Buzási Enikő szerk.: In Europe' Princely Courts, Ádám Mányoki, Actors and venues of a portraitist's career (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2003/1)

János Kalmár: POWER AND THE PRINCELY COURT IN EARLY 18th-CENTURY EUROPE

The development of the court The Latin word curia became the more common term for the court, replacing the late antique and early medieval words palatium, aula, and domus. Curia referred not only to the ruling seat, but also to the staff.

44 (The word "court" in New Latin derives from this: cort, corte, cour, etc.) The ruler/aristocrat, who in the Middle Ages had lived in the fortified castle, now moved to the palace, which was, of course, more comfortable, but ill-suited for defence. Because the more effective operation of the state apparatus had caused a significant growth of regular state income, it was now possible to support the (increasingly populous) court; thus the practice of continuously changing residences, once necessary when one estate alone could not steadily supply the royal household, was abandoned.

45 By, or at least during, the 16

th century, a permanent royal seat had developed in every country, almost without exception. Of course, the ruler and a portion of his staff would occasionally leave for longer periods of time (to a summer residence or a hunting lodge), but it was not necessary for the entire official apparatus to follow him, nor to bring documents that were not immediately needed. The royal court was not only the "residence" or "workplace" of the ruler, his family, and their staff, but it was also the official centre of the country or province. Thus the court was composed not only of the household, but also the staff of the state institutions. The two functions were often intertwined, and service at the court was frequently paired with official state activities. This interconnection suited the concept of hereditary rule, and the understanding of the term dynasty, according to which the ruling house is identical to the state (and the other way around.)

46 For example, up until the first half of the 18

th century, the state organism under the Habsburgs was based on patrimony.

47 In France, on the other hand, administrative positions were separate from court services.

48 Court positions were arranged according to a strict hierarchical system. In the Holy Roman Empire, four traditional high offices (quattuor officia principalia) became the prototypes for ecclesiastical and secular court households in central Europe. Partially of Carolingian origin and partially developed from the medieval German imperial/royal court, these four posts consisted of the court marshal (Hofmar schall), the chamberlain (Kämmerer), the meat carver (Truchseß), and the cupbearer (Mundschenk). These duties in the royal/imperial court were originally assigned to the most distinguished imperial princes, who truly performed the task the name implies. Later, the members of distinguished families held these offices in name only, performing their duties only on the occasions of solemn state ceremonies, as symbols of their honourable titles and to elevate the dignity of their ruler.

49 Following the 1477 marriage of Mary, the duchess of Burgundy, and (Habsburg) Maximilian I, who assumed the throne of the Holy Roman Empire in 1493, the influence of the wellorganised late medieval household of the dukes of Noël Coypel: King Louis XIV of France receives the Persian ambassador in the castle of Versailles in 1715 Versailles, Musée national du Château