Première femme de Chambre

Jeanne Louise Henriette Campan, Première femme de Chambre to Marie Antoinette.

Première femme de Chambre ('First Chamber Maid') was an office at the royal court of France.

The Première femme de Chambre was in charge of the preparing of clothes, cosmetics and other things in the queen's wardrobe for the dressing and undressing ceremony, and supervised the femmes de chambre ('Chamber Maids'), who often reached a number of 16 per annum.[1] The dressing and undressing of the queen was in turn supervised by the dame d'atour.

The Première femme de Chambre was the only one of the ladies-in-waiting except the dame d'honneur to be in possession of the keys to the queen's rooms and in permanent access to the queen.[2] This gave her the opportunity to filter requests of meetings, audiences and messages to the queen and made her a de facto powerful person at court, where she was often flattered and bribed by the courtiers.[3]

Notable examples

See also

References

  1. ↑ Nadine Akkerman & Birgit Houben, eds. The Politics of Female Households: Ladies-in-waiting across Early Modern Europe. Leiden: Brill, 2013
  2. ↑ Nadine Akkerman & Birgit Houben, eds. The Politics of Female Households: Ladies-in-waiting across Early Modern Europe
  3. ↑ Nadine Akkerman & Birgit Houben, eds. The Politics of Female Households: Ladies-in-waiting across Early Modern Europe. Leiden: Brill, 2013
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