The Court in Europe

Europa delle Corti
Centro studi sulle societ di antico regime

Biblioteca del Cinquecento
???
The Court in Europe
edited by
Marcello Fantoni
BULZONI EDITORE
TUTTI I DIRITTI RISERVATI
vietata la traduzione, la memorizzazione elettronica,
la riproduzione totale o parziale, con qualsiasi mezzo,
compresa la fotocopia, anche ad uso interno o didattico.
Lillecito sar penalmente perseguibile a norma dellart. 171
della Legge n. 633 del 22/04/1941
ISBN 978-88-7870-???-?
2012 by Bulzoni Editore
00185 Roma, via dei Liburni, 14
http://www.bulzoni.it
e-mail: bulzoni@bulzoni.it
TABLE OF CONTENTS
MARCELLO FANTONI, Introduction ................................................... pag. 11
I. NATIONAL HISTORIOGRAPHIES
CDRIC MICHON, Lhistoriographie anglaise sur la cour: entre
analyse politique, remonte chronologique, vastes synthses et
large couverture gographique ........................................................ 27
MALCOLM SMUTS, Court Historiography, 1970-2009: One North
Americans Perspective ................................................................... 55
WERNER PARAVICINI, Des rsidences la cour, du Moyen ge aux
Temps modernes: Recherches en lange allemande depuis 1985 .... 71
NICOLAS LE ROUX CAROLINE ZUM KOLK, Lhistoriographie sur la
cour en France ................................................................................. 89
MARIA ANTONIETTA VISCEGLIA, Italian Historiography on the
courts: a survey ............................................................................... 107
MANUEL RIVERO RODRGUEZ, Court Studies in the Spanish
World .............................................................................................. 135
AGNIESKA JAKUBOSZCZAK MACIEJ SERWASKI, Entre le centre et
les priphries. Les cours royales de lpoque moderne dans lhis-
toriographie: les cas de Cracovie, Varsovie, Vilnius, Dresde et
Prague ............................................................................................. 149
7
II. COURT AND POWER
PETER CAMPBELL CHANTAL GRELL, La cour et les modles de
pouvoir: bilan historiographique ..................................................... pag. 175
JOS MARTNEZ MILLN, La substituci del sistema cortesano
por el paradigma del estado nacional en las investigaciones
histricas ......................................................................................... 193
FLAVIO RURALE, Court and Religion in Early Modern Catholic
Europe ............................................................................................. 221
MATTEO CASINI, Court Rituals, ca. 1450-1650 ............................... 239
PHILIP MANSEL, The Court in the nineteenth century: return to the
limelight .......................................................................................... 255
III. COURT FORM AND CULTURE
MATHIEU DAVINHA, Structures et organisation des charges de cour
lpoque moderne ......................................................................... 275
SIMON THURLEY, The Historiography of the Architecture of
European Courts ............................................................................. 291
MAURICE AYMARD MARZIO ROMANI, Les cours en Europe: bilan
historiographique. conomie et finances ........................................ 303
AMEDEO QUONDAM, Court Books and Literature ........................... ???
MANFRED HINZ, La cultura del cortigiano. Osservazioni su un
modo di produzione, a proposito dei manuali di Juan Lorenzo
Palmireno ........................................................................................ 335
IV. METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES
DENNIS SMITH, Norbert Elias and The Court Society ..................... 353
Table of contents
8
JEROEN DUINDAM, Le centre dynastique en Europe et en Asie: un
foyer ideal de comparaison ............................................................. pag. 375
RAFFAELLA MORSELLI, Artisti al lavoro: commissioni di corte e
declinazioni di ruoli tra convenzione e eccentricit nellItalia di
antico regime ................................................................................... 407
GUIDO GUERZONI, Court History, Career Analysis and a
Prosopographic Approach ............................................................... 427
Table of contents
9
Acknowledgements
This volume collects the papers presented at the conference Les cours en
Europe: bilan historiographique hosted by the Centre de recherche du
chteau de Versailles on September 24-26, 2009. First, I wish to thank Daniel
Roche (Prsident du comit scientifique), Batrix Saule (Directrice du Muse
national des chteaux de Versailles et de Trianon), and Mathieu Da Vinha
(Directeur scientifique), co-organizer of the conference.
