Mistress of the Robes: Organising the Queen's Female Household

Description:Letters amongst Duchess Harriet’s papers demonstrate that the organisation of the Queen’s female household was a complicated process often fraught with logistical difficulties, including the conflicting schedules of the chosen ladies.

A letter from Lady Gainsborough expresses her wish to avoid being allocated a period of waiting ‘during my Boy’s Holydays…beginning the 26th of June for 6 weeks’. A letter from St. James’s Palace to the Duchess dated November 21st 1850 draws her attention to an oversight in the rota regarding this. The letter states ‘I feel it to be my duty to submit another “Rota” for approval before it is printed – as the Memorandum in the Queen’s Handwriting gives 4 weeks in July to Lady Gainsborough, out of the 6 weeks of her Son’s Holidays’. The letter continues: ‘I return Lady Gainsborough’s letter which expresses her Ladyships wishes in this respect’.