Why Do KINGS & QUEENS SLEEP in Separate Bedrooms?

[Music] welcome back to my youtube channel everybody if you are new to my youtube channel i am julie meltzku the american vi countess and here on this channel i visit other historic houses but i also talk about my life as an american vice countess and that is exactly what we are going to be delving into today why do royals sleep in separate bedrooms in fact it's a question i've always wanted to know and since marrying into the british aristocracy i think i have some pretty good reasons as to why now of course there's the staple reason it's just been like that it's how the royal family and those of high nobility have done it for centuries it's just been tradition that the queen and the king would have separate bed chambers but i want to explore a little bit deeper as to perhaps admit there were other reasons as to why they had different bed chambers than it just being down to the fact that you know it's the way that it's always been so first and foremost i want to look at the beds right so what type of beds did kings and queens actually sleep in well they sleep in four poster beds and i'm going to talk about the differences in four poster beds here that we have here at mapperton this is we are in the great chamber right now and this four poster bed was made from beechwood i'm also going to be looking at another four poster bed that we have here at mapperton which dates back to the tudor period but of course these beds right here four poster beds luxurious i mean look at up above the canopy up above and this the fabric that the canopy was made from was usually some type of silk or satin or even velvet but of course what did kings and queens sleep on and where to bed we know that they were in separate bedrooms but they wanted the best of the best of the best right and so the best would of course be silk that was the best material and frankly it still is the best material today i'm certain that queen elizabeth sleeps on silk and in fact if you watch season four of the crown you would see actually uh queen elizabeth ii in her pajamas and she was wearing silk actually so was margaret thatcher as well but here i have at here in the great chamber in this luxurious four poster bed we have silk pillowcases so luxurious silk pillow cases but why would kings and queens want silk what makes silk so fantastic we know that kings and queens really were you know they wanted to look their best and they actually needed to look their best all the time so of course they had to get a good night's sleep perhaps that's why they didn't sleep in the same bed so you know they didn't hear the other partner snoring or kicking or basically hogging all of the covers but also they wanted to make sure that they woke up with glowing skin and the wonderful thing about silk and silk pillowcases is that there's a lot less friction between the skin and of course the silk pillowcase i mean that's the wonderful thing about having silk then of course what do they wear to bed well let's remember these kings and queens were in these freezing cold houses they didn't have the luxury that we have today of central heating some of them back in the day in the tudor period they might have just had one fireplace in the great hall so it was cold so the wonderful thing about silk as well is that it's breathable and so if you're hot silk will cool you down if you're cold silk will warm you up and so i'm certain that just like in the crown queen elizabeth in season four did wear silk in her pajamas go back and look at that but that's what kings and queens wore back then and wore today lucky for us this week's post is sponsored by lily silk and lily silk not only is it luxurious and there's less friction of course between your face and the pillowcase and it keeps you warm when you're cold and of course keeps you cool when you're hot but the other reason is that it's they're really concerned about the environment so lily silk sources their silk from mulberry tree which uses less water than cotton and the mulberry tree does not use pesticides in fact lilly silk because it's sourced from the mulberry tree can be decomposed in one to five years as opposed to synthetic materials which is 50 times as long so up to 50 times as long to decompose synthetic materials than it is to decompose lily silk which is one to five years so here at mapperton we are big fans of lilly silk but also silk is luxurious it's what those kings and those queens wore not only to bed of course but in their outfits and we can see that in bridgerton we can see that in the crown the lovely amazing outfits but we can also see that on the beds so let's go back to again why these kings and queens slept in separate bedrooms we know that number one it was because that's just how it always was it was a tradition that came out of britain but perhaps there are other reasons so we're going to go into another room and i think that might help you figure out or at least guests as to why they slept in separate bedrooms [Music] so now we're heading into the west room here at mapperton with this absolutely incredible tudor bed however i did forget to mention my cute little scrunchie right here which is made from lily silk's fabric off cuts and again they're then used to make accessories like eye masks and these cute little scrunchies of all sizes now back to the bed all right here we are at mapperton and we have this incredible tudor bed so remember you know many people think that the four poster bed came over from austria between the 13th and the 15th century and when it came over to britain it spread across the kingdom like wildfire all the rich and the royals wanted to get their hands on a bed like this and you can see it's grand the carvings are incredible these ornate carvings and they'll have some of them would have coat of arms they'll have patterns of floral in here as you can see here other elements of design as well scrolls and they were usually made from oak or from walnut and in fact these pillars look at the size of these pillars some of the pillars for the two or four poster beds would uh have 18 inches in diameter that's how big they were and then of course streamed across the canopy if you like was of course usually made of silk or satin as you can see this has probably been stuck up here since the tudor times and it's in desperate need of repair but this is again the original fabric that went on this tudor bed but here's my theory we know that kings and queens well they say sleep and slept in different bedrooms because that's how it always was that was the tradition but look at the size of this bed it may be grand but it certainly is small i mean i think this is comfortable just for one person right how could you possibly fit two people in here i mean you'd be kicking each other all night you'd be taking each other's covers for sure and the snoring would be even louder so i'm not sure maybe it's my theory but maybe the reason that kings and queens you know back then slept in separate bedrooms is because the beds were too small i have another theory though let's head downstairs and hear out my other theory as to why kings and queens might have slept in separate bedrooms so my last theory as to why kings and queens slept in separate bedrooms has to do with catherine briganza queen catherine up above who was married to charles ii now let me go back a little bit we discussed earlier on here at matberton the great chamber and that's a 17th century bed it's slender it was again more much more slender than that sort of chunky ornate tudor bed that we saw in the west room during the 17th century those beds were popular you also noticed that it was a bit spacier as well there was a little bit more space in that 17th century bet catherine braganza 17th century married charles ii here's my theory as to why they had separate bedrooms charles ii had many triestes while married to queen catherine in fact so many that he produced 12 illegitimate children poor catherine suffered many miscarriages and never produced an heir for the king they did however stay married until death but it was quite a sad time i think for queen catherine her husband was also again pronouncing around with other women uh so i do think that maybe that is my theory as to why kings and queens had separate bedrooms because again during that period it was common it was the norm to have mistresses in fact i think i've even read that sometimes the mistresses actually lived in the same premise in the same royal house as the wife herself bizarre i know so that kind of concludes why well at least that concludes my theory as to why kings and queens slept in separate bedrooms but i'd love to hear your comments down below do you have any other comments i mean why is it and you know reports have come out that prince philip and queen elizabeth ii also slept in separate beds and had separate bedrooms because that was just the norm in fact i think we know that to be true it is a curious one i think i think it is quite a curious one especially if you had these extraordinary four poster beds wouldn't you want to share it with somebody i would anyway that's all for me and my theories ridiculous or not i'd love to hear you comment down below and let me know what you think about the reason or the reasons as to why kings and queens sleep in separate bedrooms i'm julie montague the american vi contest be sure to subscribe down below turn your notifications on and i can't wait to see you back here for another week of my life as an american vicente

Channel: American Viscountess

Views: 141,218

Keywords: julie montagu mapperton house, julie montagu american aristocrat, mapperton house, aristocracy documentary, meghan markle, prince harry, american viscountess, The Queen, Bridgerton

Id: uoYL7ai1otY

Length: 11min 30sec (690 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 09 2022