This was the first event promoted by The Court Studies Forum, the asso-
ciation of court study centers created in 2007. All the respective directors
deserve special thanks for supporting the Versailles conference and for their
enthusiasm in joining the association: Amedeo Quondam (Centro studi
Europa delle Corti), Jos Martinez Millan (IULCE, Istituto Universitario la
Corte en Europa), Simon Thurley (The English Court Society), Malcolm
Smuts (The North American Court Society) and Andrea Merlotti (Centro studi
Venaria Reale).
Many other scholars contributed with their work, ideas and proposals, in
particular Philip Mansel, Luc Duerloo, Grard Sabatier, Chantal Grell and
John Christiansen. I am also grateful to Bulzoni Editore for publishing this
book and to Gustav Medicus and Samuel Cohn, Jr. for reading this introduc-
tion.
10
Marcello Fantoni
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this book is not to celebrate the success story of courts.
Our analysis of the historiography aims at envisioning the prospects of court
studies. In other words, the concern is not so much with what the court itself
has become, but rather with what it will (and should) be in future scholarship:
what could (or should) the new areas of investigation, the questions to ask and
methods to be applied. What do we know about courts and what needs to be
done? How can we best use previous work to identify new paths of research,
and to address broader historical and epistemological horizons?
We certainly know much more about courts now than a few decades ago
and have a greater awareness of their impact on the world of the Old Regime.
The picture is now more articulate. The concept of the court itself and its cen-
trality vis--vis the civilization of this entire era has changed. Courts charac-
terized European history (and not only Europe) for a very long time, from the
Middle Ages almost to the present. We find courts in practically every coun-
try; in republican regimes as well. We have an overall view of courts, though
with an extreme variety, with constantly changing forms and functions.
We also have a multiplicity of definitions as a consequence of the many exist-
ing studies and disciplinary approaches. The notion of the court has changed, we
can say, as a consequence of our increasing understanding of it. What a court is
(or what we think it is) is therefore a dynamic concept for the evolution of both
courts and court scholarship. Much of what we associate with courts did not exist
until recently: until, for example, the court was not perceived as a political insti-
tution; it was only in the verge of becoming a social formation. Certainly it was
not an economic entity and was still struggling to be recognized as a centre of
artistic and cultural production. Now the notion of the court is more concrete and
inclusive: it embraces more aspects and is multi-dimensional.
11
So, what does the court mean now? What are the elements that define it?
Both the history of and the research on courts depend on agreement (still lack-
ing) on these preliminary questions. If the main prerequisite to be a court is
political power, as an organism that coalesces around a sovereign or that exer-
cises power in its own right, then those of aristocrats or cardinals, for exam-
ple, would not really be courts. However, this definition would already be
broad enough to allow us to extend the chronological framework from the
Middle Ages (or even from antiquity) up to the nineteenth century. If we agree
that wherever there is a ruler there is a court, the geographical boundaries
would be wider: from pre-Columbian Mexico to Japan, from the Maghreb to
Moghul India, from Persia to all the seasons of the Chinese empire, from Bali
to the Ottoman Empire. Trying to make fine structural or functional distinc-
tions would shrink this framework and undoubtedly also the number of organ-
isms legitimately belonging to this category. To achieve a balanced definition
of the concept of court, it would perhaps be necessary to pay more attention
to what contemporaries thought about themselves.
The choice between loose or strict definitions is fundamental at any rate
for embarking on systematic, interdisciplinary, and comparative research. In
any case, it is important to arrive at a shared idea and to seek a formal and his-
torical synthesis, before embarking on long dure histories and long distance
comparisons. Once this is done, we can return to the particular and grasp its
true value in the overall picture.
In general, we should not be afraid of a too generous use of the notion of
court or overly broad temporal and geographical frameworks. The time is ripe
for broadening our horizons, to take advantage of what we already know to
understand the general traits of the phenomenon the court which seems to
have the characteristics of universality. For this, it is necessary to foster inter-
national dialogue, with full awareness of the language and ideological barri-
ers, but also motivated by more ambitious objectives, in the effort of renew-
ing topics and methods.
