Groom of the Chamber

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Groom of the Chamber was a position on the Royal Household of the British monarchy. Other Ancien Régime royal establishments in Europe had comparable officers, often with similar titles. (The Danish monarchy, for example, had a comparable officer—in Danish, "Kammerjunker.")

Traditionally, the English Court was organized into three branches or departments:
1) the Household, primarily concerned with fiscal more than domestic matters, the "royal purse;"
2) the Bedchamber, focused on the most direct and intimate aspects of the lives of the royal family, with its own offices, like the Groom of the Body and the Squire of the Body;
3) the Chamber, concerned with the external aspects of the royal establishment, as the Bedchamber was concerned with the inner.

The Chamber organization was controlled by the Lord Chamberlain; if he was the general of a small army of servitors, the Grooms of the Chamber were his footsoldiers. The Grooms wore the royal livery, guarded the royal palaces, served as general attendants, and fulfilled a wide range of specific functions. (One Groom of the Chamber had the job of handing the "King's Stuff" to a Squire of the Body, who would then dress the King.)

The office of Groom of the Chamber could also be bestowed in a more honorific manner, upon people who served the royal household in some less direct way. The early Tudor poet Stephen Hawes became a Groom of the Chamber in 1502, under Henry VII.^[1] In the reigns of the early monarchs of the House of Stuart, James I and Charles I, the actors of the King's Men, the playing company under royal patronage, were officially Grooms of the Chamber. They did not guard the palaces or fulfill other normal functions of the office; rather, they served the King by performing plays for him. The same arrangement held for some of Queen Anne's Men, including their playwright Thomas Heywood; they became Grooms of the Queen's Chamber, under the Queen's Chamberlain.^[2] On some occasions, Shakespeare, Heywood, and their compatriots wore the royal livery, marched in processions, and played other roles in the ceremonial life of the monarchy. In at least two cases, those of George Bryan (Lord Chamberlain's Men) and John Singer (Queen Elizabeth's Men; Admiral's Men), professional actors became "normal" Grooms of the Chamber, with the normal duties, after retiring from the stage.

Similarly, the French portrait painter Jean Clouet (ca. 1485-1540) was appointed a groom of the chamber of the French monarchy in 1523. The office could serve as a sinecure to provide a minimum income and social place for someone who enjoyed royal favor.

Many noble households in Britain and eslewhere in Europe had their own grooms of the chamber, known by various titles.

[edit] Notes

^ Leslie Stephen, Dictionary of National Biography, 1901; p. 188.
^ At that time, Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester (1563–1626), younger brother of Sir Philip Sidney.

[edit] References

Brown, Cedric C., ed. Patronage, Politics, and Literary Traditions in England, 1558-1658. Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1993.
Walter, James. Shakespeare's True Life. London, Longmans, Green & Co., 1890; reprinted Kessinger Publishing, 2003.