Death of a King from Too Much Etiquette

"The Queen of Spain Has no Legs."

The rigid etiquette of the court of Spain is exemplified in a story concerning the death of Philip III. It is said that he was so great a slave to form that it was the cause of his last illness. According to the story, he sat too long before a hot fire, the servant being absent, whose duty it was to moderate the fire or to move the King's chair, and etiquette forbidding the King to do it for himself. The heat produced a fever, which ended in death. The chief event of the reign of Philip III. (1578-1621) was the expulsion of the Moors, in 1609. This cruel edict drove into exile 600,000 of Spain's most industrious people, and it marks the commencement of her decline. An incident is related of his Queen, Margaret of Austria, which answers the question as to the saying, "The Queen of Spain has no legs." On her entry into Spain, in 1599, she passed through a town celebrated for the manufacture of silk stockings; the authorities, wishing to show the Queen some courtesy, presented her with a costly pair. The present was indignantly refused by the Queen's chamberlain, who informed the delegates that the "Queen of Spain had no legs." On hearing this the Queen grew indignant and threatened to return home, saying, "I would not have come to Spain had I known that my legs were to be cut off!" Since then it has been customary to say that, officially, "the Queen of Spain has no legs." This story is probably a burlesque on Spanish etiquette, for the custom which requires Spanish women to conceal their feet dates back to the time of the Goths, as described by Tacitus.