Royal Etiquette and Brewers

The Sole Exception –A Brewer is 

the Only Tradesman Permitted to Dine with Queen Victoria

“A very handsome woman now attracting attention in English society is a Lady whose title would appear to indicate that her lineage extended back at least to the crusaders. She is a fine figure to look upon; her manners are faultless, her carriage stately, her pride immense. She is always a conspicuous figure in London drawing-rooms, and the society papers have as much to say of her as though she were a Royal Princess, yet she will not be found further back than the last edition of Burkes. She is Lady Iveagh, wife of Edward Guinness, manufacturer of beer. 

It is a strange rule that in England a successful brewer is regarded with affection by the Sovereign, and may dine with her after he has become wealthy. No other tradesman or manufacturer is allowed a similar privilege, nor is ever ennobled. Beer is regarded as fondly as poetry by the aristocracy of the country. It applauds when the laureate is created Lord Tennyson, and exults when an Irish brewer is made Lord Iveagh. There is a wide range of intellectual appreciation in this that is startling but admirable. It is hoped that Tennyson will write an ode commemorative of the beauty of the scheme before he dies.”— Chicago Herald, 1891

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

Etiquette Humor and Trade

"She sold a book and now wants to invite some lowly tradespeople into our home for a party!" — "Tradesmen" were those people in society who made money by working. Their social status was lower, and without title, even though many of these might have been more wealthy than those in the gentry. Clergymen and barristers filled the upper ranks of this social class, with merchants, farmers and shopkeepers making up the lower ranks.

Not the Daughter of a "Tradesperson"

One of the young men attached to the American embassy at Berlin tells a story to illustrate that modern advertising can cope even with the etiquette of Royal Courts.

"A young American woman wished to be presented at the Court of the King of Saxony. The high officials, having inquired into her social standing at home, objected. They represented to her that the King could scarcely receive the daughter of a retail boot seller. 

The young woman cabled home and told her father of the situation. The next morning she received his answer: 'Can't call it selling. Practically giving them away. See advertisement.'

That solved the difficulty. She was presented to the King as the daughter of an 'eminent philanthropist.'" — Harper's Weekly, 1912

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