PRIVY-CHAMBER. Gentlemen of the privy-chamber, are servants of the king, who are to wait and attend on him and the queen at court, in their diversions, &c. Their number is forty-eight under the lord-chamberlain, twelve of whom are in quarterly waiting, and two of these lie in the privy-chamber.
In the absence of the lord-chamberlain, or vice-chamberlain, they execute the king's orders: at coronations, two of them personate the dukes of Aquitaine and Normandy; and six of them, appointed by the lord-chamberlain, attend ambassadors from crowned heads to their audiences, and in public entries. The gentlemen of the privy-chamber were instituted by Henry VII.
CHAMBER.