ed in the royal person. Charlemagne, who
aimed at everything which could adorn and add strength to a new monarchy,
established a regular method for the general and special administration of
his empire, as also for the internal arrangement and discipline of his
palace. We have already referred to this twofold organization (_vide_
chapters on Private Life and on Food), but we may here remark that,
notwithstanding these ancient tendencies to the creation of a fixed
ceremonial, the trifling rules which made etiquette a science and a law,
were introduced by degrees, and have only very recently been established
amongst us.

In 1385, when King Charles VI. married the notorious Isabel of Bavaria,
then scarcely fourteen years of age, he desired to arrange for her a
magnificent entry into Paris, the pomp and brilliancy of which should be
consistent with the rank and illustrious descent of his young bride. He
therefore begged the old Queen Blanche, widow of Philippe de Valois, to
preside over the ceremony, and to have it conducted according to the
custom of olden times. She was consequently obliged, in the absence of any
fixed rules on the subject, to consult the official records,--that is to
say, the "Chronique du Monastere de Saint-Denis." The first embodiment of
rules relating to these matters in use among the nobility, which had
appeared in France under the title of "Honneurs de la Cour," only goes
back to the end of the fifteenth century. It appears, however, that even
then this was not generally admitted among the nobility as the basis of
ceremonial, for in 1548 we find that nothing had been definitely settled.
This is evident from the fact that when King Henri III. desired to know
the rank and order of precedence of the princes of the royal blood, both
dukes and counts--as also that of the other princes, the barons, the
nobles of the kingdom, the constables, the marshals of France and the
admirals, and what position they had held on great public occasions during
the reigns of his predecessors--he commissioned Jean du Tillet, the civil
registrar of the Parliament of Paris, to search among the royal archives
for the various authentic documents which might throw light on this
question, and serve as a precedent for the future. In fact, it was Henri
III. who, in 1585, created the office of Grand Master of the Ceremonies of
France, entrusting it to Guillaume Pot, a noble of Rhodes, which office
for many generations remained heredi