Quotation from: Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period

Written by: Paul Lacroix


Having thus mentioned the assemblies of persons of distinction, the
interviews of sovereigns (Fig. 394), and the reception of
ambassadors--without describing them in detail, which would involve more
space than we have at our command--we will enter upon the subject of the
special ceremonial adopted by the nobility, taking as our guide the
standard book called "Honneurs de la Cour," compiled at the end of the
fifteenth century by the celebrated Alienor de Poitiers. In addition to
her own observations, she gives those of her mother, Isabelle de Souza,
who herself had but continued the work of another noble lady, Jeanne
d'Harcourt--married in 1391 to the Count William de Namur--who was
considered the best authority to be found in the kingdom of France. This
collection of the customs of the court forms a kind of family diary
embracing three generations, and extending back over more than a century.

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