Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Bogebam Here. If you could transport
Speaker 1: yourself back to the days when kings ruled Europe, what
Speaker 1: job would you choose for yourself? Would you be a
Speaker 1: powerful night or a humble cleric, or would you choose
Speaker 1: a much more important role, perhaps as the man who
Speaker 1: helped the king relieve himself throughout the day. Your job
Speaker 1: title then would be groom of the stool, and, believe
Speaker 1: it or not, in many cases, this would make you
Speaker 1: one of the most influential people in the monarchy. These days,
Speaker 1: the idea of signing up to tend to someone else's
Speaker 1: bodily functions when they're perfectly capable of handling it themselves
Speaker 1: may seem a bit weird, But back before the days
Speaker 1: of indoor plumbing, the process of elimination required manual labor.
Speaker 1: In the king's case, he'd use what was called a
Speaker 1: close stool, which was essentially a velvet wrapped stool containing
Speaker 1: a chamber pot that needed to be presented, emptied, and cleaned.
Speaker 1: This piece of furniture, by the way, is where the
Speaker 1: term stool to refer to poop comes from. Circo the
Speaker 1: fifteen thirties, in the fancy, wealthy days of the tutors
Speaker 1: in the fifteen hundreds, just getting ready to use the
Speaker 1: stool took some work, as royals generally donned multiple layers
Speaker 1: of fine garments in their daily lives. The groom of
Speaker 1: the stool might help with loosening those clothes and then
Speaker 1: whisking away the waist. The sources vary on whether the
Speaker 1: groom actually helped the king clean himself after the deed
Speaker 1: was done, or just handed him a cloth, but there's
Speaker 1: no doubt about his importance to the head hauncho's daily life.
Speaker 1: We spoke via email with Stephen Gunn, history professor at
Speaker 1: Oxford University. He said he doubled up as the king's
Speaker 1: leading personal servant and head of the king's private domestic
Speaker 1: staff in the Privy Chamber. Though it's hard to reconstruct
Speaker 1: what actually went on there all day, This presumably involved
Speaker 1: waiting on the king is a kind of chief valet
Speaker 1: and organizing all the work necessary to make the king's
Speaker 1: day go smoothly from a domestic point of view. For example,
Speaker 1: Bull being in charge of the king's private expenses account,
Speaker 1: which at times in Henry the Eighth's reign spent thousands
Speaker 1: of pounds a year on clothes, jewels, gambling, sports equipment,
Speaker 1: or small rewards for people the king met. And sure
Speaker 1: there were probably moments when the groom wasn't terribly excited
Speaker 1: about the biological aspects of his job, but during this
Speaker 1: period of history, people were extremely excited to be connected
Speaker 1: to royalty in any way possible. Gunn said. What we
Speaker 1: also have to remember is that private service to someone
Speaker 1: of very high status was itself thought to be a
Speaker 1: high status job, such that young nobleman, for example, were
Speaker 1: more than happy to serve the king and his guests
Speaker 1: food at the table. And of course watch how political
Speaker 1: operators operated over here bits of interesting political discussion and
Speaker 1: generally learn how to be powerful at court. Not just
Speaker 1: anyone could become groom of the stool. To get this
Speaker 1: prized gig, one needed serious connections. We also spoke via
Speaker 1: email with Ben Low, history professor at Florida Atlantic University.
Speaker 1: He said they were usually close friends or confidants of
Speaker 1: the king. They often came up from an up and
Speaker 1: coming family that was seeking further preferment. Gunn explained that
Speaker 1: these men would have been appointed by the king no
Speaker 1: doubt on the recommendation of other influential courtiers once they
Speaker 1: napped the enviable position they were in on the ground
Speaker 1: floor of the kingdom's political environment. Low said it grew
Speaker 1: in importance during the time of the Tutors, especially after
Speaker 1: Henry the Seventh moved much of the administration of his government,
Speaker 1: including its finances, to the Pretty Chamber, where the groom resided.
Speaker 1: This led to a more administrative role for many grooms.
Speaker 1: Their constant access to the king also made this an
Speaker 1: enviable position to hold for the high level of influence
Speaker 1: a groom might wield. The groom also spent a lot
Speaker 1: of time with the King when he was trying to
Speaker 1: relax and avoid political topics. Getting to know the King
Speaker 1: on a more personal level made for a closer relationship,
Speaker 1: one that often came loaded with benefits. Gunn said the
Speaker 1: groom was ideally placed to talk to the King about things,
Speaker 1: and that included asking the King for things for himself
Speaker 1: or for others. This presumably explains why Henry the seventh
Speaker 1: groom of the Stool Hugh Denny's, was paid pensions and
Speaker 1: given gifts by those who wanted to be in the
Speaker 1: King's favor. And was able to spend such money buying land. Also,
Speaker 1: Henry the Eighth's first Groom of the Stool, William Compton,
Speaker 1: was given land grants, land leases and offices by the
Speaker 1: King that brought him in maybe two thousand pounds a year,
Speaker 1: equal to the income of a leading nobleman or one
Speaker 1: of the richer bishops. Later, as King, Henry the Eighth's
Speaker 1: health slowly deteriorated. His last Groom of the Stool, Sir
Speaker 1: Anthony Denny, became more powerful. He even wielded the King's
Speaker 1: personal signature stamp, giving him the authority to approve or
Speaker 1: disprove requests from across the land. Denny also helped draw
Speaker 1: up Henry's will. Over time, the job title of Groom
Speaker 1: of the Stool faded out. The last person to officially
Speaker 1: hold the title may have been Sir Michael st Hope
Speaker 1: for Edward the sixth in fifteen forty seven. That's in
Speaker 1: part because the kings gave way to two queens in succession,
Speaker 1: Mary the First and Elizabeth the First. Gun explained because
Speaker 1: their most intimate servants could not be men, they developed
Speaker 1: a bed chamber staffed by women, which took over the
Speaker 1: domestic role and some of the influence of the Privy Chamber. Furthermore,
Speaker 1: personal monarchy gave way to a more bureaucratic and institutionalized
Speaker 1: royal court. At the same time, monarchy in Britain itself
Speaker 1: lost power, continuing largely as a ceremonial holdover of an
Speaker 1: earlier age. Low said the power once held by royal
Speaker 1: attendants like the groom now had moved to high level
Speaker 1: staff positions among leaders of Parliament or cabinet members, and
Speaker 1: even here they paled in comparison to their early modern forebearers.
Speaker 1: Attendance to royalty simply lost their political power or status
Speaker 1: as a font of patronage for those seeking favors of
Speaker 1: the crown. After the death of Elizabeth the First in
Speaker 1: sixteen o three, the position re emerged, but with the
Speaker 1: upgraded title of Groom of the Stole, which implied the
Speaker 1: person helped the monarch with dressing duties as opposed to toileting.
Speaker 1: The last Groom of the Stole was James Hamilton's, a
Speaker 1: duke who served Edward seventh when he was Prince of
Speaker 1: Wales in the late eighteen hundreds, and the position was
Speaker 1: officially abolished in nineteen o one. Today's episode was written
Speaker 1: by Davan Chandler and produced by Tyler Klang. Brain Stuff
Speaker 1: is production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For
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