Maid of honour

This article discusses the court title. For the ceremonial position in a wedding, see bridesmaid. For the 2008 movie see Made of Honor. For the traditional English dish, see Maids of honour tart.

Maids of honour (Danish: Hoffrøken; French: Demoiselle d'honneur or Fille d'honneur; German: Hoffräulein; Russian: Hofdevitsa or Freïlina; Spanish: Meninas; Swedish: Hovfröken) is a term for the junior attendants of a queen in royal households. The position was and is junior to the lady-in-waiting. The equivalent title and office has historically been used in most European royal courts.

Role

Traditionally, a queen regnant had eight maids of honour, while a queen consort had four; Queen Anne Boleyn, however, had over 60.

A maid of honour was a maiden, meaning that she was unmarried, and was usually young. Maids of honour were commonly in their sixteenth year or older, although Lady Jane Grey, served as a maid of honour to Queen Catherine Parr in about 1546–48, when Jane was only about ten to twelve years old. Under Mary I and Elizabeth I, maids of honour were at court as a kind of finishing school, with the hope of making a good marriage. Elizabeth Knollys was a maid of the court at the age of nine.

Some of the maids of honour were paid, while others were not. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the term maid of honour in waiting was sometimes used.

The queen mother often also had maids of honour. In 1915, for example, Ivy Gordon-Lennox was appointed a maid of honour to Queen Alexandra.^[1]

At her coronation, Queen Elizabeth II had maids of honour who attended to her throughout the ceremony, especially carrying the trains of her robes. The Queen had six Maids of Honour:

• Lady Moyra Hamilton, daughter of James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Abercorn;
• Lady Anne Coke, daughter of Thomas Coke, 5th Earl of Leicester;
• Lady Jane Vane-Tempest-Stewart, daughter of Robin Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 8th Marquess of Londonderry;
• Lady Mary Baillie-Hamilton, daughter of George Baillie-Hamilton, 12th Earl of Haddington;
• Lady Jane Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, daughter of James Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, 3rd Earl of Ancaster; and
• Lady Rosemary Spencer-Churchill, daughter of John Spencer-Churchill, 10th Duke of Marlborough.^[2]

Terminology

The term lady-in-waiting describes a woman who attends a female member of the Royal Family other than the queen regnant or queen consort. An attendant upon one of the latter is a lady of the bedchamber or woman of the bedchamber, and the senior lady-in-waiting is the mistress of the robes. The women of the bedchamber are in regular attendance, but the mistress of the robes and the ladies of the bedchamber are normally only required for ceremonial occasions.

The term maid of honour is the origin of the American English term maid of honor, usually the best friend of a bride who leads her bridal party.

References