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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Main Author: Sternberg, G
Format: Book section
Language:English
Published: Oxford University Press 2014
Subjects:
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author Sternberg, G
author_facet Sternberg, G
author_sort Sternberg, G
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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.
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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
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