So, what is a court? What is the object of our investigation and what are
its various facets? For instance, the expressions Savoy court, court of
France, and court of Charles I refer to three correlated, but different,
objects: a physical place (the residence of a ruler), a social group (the retinue
of a prince), and a political institution. Already this helps us understand that
the court is a multifarious, thick reality and signals the road to follow. Lets
try here to summarize.
We now know, for example, that the court is a space, and, as such, is
identified with a building or a specific set of places: from the castle of a
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12
medieval seigneur to the grand palaces of Baroque Europe. By court, in six-
teenth and seventeenth-century Europe, we mean a delimited space within
which a complex of buildings creates a miniature city: the city of the sover-
eign enclosed within the city of his or her subjects. But it undergoes a further
evolution when these residences move outside the city to make up authen-
tic royal towns. Hand in hand with the phases of its architectural evolution,
the morphology of the court also changes, and with it its structure and mean-
ing. In sum, the court actually consists of a plurality of spaces, because of
its internal articulation and because of the multiplicity of residences and their
various types and functions: it is a web of places extended to encompass the
entire territory of the state. As a constellation of spaces, the court, then, has a
history, an organization, and a symbolism of its own and leads us also to con-
sider the court city in its entirety.
The court is also a well-defined social formation (Norbert Elias).
Despite its various forms and definitions household, hof, court, casa, famil-
ia, etc. it remains nevertheless an elite, closed society. Closed, but also cos-
mopolitan, and therefore constituting the milieu of political and cultural
exchange. Everyone is an employee of the sovereign and is tied to him by a
personal bond of subordination. In this regard, the court emerges as a social
mix of nobility and bourgeoisie, laymen and churchmen, courtiers and
officials, different classes merging in the court and interconnected by the
increasingly dense ties of marriage. Courtiers vary greatly in terms of num-
bers, ranging from the few dozen in the micro-signorie of Italy to thousands
of individuals in the France of the Sun King. And yet whether large or small,
all of them merit the title of court. The court is equally let us not forget a
male society; women rarely exceed ten per cent of the whole and they are
gathered together in female courts.
The court is an economic institution, and not merely in terms of expen-
diture and consumption. No longer can it be considered, as stated by Fernand
Braudel, a parasitical body. Instead, it is a center of production of luxury
goods and more. In particular, the court is the engine powering city manufac-
turing and trade, above all through its building projects, but also with the
workshops and all the activities flourishing in court cities. The court is now
seen more as a synonym for opportunity and as opposed to traditional
stereotypes the entrepreneurial profile of the prince has also been proven.
However, its economic dimension must be incorporated into a peculiar cul-
tural framework, based on the concept of magnificence, the logic of con-
spicuous consumption, and the particular values that liberality (or charity)
assume as instruments of legitimization of majesty. In short, the court forces
us to investigate the entire economy of the Old Regime from another per-
Introduction
13
spective, with a rationale of economy that is outside the economy: economic
capital and symbolic-social capital are closely linked, finance and politics are
connected, and expenditures have a meaning inside a culture that includes
prestige and majesty.
The court is the seat of power in all its manifold forms, the center of deci-
sion-making, the point of confluence of the ruling class, the concentration of
offices (and officials), and the stage for the performance of sovereignty. It
contains in itself all, or almost all, the functions of the state. It has been said
of the court of Philip II that to distinguish between administration and court
is not only difficult, it is false (Mia Rodriguez Salgado). Despite the varia-
tions in time and space, the collegial process of decision-making always
entails the joint participation of courtiers and ministers. But this power is
also tied to patronage and clientele (as Ronald Asch and Adolf Birke have
shown), the web of unequal relationships from which onore and utile
derive. By means of favors, titles, benefits, and signs of distinction, the
sovereign sets up and then dominates a core of subordinates, an entourage that
acts as a guarantee of his authority. If on one hand the court serves to tame
the aristocracy, on the other it is also the site of its apotheosis and the driving
force that perpetuates its supremacy.
