In the period between the Renaissance and the French Revolution the court was arguably the paramount institution in the political and cultural life of Europe. This book surveys twelve of the great European courts, chosen not merely for their political and cultural importance, but also for their diversity - from the great sovereign courts of France, England, the Spanish Kingdoms and the Papacy, to the constellation of princely courts, including Florence and Berlin, which were still nominally subordinate to the Holy Roman Emperor. At Madrid and Vienna, St Petersburg and Prague, the empty palaces of the "ancien regime" still attest to the courts' former splendour.
But who was this splendour intended to impress? How did these great households actually work? What role did the courts play in the prince's relations with the wider community of the realm? And how were magnificence and ritual deployed to political ends?
This book presents a fundamental reinterpretation of the role of the princely household in early modern Europe. It challenges the assumption that the court served as an instrument of royal "absolutism" and questions whether Versailles ever exercised the influence that has subsequently been attributed to it. By providing the first inclusive survey of the major aspects of courtly life - from politics and the rituals attending the person of the prince, to gift-giving and the culture of the hunt - a new and subtler picture emerges of the place of the court: an institution where, despite the adulation of the prince, the ruler was rarely the only source of power or patronage; and where, for all the court's notorious vices, religion was seldom far from the centre of aulic life.
