Breaking Bread with the Bedchamber

This article examines the institution of the Bedchamber of James I of England (1603–1625) through the practice of feasting. Originally comprising James VI’s Scottish entourage, the Bedchamber was a novel introduction to the English royal household in the Jacobean period: as such, this group of attendants came to represent both a body with unparalleled royal access, and a Scottish barrier between James I and his English court. By approaching the Bedchamber through its social and cultural obligations, the institution emerges as a mediating, rather than restrictive, body, serving to enact reconciliation between the king, the Court, and foreign states. Moreover, the Bedchamber’s feasting calendar indicates a broad basis of reward, circulating around several Bedchamber Gentlemen rather than a single favorite. Patterns of Bedchamber feasting ultimately reflected a Court that was largely accessible, not significantly structured by ethnic divisions, and conducive to the proliferation of culture and favor.

Mourning Madeleine and Margaret: Dress and Meaning in the Memorials for Two Scottish Queens, 1537 and 1541

While the Scottish royal household participated in the wider development of mourning traditions in the late fifteenth century and employed mourning dress as a political tool from at least the turn of the sixteenth century, surviving evidence is extremely limited. Records for the funerals of Queens Madeleine de Valois ( d. 1537) and Margaret Tudor ( d. 1541) yield the earliest extensive material details for the employment of mourning displays in Scotland. These two funerals both honoured foreign-born queens, they took place only four years apart and they were organised within the same household—yet their use of mourning dress and material display diverged notably. Variations in the design and display of both formal and everyday mourning dress were used to transmit distinct messages and themes, in order to address the particular political circumstances and needs of each death. Comparison between the details of these Scottish funerals and examples from England, France and the Low Countries helps to place Scottish practice within wider traditions and highlights a common emphasis on mourning displays as a central aspect of political discourse and diplomacy at key moments of change and loss.

Eponyms as scientific recognition to Queen Astrid and King Leopold III of Belgium

This contribution provides an annotated list of taxa named after Queen Astrid and King Leopold III of Belgium, including the time they were Crown Prince Leopold and Princess Astrid of Belgium. The list was compiled by searching online nomenclators as well as ‘logical’ publications in which taxonomists would have published taxa named in honour of Leopold III and Astrid. In total, we discovered 144 scientific names that are based on the name of Leopold III and 26 that honour Astrid. Moreover, serendipitously we found several eponyms given to cultivars which we document only in an incidental way. The compiled impressive number of eponyms demonstrates the recognition of members of the scientific community towards the efforts of the Belgian Royal Household in the exploration and conservation of biodiversity. The legacy of Leopold III lives on in the King Leopold III Fund for Nature Exploration and Conservation. The workings and achievements of the latter organization are here also briefly detailed.

Connected Royal Oficios (offices): Furriera, Upholstery and Guardajoyas

As a general rule, during 18th century the production and treatment of furniture within the Spanish court was determined by the characteristics of the raw materials used for its construction, mainly the wood and the textile. The pre-eminance of one of these materials explained the management of furniture by different Oficios (offices) of the Royal Household. If wood was considered the key element, the furniture would be managed by the Furriera. When a textile was the most outstanding element, the Tapicería was the Oficio in charge of it. The presence of rich elements such as gold, silver or precious stones meant that the Guardajoyas was also involved. Therefore, it can be established that there was a close collaboration between the different workers of the Royal household. However, materials were not always the reason why a furniture was going to be managed by one Oficio or another so, occasionally, function and/or type of furniture were also the key elements that determined its management.

A Study of the Family Names of the Royal Household in the Early Tibetan Empire དུས་རབས ༧-༩ པའི་བར་གི་རྒྱལ་བློན་ཁྱིམ་རྒྱུད་ཀི་རུས་མིང་གི་བྱུང་འཕེལ་ལ་ཅུང་ཙམ་དཔྱད་པ།

This current paper aims to explore the evolution of ‘Bla’ belief among Tibetan people during the early Tibetan Empire Period. This paper will also examine how the tradition of family name interacts with the Bla belief. On this basis, individual names and tribal’s names appeared, and further introduced the names of royal household in the period from the seventh to the ninth century. Last but not least, this paper will investigate for what reason people were using names in Shang shung dialect. དཔྱད་རྩོམ་འདིར་བོད་མིའི་བླའི་འདུ་ཤེས་ཁྲོད་རུས་དང་མིང་གི་བྱུང་འཕེལ་བརྗོད་པ་དང་། ལྷར་ཡང་རུས་དང་མིང་དེ་ཚོ་བ་ག་གེ་མོ་ནས་མི་སྒེར་གྱི་མིང་དུ་གྱུར་ཚུལ། སྒོས་སུ་དུས་རབས་བདུན་པ་ནས་དགུ་པའི་བར་གྱི་བོད་བཙན་པོའི་རྒྱལ་བློན་བཙུན་མོ་དག་གི་མིང་འདོགས་སྟངས་དང་། སྐབས་དེར་དགོས་པ་ག་འདྲ་ཞིག་གི་འོག་ཞང་ཞུང་སྐད་ཀྱི་མཚན་གསོལ་ཚུལ་སོགས་ལ་དཔྱད་པ་ཕྲན་ཙམ་བཏང་ཡོད། 【གནད་ཚིག】བླ། རུས། མིང་། ཞང་སྐད།