Spain’s Victoria’s Etiquette at Home

Victoria found the company at her husband’s dinner table somewhat mixed at first. The exuberant young King would sit anywhere and invite almost any one. But his bride soon changed the etiquette and abolished indiscriminate gatherings – Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain by Kaulak – Public domain image of Queen Victoria of Spain

Quite tactfully and skillfully, the young Queen is playing her part. Like her famous Royal grandmother, she is a very early riser, and her English breakfast of ham, roast beef and poached eggs, alone with the King, is one of the pleasantest functions of the day. After his cigarette, with which Alphonso concludes even this early meal, he must need repair to his state duties; and in the ordinary way, they do not meet again until lunch time.  

Victoria found the company at her husband’s dinner table somewhat mixed at first. The exuberant young King would sit anywhere and invite almost any one. But his bride soon changed the etiquette and abolished indiscriminate gatherings – not forgetting, however, that certain high functionaries and prelates have the right of access to the royal table. – Harper’s Bazar, 1908

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

Etiquette and the King’s Car

A motoring Monarch was a grave crisis in the history of Spanish royal etiquette!

Spain’s Blithe Young King

There is a grave crisis in the history of Spanish etiquette, says the London Chronicle. King Alfonso XIII, who is described by a French Journal as “very impulsive and at the same time very ‘sporty,’” wishes to make a royal progress through his Kingdom in an automobile. Horror of the Prime Minister! Such a vehicle, he says, is beneath the dignity of a Monarch to whom the constitution has entrusted the “sumptuous car of the state.” 

The sumptuous car must not be driven by petroleum. Horses are still harnessed to the Chariot of the Sun. But Spanish etiquette does not prevent the Monarch from traveling by railway. Lady Currie tells a story of a young man who jumped into a compartment one day on the English train and started a conversation with an old lady who greatly admired his pleasant manners. When he was alighting site asked his name and he answered, blithely, “Alfonso.” He was Alfonso XII, then a cadet at Sandhurst. The anecdote will probably be read at Madrid with pain and incredulity. — King City Rustler, 1905

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