Royal court

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Court (royal)
)
Bartolomeu de Gusmão presenting his invention to the court of John V of Portugal.

A royal court, often called simply a court when the royal context is clear, is an extended royal household in a monarchy, including all those who regularly attend on a monarch, or another central figure. Hence, the word court may also be applied to the coterie of a senior member of the nobility. Royal courts may have their seat in a designated place, several specific places, or be a mobile, itinerant court.

In the largest courts, the royal households, many thousands of individuals constituted the court. These courtiers included the monarch or noble's camarilla and retinue, household, nobility, clergy, those with court appointments, bodyguards, and may also include emissaries from other kingdoms or visitors to the court. Foreign princes and foreign nobility in exile may also seek refuge at a court.

Near Eastern and Far Eastern courts often included the harem and concubines as well as eunuchs who fulfilled a variety of functions. At times, the harem was walled off and separate from the rest of the residence of the monarch. In Asia, concubines were often a more visible part of the court. Lower ranking servants and bodyguards were not properly called courtiers, though they might be included as part of the court or royal household in the broadest definition. Entertainers and others may have been counted as part of the court.

Patronage and courtly culture

The Sikh 'Court of Lahore'.

A royal household is the highest-ranking example of patronage. A regent or viceroy may hold court during the minority or absence of the hereditary ruler, and even an elected head of state may develop a court-like entourage of unofficial, personally-chosen advisers and "companions". The French word compagnon and its English derivation "companion" literally mean a "sharer of the bread" at table, and a court is an extension of the great individual's household. Wherever members of the household and bureaucrats of the administration overlap in personnel, it is reasonable to speak of a "court", for example in Achaemenid Persia, Ming China, Norman Sicily, the papacy before 1870 (see: papal household), and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A group of individuals dependent on the patronage of a great man, classically in ancient Rome, forms part of the system of "clientage" that is discussed under vassal.

The Macartney Embassy. Lord Macartney salutes the Qianlong Emperor, but refuses to kowtow.
The Dutch court is known for old traditions.

Individual rulers differed greatly in tastes and interests, as well as in political skills and in constitutional situations. Accordingly, some founded elaborate courts based on new palaces, only to have their successors retreat to remote castles or to practical administrative centers. Personal retreats might arise far away from official court centres.

Orders of chivalry as honorific orders became an important part of court culture starting in the 15th century.[1] They were the right of the monarch, as the fount of honour
, to create and grant.

History

Early history

The earliest developed courts were probably in the

Median Empire and the Achaemenid Empire would also have identifiable developed courts with court appointments and other features associated with later courts.[6]

One of the series of the reliefs of the Persian and Median dignitaries at Apadana stairs of Persepolis, all with weapons, but in a casual air—a rare depiction of an ancient court ceremony.[7]

The imperial court of the Achaemenid Empire at Persepolis and Pasargadae is the earliest identifiable complex court with all of the definitive features of a royal court such as a household, court appointments, courtiers, and court ceremony.[8] Though Alexander the Great had an entourage and the rudimentary elements of a court, it was not until after he conquered Persia that he took many of the more complex Achaemenid court customs back to the Kingdom of Macedonia, developing a royal court that would later influence the courts of Hellenistic Greece and the Roman Empire.[9]

The Sasanian Empire adopting and developing the earlier court culture and customs of the Achaemenid Empire would also influence again the development of the complex court and court customs of the Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire.[10]

The imperial court of the Byzantine Empire at Constantinople would eventually contain at least a thousand courtiers.[11] The court's systems became prevalent in other courts such as those in the Balkan states, the Ottoman Empire, and Russia.[12] Byzantinism is a term that was coined for this spread of the Byzantine system in the 19th century.[13]

Imperial court conference, Ming dynasty

East Asia

The imperial courts of Chinese emperors, known as cháotíng (朝廷), were among the largest and most complex of all. The Han dynasty, Western Jin dynasty, and Tang dynasty occupied the large palace complex at Weiyang Palace located near Chang'an, and the later Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty occupied the whole Forbidden City and other parts of Beijing, the present capital city of China. By the Sui dynasty, the functions of the imperial household and the imperial government were clearly divided.

During the Heian period, Japanese emperors and their families developed an exquisitely refined court that played an important role in their culture.

Medieval and modern Europe

After the collapse of the

Byzantine emperors
.

In Western Europe, consolidation of power of local magnates and of kings in fixed administrative centres from the mid-13th century led to the creation of a distinct court culture that was the centre of intellectual and artistic patronage rivaling the abbots and bishops, in addition to its role as the apex of a rudimentary political bureaucracy that rivaled the courts of counts and dukes. The dynamics of hierarchy welded the court cultures together. Many early courts in Western Europe were itinerant courts that traveled from place to place.

Local courts proliferated in the splintered polities of

power politics; some also gained prominence as centres and collective patrons of art and culture. In medieval Spain (Castile), provincial courts were created. Minor noblemen and burguesie allied to create a system to oppose the monarchy on many policy issues. They were called "las Cortes de Castilla". These courts are the root of the current Spanish congress and senate
.

The courts of Valois Burgundy and the Kingdom of Portugal were particularly influential over the development of court culture and pageantry in Europe. The court of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy was considered one of the most splendid in Europe and would influence the development of court life later on for all of France and Europe.[14] Later, Aliénor de Poitiers of the Burgundian court would write one of the seminal books on court etiquette, Les honneurs de la cour (Honours of the Court).

