



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
vag