When the Dowager Empress of China died in 1908, her favourite Pekingese was led before her coffin by the chief eunuch, following a precedent of some nine hundred years standing. Queen Victoria, entertaining Napoleon III and the Empress Eugenie at Windsor, regarded a visit to the kennels as the high point of an afternoon's walk. And contemporary chroniclers of the French Revolution rather implausibly claimed that when Marie Antoinette's dog, Thisbee, was so distraught at the queen's incarceration that it committed suicide.
For monarchs and their consorts, cats, dogs and the occasional parrot have acted as constant companions, unquestioning allies, surrogate children and silent repositories of whispered confidences. For their isolated children, cats and dogs were often the only source of emotional comfort and warmth. From Empress Josephine's collection of pugs (who had their own personal maid in spite of Napoleon's distaste for them) to Elizabeth II's dynasty of corgis, the history of these pampered pets offers us a fascinating and often hilarious peek into the exalted world of their owners.
Using a rich source of previously untapped historical documentation, Katherine MacDonogh has written a revolutionary account - seen from the floor level - of court life since the Renaissance.
