The duality of service: between honour and humiliation, between primary and secondary functions
This chapter revisits a celebrated act of court ritual: the gesture of handing the king his chemise as he rose each morning. Re-contextualizing this gesture thematically, socially, chronologically, and functionally, I underscore the duality of such ‘honourable service’ and the degree to which it was...
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Format: | Book section |
Language: | English |
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Oxford University Press
2014
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author | Sternberg, G |
author_facet | Sternberg, G |
author_sort | Sternberg, G |
collection | OXFORD |
description | This chapter revisits a celebrated act of court ritual: the gesture of handing the king his chemise as he rose each morning. Re-contextualizing this gesture thematically, socially, chronologically, and functionally, I underscore the duality of such ‘honourable service’ and the degree to which it was shaped by extra-royal agendas even in the heyday of the Sun King. In place well before Louis XIV, these acts occurred in sub-royal as well as in royal settings; in the former, a more complicated perception of service emerges, of a humiliating task as well as a ‘prestige fetish’. Givers, moreover, were also receivers: each time an aristocrat was to hand the king the chemise, he would receive it from others; often, this was the more important interaction. The final section uncovers the macro-political stakes of these acts in the struggle of the Legitimated Princes to equate themselves with the legitimate princes of royal blood. |
first_indexed | 2024-03-07T00:43:37Z |
format | Book section |
id | oxford-uuid:83e35acf-5f44-4856-b2f5-6c01045d81e2 |
institution | University of Oxford |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-03-07T00:43:37Z |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | Oxford University Press |
record_format | dspace |
spelling | oxford-uuid:83e35acf-5f44-4856-b2f5-6c01045d81e22022-03-26T21:47:19ZThe duality of service: between honour and humiliation, between primary and secondary functionsBook sectionhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_3248uuid:83e35acf-5f44-4856-b2f5-6c01045d81e2HistoryEnglishFaculty of HistoryOxford University Press2014Sternberg, GThis chapter revisits a celebrated act of court ritual: the gesture of handing the king his chemise as he rose each morning. Re-contextualizing this gesture thematically, socially, chronologically, and functionally, I underscore the duality of such ‘honourable service’ and the degree to which it was shaped by extra-royal agendas even in the heyday of the Sun King. In place well before Louis XIV, these acts occurred in sub-royal as well as in royal settings; in the former, a more complicated perception of service emerges, of a humiliating task as well as a ‘prestige fetish’. Givers, moreover, were also receivers: each time an aristocrat was to hand the king the chemise, he would receive it from others; often, this was the more important interaction. The final section uncovers the macro-political stakes of these acts in the struggle of the Legitimated Princes to equate themselves with the legitimate princes of royal blood. |
spellingShingle | History Sternberg, G The duality of service: between honour and humiliation, between primary and secondary functions |
title | The duality of service: between honour and humiliation, between primary and secondary functions |
title_full | The duality of service: between honour and humiliation, between primary and secondary functions |
title_fullStr | The duality of service: between honour and humiliation, between primary and secondary functions |
title_full_unstemmed | The duality of service: between honour and humiliation, between primary and secondary functions |
title_short | The duality of service: between honour and humiliation, between primary and secondary functions |
title_sort | duality of service between honour and humiliation between primary and secondary functions |
topic | History |
work_keys_str_mv | AT sternbergg thedualityofservicebetweenhonourandhumiliationbetweenprimaryandsecondaryfunctions AT sternbergg dualityofservicebetweenhonourandhumiliationbetweenprimaryandsecondaryfunctions |