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{{Short description|Person in attendance of a royal court}}{{Redirect|Courtiers|the brush-footed butterflies|Sephisa{{!}}Sephisa}}{{more citations needed|date=September 2011}}File:Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, Collection of Waddesdon Manor.jpg|thumb|Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester was a courtier favoured by Elizabeth IElizabeth IA courtier ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|ɔːr|t|i|ər}}) is a person who attends the royal court of a monarch or other royalty.WEB,dictionary.reference.com/browse/courtier, Courtier, dictionary.reference.com, 2010-12-24, 2010-12-06,dictionary.reference.com/browse/courtier," title="web.archive.org/web/20101206113309dictionary.reference.com/browse/courtier,">web.archive.org/web/20101206113309dictionary.reference.com/browse/courtier, live, The earliest historical examples of courtiers were part of the retinues of rulers. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the official residence of the monarch, and the social and political life were often completely mixed together.

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 noble, as they included clergy, soldiers, clerks, secretaries, 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.WEB,www.jstor.org/stable/2639516, Brokerage at the Court of Louis XIV, by Sharon Kettering; The Historical Journal, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Mar., 1993), pp. 69-87; JSTOR, 2017-12-12, 2016-04-14,www.jstor.org/stable/2639516," title="web.archive.org/web/20160414004920www.jstor.org/stable/2639516,">web.archive.org/web/20160414004920www.jstor.org/stable/2639516, live, 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 Caliphs 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.BOOK, Radner, Karen, The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture, 2011, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 978-0-19-955730-1, 358–379, Two of the earliest titles referring to the general concept of a courtier were likely the Å¡a rÄ“si and mazzāz pāni of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.JOURNAL, Groß, Melanie, Pirngruber, Reinhard, On Courtiers in the Neo-Assyrian Empire: Å¡a rÄ“si and mazzāz pāni, Imperium and Officium Working Papers (IOWP), September 2014,iowp.univie.ac.at/sites/default/files/IOWP_gro%C3%9F%3Apirngruber_courtiers.pdf, 24 February 2015, 3 March 2016,iowp.univie.ac.at/sites/default/files/IOWP_gro%C3%9F:pirngruber_courtiers.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20160303222502iowp.univie.ac.at/sites/default/files/IOWP_gro%C3%9F:pirngruber_courtiers.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20160303222502iowp.univie.ac.at/sites/default/files/IOWP_gro%C3%9F:pirngruber_courtiers.pdf, dead, 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, {{ISBN|0-9547218-0-2}}, pp. 50–51, 61The courts influenced by the court of the Neo-Assyrian Empire such as those of the Median Empire and the Achaemenid Empire had numerous courtiers WEB, Dandamayev, Muhammad, Courts And Courtiers. In the Median and Achaemenid periods,www.iranicaonline.org/articles/courts-and-courtiers-i, Encyclopædia Iranica, Encyclopædia Iranica, 24 February 2015, 24 February 2015,www.iranicaonline.org/articles/courts-and-courtiers-i," title="web.archive.org/web/20150224114133www.iranicaonline.org/articles/courts-and-courtiers-i,">web.archive.org/web/20150224114133www.iranicaonline.org/articles/courts-and-courtiers-i, live, BOOK, Maria Brosius, New out of old? Court and court ceremonies in Achaemenid Persia, Spawforth, A.J.S., The Court and Court Society in Ancient Monarchies, 2007, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK, 978-0-521-87448-9, 1–57, After invading the Achaemenid Empire, Alexander the Great returned with the concept of the complex court featuring a variety of courtiers to the Kingdom of Macedonia and Hellenistic Greece.BOOK, Tony Spawforth, The court of Alexander the Great between Europe and Asia, Spawforth, A.J.S., The Court and Court Society in Ancient Monarchies, 2007, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK, 978-0-521-87448-9, 93–97, The imperial court of the Byzantine Empire at Constantinople would eventually contain at least a thousand courtiers.BOOK, Byzantine Court Culture from 829 to 1204, Kazhdan, Alexander P., Harvard University Press, 1995, 9780884023081, 175, McCormick, Michael, Henry, Maguire, The Social World of the Byzantine Court,isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic450602.files/McCormickM1997.pdf, {{Dead link|date=July 2018}} The court’s systems became prevalent in other courts such as those in the Balkan states, the Ottoman Empire and Russia.BOOK, New approaches to Balkan studies, Angelov, Dimiter G., Brassey’s, 2003, 1574887246, 3, 11, Byzantinism: The Imaginary and Real Heritage of Byzantium in Southeastern Europe, Byzantinism is a term that was coined for this spread of the Byzantine system in the 19th century.BOOK, New approaches to Balkan studies, Angelov, Dimiter G., Brassey’s, 2003, 1574887246, 8, Byzantinism: The Imaginary and Real Heritage of Byzantium in Southeastern Europe,

Examples

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• Bagoas
• Anne Boleyn
• Alessandro Cagliostro
• John Dee
• Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester
• Anne Hungerford
• Princess de Lamballe
• Dukes of Luynes
• Henri Coiffier de Ruzé, Marquis of Cinq-Mars
• Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon
• Count of St. Germain
• Cardinal de Rohan
• Ja’far ibn Yahya
• Madame de Pompadour
• Petronius
• Walter Raleigh
• Cardinal Richelieu
• James Scudamore
• Angelo Soliman
• Wei Zhongxian

{{div col end}}In modern English, the term is often used metaphorically for contemporary political favourites 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 CarmontelleFile:A disgruntled courtier compares himself to a Brahmin.jpg|Portrait of a Persian courtierFile:Madame de Pompadour.jpg|Madame de Pompadour was a French royal mistressFile: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.{{Citation needed|date=February 2008}}Examples of courtiers in fiction:

• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
• Sir Lancelot from Arthurian legend,
• Gríma Wormtongue from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
• Count Hasimir Fenring and Gaius Helen Mohiam from Frank Herbert’s Dune.
• Petyr Baelish and Varys from George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire.

See also

• The Book of the Courtier, by Baldassare Castiglione
• Camarilla
• Courtesan
• Éminence grise
• Royal mistress
• Sycophant
• Courtly love

References

{{reflist}}{{Wiktionary}}