The World’s Oldest Obsession

Perfume has become an essential part of our daily lives. Think of your typical day and all the different smell sensations that you experience, your shampoo, soap, food, your clothing. We have all grown up with so many scents and we take it for granted. There was a time when fragrance was a very rare and expensive treasure. People are essentially visually oriented, and dependent on sight and sound to gather information from the surroundings.”Smell” however is a remarkable sense. You can’t see it but it is one of the most powerful senses that we have. Since it is closely linked to the limbic system (seat of emotions and the functions of memory), it has the power above all other senses to instantly transport us, to past times or pervade our psyche to change our mood. The very word perfume is derived from the Latin perfumum, meaning ‘by’ or ‘through’ smoke, as it was with the use of burning incense that the prayers of the ancients were transported to the heavens for the contemplations of the Gods. The use of fragrances developed within the four great centuries of culture in
China, India, Egypt and Mesopotamia, and was extended in the elite societies of Greece, Palestine, Rome, Persia and Arabia. The great world religions of Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Zoroastroism employ fragrance in pursuance of their faiths. This means that religion and pleasure have always been the main drivers in the phenomenal growth of perfume usage throughout the centuries.

Perfume has been used for many reasons from hiding the scent of decay during the Black Death of 1347 to combat the foul smell of prisons, hospitals and ships, but since this blog is only about the royals, I will focus on that. If you have any questions and want to know more, just make a comment or send me an email.

Roman emperors used perfume to excess. Nero and his wife Poppeae had ‘perfumed plumbing’ in their palaces. They also had false ceilings designed to drop flower petals onto dinner guests and scented doves which fragranced the air with perfumed wings. When Poppeae died, Nero burned a whole year’s supply of incense on her funeral pyre. Empress Zoë of Constantinople had employed court perfumers. From there the practice spread, with The Normans throwing flowers onto the floors of castles and churches to keep the air fragrant.

In 1573 Edward de vere, Earl of Oxford, brought Elizabeth I not only scented sachets, but he also brought her perfumed gloves. Around this time the first books and manuscripts describing perfumery techniques surfaced, and court perfumers became common. When Catherine de Medici (1519-1589) traveled to France to marry King Henry II, she brought two perfumers with her. Nostradamus, the personal astrologer of Catherine de Medici, was known to inhale smoke and incense as part of his preparations for prophesying.

Royal History is filled with examples of famous Kings and Queens and their perfumed preferences: Henry III was said to have fallen head over heels in love with Mary of Cleves after breathing the odor of her just removed clothing. Henry IV of France once reputedly wrote to his mistress Gabrielle d’Estree, ‘Don’t wash my love, I will be in home in eight days’. The French kings and their courts greatly indulged the use of fragrance, Louis XIII favoring neroli, based on orange blossom, and Louis XIV,the Sun King ,with his mistress Madame de Montespan, compounded his own fragrances. Louis XV spent a lot of money on ‘La Cour Parfumee’(the perfumed court) with his mistress Madame de Pompadour and Madame du Barry, where even the fountains poured fragranced water.

Mean while, over in England, Charles I (1600-1649) employed Neil Gwynne as his fragrant advisor and Charles II (1630-1685) was educated in the aromatic arts by Catherine of Braganza. Perfume rings, pomanders and vinaigrettes gave new ways to perfume the air, much needed since the strong smell of valerian musk and civet was needed to hide the lack of personal hygiene which existed at the time.

Napoleon Bonaparte loved aromas; he liked citrus and herbal smells, and was known to use several bottles a day! During the Victorian era, wearing of perfume was strictly controlled but Queen Victoria wore shawls soaked in patchouli, imbuing a rich woody fragrance to the garment.

By the way, for those that don’t know this, Napoleon wasn’t really short; he was actually the average height for his time period.

While everyone was focusing on Jennifer Aniston’s “uncool” comments in the December issue of Vogue, I was all wrapped up in velvet, corsets and silk. Famed photographer, Annie Leibovitz, shot a 14 page editorial based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet called ‘Love of a Lifetime’ and it was just gorgeous.

The editorial featured Italian classical ballet dancer, Roberto Bolle and supermodel Coca Rocha in elaborate and over-the-top clothing, which was the standard during the 16th century. 