The court is a place of cultural consumption and above all of cultur-
al patronage. Painting, music, theatre, opera, ballet are all artistic forms at the
service of power, which leads us to study art from a political viewpoint. To
this should be added the clothes, furnishings, jewelry, and all the arts called
applied which comprise the material environment of the court. Scientific
knowledge, too, is part of this universe, from alchemy to botany, astronomy
and medicine. Listing the court writers would virtually mean tracing the liter-
ary history of Europe. In a word, the court is a (the) center of cultural activi-
ty aimed at fabricating majesty. The court, together with the Church, is the
principal driving force behind art and culture in Europe from the fourteenth to
the eighteenth century. We are aware that years ago such a statement could not
have been made.
In the case of the court, culture should be understood as shared models of
behavior. In this regard, the production of treatises on conversation, table
manners, the control of the body is boundless, and I believe not meant
reductively in the sense of discipline, but as the codification of positive mod-
els. For this reason, too, the court is subject to its own norms, both in the sense
of good manners and of more general ethical codes. Etiquette, diplomatic
protocol, gesture, and political ceremonies follow precise scripts and are all
instrumental to the goal of establishing social hierarchies and legitimizing
power. The court, in short, is synonymous with a specific forma del vivere:
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14
in this regard Castigliones sprezzatura, together with the codes of conve-
nienza, aimed at denoting the status of those who adopt them.
The court is the stage for majesty and social display. Spectacles, festi-
vals and pageantry belong to this framework. The court is the theatre of
power, in the concrete sense that its contemporaries applied to it and not in
todays sense that diminishes its political power. Splendor, appearance
and decorum are foundational codes of Old Regime politics, not accessories
to it. Masques, triumphal entries, royal funerals, the Te Deum sung in thanks-
giving for military victories, wedding feasts and coronations construct, not
represent, reality.
Furthermore, the court is a sacred entity: the sovereign can be conse-
crated; his power comes from God; he covers the dual role of rex and sacer-
dos; and often he is imbued with supernatural powers. At court living saints
reside; relics with an apotropaic function, collected; miraculous images, ven-
erated, and rituals performed that range from royal meals to foot-washing on
Holy Thursday. Even the rhythms of the court are dictated by the liturgical
hours, and numerous ecclesiastics gravitate around the sovereign. The palace
chapel is the seat of political liturgies centered around the priestly figure of
the sovereign, with court life often modeled on the example of the monastic
regula.
These are the main faces of the court, but we also know that the court
is not an isolated entity, functioning in a vacuum. Courts are associated with
other institutions, with which they interact; sometimes courts themselves gen-
erate these as instruments amplifying their role and resonances. These institu-
tions complete the courts political, social and cultural functions: this is a key
to interpreting the academies, municipal and bureaucratic magistracies,
knightly orders, parliaments, and in the Catholic countries the religious
orders. This also means that many of the members of court elites belong to
various institutions and their careers are pursued on more than one front. The
court is thus not enclosed in itself; it is not self-referential, but communicates
with and functions in symbiosis with other institutions. It is the center of grav-
ity of the practices and mental dynamics of the Old Regime.
How have we learned all this? How has interest in the court arisen and
developed? What limitations has it suffered and what goals has it accom-
plished? To be sure, many of the changes in the historiography of the Early
Modern age are reflected in the vicissitudes of the court. Lets follow the
unfolding of this process. We all know of the Enlightenments condemnation,
fed by the polemic against luxury that struck the aristocratic world, but which
was also used in an anti-absolutist key. Then came the fabrication of the hia-
Introduction
15
tus between the Ancien and the Nouveau Rgime, and, with it, the damnatio
memoriae of an entire age. The age of liberalism and the State therefore
draws along with it the perception of the court as a wreck from the past. In
nineteenth-century Europe it was seen as the place of political intrigue, fri-
volity, and moral corruption. From this background the aversion to the court
arises, that has prejudiced an objective appropriation of it by twentieth-centu-
ry historians. Marxist and positivist historiography alike made it the emblem
of absolutism, privilege, oppression, and parasitism.
It is also true that the court was penalized because it remained trapped in
the categories of the Renaissance and in that of the modern state. The asso-
ciation between the court and the Renaissance is on one hand glorified in the
field of art and culture, and on the other denigrated because the civilization
that foreshadowed modernity could not have been anything but individualist,
bourgeois, secular, and republican. The second distorted perspective is the
centrality of the prince as the fulcrum of politics raised to a work of art. In
the wake of Jacob Burckhardt and John Addington Symonds, the prince is
emphasized to the detriment of the court, the prince is seen as the builder of
the modern state, while the court represents his negative side.
