Royalty in All Ages

Royalty in All Ages is a book by Thomas Firminger Thiselton-Dyer, first published in 1903. Written by a British clergyman and popular historian known for accessible studies of folklore and custom, it gathers vivid anecdotes about the courts of Europe, focusing on the amusements, eccentricities, accomplishments, superstitions, and frolics of kings and queens. Across concise thematic chapters — on court festivals and masques, hunting and gaming, fashion, jesters, pets, and more — the book offers an engaging panorama of royal life behind the ceremony.

It is a lively companion for readers interested in monarchy history, royal customs, court culture, and European social history. Beyond its colour and gossip, the work reflects early-twentieth-century curiosity about the human side of sovereigns, drawing on chronicles and memoirs to show how power, ritual, and superstition intertwined. For researchers and enthusiasts of royalty studies, cultural history, and folklore, it remains a useful browsing book: rich in period detail, steeped in tradition, and attentive to the habits that shaped public image and private pastime in royal households.