Clothes were decorated with heavy embroidery and decorated with jewels, rich fabrics and pearls. The women that could afford this clothing were fortunate, but not comfortable and their clothes were tight, hot and unbearable. Since, the Elizabethan era was a society divided by class, clothing provided an immediate way of distinguishing ‘Who was Who’ and which class system they belonged to. This was not just the norm, this was called the Sumptuary Laws. These laws provided strict clothing guidelines in order to limit the expenditure by people on clothes - and of course to maintain the social structure of the Elizabethan Class system. Queen Elizabeth I continued to use the Sumptuary Laws, just as her father and sister had done before her. Elizabethan Sumptuary Laws dictated what color and type of clothing individuals were allowed to own and wear, an easy and immediate way to identify rank and privilege. The penalties for violating Sumptuary Laws could be harsh - fines, the loss of property, title and even life. For example, only Royalty could wear purple silk. Gold clothing could be worn by the Queen, Queen’s mother, children, sisters and aunts together with Duchesses, Marquises, and Countesses but was not allowed to be worn by Viscountesses, baronesses, and other personages of like degrees.

In Greenwich on June 15, 1574 Queen Elizabeth I enforced some new Sumptuary Laws called the ‘Statutes of Apparel’.  I researched everywhere and finally found those laws and copied them below:

None shall wear

Any cloth of gold, tissue, nor fur of sables: except duchesses, marquises, and countesses in their gowns, kirtles, partlets, and sleeves; cloth of gold, silver, tinseled satin, silk, or cloth mixed or embroidered with gold or silver or pearl, saving silk mixed with gold or silver in linings of cowls, partlets, and sleeves: except all degrees above viscountesses, and viscountesses, baronesses, and other personages of like degrees in their kirtles and sleeves.

Velvet (crimson, carnation); furs (black genets, lucerns); embroidery or passment lace of gold or silver: except all degrees above mentioned, the wives of knights of the Garter and of the Privy Council, the ladies and gentlewomen of the privy chamber and bedchamber, and maids of honor.

None shall wear any velvet in gowns, furs of leopards, embroidery of silk: except the degrees and persons above mentioned, the wives of barons’ sons, or of knights.

Cowls, sleeves, partlets, and linings, trimmed with spangles or pearls of gold, silver, or pearl; cowls of gold or silver, or of silk mixed with gold or silver: except the degrees and persons above mentioned; and trimmed with pearl, none under the degree of baroness or like degrees.

Enameled chains, buttons, aglets, and borders: except the degrees before mentioned.

Satin, damask, or tufted taffeta in gowns, kirtles, or velvet in kirtles; fur whereof the kind groweth not within the Queen’s dominions, except foins, grey genets, bodge, and wolf: except the degrees and persons above mentioned, or the wives of those that may dispend £100 by the year and so valued in the subsidy book.

Gowns of silk grosgrain, doubled sarcenet, camlet, or taffeta, or kirtles of satin or damask: except the degrees and persons above mentioned, and the wives of the sons and heirs of knights, and the daughters of knights, and of such as may dispend 300 marks by the year so valued ut supra, and the wives of those that may dispend £40 by the year.

Gentlewomen attendant upon duchesses, marquises, countesses may wear, in their liveries given them by their mistresses, as the wives of those that may dispend £100 by the year and are so valued ut supra.

None shall wear any velvet, tufted taffeta, satin, or any gold or silver in their petticoats: except wives of barons, knights of the order, or councilors’ ladies, and gentlewomen of the privy chamber and bed chamber, and the maids of honor.

Damask, taffeta, or other silk in their petticoats: except knights’ daughters and such as be matched with them in the former article, who shall not wear a guard of any silk upon their petticoats.

Velvet, tufted taffeta, satin, nor any gold or silver in any cloak or safeguard: except the wives of barons, knights of the order, or councilor’s ladies and gentlewomen of the privy chamber and bedchamber, and maids of honor, and the degrees above them.

Damask, taffeta, or other silk in any cloak or safeguard: except knights’ wives, and the degrees and persons above mentioned.

No persons under the degrees above specified shall wear any guard or welt of silk upon any petticoat, cloak, or safeguard.