court

court The institution known as the court has changed its meaning over the centuries. In early medieval times, the court, or household, was the centre of government. The monarch, with counsellors and great officers in attendance, would do business, receive petitions, and dispense justice. As public business increased, various functions were delegated: much administration was left to the council, and justice to the specialized law courts. But as long as political power remained with the monarch, the division between public and private could never be absolute. It has been suggested that, as a result of the ‘Tudor revolution in government’, the court from the 1530s took on a purely ceremonial role. That is premature. All through the Tudor and early Stuart period, careers could be made or broken at court—Wolsey, Leicester, Essex, Rochester, Buckingham. But after the Glorious Revolution, as power drained away to Parliament and the cabinet, the importance of the court began to diminish. By George II's reign, court life was routine and placid, save for a few grand occasions. Monarchs still wielded considerable influence but in direct consultation with ministers in private or in correspondence rather than through the court. The Edwardian court in the 1900s saw a brief social revival, partly because of the novelty of a visible monarch after Victoria's protracted seclusion. But it was an Indian summer and went down in the trenches of 1917.