In Spain, after a lady had obliged her gallant by all possible
civilities and compliance, to confirm her kindness she would show him
her foot, and this they called the highest favour. The feet and legs of
queens were so sacred, that it was a crime to think, or at any rate to
speak of them. On the arrival of the Princess Maria Anna of Austria, the
bride of Philip IV. in Spain, a quantity of the finest silk stockings
were presented to her in a city where there were manufactories of that
article. The major domo of the future queen threw back the stockings
with indignation, exclaiming, "Know that the queens of Spain have no
legs." When the young bride heard this, she began to weep bitterly,
declaring she would return to Vienna, and that she would never have set
foot in Spain had she known that her legs were to be cut off. This
ridiculous etiquette was on one occasion carried still further; one day
as the second consort of Charles II. was riding a very spirited horse,
the animal reared on his hinder legs. At the moment when the horse
seemed on the point of falling back with his fair rider, the queen
slipped off on one side, and remained with one of her feet hanging in
the stirrup. The unruly beast, irritated still more at the burden which
fell on one side, kicked with the utmost violence in all directions. In
the first moments of danger and alarm, no person durst venture to the
assistance of the queen for this reason, that excepting the king and the
chief of the menimos, or little pages, no person of the male sex was
allowed to touch any part of the queens of Spain, and least of all their
feet. As the danger of the queen augmented, two cavaliers ran to her
relief. One of them seized the bridle of the horse, while the other drew
the queen's foot from the stirrup, and in performing this service
dislocated his thumb. As soon as they had saved her life they hastened
away with all possible expedition, ordered their fleetest horses to be
saddled, and were just preparing for their flight out of the kingdom,
when a messenger came to inform them that at the queen's intercession,
the king had pardoned the crime they had committed in touching her
person.--_Meiner's History of the Female Sex._
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