Only in the last few decades have court studies come into their own.
While some topics were becoming obsolete, the court offered itself as an ideal
alternative laboratory for experimenting with new methods. It is no coinci-
dence that the crisis of the Renaissance paradigm (within the wider decline of
Western civilization) coincided with a growing interest in the court. Much has
changed since 1983, when Cesare Mozzarelli stated that the court was a non-
existent topic. Precisely the 1980s inaugurated the entrance of the court into
the historiography. Europa delle Corti, founded in 1976, took its first steps
in investigating court culture in sixteenth-century Italy. At the same time
Geoffrey Elton opened a new, complementary perspective on modern poli-
tics viewed through the lens of the court. The Eighties also saw the birth of
the so-called ceremonialist school in France and the English-speaking world
in the wake of contaminations from anthropology and the reception of theses
by Marc Bloch and Ernst Kantorowicz. Prosopography and network analysis
in turn entered the study of history, both borrowed from sociology. They
would be used primarily in the study of socio-political dynamics, causing the
court to be reabsorbed into the sphere of politics.
Three major factors seem to have been responsible for reawakening inter-
est in courts: methodological influences from the social sciences, literary and
cultural studies, and the impact of Norbert Elias, whose trilogy was belatedly
translated from German. Thus numerous and manifold are the methods and
lines of research that have made the court a subject of historical investigation
Marcello Fantoni
16
and broadened its meaning to the point of changing the reading of an entire
historical period the Old Regime. At the same time, this convergence of dis-
ciplines has called into question not a few of the epistemological capstones on
which the study of political history was based.
Individual national histories and power structures (monarchies, empire,
principalities, oligarchies, etc.) have also helped influence the prevalence of
certain directions of research over others. Moreover, the many and diverse
ideological backgrounds Protestant or Catholic concerns, different paths
towards national unity, different paradigms of identity, discordant historio-
graphic traditions affected the greater or lesser openness towards the new
approaches.
Every country presents a different case, affected by its history and
focused on internal problems and debates without much exchange with other
national historiographies until the last couple of decades. France, for instance,
never made courts into a specific research topic; the dominion of the
Annales meant that they were long seen as a residue of histoire evenemen-
tielle. In spite of this particularit franaise (a vast production of studies on
courts in the absence of court studies) the translation of the works by Elias
was very influential, and much progress was made on the sacred aspects of
royalty. In Germany courts suffered from the discredit of the events of 1918
and especially 1933 that ideologically delegitimized research on them. The
rise of interest revolves here mostly around the Residenzen Kommission and
the study of royal palaces and cities, but also studies based on the theses of
Sozialdisziplinierung enjoyed particular favor. Until recently Italy was almost
entirely Europa delle Corti, with its focus on the literary and cultural aspects
of court life. In Spain studies proliferated on art and architecture, the monar-
chy, and the power elite. In England we had to wait for the decline of Whig
History centered around the idea of liberty and parliamentarianism as driv-
ing forces of modernity to see the birth of historiography on the court.
England has also been the homeland of empirical work on power dynamics
and structures, where the accent was placed on government practices. The
United States, Eastern European countries or Scandinavia are other contexts,
each of which has developed court studies in relation to their own internal
issues.
In addition, many who study courts have come to them from other inter-
ests, and do not consider themselves to be court historians, as has argued
Malcolm Smuts. This is especially true for art historians who have studied
political iconography, for architectural historians who have worked on court
cities, and for historians who have written on rituals. To be sure, the bibliog-
Introduction
17
raphy on topics connected with the court is more extensive than that on the
court. Many have studied people, facts, objects, or texts connected to or pro-
duced by courts, without paying much attention to the context. Sometimes
courts have been studied by scholars who were not even aware of doing so.
Though it might seem paradoxical, they had a major impact on broadening
and establishing court studies. It is thus a responsibility of court historians to
make the court into the framework for all of these studies, but this requires
abandoning local analyses and narrow perspectives.
