On the importance of etiquette among the Windsors. Queen Camilla and King Charles, like the late Queen Elizabeth, have always advocated simplicity when it comes to family meals, outside of state banquets. However, there are rules that die hard in the dining rooms of royal residences. This is evidenced by this curious tradition to which the royal family is attached when it comes to setting the table. Don’t be offended, but if you pass by Buckingham Palace or Clarence House for dinner, you won’t find a fish knife there. The accessory is prohibited!
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Queen Camilla had fun with it during a lunch in a London restaurant, as told by Lady Anne Glenconner, writer and former lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret, 91 years old. Present at the Cheltenham Literary Festival for a conference on good manners in high society with William Hanson, a specialist on the subject, the 91-year-old author recounts a funny outing with the wife of Charles III. While they were sitting in a restaurant with Anabel Elliot, sister of the Queen Consort, the waitress came to find them to ask them a question. “Regular knife or fish knife?” she asks them, pointing to the two utensils placed next to the plates.
Amused, Queen Camilla delivers a rather literary response to the stunned young woman. She quotes him a verse from John Betjeman, a British poet known for his sarcastic writings on good manners. A way to get the message across gently, no fish knives for the queens! Elizabeth II and her ancestors were of the same opinion. A tradition whose origins date back to King Edward VII who found this cutlery “too common”. But why?
British etiquette expert William Hanson reveals the key to the mystery. “There are two explanations. First, it’s a class thing because fish knives are seen as ‘low end’. Second, Buckingham Palace silver dates back to Georgian times and this This type of cutlery did not yet exist at the time, so it is impossible to find them in drawers. William Hanson adds, “When fish knives were created in the late Victorian era, they were immediately associated with the middle class, those profiting from the Industrial Revolution.”
The expert explains that Queen Elizabeth’s mother, Queen mum, ate her fish with two forks in order to avoid using the forbidden knife. This royal banishment of the fish knife still resonates among the upper classes today. When a guest comes to the table and discovers such a utensil among the cutlery, he can easily deduce that his host is far from being an aristocrat. A message of vulgarity that the royal palaces absolutely want to avoid. Morality, in rhyme as the literary Queen Camilla likes, to respect good manners in England, an ordinary knife does the trick!
