The court of the monarch ( royal court ) - originally a circle of people who served the monarch and his family in private life and in his personal home ( palace ) [1] . The staff of persons serving in the court of the monarch is called the court .
Initially, the court was divided by the functions they performed, which had much in common between different courtyards. For example, at each court there was a person in charge of the monarch’s stables : in Russia it was called a stable , in France it was a stable , in England it was a constable , in Austria it was a stalmeister , etc. Almost at every court there was a cameraman (chamberlain) , whose ruler was entrusted with the key to the door to his private chambers.
With the complication of the structure of the court, such posts (ranks) were entrenched in the hands of the higher nobility and the nobility , which performed not only court, but also state functions. In reality, the monarch continued to be served by ministers from representatives of the lower classes - footmen , valets, coachman, etc.
In the estate, and especially in the absolute monarchy, the sovereign acquired a completely exclusive position, and its court turned into the focus of the entire political system. Each court was meticulously designed its own court ceremonial (etiquette), and the court were painted according to their ranks and ranks.
The court department or the ministry of the court (for example, the order of the Grand Palace in the Moscow kingdom , the ministry of the imperial court in the Russian Empire ) was engaged in the economic maintenance of the life of the court.
The wives of European monarchs, as a rule, had their own courtyard, consisting mainly of females ( maids of honor and other court ladies). In the eastern monarchies, the female half of the yard was concentrated in a harem (seral), which the eunuchs looked after.
Since the 17th century, the royal court of France , which was constantly located in Versailles, served as a model for most European courts. The imperial court of the Russian Empire , which replaced the court of the Russian tsars at the beginning of the 18th century, spent most of its time in St. Petersburg and its suburbs.
The court of the Chinese emperors was distinguished by exceptional crowding and complexity of the structure; in the Forbidden City of the 17th century alone (without taking into account other residences) at least 17,000 eunuchs were employed. Between the courtyard (the emperor’s relatives and trusted eunuchs) and the external courtyard (senior courtiers and officials) there has always been friction [2] . The courtyards of the rulers in the theocracies (for example, the papal court in the Vatican ) are also noted for a great peculiarity.
In the long-reigning monarchies, the sovereign often turned out to be a "captive" of his own court, which from a young age formed his perception of the world around him (the situation of " lazy kings " and mayordom ). Thus, many Chinese emperors, spending all their time in the community of eunuchs since childhood (the only males with whom it was allowed to communicate with the “son of Heaven”), trusted them more than anyone else, and readily transferred the most important government functions.
Close relatives of the monarch in their residences often kept a “small” courtyard, which in abbreviated form reproduced the structure of the capital. So, for example, during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna there was a “young court” of the heir to the throne, Pyotr Fedorovich and his wife, Ekaterina Alekseevna , which was based on a distance from the capital, in Oranienbaum .
Notes
- ↑ Rudakov V.E. Yard // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
- ↑ See, for example: Frederick W. Mote. Imperial China 900-1800 . Harvard University Press, 2003. P. 893-4.
Literature
- Monarch's courtyard in medieval Europe. Phenomenon, model, environment. // Resp. ed. ON. Khachaturian. M., 2001.
- The royal court in the political culture of medieval Europe: Theory. Symbolism. Ceremonial. // Resp. ed. N.A. Khachaturian. M .: Nauka, 2004.