magazine, 1887

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

More on Backward Etiquette

The prospect of breaking etiquette when in the presence of the monarch has struck fear into subjects and foreign dignitaries for centuries. Walking backwards went back to the times when it was considered terribly impolite to turn one's back on the sovereign.

The centuries-old practice of servants and guests walking backwards when leaving a room after seeing the monarch has been dropped after health and safety concerns.

The protocol was observed as a sign of respect but royal aides feared it could lead to someone getting hurt – and potentially suing Buckingham Palace for damages.

Only two visitors are now expected routinely to walk backwards as they exit the Queen’s presence: Charles Gray, the Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps, and Wing Commander Andy Calame, the Queen’s equerry.

Their successors will also be expected to learn to walk backwards safely and discreetly when leaving the monarch’s presence. The Queen, say royal aides, does not want the tradition to die out entirely.

“Allowing only two people in royal service to walk backwards was seen as a pragmatic solution to the health and safety issue,” one royal source said.

The two senior members of the Royal household are expected to walk backwards leaving the room when they have either been summoned to see the Queen personally or they are introducing others – such as senior foreign diplomats – for audiences with the Queen. Such audiences normally take place at Buckingham Place, usually in the magnificent first-floor 1844 Room.

Only one other person now walks backwards in the presence of the Queen, but this is restricted to an annual ceremonial occasion. Tradition dictates that the Lord Chancellor, currently Jack Straw, walks backwards down the steps from the throne after presenting the monarch with the words for the Queen’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament.

Mr. Straw had made it clear he is happy to continue with the pageantry associated with the State Opening, although his predecessor, Lord Falconer, wanted to scrap the title of Lord Chancellor and, with it, some of its centuries-old traditions. The Lord Chancellor is the monarch’s formal link with Parliament and is sometime known as “Keeper of the Queen's Conscience”.

The prospect of breaking etiquette when in the presence of the monarch has struck fear into subjects and foreign dignitaries for hundreds of years. Today, those introduced to the Queen are asked to refer to her as “Her Majesty” when they first talk to her and then as “ma’am” – pronounced so as to rhyme with spam. Men are asked to give a short bow from the neck – not the waist – and women are asked to curtsy.

Charles Kidd, an expert on royal etiquette and editor of Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage, said that the practice of walking backwards when leaving the monarch’s presence was believed to date back to Medieval times. “It goes back to the times when it was considered terribly impolite to turn one’s back on the sovereign,” he said.

The introductions of foreign ambassadors and High Commissioners are still highly formal occasions. At “credentials”, ambassadors are usually escorted to Buckingham Palace in a horse-drawn, open-top Landau. Dressed in morning suits and accompanied by the Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps, the ambassador is politely instructed about what to do when he enters the presence of the monarch: “One step, neck bow. One step, a second neck bow.” Then he is to hand over formally his Letters of Credence – official papers confirming his status as ambassador.

But the ambassador, and other visitors, are no longer expected to walk backwards from the room, unlike the Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps and the Queen’s equerry.

The Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps is a senior member of the Royal household and widely regarded as the expert on all matters of royal etiquette. He is the Queen’s link with the diplomatic community in London. Mr Gray supervises the attendance of diplomats at state events and organises the regular presentation of credentials.

The post is usually held for about a decade, often by a retired senior military officer. However, Mr Gray, who has been in the post for just a year, is a diplomat rather than a military man. The office was created in 1920, to replace the position of Master of Ceremonies, which dates back to the 17th century.

The position of equerry dates back hundreds of years. Traditionally, “Equerries of the Crown Stable” were responsible for breaking and caring for the monarch’s saddle horses.

However, more recently, the post has involved being in close attendance to the Queen at public and private engagements. The position of equerry is traditionally held by a senior officer from one of the three Armed Services who usually wears his military uniform for official engagements. Wing Commander Calame, who is two years into his three-year posting, recently described the Queen as “the best boss I have ever had”. — This article, by Andrew Alderson, first appeared in The Telegraph in 2009

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

Etiquette or Absurd Custom?

Royal tradition took a step backward, but the Queen moved forward in 2009 ~ HRH Queen Elizabeth II of England bowed down to 'health and safety' concerns. The centuries-old practice of servants and guests walking backwards when leaving the room after seeing the monarch was dropped amid health and safety concerns.

Walking Backward — An Ex-Attache Writes in His Usual Vigorous Style on an "Absurd European Custom"

Sometimes this walking backward gives rise to rather pretty and even pathetic devices on the part of those who desire to avoid accidents, such as happened to the Duke of Argyll. Thus I can recall the case of a relative, who in return for active service, was summoned with several brother officers to Buckingham Palace in order to receive from the hands of the sovereign herself, the Order of the Bath. 

He had lost his right leg in action so near to the hip joint that there was no means of wearing an artificial limb and he was consequently dependent upon his crutches. When he entered the royal presence it was noticed that he held fastened apparently to the handrest of each crutch a couple of lovely bouquets. At a third of the distance up the long room he stopped, made the regulation bow as best he could and dropped one of the bunches of flowers on the floor. Then he made his way to the Queen, tendered her the other bouquet, which she graciously accepted, received his Order of the Bath, which she herself fastened to his uniform with many a kindly word, for he had been a favorite of her husband, and then he proceeded to withdraw from her presence.

If ever there was a case in which the walking backward might have been excused, it was there, and the faces of the Queen and those around her betrayed signs of concern and anxiety lest some mishap would overtake the colonel. He, however, backed away, displaying himself some hesitation and anxiety until he reached that part of the room where he had purposely left the first bouquet on the ground. That gave him his bearings. He knew where be was then and leaving the flowers there reached the door in safety, the Queen kindly nodding and waving her hand to him in appreciation of his somewhat arduous act of homage. 

That her Majesty was moved, thereby was shown by the fact that a few days later he received from the Queen a rather unusual present, namely, a handsome carriage and a pair of horses, together with an expression of the wish that the conveyance might in some measure tend to alleviate the discomfort caused by the absence of the limb which he had lost in her service on the field of battle.  — San Francisco Call, 1897

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