Monarch

A single, absolute ruler. A king, queen, emperor, or empress. Someone occupying an equally advantageous spot in the pecking order.

“MONARCHS, IN PARTICULAR, ROYAL ALLIANCES: Essential to the development and spread of rich desserts.

Catherine de Medici arrived in France with macaroons. Marie de Medici was energized by the sugar injections of her Neapolitan pastry chef, who brought such hometown specialties to Paris as the millefeuille. The absorption of Normandy by the French kings helped to popularize the northern habit of combining vast quantities of butter and cream with something sweet. King Stanislaus Leszinski of Poland poured rum on his baba for the first time in 1736. The Hapsburgs sponsored endless variations on the trinity of bitter chocolate, cream and cake throughout their vast empire. Emperor Franz Josef’s favourite was the Ischler Toertchen from Zauner. It has the deceptive appearance of a large double cookie, but the butter-crumbly cake is filled with a chocolate-and-vanilla cream, apricot marmalade on top, bitter chocolate covering that, and sprinkled with crushed pistachios.

That the utility of royal families was coming to an end could be seen in late nineteenth-century Vienna, where so much good work had been done, when Franz Josef’s wife, the Empress Elizabeth, had a personal gymnasium installed in her royal apartments and began to watch her figure as if she were an actress. From there to a commoner-become-Princess of Wales who suffered from bulimia has been an unfortunate direct line.”

John Ralston Saul, The Doubter’s Companion (1994).