Royal court
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
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.
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.
History
Early history
The earliest developed courts were probably in the
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]
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
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
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 series of
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
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:
- Almoner
- Butler
- Chamberlain
- Chancellor
- Chapelmaster
- Chaplain
- Cofferer
- Confessor
- Constable
- Cup-bearer
- Dapifer
- Doorward
- Eunuch
- Falconer
- Gentleman of the Bedchamber
- Gentleman Usher
- Grandmaster
- Great officers
- Groom of the Stool
- Herald
- Intendant
- The Royal Fool
- Keeper of the seal
- King of arms
- Knight/Earl Marshal
- Lady-in-waiting
- Maid of Honour
- Majordomo
- Master of Ceremonies
- Master of the Horse
- Master of the Hunt
- Page
- Panter or Grand Panetier
- Secretary
- Pursuivant
- Seneschal
- Stolnik
- Standard bearer
- Steward
Court seats
Earlier courts in medieval Western Europe were
As an example, ambassadors to the United Kingdom are still accredited to the
Some former seats of power (see official residence):
- The Haute Cour (High Court) was the feudal council of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
- Alhambra in Granada, seat of the last Muslim dynasty in current Spain
- .
- The Forbidden City, imperial palace complex of the Ming and Qing dynasties walled off from Beijing
- Gyeongbokgung Royal Palace, royal palace of the Joseon dynasty in Seoul
- Wawel Castle in Kraków and Warsaw Royal Castle, Poland
- Château de Versailles near Paris in France
- Achaemenidpalaces
- period
- Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria
- Palatine Hill in Rome, Italy. Origin of the word palace.
- Sanssouci in Potsdam near Berlin
- Ludwigsburg Palace in Ludwigsburg in Swabia
- Dresden Castle in Dresden in Saxony
- The Vatican in the Papal States
- Grand Dukes of Tuscany
- The Kingdom of Portugal
- The Royal Alcáçova of Coimbra – under the House of Burgundy
- The
- The Royal Palace of Évora – under the reign of Manuel I of Portugal
- The Royal Palace of Sintra – under the reigns of Manuel I of Portugal and John III of Portugal
- The Palaces of Ribeira, Lisbon – under the Houses of Aviz, Habsburg, and Braganza
- The Palace of Ajuda, Lisbon – under the House of Braganza
- Urbino, seat of a duchy in the Marche
- The Mughal emperors in Delhi, India
- Shaniwar Wada palace fort of the Maratha Peshwas in Pune, India
- Great Palace of Constantinople in Constantinople
- Topkapı Palace in Istanbul, Turkey – under the Ottoman dynasty
- Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia
- Royal Palace of Madrid in Spain
- Alcázar de Colón in Santo Domingo
Examples of court seats in fiction
- The Citadel of Minas Tirith in Gondor, in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings
- The Imperial Palace on Coruscant in George Lucas' Star Wars
- The Imperial Palace on Kaitain, in Frank Herbert's Dune
- The Palace of Caras Galadhon, in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings
- The Red Keep in King's Landing, in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire
- The Royal Palace of Andor in Caemlyn, in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time
- The Theed Royal Palace on Naboo in George Lucas' Star Wars
- The Court of Elfheim Formed by Mab Greenbriar in Faerie in Holly Black's The Folk of the Air
Court structure and titles
- Byzantine aristocracy and bureaucracy in the Byzantine Empire
- Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles
- Government of the Han dynasty
- Imperial Household Agency in Japan
- Itinerant court in European kingdoms in the Early Middle Ages.
- Ancien Régime
- Imperial Russia
- Papal Court of the Holy See
- Royal Court of Sweden in Sweden
- Royal Household and Heritage of the Crown of Spain in Spain
- Royal Households of the United Kingdom in the United Kingdom
- Titles of the Welsh Court in Wales during the Middle Ages
Caliphate courts
All four major
.The royal courts in the
See also
- Aliénor de Poitiers, who documented the etiquette of the Burgundian Court in the late 15th century
- Court appointment
- Courtesy book
- Curia regis
- Masque
- Orda (organization), the nomadic court of the Turkic and Mongol peoples
- Striking in the King's Court
References
- ^ Velde, François Velde (25 February 2004). "Legitimacy and Orders of Knighthood". Heraldica. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
- ISBN 978-0-19-955730-1.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ISBN 0-9547218-0-2, pp. 50–51, 61
- ^ Dandamayev, Muhammad. "COURTS AND COURTIERS i. In the Median and Achaemenid periods". Encyclopædia Iranica. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
- ^ electricpulp.com. "PERSEPOLIS – Encyclopaedia Iranica". www.iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-521-87448-9.
- ISBN 978-0-521-87448-9.
- ISBN 978-0520257276.
- ISBN 9780884023081.
- ISBN 1574887246.
- ISBN 1574887246.
- ISBN 978-1905375820.
- ^ 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
- Branner, Robert, et al., eds. Art and the Courts: France and England from 1259 to 1328, 2 vols. Ottawa, 1972.
- Bumke, Joachim. Courtly Culture: Literature and Society in the High Middle Ages. Berkeley and Ozford, 1991.
- Cubitt, C. (ed.). Court Culture in the Early Middle Ages. The Proceedings of the First Alcuin Conference. Turnhout, 2002
- Hen, Yitzhak. Roman Barbarians: The Royal Court and Culture in the Early Medieval West. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. ISBN 978-0-333-78665-9.
- Jaeger, C.S. The Origins of Courtliness: Civilizing Trends and the Formation of Courtly Ideals 939–1210. Philadelphia, 1985.
- Jones, S.R., R. Marks and A. J. Minnis (eds.). Courts and Regions in Medieval Europe. York, 2000.
- Jong, M. de and F. Theuws (eds.). Topographies of Power in the Early Middle Ages. Leiden, 2001.
- Scaglione, A. Knights at Court: Courtliness, Chivalry, and Courtesy from Ottonian Germany to the Italian Renaissance. LA and Oxford, 1991.
- Scattergood, V.J. English Court Culture in the Later Middle Ages. London, 1983.
- Vale, Malcolm. The Princely Court: Medieval Courts and Culture in North-West Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
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
- "Bibliography of Early Modern courts 1580–1700, structure and patronage" (PDF). Oxford University. 2002.
- "Court culture: representations of intimacy". Oneonta.edu. Division between Hall and Chamber in late medieval noble and royal households.
- Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .
- "The Society for Court Studies". Courtstudies.org. Bibliography on court history.