The valet, or servant, has been a historic position that evolved into the modern personal assistant. They served the nobility and wealthy, performing a variety of tasks, including dressing, bathing, and shaving their employer. In fiction, valets are often portrayed as loyal companions, but some have been treacherous. Today, personal aides may attach themselves to powerful people to further their own goals, and the intimacy of a faithful servant is often a thing of the past.
A servant, also called a valet, is a historic position that developed into the modern-day personal assistant. For centuries, servants have worked for the nobility, royalty and the fabulously wealthy, often serving as companions and carers as well as servants. Valet attendants are a constant presence in the literature, always at the last minute to save their charge, who is technically their employer, from disaster.
The term valet has been around since at least the 15th century, though clearly the position of servant is ancient. In the classic sense of the word, they were men who worked for other men, performing a variety of tasks. Often, the valet was in charge of dressing, bathing, and shaving their employer, but their duties rarely ended with those basic duties. The servant was the link between the master and the rest of the servants, and thus was often regarded as a chief servant with considerable authority.
In small households, the butler might perform some housekeeping duties, but was often too busy to do so. In addition to maintaining his master’s wardrobe and style, a servant was often a constant companion, accompanying his employer on business and leisure trips. Generally, servants were a luxury, and the position existed only in homes where there was a lot of money to throw around. Particularly during the Victorian era of 19th century England, the aristocracy lived on inherited wealth and did not always have primary jobs or occupations. A servant to a busy company master could find himself flung around the world at a moment’s notice, so his duties were mainly to be ready for whatever the master might throw at him.
In fiction, the role of the waiter is used in different ways. In PG Wodehouse’s comedic tales, helpless and ludicrously rich Bertie Wooster is constantly bailed out by his perpetually calm valet, Jeeves. Drawing on the lore of the servants of wartime Britain, Samwise Gamgee is the saving grace of the worry-worn Frodo in JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. In addition to monitoring his charge’s life and offering sage advice, the endless length of a servant’s work is truly put to the test in many portrayals of Alfred, Batman’s loyal servant.
Ideally, waiters are quite loyal, but such a highly sensitive position is certainly subject to power over their employer. Some fictional and historical servants are notoriously treacherous, happy to hand over information or blackmail their employers for the right price. In many ways, this type of betrayal is a product of class systems that prevented servants from achieving much personal wealth or higher position. The service class of Victorian England had an obvious glass ceiling, and some lifelong servants who managed to squander money surely did so by exploiting their masters.
Today, the rich and powerful still have a variety of attendants and servants who perform many of the functions of a traditional waiter. With the class system more or less abolished, these personal aides may be more overt in their ambition, occasionally attaching themselves to powerful people as a means of furthering their own goals. While friendships can certainly still form between carers and employers, the intimacy and implicit care given by a faithful servant is often a thing of the past.
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