For centuries, the royal court in London was the political, social, and cultural headquarters of the nation. Anybody who was anybody—or who wanted to see somebody or be somebody—attended court, for it was Hollywood, Broadway, People magazine, Tik-Tok, and the Algonquin Roundtable rolled into one. And at its center was the sought-after figure who could make or break the great and the good: the sovereign.
Robert Bucholz, a history professor at Loyola University, evokes the experience of being present in a drawing room at Hampton Court Palace at the end of the Stuart Age. Every detail was carefully planned, including the clothes guests were expressly commissioned to wear; renting or purchasing a properly grand sedan chair; and choosing the crucial moment to catch everyone’s eye at the ascension of the king’s staircase. After the announcement of their name and title, guests were ushered into the drawing room to mingle with the elite and bow or curtsey to the chair of estate.
A formal gathering at court was much more than a social activity. It was an opportunity for increasing one’s power; a place where wealthy families bargained to consolidate their importance; and a stage for gossip, rumor-mongering and other palace intrigues—all with the goal of capturing the eye of the ruler.
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