The Early Modern State

Royal Courts

• Most European states during the 16th and 17th centuries were ruled by monarchs or emperors and their courts. 
• No other insitution in Europe at this time could compare with the royal court. Institutions such as parliaments were only occasional and uninfluential. 
• Courts provided and soldified the centre of the political system. 

Definition of a royal court: 

1) The physical space occupied by a ruler and his entourage at any particular moment, e.g the itinterant court. 

2) The totality of those who serve the king/ruler, ranging from household servants to bureaucrats/ministers, e.g Robert Dudley. 

Why did courts assume such a significant role? 

Between the C16th and C18th, royal courts assumed more power than any other insitutions. This happened because: 

• They abandoned their nomadic lifestyles and centralised their bureaucratic states/settled in a single court city. There were rulers such as Charles V who still behaved in this way, however, other important rulers such as Henry VIII abanonded the itinerancy of the court (he spent most of his time at his palace in Whitehall. Phillip II of Spain spent most of his time in Madrid. 
• Political and bureaucratic expansion as a result of…