A courtier () is a person who attends the royal court of a monarch or other Royal family.
Background
Monarchs very often expected the more important nobles to spend much of the year in attendance on them at court. Not all courtiers were
Nobility, as they included
clergy,
, clerks,
secretary, agents and middlemen with business at court. All those who held a court appointment could be called courtiers but not all courtiers held positions at court. Those personal favourites without business around the monarch, sometimes called the
camarilla, were also considered courtiers. As social divisions became more rigid, a divide, barely present in Antiquity or the
Middle Ages, opened between menial servants and other classes at court, although Alexandre Bontemps, the head valet de chambre of
Louis XIV, was a late example of a "menial" who managed to establish his family in the nobility.
The key commodities for a courtier were access and information, and a large court operated at many levels: many successful careers at court involved no direct contact with the monarch.
The largest and most famous European court was that of the Palace of Versailles at its peak, although the Forbidden City of Beijing was even larger and more isolated from national life. Very similar features marked the courts of all very large monarchies, including in India, Topkapı Palace in Istanbul, Ancient Rome, Byzantium or the of Baghdad or Cairo. Early medieval European courts frequently travelled from place to place following the monarch as they travelled. This was particularly the case in the early French court. But, the European nobility generally had independent power and was less controlled by the monarch until around the 18th century, which gave European court life greater complexity.
History
The earliest courtiers coincide with the development of definable courts beyond the rudimentary entourages or
retinues of rulers. There were probably courtiers in the courts of the
Akkadian Empire where there is evidence of court appointments such as that of
cup-bearer which was one of the earliest court appointments and remained a position at courts for thousands of years.
Two of the earliest titles referring to the general concept of a courtier were likely the
ša rēsi and
mazzāz pāni of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
In
Ancient Egypt a title has been found that translates to high steward or great overseer of the house.
[Stephen Quirke: Titles and bureaux of Egypt 1850–1700 BC, London 2004, , pp. 50–51, 61]
The courts influenced by the court of the Neo-Assyrian Empire such as those of the Median Empire and the Achaemenid Empire had numerous courtiers.
The imperial court of the Byzantine Empire at Constantinople would eventually contain at least a thousand courtiers.
Examples
In modern English, the term is often used metaphorically for contemporary political or hangers-on.
Gallery
File:Zentralbibliothek Solothurn - Peter Viktor Besenval - aa0263.tif|Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt as courtier around 1780, etching by Louis Carrogis Carmontelle
File:A disgruntled courtier compares himself to a Brahmin.jpg|Portrait of a Persian courtier
File:Madame de Pompadour.jpg|Madame de Pompadour was a French royal mistress
File:Sir Walter Ralegh by 'H' monogrammist.jpg|Sir Walter Raleigh was a courtier favoured by Elizabeth I
In literature
In modern literature, courtiers are often depicted as insincere, skilled at flattery and intrigue, ambitious and lacking regard for the national interest. More positive representations include the role played by members of the court in the development of politeness and the arts.
Examples of courtiers in fiction:
See also
External links
