Overhofmesterinde

Court Mistress (Danish: hofmesterinde; Dutch: hofmesterees ('Court mistress'); German: hofmeisterin; Norwegian: hoffmesterinne; Swedish: hovmästarinna) or Chief Court Mistress (Danish: Overhofmesterinde; Dutch: Grootmeesteres ('Grand Mistress') German: Obersthofmeisterin; Norwegian: overhoffmesterinne; Swedish: överhovmästarinna; Russia: Ober-Hofmeisterin) is/was the title of the senior lady-in-waiting in the courts of Austria, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and the German princely and royal courts as well as Imperial Russia.

In 1619, a set organisation was finally established for the Austrian Imperial court which came to be the characteristic organisation of the Austrian-Habsburg court roughly kept from this point onward. The first rank of the female courtiers was the Obersthofmeisterin, who was second in rank after the empress herself, and responsible for all the female courtiers. Whenever absent, she was replaced by the Fräuleinhofmeisterin, normally in charge of the unmarried female courtiers, their conduct and service.

The early modern Danish court was organized according to the German court model, in turn inspired by the Imperial Austrian court model, from the 16th century onward.

The highest rank female courtier to a female royal was the hofmesterinde (Court Mistress) from 1694/98 onward named Overhofmesterinde (Chief Court Mistres), equivalent to the Mistress of the Robes, normally an elder widow, who supervised the rest of the ladies-in-waiting.

The Austrian court model was the role model for the princely courts in Germany, and the post of Obersthofmeisterin, or only hofmeisterin, existed in the princely (and later royal) German courts as well.

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