Esther 1:12

12. Vashti refused to come Assuming the dignity and boldness of a queen, she refused to be treated as an ordinary concubine, and to suffer her person to be immodestly exposed to the promiscuous crowd of half drunken revellers. “The summons,” remarks Tyrwhitt, “probably found her with a crowd of female guests before her. She might have been loth at another time to obey; but while they looked on, it was a severer trial to be required to abdicate her dignity, and, confessing her royal state his bounty, to cast, as it were, her crown before his footstool.” Only such a king as Xerxes would have made such a demand upon a favourite concubine, but it is perfectly in keeping with his character.