A chamberer was a female attendant of an English queen regnant, queen consort, or princess. There were similar positions in aristocratic households.
At court, the position was similar to a male groom of the privy chamber. The names of ten women who served Elizabeth I as chamberers are known. They were daughters of landowning gentry families. [1] Duties could include some domestic labour, embroidery, [2] and administration, as well as attendance on the queen. The details of the distinctions between women of the chamber and hierarchy can be obscure. [3]
Other servants present in the royal lodging who carried out laundry work were of lower status than chamberers, and were called "lavenders". [4] Chamberers would embroider and launder some linen items, especially ruffs. [5] In Scotland, Elizabeth Gibb, took on this role for Anne of Denmark, the queen consort of James VI and I, in 1590, making and looking after ruffs and other garments. [6]
Usually the queen was served by beteween two and four chamberers at any one time. [7] When Catherine Howard was sent to Syon House in November 1541, her household was reduced to four gentlewomen including Lady Baynton and two chamberers. [8]
An Elizabethan chamberer like Elizabeth Stafford would receive an annual fee of £20 or more, [9] and livery clothing. The chamberers of Elizabeth I received their allowances on Saint Andrew's Day. [10] Elizabeth intervened in the marriage plans of some chamberers, and was angry at the marriage of Mary Scudamore, an indication of their status in her household. [11]
Some chamberers, like Joan Russell and Elizabeth Marbery, continued their service as gentlewomen of the privy chamber or bed chamber, enjoying a higher status and salary. [12] Other women present in the queen's privy chamber included the Maids of Honour, who frequently received lavish gifts of clothing, [13] and gentlewomen in attendance who did not receive a fee or livery clothes. These gentlewomen do not appear in financial records but their names are noted in lists of those at state occasions, especially funerals. [14]
Chamberers took part in Royal Entries and coronations, including the coronation of Mary I of England where they rode in procession and were given different clothes for the service in the Abbey. [15]
An ordinance for the English household of Anne of Denmark made on 20 July 1603 allows for six maids and a mother of maids and four chamberers. [16]
In the context of household service in 15th-century England, a "damsel" was of higher or almost equivalent status to a chamberer. [17] It has been suggested that the Latin terms, domicella camerae and domicella Reginae may distinguish a lady of the bedchamber or chamberer from a queen's maid of honour. Alice Perrers, a goldsmith's widow, became a damoiselle or domicella in the household of Philippa of Hainault, consort of Edward III. [18]
In Scotland, the word "chamberer" was only rarely used in the records of the court. Two young women, Marie MacLeod and Margaret Fame, were maidens in the chamber of Mary, Queen of Scots. [19] The accounts mention the "famis" (French, femmes, women) of Mary's chamber, including Alice Bog. [20] In France, in 1560, six femmes de chambre worked in her wardrobe, as washerwomen, or servants to the maids of honour, in 1562 in Scotland there were as many as fourteen. [21]
An English commentator reported that Mary, Queen of Scots, was served by ladies, gentlewomen, and two "chamberers", one Scottish and one French, when she was a prisoner at Lochleven Castle in 1567. The French chamberer was Marie Courcelles, [22] and the Scottish chamberer at Lochleven was probably Alice Bog, listed as "Ellon Bocq" by a French clerk in 1567. [23]
A document from 1592 concerning the Scottish household of Anne of Denmark mentions "damycelles" or damsels in her chamber. Their clothing allowance suggests they were of lower status than other attendants. Two of her servants in Scotland, Margaret Hartsyde and the aristocratic Anne Livingstone, came to her court in England after the Union of Crowns as chamberers. Hartsyde's status as a domestic servant was emphasised by her defence lawyers when she was accused of stealing the queen's jewels. [24]
Chamberers could enjoy substantial rewards, one Danish servant, Dorothea Silking, was granted rights to run a coal mine in Somerset on the queen's jointure manor of Corston. [25] Employment of chamberers from the country of origin provided continuity of service and a cultural bridge for queens consort in the early modern period. [26]
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Mary Scudamore was a courtier to Elizabeth I.
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Roger Ratcliffe was an English courtier.
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