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700 C O A C H. 
were employed as ambaffadors, were, on this account, 
called rittmeijw ; and even atprefent the exprefiion riding 
iervant is preferved in i'ome of the imperial cities. The 
public entry cf great lords into any place, or their depar¬ 
ture from it, was never in a carriage, but on horfeback; 
and, in all the works which (peak of the papal ceremo¬ 
nies, there is no mention of a itate-coach, or body-coach¬ 
man, but of ftate-horfes, or ftate-mules* It was neceftary 
that a liorfe for his holinefs Ihould be of a grey colour ; 
not mettlefome, however, but a quiet tt'aclable nag; that 
a ftool with three fteps ihould be brought to aflift him to 
mount, and the emperor and kings, 1 if prefent, were obli¬ 
ged to hold his ftirrup, and to lead the horfe, &c. Bifhops 
made their public entrance on horfes or afles richly deco¬ 
rated. At the coronation of the emperor, the eleftors 
and principal officers of the empire were ordered to make 
their entrance on horfes, and to perform their fervice on 
horfeback. Formerly it was neceffary that thofe who 
received an invefliture Ihould make their appearance on 
horfeback : the vafiitl was obliged to ride with two atten¬ 
dants to the lord’s court, where having difmounted from 
his horfe, he received his fief. 
Covered carriages were known in the beginning of the 
fixteenth century; but they were uled only by women 
of the firfl: rank, for the men thought it difgraceful to ride 
in them. At that period, when the eleiftors and princes 
did not chufe to be prefent at the meetings of the dates, 
they excufed themfelves by informing the emperor that 
their health would not permit them to ride on horfeback ; 
and it was confidered as a point edablifhed, that it was 
unbecoming for them to ride like women. What, accord¬ 
ing to the then prevailing ideas, was not allowed to 
princes, was much lefs permitted to their fervants. In 
the year 1544, when count Wolf of Barby, wasfurnmohed 
by John Frederic eledfor of Saxony to go to Spires to at¬ 
tend the convention of the dates aflembled there, he re- 
queded leave, cn account of his ill date of health, to make 
ufe of a clofe carriage with four horfes. When the counts 
and nobility were invited to the marriage iolemniiy of the 
eleftor’s half-brother, duke John Erned, the invitation 
was accompanied with a memorandum, that wdiat drefles 
of ceremony they might be defirous of taking with them 
they fhould tranfport in a fmall waggon. Had they been 
expedled in coaches, fuch a memorandum would have 
been lupeifluous. The ufe of covered carriages was, for 
along time, forbidden even to womeh. In 1545, the 
wife of a certain duke obtained from him, with great dif¬ 
ficulty, permifiion to ufe a covered carriage in a journey 
to the baths, in which, however, much pomp was dis¬ 
played ; but with this exprels dipulation, that her atten¬ 
dants Ihould not have the fame indulgence. It is never- 
thelefs certain, that the emperor, kings, and princes, 
about the end of the fifteenth century, began to employ 
covered carriages on journeys, and afterwards on public 
Solemnities. 
In the year 1474, the emperor Frederic III. entered 
Frankfort in a clofe carriage: and, as he remained in it 
on account of the wetnefs of the weather, the inhabitants 
had no occafion to Support the canopy which was held 
over him, but while he went to the council-bouSe, and 
again returned. In the year following, the emperbr 
vilited the fame city in a very magnificent covered car¬ 
riage. In the description. of the Splendid tournament 
held by Joachim eleftor of Brandenburg, at Ruppin, in 
j 509, we read of a carriage gilt all over, which belonged to 
the eh A refs 41 ; of twelve other coaches, ornamented with 
crimfon ; and of another of the duchels of Mecklenburg, 
which was hung with red fattin. At the coronation of 
the emperor Maximilian, in 1562, the elector of Cologne 
had twelve carriages. In 1594, when the margrave John 
Sigifinund did homage at Wariaw on account of Prufiia, 
he hkd in his train thirty-fix coaches with fix horfes each. 
Count Kevenliiller, (peaking of the marriage of the em¬ 
peror Ferdinand II. with a princefs. oV Bavaria, fays, 
■** The bride rode with her filters in a Splendid carriage 
ftudded with gold ; her maids of honour in carriages hung 
with black fattin, and the reft of the ladies in neat lea¬ 
ther carriages.” The fame author mentions the entrance 
of cardinal Dietrichftein into Vienna, in 1611, and tells us 
that forty carriages went to meet him. A: the election of 
the emperor Matthias, the ambaffador qf Brandenburg 
had three coaches. When the conlort of that emperor 
made her public entrance, on her marriage, in i6ji, (lie 
rode in a carriage covered with perfumed leather. Mary, 
infanta of Spain, fpoufe of the fucceeding Emperor, Fer¬ 
dinand III. rode, in Cirinthia, in 16-51, in a glafs-carriage. 
in which no more than two periods could fit. The wed¬ 
ding carriage of the firft wife, of the emperor Leopold, 
who was alfo a Spanifti princefs, coft together with the 
harnefs 38,000 florins. The coaches ufed by that empe¬ 
ror are thus defcribed by Kink: “ In the imperial 
coaches no great magnificence was to be leen : they were 
covered over with red cloth and black nails. The har¬ 
nefs was black, and in the whole work there was no gold. 
The pannels were of glafs, and on this account they.were 
called the imperial glafs coa.ches. On feftivals the har¬ 
nefs was ornamented with red nik Fringes. The imperial 
coaches were diftingiiilhed only by their having leather 
traces; but the ladies in the imperial fuite were obliged" 
to be contented with carriages the traces of which were 
made of ropes.” At the magnificent court of duke Ernefl: 
Auguftus at Hanover, there were, in 1681. fifty gilt 
coaches with fix horfes each ; fo nearly did Hanover be¬ 
gin to furpafs other cities in the number of its carriages. 
The firft time that ambaffadors appeared in coaches, on a 
public folemnity, was at the imperial commiflion holder* 
atErfurth, in 1613, relpeeting the affair of Juliers. 
The great lords imagined at firft that they could fup-» 
prefs the ufe of coaches by prohibitions. In tlie Cliur- 
mark archives there is fiill preferved an ediift, in which 
the.feudal nobility and Vaflalsare forbid the ufe of coaches, 
under pain of incurring the punifhment of felony. In 
i5SS,duke Juiius of Brunfwick pubhfliedan order, couch¬ 
ed in very expreflive terms, by which his vafials Were for¬ 
bid to ride in carriages. Philip II. duke of Pomerania- 
Stetten, reminded his vafials alfo, in 1608, that they ought 
not to make fo much ufe of carriages as of horfes. All 
tlieie orders and admonitions, however, were of no avail, 
and coaches became common all over Germany. InFrance 
we find that in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and even fif¬ 
teenth, centuries, the French nionarchs rode commonly 
on horfes, the fervants of the court on mules, and the 
princelfes, together with the principal ladies, fometimes 
on afles. Perlons of the firft rank often fat behind their 
equerry, and the horfe was often led by fervants. When 
Charles VI. wiihed to fe,e incognito the entrance of the 
queen, lie placed himfelf on horfeback behind Savoify, 
who was his confidant, with whom, however, he was 
much incommoded in the crowd. When Louis duke of 
Orleans, that prince’s brother, was aifafimated in 1407, 
the two eenyers who accompanied him rode both upon the 
fame horfe. In 1334, queen Elenora and the pnneefles 
rode on white horfes during a (acred feftival. That pri¬ 
vate perlons alfo, fuch as pliyficians, See. ufed no car¬ 
riages in the fifteenth century, is proved by the princi¬ 
pal entrance to their public kiiooi, which was built in. 
1472, being Co narrow that a carriage could not pafs 
through it, though it was then one of the wideft at that 
period. In Parisalfo, at all the palaces and public build¬ 
ings, there were fteps for mounting on horfeback, fuch 
as thofe which the parliament caufed to be ereffed in r 599; 
and Sauval fays on this occaiion, that, though many of 
tliefe iteps in latter periods had been taken away, there 
ftill remained feveral of them in his time at old buildings. 
Carriages, however, appear to have been ufed very 
early in France. An ordinance of Philip the Fail', iflued 
in 1294, for l’upprefling iuxpry, and in which the citizens’ 
wives are forbid to ufe carriages, is ftill preferved. Under 
Francis I. or rather about 1530, fomewhat later, there 
were ut Paris, for the firft time, only three coaches, one 
