Produced by Chris Curnow, Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) ROYALTY IN ALL AGES [Illustration: text decoration] T. F. THISELTON-DYER, M.A. OXON. [Illustration: QUEEN ELIZABETH] ROYALTY IN ALL AGES The Amusements, Eccentricities, Accomplishments, Superstitions, and Frolics of the Kings and Queens of Europe BY T. F. THISELTON-DYER, M.A. OXON. _WITH SIX ETCHED PORTRAITS FROM CONTEMPORARY ENGRAVINGS_ LONDON JOHN C. NIMMO, LTD. NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS MDCCCCIII Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. At the Ballantyne Press PREFACE It has been remarked that to write of the private and domestic acts of monarchs while still alive savours of scandal and bad taste, but when dead their traits of character, however strange and eccentric they may have been in their lifetime, at once become matter of history. Adopting this rule, we have confined ourselves in the present work to dealing with royalty in the past; and, in a field so wide, we have, as far as possible, endeavoured to make each chapter concise and representative of the subject treated. The following pages, whilst illustrating the marvellous versatility of royalty, when seriously analysed tend to show how vastly superior the latter-day sovereigns have been when compared with those of earlier times, many of whose extraordinary freaks and vagaries as much degraded the throne, as the refined and cultivated tastes of her late Majesty Queen Victoria elevated and beautified it. T. F. THISELTON-DYER. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. ROYALTY AT PLAY 1 II. FREAKS OF ROYALTY 10 III. ROYAL REVELRY 37 IV. ROYAL EPICURES 57 V. CURIOUS FADS OF ROYALTY 85 VI. DANCING MONARCHS 99 VII. ROYAL HOBBIES 120 VIII. THE ROYAL HUNT 135 IX. ROYAL MASQUES AND MASQUERADES 152