groom of the stool
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Forms: form: grooms of the stool
Senses: examples: text: The leſſer Corporations were [...] his Majeſties gratuities to the Lord of, &c. Marqueſs, &c. Q[ueen] Mother, Lady Nurſe, Groom of the ſtool, that is, the Cloſe ſtool, whether King or Queen (high and advantageous honours) and this diſcended to outlandiſh, as in Land commodities; yea, to pins and brooms; and it was ſaid, to Rags for paper, and Marrow-bones for Kitchin-ſtuff, or greaſe; [...]
ref: 1651, Charl[e]s George Cock, English-Law; or, a Summary Survey of the Household of God on Earth; […], London: Printed by Robert White for T. G. and Francis Tyton, […], →OCLC, page 52:
text: It is the king's pleasure that Mr Norris shall be in the room of Sir William Compton, not only giving his attendance as groom of the stool but also in his bedchamber and other privy places as shall stand with his pleasure. And the king's express command is that none other of the said six gentlemen [of the privy chamber] presume to enter or follow his Grace into the said bedchamber, or any other secret place, unless he shall be called and admitted thereunto by his said grace.
ref: 1995, Eric Ives, “Henry VIII: The Political Perspective”, in Diarmaid MacCulloch, editor, The Reign of Henry VIII: Politics, Policy and Piety (Problems in Focus), Basingstoke, Hampshire; London: Macmillan Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 20:
text: As the secretariat moved more and more under the aegis of the grooms, as the keeping of the seal itself became entrusted to men such as William Compton and Henry Norris, and as Henry [VIII] signed in the odd moments between eating or attending mass or (one assumes, since these men were grooms of the stool) privy ministrations, it was quite possible that documents passed under his hand of which "he wottith nat what."
ref: 1997, Seth Lerer, “The King’s Hand: Body Politics in the Letters of Henry VIII”, in Courtly Letters in the Age of Henry VIII: Literary Culture and the Arts of Deceit, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 22:
text: At the first sound indicating that the king [Henry VIII of England] was actually awake, only one gentleman, Henry Norris, who had the senior role of groom of the stool, was allowed to enter the bedchamber 'and other privy places'. None of the others was to presume to enter or follow the king into the bedchamber or 'any other secret place'. What this meant was that the groom of the stool was responsible for helping the king go to the toilet – 'when he goeth to make water in his Bedchamber'.
ref: 2011, Christopher Gidlow, Life in a Tudor Palace (Sutton Life Series), New York, N.Y.: The History Press, →ISBN:
text: Sir Thomas Erskine of Gogar, later earl of Kellie, was captain of the yeoman of the guard from 1603 to 1617, a sensitive office that from 1605 he combined with the groom of the stool, giving him crucial influence over access to the king [James VI and I].
ref: 2013, Keith M. Brown, “Courtiers”, in Noble Power in Scotland from the Reformation to the Revolution, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, page 188:
text: The exaltation of a monarch was such that few were fit to dine with one. Meanwhile, as many as eight "grooms of the stool" waited on kings when at privy. A king sat alone at the table and in company at the "throne."
ref: 2014, Leonard Sweet, “Setting the Table at Home”, in From Tablet to Table: Where Community is Found and Identity is Formed, Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress in alliance with Tyndale House Publishers, →ISBN, part II (Life’s Three Tables), page 81:
text: The groom of the stool also assisted the monarch in other aspects of daily life, such as dressing and eating. The position of groom of the stool originated in the fifteenth century, with the introduction of the close-stool, a stool holding a chamber pot. The office of Yeoman of the Stool emerged in the reign of Henry VI (r[eigned] 1422–1471). The Groom of the Stool appears in the records around 1495, with the founding of the Privy Chamber by Henry VII (r. 1485–1509).
ref: 2015, “Grooms of the Stool”, in John Middleton, editor, World Monarchies and Dynasties, volume 2, Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 349:
text: [T]he privy chamber now comprised just six grooms led by a groom of the stool. And in choosing them, Henry [VII of England] was guided not by rank or status, but by who he thought would 'best content the king'. Chief among them was Hugh Denys, groom of the stool, a Gloucestershire gentleman who had married into the influential family of Ros (or Roos), whose Lancastrian connections were strong. Born around 1440, Denys was one of the oldest members of Henry's entourage and his loyalty had already been well proved.
ref: 2016, Tracy Borman, The Private Lives of the Tudors: Uncovering the Secrets of Britain’s Greatest Dynasty, London: Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN:
glosses: Alternative letter-case form of Groom of the Stool.