The eminence

In the olden days, the men in suits standing behind the throne, the éminences grises, really did wear suits. And more Lester Bowden (where the better off in Epsom used to buy their better suits, often from Germany) than Marks & Spencer. Showed a bit of respect for the people they were serving; all the different stakeholders.

Do we really want to be governed by someone who seems to make a perverse point of appearing like this in public? A picture turned up for me by the Financial Times, but BH tells it has also turned up on television.

Louis XIV of France may have been a bad thing, but he did understand that if you were a king, you were a king 24 by 7. You did not have a private life in the ordinary sense of the word - any more than leading members of our own royal family - some of whom still don't seem to get it. No free lunches.

You didn't even die in private. For which see reference 1.

However, checking at reference 2, I find that the original éminence grise also cut rather an odd figure, sporting drab clerical clothes in the highly dressed 17th century French Court. My defence is that my olden days are more past master Blair than cardinal Richelieu, when all proper people still wore suits to work.

PS: later: I associate now to the old Scottish custom whereby the barmen in entirely ordinary public houses always wore smart dark trousers and white shirt. The sort of trousers and shirt I might have worn to work, albeit with shirt worn open necked here.

Reference 1: https://www.spectator.com.au/2015/11/the-strange-death-of-louis-xiv/.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Éminence_grise.