In early modern Europe, a court dwarf was a symbol of status, and the competing rulers tried to recruit as many people with dwarfism as possible to serve in their courts.
Natalya Alexeyevna of Russia, a sister of Tsar
Peter the Great, was recorded to have had 93 court dwarfs, while the Spanish royal court housed 70 dwarfs in the period from 1563 to 1700. People with dwarfism were often traded as gifts between rulers; Several royals attempted breeding programs to create more court dwarfs. Italian courts seem to have treated the role of the court dwarf as particularly comedic. In 1544, the court of
Duke Cosimo I held a wrestling match between a court dwarf and a monkey, where the court dwarf was given no clothes except knickers to cover his genitalia. Such performances of humiliation were widely accepted and enjoyed. Marchioness
Isabella d'Este kept several court dwarves. Her favorite, "Matello", was known for performing crude and heretical routines to entertain the courtiers, and another of her court dwarves, called "Crazy Catherine", would lift her skirts and urinate upon request. Isabella was fond of her court dwarves, creating properly-sized rooms for them and tending to Matello on his deathbed, but she may have only seen them as beloved pets. The first English dwarf of whom there is any substantial history is
Jeffrey Hudson (1619–1682). He was the son of a butcher at
Oakham, Rutland, who kept and baited bulls for
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. Neither of Jeffrey's parents was undersized, yet at nine years he measured scarcely though he was gracefully proportioned. At a dinner given by the Duke to
Charles I and his queen he was brought in to table in a pie out of which he stepped, and was at once adopted by Queen
Henrietta Maria. The little fellow followed the fortunes of the court in the
English Civil War, and is said to have been a captain of horse, earning the nickname of "strenuous Jeffrey" for his activity. He fought two duels—one with a turkey-cock, a battle recorded by Davenant, and a second with Mr Crofts, who came to the meeting with a squirt gun, but who in the more serious encounter which ensued was shot dead by Hudson, who fired from horseback, the saddle putting him on a level with his antagonist. Twice was Jeffrey made prisoner—once by the
Dunkirkers as he was returning from France, whither he had been on homely business for the Queen; the second time was when he fell into the hands of Turkish pirates. His sufferings during this latter captivity made him, he declared, grow, and in his thirtieth year, having been of the same height since he was nine, he steadily increased until he was . At the Restoration, he returned to England, where he lived on a pension granted him by the Duke of Buckingham. He was later accused of participation in the
Popish Plot and was imprisoned in the Gate House. He was released and shortly after died at the age of 63. Contemporary with Hudson were the two other dwarfs of Henrietta Maria,
Richard Gibson and his wife Anne. They were married by the Queen's wish; and the two together measured only They had nine children, five of whom, who lived, were of ordinary stature. Their eldest daughter was
miniature painter Susan Penelope Rosse.
Edmund Waller celebrated the nuptials, Evelyn designated the husband as the "compendium of a man", and Lely painted them hand in hand. Gibson was miniature painter to Charles I, and drawing-master to the daughters of
James II, Queens
Mary II and
Anne, when they were children. Gibson was from Cumberland and began his career as a page, first in a "gentle", next in the royal family, died in 1690, in his seventy-fifth year, and is buried in St Paul's,
Covent Garden. The last court dwarf in England was
Coppernin, who was in the service of the princess (Augusta) of Wales, the mother of
George III. The last dwarf retainer in a gentleman's family was the one kept by
Mr Beckford, the author of
Vathek and builder of
Fonthill Abbey. He was rather too big to be flung from one guest to another, as used to be the custom at dinners in earlier days when a dwarf was a "necessity" for every noble family.
Poland Court dwarfs existed in Poland from at least the 16th century, when the Polish princesses
Catherine Jagiellon and
Sophia Jagiellon both had court dwarf of their own
Agnieszka (courtier) and
Dorothea Ostrelska, who accompanied them to Sweden and Germany respectively when they left Poland to marry. Court dwarfs were still in existence at the Polish court during the 18th century, when they had become unfashionable in other courts.
Stanislas of Poland owned
Nicolas Ferry ("Bébé") (1741–1764), who measured . He was one of three dwarf children of peasant parents in the Vosges. He died in 1764, at the age of 24.
Spain '' by
Diego Velázquez The Spanish Royal Court was famed for its court dwarfs during the 16th and 17th centuries. Court dwarfs often performed during mealtimes because laughter was believed to improve digestion.
Sweden Court dwarfs are noted at the Swedish Royal Court from the mid 16th-century, when the female court dwarfs "Lilla Gunnel" ('Little Gunnel') and Fedossa from Russia were in service of
Princess Sophia of Sweden. The Polish princess
Catherine Jagiellon (1526–1583), married to the Swedish
John III, duke of Finland and later king of Sweden, had a close confidante in
Dorothea Ostrelska, a dwarf woman. Dosieczka, as she was known, was one of the only members of Catherine's entourage that she kept with her while imprisoned by king
Eric XIV of Sweden as a result of her husband, the king's brother, rebelling against the crown. Dosieczka was a favorite and confidante of Catherine also after the latter became queen of Sweden. Court dwarfs were a part of the Swedish Royal Court during the entire 17th-century, often as jesters, and several are noted, such as "Narrinnan Elisabet" ('Elisabet the Female Jester'), employed with
queen Maria Eleonora, Annika Kollberg (or 'Little Midget Annika') employed with
queen Hedvig Eleonora, and
Anders Luxemburg with
Charles XII of Sweden. The court dwarfs were normally not given wages but only clothing, food and room: however, in individual cases some of them, such as the African court dwarf Carl Ulrich, could be given schooling and training in a proper occupation and formally employed as chamber servants or stable boys and thus given proper wages, and at least one,
Anders Been, was ennobled. The position of court dwarf became unfashionable after the reign of Charles XII. ==List of people with the position of court dwarf==