From: mattija81@yahoo.com   
      
   Not a historian or anything, but how cool is it to respond to a 25-year old   
   post!   
   In "Gentleman's Book of Etiquete" by Cecil B. Hartley (published 1860), in   
   Chapter II - Politeness, it says:   
      
   “There is no country in the world where the absurdities of etiquette are   
   carried to so great a length as in Spain, because there is no nation where the   
   nobility are so proud. The following anecdote, which illustrates this, would   
   seem incredible were it    
   not a historical fact:   
      
   'Philip the Third, king of Spain, was sick, and being able to sit up, was   
   carefully placed in an arm chair which stood opposite to a large fire, when   
   the wood was piled up to an enormous height. The heat soon became intolerable,   
   and the courtiers retired    
   from around the king; but, as the Duke D’Ussede, the fire stirrer for the   
   king, was not present, and as no one else had the right to touch the fire,   
   those present dared not attempt to diminish the heat. The grand chamberlain   
   was also absent, and he    
   alone was authorized to touch the king’s footstool. The poor king, too ill   
   to rise, in vain implored those around him to move his chair, no one dared   
   touch it, and when the grand chamberlain arrived, the king had fainted with   
   the heat, and a few days    
   later he died, literally roasted to death.' ”   
      
      
   I don't know how much of this is true but it's silly that even in 2021 it   
   seems difficult to find the cause of a king's death. For anyone interested,   
   the whole book is here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/39293/39   
   93-h/39293-h.htm   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)