17. But, for a long time, the use of carriages was forbidden even to women; and, as late as the year 1545, the wife of a certain duke obtained from him, with great difficulty, the privilege of using a covered carriage in a journey to the baths. The permission was granted on the condition that her attendants should not enjoy the same favor. Nevertheless, it is certain that emperors, kings, and princes, began to employ covered carriages on journeys, in the fifteenth century; and a few instances occur of their use in public solemnities. Ambassadors appeared, for the first time, in coaches, at a public solemnity, in 1613, at Erfurth. 18. In the history of France, we find many proofs, that, in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, the French monarchs commonly rode on horses, the servants of the court on mules, and the princesses, together with the principal ladies, sometimes at least, on asses. Carriages of some sort, however, appear to have been used at a very early period there. An ordinance of Philip the Fair, issued in 1294, forbids their use by the wives of citizens. 19. In the year 1550, three coaches were introduced into Paris; one of which belonged to the queen, another to Diana de Poictiers, and the third to Raimond de Laval, a cavalier of the court of Francis I., who was so large that no horse could carry him. It is not certain, however, that the body of these vehicles were suspended on leather straps. The inventor of this material improvement cannot be ascertained, nor is it positively determined, that it had been made, until about the middle of the seventeenth century. 20. Coaches were introduced into Spain and Portugal, in the year 1546, and into Sweden near the close of the same century. In the capital of Russia, there were elegant coaches as early as the beginning of the seventeenth century. In Switzerland, they were rare, as late as 1650. Carriages began to be used at Naples in the thirteenth century; from this place they spread all over Italy; and here, also, glass panels originated. 21. Carriages of some sort were used in England at a very early period, and those first employed by the ladies, were called _whirlicoats_. According to some authors, coaches were introduced in the year 1555; but, according to others, not until twenty-five years after this period. Before the latter date, Queen Elizabeth, on public occasions, rode on the same horse with her chamberlain, seated behind him on a pillion; although, in the early part of her reign, she owned a chariot.