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

residences in Hofburg and Schönbrunn would continue to operate according to the more stately Spanish style ritual, while the summer and hunting castles would adopt the less stringent French style.

83 Before long the complicated rules effecting every element of court life needed to be put in writing. There was demand for these printed copies, as diplomatic and other connections made it necessary to be acquainted with the practices of foreign courts. Books were also produced describing both state protocol and the hierarchy of certain countries and the rulers representing them,

84 since this determined how their diplomats should be treated abroad - a question that had become politically significant. In the case of Ferenc Rákóczi II, an emigre living in France, there was some confusion as to what protocol should govern his reception in the royal court. Since Louis XIV, despite being supportive, did not recognise the leader of the Hungarian war for independence, who was residing incognito in Paris, as the head of a sovereign country, Rákóczi could not be shown the favour due a ruler. Instead, he was called the "Count of Sáros" in reference to his hereditary title of lord lieutenant, or főispán (conies), of that county. In order to avoid attention, when he was to have his audience with the king, he was led up a secret staircase to Louis's study.

85 Rákóczi faced similar difficulties with formalities during his introductions to the French royal princes. Despite being in Paris incognito, Rákóczi would have liked the ritual surrounding his reception to reflect, at least in part, his true rank. However, the Baron of Breteuil, the "introducer of the ambassadors (to the royal court),"

86 refused on the grounds that it would only cause problems. Nevertheless, he did advise the royal princes not to insist under any circumstances that Rákóczi stand. If the conversation should continue for a long time, they should in all fairness allow him, as a distinguished person without rank, to sit on a stool, and they should do the same.

87 The daily schedule in the court was, for the most part, arranged around the ruler's mealtimes: he generally had a late afternoon lunch, and dinner around midnight. In addition to these everyday meals, there were also the king's public repasts to which many guests were invited and which served as a display of his greatness. The day was further structured by worship sessions, also spectacularly choreographed.

88 This is how Rákóczi remembers how his days were spent in the court of Louis XIV: "the morning hours, from eight o'clock until ten, the hour of the royal mass, were spent in conversation with the king or France's marshals, princes, and dignitaries of the court, who were of a respectable age, with experience in the most important matters of the court, possessing outstanding morals and skilled in making pleasant conversation [...]. Returning from mass several of us would convene in the room of a friend, where we would engage in military, political, or scholarly debates until lunch, which could be partaken of either in the distinguished company of many, or with just a few friends, as one desired. Lunch was followed by card playing until evening, or courtesy visits to royal princesses. These days were interspersed with deer hunts with the king's legitimised son, the Count of Toulouse, with whom I spent specified days a week at his castle in Rambouillet. [...] My time described above was mixed with private walks and hunts with the king, upon which the king, escorted by a few officials, would alone hunt for partridges and pheasants. I had the opportunity to also be present on these outings."

89 The definition of ceremony at that time was certainly apt: "order."

90 After all, the main organising principle was the hierarchy starting with the ruler. It clearly expressed the social value of various people, and indicated to the outside world the differences in social rank, measured by the degree of closeness to the ruler. In the background loomed the changed image of the ruler. While in the past his educators had advised the ruler, viewed as the "officer of God," to rule in a patriarchal manner, the political theorists of absolutism deduced the power of the ruler from the "Grace of God." In other words, the holder of the greatest office on Earth ruled by "divine right," (iure divino), in a way pleasing to God, and was responsible only to God. This concept was later replaced by the theory of social contract, which emerged from the Enlightenment. Here political power resulted not from divine right, but from the individual will of the contracting parties.

91 In the first half of the 17

th and 18

th centuries, the courts reflected the prevailing "divine" image of the ruler. This was most spectacularly apparent in the ceremony surrounding the Spanish king: strangers could not touch clothes worn by the king, no one else could ride the king's horse, and his lovers had to spend the rest of their lives in a cloister.

92 But elsewhere too, the ruler's daily schedule, repeated to the hour or minute with strict, unchanging rhythm was intended to imitate the ever-lasting, so that the mortality of the ruler be forgotten.

93 Also serving this purpose were the many kinds of widely practised public rituals of dressing (lever or rising) and undressing (coucher or lying down), during which strangers were allowed to view, at least partially, the naked body (or body parts) of the monarch. This choreographed royal nudity was not designed to demonstrate the ruler's masculine appeal nor the frailty of his body, but rather - as in the representation of antique gods - to express immortality. It is also not rare to find rulers depicted in paintings, statues, and on coins as a half-naked Apollo or Mars.

94 Thus the sacred Christian nature of the origins of power,

95 which was rooted in the Middle Ages, was amalgamated with pagan, antique elements. This at the