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A handmaiden (nowadays less commonly handmaid or maidservant) is a personal maid or female servant. [1] The term is also used metaphorically for something whose primary role is to serve or assist. [1] Depending on culture or historical period, a handmaiden may be of enslaved status or may be simply an employee. The terms handmaiden and handmaid ...
Wives, slaves, and in fact all persons connected with the royal palace of Dahomey were called ahosi, from aho meaning "king", and si meaning "dependent" or "subordinate". In Gbe languages, aho means widow and the suffix si or shi means female so ahosi literally means widow. Ahosi started as group of wives of departed kings in the kingdom of ...
In Europe, the development of the office of lady-in-waiting is connected to that of the development of a royal court. During the Carolingian Empire, in the 9th century, Hincmar describes the royal household of Charles the Bald in the De Ordine Palatii, from 882, in which he states that court officials took orders from the queen as well as the king.
In India, a devadasi is a female artist who is dedicated to the worship and service of a deity or a temple for the rest of her life. [3] [4] The dedication takes place in a ceremony that is somewhat similar to a marriage ceremony.
Mary Glowrey JMJ, religious name Mary of the Sacred Heart, (1887–1957) was an Australian born religious sister and educated doctor who spent 37 years in India, where she set up healthcare facilities, services and systems.
The harem had a hierarchy, its chief authorities being the wives and female relatives of the emperor and below them were the concubines. [3] Mothers, step-mothers, aunts, grandmothers, step-sisters, sisters, daughters and other female relatives lived in the harem. There were also ladies-in-waiting, servants, maids, cooks, women, officials, and ...
The Viceroy (by then Lord Minto), Lieutenant-Governor Sir John Hewett, and India Office civil servants disapproved of the seizure, and recommended that the letters be returned. [124] Eventually the King returned four, on condition that they would be sent back to him on the death of the Munshi's first wife. [125]
A lady's companion was a woman of genteel birth who lived with a woman of rank or wealth as retainer.The term was in use in the United Kingdom from at least the 18th century to the mid-20th century but it is now archaic.