Court life would reach its apogee of culture, complexity and etiquette at the courts of Versailles under Louis XIV of France and the Hofburg under the Habsburgs.

As political executive functions are assumed by democratic or republican institutions, the function of noble courts is reduced once more to that of noble households, concentrating on personal service to the household head, ceremonial and perhaps some residual politico-advisory functions. If republican zeal has banished an area's erstwhile ruling nobility, courts may survive in exile. Traces of royal court practices remain in present-day institutions like privy councils and governmental cabinets.

Africa

A colonnade in Pharaoh Amenhotep III's royal court at Luxor.

A series of

Egyptian Revolution of 1952
the monarchy was dissolved and Egypt became a republic.

In the

.

The kingship system has been an integral part of the more centralised African societies for millennia. This is especially true in the

, amongst others, continue the pageantry and court lifestyle traditions once common to the continent.

Americas

Court structure and organization

Court officials

"Triboulet", illustration for the theater play "Le Roi S'Amuse" ("The King Takes His Amusement") by Victor Hugo. Gravure by J. A. Beaucé (1818–1875) and Georges Rouget (1781–1869).

Court officials or office-bearers (one type of courtier) derived their positions and retained their titles from their original duties within the courtly household. With time, such duties often became archaic. However, titles survived involving the ghosts of arcane duties. These styles generally dated back to the days when a noble household had practical and mundane concerns as well as high politics and culture. Such court appointments each have their own histories. They might include but are not limited to:

Court seats

Earlier courts in medieval Western Europe were

Mary II
also held court there, 1689–94. Though it is built round two main courts, the structure itself is no longer the seat of a court in the sense of this article.

As an example, ambassadors to the United Kingdom are still accredited to the

Court of St. James's, and courtiers of the monarchy may still have offices in St James's Palace, London. The present monarch, however, holds court at Buckingham Palace, where dignitaries are received.

Catherine the Great
and her court
Ambassador Kosa Pan and Siamese envoys pay their respect to Louis XIV at his court in Versailles.

Some former seats of power (see official residence):

Examples of court seats in fiction

Court structure and titles

Caliphate courts

All four major

continents. Everything from Algeria to the Balkans to Yemen was controlled by the court in Istanbul
.

The royal courts in the

Nizams
who established their own minor courts, enabling them to encourage arts and improve the empire even if the ruling king was useless.

See also

References

  1. ^ Velde, François Velde (25 February 2004). "Legitimacy and Orders of Knighthood". Heraldica. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  2. .
  3. ^ ChinaKnowledge.de encyclopedia, "Chinese History - Zhou dynasty government and administration". Archived from the original on 2013-05-31. Retrieved 2012-12-07.. Alternatively, the sequence was translated as prince, lord, elder, master, chieftain: Brooks 1997:3 n.9.
  4. ^ Groß, Melanie; Pirngruber, Reinhard (September 2014). "On Courtiers in the Neo-Assyrian Empire: ša rēsi and mazzāz pāni" (PDF). Imperium and Officium Working Papers (IOWP). Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  5. , pp. 50–51, 61
  6. ^ Dandamayev, Muhammad. "COURTS AND COURTIERS i. In the Median and Achaemenid periods". Encyclopædia Iranica. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  7. ^ electricpulp.com. "PERSEPOLIS – Encyclopaedia Iranica". www.iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  8. .
  9. .
  10. .
  11. .
  12. .
  13. .
  14. .
  15. ^ Elias 1983.

Bibliography

  • Elias, Norbert (1983) [1969]. The Court Society [Die höfische Gesellschaft]. trans. Edmund Jephcott. Oxford.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) On the sociology of the court, originally completed in 1939.
  • Fox, Robin Lane (1973). Alexander the Great.

Further reading

Antiquity

  • Spawforth, A. J. S. (ed.). The Court and Court Society in Ancient Monarchies. Cambridge, 2007

Middle Ages

Renaissance and Early Modern

  • Adamson, John (ed.). The Princely Courts of Europe, 1500–1750. Ritual, Politics and Culture under the Ancien Régime, 1500–1750. London, 1999.
  • Asch, Ronald G., and Adolf M. Birke, eds. Princes, Patronage and the Nobility: The Court at the Beginning of the Modern Age, c.1450–1650. London and Oxford, 1991.
  • Birke, A., and R. Asch (eds.). Courts, Patronage and the Nobility at the Beginning of the Modern Period, 1450–1650. 1991.
  • Burke, Peter. The Fabrication of Louis XIV. New Haven and London, 1992.
  • Charles-Edwards, T.M. et al. The Welsh king and his court. Cardiff, 2000.
  • Dickens, A.G. (ed.). The Courts of Europe: Politics, Patronage and Royalty, 1400–1800. 1977. Emphasis on patronage.
  • Duindam, Jeroen. Myths of Power: Norbert Elias and the Early Modern European Court. Amsterdam, 1995. Critique of Elias. English translation of dissertation Macht en Mythe (1992).
  • Duindam, Jeroen. Vienna and Versailles. The courts of Europe's Dynastic Rivals 1550–1780. Cambridge, 2003.
  • Elias, Norbert. The Court Society. Oxford, 1983.

External links