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as 'Esquire', but this particular group, whose members were intended to be the personal companions of the Sovereign, seems to have been an amalgamation of two groups belonging to the earlier establishment, one squirely, the Esquires of the Household, the other knightly, the Knights of the Body. And if the Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber were more nearly knights than esquires, the Grooms of the Privy Chamber were in like manner more nearly esquires than grooms or even yeomen.^[1] Probably, however, they replaced an earlier group of Yeomen of the Chamber. The duties of the Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber, in addition to those of companionship, seem to have consisted chiefly in dressing and undressing the Sovereign. The Grooms attended to the orderliness of the rooms, and were supervised, under the Chamberlain, by officers holding a very ancient post, the hostiarii camerae or Gentlemen Ushers.^[2] Obviously the normal staffing of the Privy Chamber required some modification in the case of a virgin queen. Elizabeth appears usually to have had no more than two or three Gentlemen and from five to ten Grooms, in place of the eighteen Gentlemen and fourteen Grooms provided for in the fee lists, and to have supplemented these by making feminine appointments in corresponding grades. There were Ladies or Gentlewomen, some of the Bedchamber and some of the Privy Chamber, and beneath these Chamberers, who appear also to have been known as 'the Queen's Women'.^[3] The First Lady of the Privy Chamber acted as Mistress of the Robes, and she or another of the

[Footnote: Elizabeth was after that of the Esquires of the Body (Carlisle, 86). On

the other hand, some of the Gentlemen appointed in 1526 had been Knights of the Body, and the office of Knight of the Body appears shortly after to have become obsolete. Knights are included as chamber officers in the Elizabethan fee lists, but I can find no evidence that any were in fact appointed.]

↑ The Grooms were distinguished from the Gentlemen in the post-Restoration court (Chamberlayne, 247) by not wearing sword, cloak, or hat in the Chamber.
↑ Constitutio Domus Regis (c. 1135) in Hearne, Liber Niger Scaccarii, i. 356, 'Hostiarius Camerae unaquaque die, quo Rex iter agit, iiij^d ad lectum Regis'; cf. H. O. 37, and p. 37, supra. On the etiquette of Bedchamber service, as inherited from the fifteenth century, cf. Furnivall, Babee's Book, 175, 313.
↑ The feminine posts do not appear in the fee lists. Lansd. MS. lix, f. 43, gives (c. 1588) two ladies at 50 marks (£33 6s. 8d.) and one at £20 as 'The Bed chamber', five at 50 marks as 'Gentlewomen of y^e privey Chamber', and four at £20 as 'Chamberers'. The term 'The Queen's Women' appears in the list of liveries for Elizabeth's funeral. Beyond these there were probably only a few women, e. g. a 'lawndrys', employed at court; cf. Cheyney, i. 18. In the New Year Gift lists the official women are mixed up with wives of men officers and others in attendance at court.

[1] The Grooms were distinguished from the Gentlemen in the post-Restoration court (Chamberlayne, 247) by not wearing sword, cloak, or hat in the Chamber.

[2] Constitutio Domus Regis (c. 1135) in Hearne, Liber Niger Scaccarii, i. 356, 'Hostiarius Camerae unaquaque die, quo Rex iter agit, iiij^d ad lectum Regis'; cf. H. O. 37, and p. 37, supra. On the etiquette of Bedchamber service, as inherited from the fifteenth century, cf. Furnivall, Babee's Book, 175, 313.

[3] The feminine posts do not appear in the fee lists. Lansd. MS. lix, f. 43, gives (c. 1588) two ladies at 50 marks (£33 6s. 8d.) and one at £20 as 'The Bed chamber', five at 50 marks as 'Gentlewomen of y^e privey Chamber', and four at £20 as 'Chamberers'. The term 'The Queen's Women' appears in the list of liveries for Elizabeth's funeral. Beyond these there were probably only a few women, e. g. a 'lawndrys', employed at court; cf. Cheyney, i. 18. In the New Year Gift lists the official women are mixed up with wives of men officers and others in attendance at court.

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