On occasion of the decease of the queen mother of Spain in 1696, the
Paris papers gravely relate the following particulars of a dispute
respecting precedence.
The officers of the crown and the grandees of the kingdom assembled at
the usual time to open her majesty’s will; but finding that the first
lady of the queen’s chamber, who ought by virtue of her office to have
been present, was absent, the august body sent a messenger, requesting
her attendance. The first lady, deeming the message a gross attack upon
her privileges and high importance, indignantly replied, that it was her
indispensable duty not to leave her deceased royal mistress, and
therefore the nobles must wait on her.
Thereupon ensued a negotiation by messages, which occupied eight hours.
In the course of the discussion, the grandees insisted on their claims
of precedence as an aggregate body, yet, individually, they considered
themselves happy when complying with the commands of the ladies. Fixed
in her resolution, the lady high-chamberlain acquainted her opponents
with her final determination. The decision of the great officers and
grandees was equally unalterable; but at the last they proposed, that
“without rising from their seats, or moving themselves, they should be
_carried_ to a room at an equal distance between their own apartment and
the lady high-chamberlain’s, who should be _carried_ to the same place,
seated upon a high cushion, in the same manner as she sat in the queen’s
chamber, to the end it might be said, that _neither side had made a step
to meet each other_.” It seems that the performance of the solemnity
happily terminated the important difference.
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