kfort in a
close carriage, and again in the following year in a very magnificent
covered carriage. Shortly afterwards carriages began to be splendidly
decorated; that, for instance, of the electress of Brandenburg at the
tournament held at Ruppin in 1509 was gilded all over, and that of the
duchess of Mecklenburg was hung with red satin. When Cardinal
Dietrichstein made his entrance into Vienna in 1611, forty carriages
went to meet him; and in the same year the consort of the emperor
Matthias made her public entrance on her marriage in a carriage covered
with perfumed leather. The wedding carriage of the first wife of the
emperor Leopold, who was a Spanish princess, cost, together with the
harness, 38,000 florins. Those of the emperor are thus described: "In
the imperial coaches no great magnificence was to be seen; they were
covered over with red cloth and black nails. The harness was black, and
in the whole work there was no gold. The panels were of glass, and on
this account they were called the imperial glass coaches. On festivals
the harness was ornamented with red silk fringes. The imperial coaches
were distinguished only by their having leather traces; but the ladies
in the imperial suite were obliged to be contented with carriages the
traces of which were made of ropes." At the magnificent court of Duke
Ernest Augustus at Hanover, in 1681, there were fifty gilt coaches with
six horses each. The first time that ambassadors appeared in coaches on
a public solemnity was at the imperial commission held at Erfurt in
1613. Soon after this time coaches became common all over Germany,
notwithstanding various orders and admonitions to deter vassals from
using them. These vehicles appear to have been of very rude
construction. Beckmann describes a view he had seen of Bremen, painted
by John Landwehr in 1661, in which was represented a long quadrangular
carriage, apparently not suspended by straps, and covered with a canopy
supported by four pillars, but without curtains. In the side was a small
door, and in front a low seat or box; the coachman sat upon the horses;
and the dress of the persons within proved them to be burgomasters. At
Paris in the 14th, 15th and even 16th centuries, the French monarchs
rode commonly on horses, the servants of the court on mules, and the
princesses and principal ladies sometimes on asses. Persons even of the
highest rank sometimes sat behind their equerry on the same horse.
Carriages, howev