Etiquette and Privileges of the King

It is the accepted etiquette that the King never writes a letter. It must not be supposed he never sets pen to paper to his relatives on personal matters, and Queen Victoria was a voluminous correspondent with her official ministers, but outside such cases the only exception one can call to mind of recent years was the letter the King wrote to George Herring in connection with the latters munificent assistance to the Hospital Saturday fund. The accepted story is that Mr. Herring was offered a knighthood and declined, and that the letter was written in consequence, but the story is sometimes told differently. 

There are many curious matters of law, of rule and regulation and of etiquette, which constitute the divinity which "doth hedge a King." For some there are historical reasons in their origin; for others such reasons still exist; others arc mere matters of admitted propriety; others simply the crystallization of long custom and observance. On some matters, the King is governed by statute, in others he and his mere wishes are supreme, but even in the latter category, there are matters in which that pleasure must be conveyed in writing. 

The constitutional position of the Sovereign accounts for one, and to many of us groaning under the budget, a most important difference. The Sovereign pays no rates or taxes. The reason for this is that theoretically all taxes are levied in the King’s name for the purpose of carrying on the government and that, as in fact it would have been before the days of the civil list. To tax the income of the King for the purpose of defraying the King’s expenditure, was simply taking money from one of his pockets to put it into another. 

It is the accepted etiquette that the King never writes a letter. It must not be supposed he never sets pen to paper to his relatives on personal matters, and Queen Victoria was a voluminous correspondent with her official ministers, but outside such cases the only exception one can call to mind of recent years was the letter the King wrote to George Herring in connection with the latters munificent assistance to the Hospital Saturday fund. The accepted story is that Mr. Herring was offered a knighthood and declined, and that the letter was written in consequence, but the story is sometimes told differently. 

Those who need to correspond with his Majesty, who are aware ot the right procedure, usually write to the King's secretary or a member of the household, asking that the matter be placed before the King  but petitions for the exercise of the prerogative in any form on matters of state are required to be submitted through the home office. The King does not accept invitations and a visit of any form is not preceded thereby, but by his intimation that he will pay it. In other words, he always invites himself, and in matters of  social intercourse, the same etiquette extends to other members of the Royal family. The Queen never accompanies her husband to the establishment of a bachelor. If the King proposes to visit any house a list of the proposed guests has to be submitted to him beforehand, and this list the King revises, striking out and adding names at his pleasure. 

There are a number of little details of etiquette which are observed, the most noticeable of which is that finger glasses are never placed upon the table if a member of the royal family is present. The reason for this goes back to the Jacobite days, when the toast of the King was converted into treason by the passing of the glass “over the water.” The King never accepts a present from a private person except, of course, his own relatives, and never permits the dedication of a book to himself if there is the smallest likelihood of the exploitation of this dedication for commercial purposes. The rule, however, is relaxed to the extent of the frequent acceptance of copies of books from the authors, but in such cases the book is required to be bound according to a specified pattern. – The London Express, 1910

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia