Servais de Condé


Servais de Condé or Condez was a French servant at the court of Mary Queen of Scots, in charge of her wardrobe and the costumes for masques peformed at court.

Varlet of the Wardrobe

He was usually referred to as Servais or Servie in Scottish records. Although he is sometimes described as Mary's chamberlain, records call him a varlet, "virlote in her grace chalmer". He was also paid for his role as a "varlet of the wardrobe", and managed the queen's stock of rich silks and fabrics, which were supplied by merchants including the Italian Timothy Cagnioli.
Servais de Condé worked in Holyrood Palace in September 1561 lining a cabinet room for the queen with 26 ells of a fabric called "Paris Green".
In September and November 1561 Servais made inventories of Mary's wardrobe. These inventories were later annotated by Mr John Wood, the secretary of Regent Moray. Servais made an inventory of the altar cloths and vestments from the Chapel Royal at Stirling Castle in January 1562, which had been transferred to his keeping at Holyrood along with a parchment Missal and an Antiphonal.
Servais was made keeper of Holyroodhouse by privy seal letter on 20 January 1565 during Mary's intended journey to Aberdeen taking responsibility from Francis de Busso, another Frenchman or Italian who was supervisor of royal buildings.
Servais was involved in the decoration of Stirling Castle for the baptism of Prince James. He kept a memoir written in French of silk textiles and other fabrics used by Mary or given as gifts, which runs from 1 September 1561 to May 1567. It includes details of colour and fabric. He supervised the dismantling and refashioning of beds confiscated from Huntly Castle. Servais wrote a note of the things destroyed in the explosion at the Kirk o'Field, where they had been sent for the use of Lord Darnley in February 1567. These included a suite of tapestries from Huntly Castle. Servais's note of the furnishings at the Kirk o'Field is frequently quoted by historians to comment on the chain of events leading up to the murder, some arguing that the lodging was furnished in a hurry, or inferring the queen's guilt from the substitution of a lesser green bed for a bed with rich black curtains.

A queen deposed

On 10 July 1567 Mary's opponents, the Confederate lords, ordered him to surrender to silverware in his keeping for coining to the Master of Mint John Acheson. This included a silver gilt nef or ship for the queen's table. On 25 July Servais was asked to produce the crown sceptre and sword, the Honours of Scotland for the coronation of James VI following Mary's abdication.
Subsequently, he sent clothes and sewing thread for embroidery to Mary in her prison at Lochleven Castle. On 3 September 1567 Mary wrote to Robert Melville to ask Servais, her "concierge" to send silk thread and sewing gold and silver, and two pairs of sheets with black thread for embroidery, and needles and a mould for net-work called "rasour" or "réseau", from the royal wardrobe, with dried plums and pears. Some of the request was fulfilled by new purchases by Regent Moray in October. Servais, described in the accounts as "the Quenis grace chalmer child" made clothes, or supervised the making of clothes for Mary, especially linen shirts called "sarks" and also other items made of velvet. A memorandum written in French of further textiles and thread sent to Mary at Lochleven, Carlisle and Bolton is associated with Servais by historians including Margaret Swain, but does not feature his name.

Masque costumes

On 15 November 1569 Servais handed the library of Mary Queen of Scots, cloths used in her chapel, and masque costumes called "dansyne cleiss" and "maskeine cleis" to Moray's agents. At the Scottish court masques with music and dancing were performed in elaborate and unusual costumes at the weddings of leading courtiers, like that of James Stewart, 1st Lord Doune and Margaret Campbell, sister of the Earl of Argyll at Castle Campbell on 10 January 1563. The masque involved courtiers and musicians disguised as shepherds in white silk taffeta.
The last event of the wedding celebrations for Agnes Keith and the Earl of Mar in February 1562 was a supper in Cardinal Beaton's palace at the corner of the Cowgate and Blackfriar's Wynd, and afterwards the young men of the town came in procession, in "convoy" to greet her, some in masque costume in "merschance", a Scottish form of mummery. They escorted the bride back to Holyroodhouse. The frivolity was subsequently denounced by John Knox, and the poet Richard Maitland of Lethington wrote against skipping in the street and "merschance" or "mumschansis" as likely to damage a young woman's reputation.
Servais' list of masque clothes, which exists in two versions, includes several "coats" meaning the lightweight costumes called "play coats" at the Scottish court, and mentioned in accounts of James V in January 1540. One was of blue satin decorated with "toig" or tinsel stars, five of crimson satin, three of green velvet trimmed with yellow with yellow sleeves and bodices, with two other pairs of green and yellow coats, two coats of white taffeta with blue sleeves and bodice, six coats of yellow satin lined with silver, and several other coats. There was also a hood of red and white taffeta, sewn with "shakers". Servais' wife had taken two of these coats, one of red, the other of black chamlet, possibly as gifts from the queen. This inventory may represent the costume from several masques, which involved pairs of dancers, and larger groups, dressed alike in teams.
James VI continued this masque tradition, having a masque at Christmas time in 1579 when his violers were dressed in red and yellow taffeta, with "touke" of silver, and play swords and daggers. James VI and Anne of Denmark attended and performed in masques at weddings in the early 1590s, appearing in lightweight taffeta costume with gold and silver "tock" at the weddings of Lilias Murray and John Grant of Freuchie at Tullibardine, and Marie Stewart and the Earl of Mar at Alloa. Special lightweight clothes of taffeta and satin were also worn by those fighting their accusers in public single combats, in December 1596 Adam Bruntfield and James Carmichael, son of Sir John Carmichael, fought in single combat on Cramond Island, one dressed in blue, and one in red, with an audience of 5,000.

Family

Servais' family was involved in practical textile work in the royal wardrobe. In September 1570 the passment worker Benneth Garrust described as Servais' nephew completed a canopy called a "paile" for James VI of Scotland to use during the visit of the English ambassador. Benneth Garrust, known at the "Frenche pasmentier" became the keeper of the Scottish Royal tapestry collection in Edinburgh castle.
In March 1567 Benoist Garrous was the executor of a French bookbinder working in Edinburgh, Jhonn du Moullings.
Servais' wife's name is not recorded, although she worked in the wardrobe at Holyroodhouse. In 1573 James Sandilands, 1st Lord Torphichen described how she and Benoist had furnished a room for him in Holyrood Palace with some tapestries and bed recovered from Hamilton.
Servais and his family may have returned to France. As late as July 1579 the Privy Council became aware of a chest in the possession of George Lord Seton containing clothes, textiles and two beds belonging to Mary which Servais had entrusted to him.