Overall, courts have remained for a long time an accessory to the history of
the state. On one hand, bureaucracy was conceived as modern, and on the other
the court was perceived as an archaism of power. The growth of the state insti-
tutions thus could only take place at the courts expense. The thesis of the widen-
ing gap between the court and the state is a symptom of an inability to conceive
of the state according to categories different from the ones we use today.
Now after major historical and historiographical changes the mod-
ern state no longer identifies with Machiavellis political philosophy, the
bureaucracy, national armies, parliaments, or diplomatic relations. More and
more it has been identified with clienteles, sacred royalty, patronage, ritual, or
Reason of State, all of which is found in the court and has been discovered
thanks to the court. Thus, interest in the court was born because enquiry was
beginning in topics earlier considered marginal to politics, the very topics to
which study of the court had helped draw attention.
In particular, new forms and techniques of power were brought to light,
but also practices that place it in its true social and cultural dimension. The
study of the court has also brought to the fore a vast range of political figures
who had been off the radar of the history of the state: confessors, validos, sec-
retaries, the master of the chamber, the favorites, consorts, regents, bastards,
living saints, chancellors, secret chamberlains, matresses, etc. In this sense, it
is necessary not only to rethink the power, but also the role of the various peo-
ple. Many different kinds of powers have courts: the papal theocracy, nation-
al monarchies, Renaissance principalities, the aristocratic republic of Poland,
the elective and supranational sovereignty of the Holy Roman Empire. But
also Cromwell, the Venetian doges, and William of Orange had courts. There
are male and female courts, lay and ecclesiastical courts, satellite courts (of
blood relatives of the sovereign) and sovereign courts. On closer analysis,
even the dichotomy between republic and principality is not so distinct.
This centrality of the court entails two other centralities: the aristocracy
and dynastic history. Especially the latter has gone out of fashion because it is
Marcello Fantoni
18
associated with encomiastic work, not historical research. In this regard, the
wide variety of studies has taught us that the court is not even conceivable as
an isolated unit but must be understood as a European system of dynastic rela-
tions. The court, in other words, is an interrelated system which, above and
beyond national and confessional borders, presents itself as a key element of
the social, political, and cultural unity of the Old Regime. Starting with
Renaissance Italy, according to Wolfgang Reinhardt, there developed in this
way, [] a European oecumene of the courts characterized by fundamental
common values. Whether this is formula, or that of the Societ de prince
or Court Galaxy, many historians by now view the Early Modern age as a
network of courts. The existence is evident of an international court society
characterized by shared customs and values.
From this we can perceive a new dimension of the court, which appears
now as the foundational locus of an entire civilization, giving meaning to the
transversal nature of the political and cultural schemes to which the mentalit
and actions of the aristocracy respond. The court, in this sense, is the main
path for bringing out the authenticity of the Old Regime and for understand-
ing the true essence of modernity, which, beyond the picture painted by posi-
tivist historians, is a courtly civilization.
After having discovered Elias, after having been inspired by his socio-
logical theory and having criticized it historically, we somehow go back to a
different, yet court centered, civilization process, differently but strongly
Kultur-based. Courts are the fulcrum and engine of a broad, long-term devel-
opment that ultimately produces a homogenous European civilization created
by court culture overflowing outside courts.
The court is the fundamental and foundational institution of European
civilization, because courts are everywhere: in Catholic and Protestant
countries, before and after the Reformation, in the north and south of
Europe, in large and small states, in different political, social and cultural
contexts. And everywhere, they resemble each other in some ways. Beyond
their specific traits, a commonality of forms, norms, and values permeates
them. From the organization of offices to social relations, figurative lan-
guage, the way of acting, thinking, and conceiving of themselves in the aris-
tocratic-courtly societies, this commonality, from Lisbon to Warsaw, from
Stockholm to Naples, constructs and codifies the ensemble of elements,
knowledge and practices that over time have come together to create the
shared heritage of European civilization and define the traits of its common
identity. The court is not the only, but is certainly the main vehicle of this
cultural standardization.
Introduction
19
This unity has been greatly favored by the intense web of exchange, start-
ing with the network of courts generated by marriage alliances and continu-
ing with the circulation of people (diplomats, refugees, soldiers, courtiers,
artists, brides, prelates, architects, etc.) and the sharing of readings, ideas, and
objects. To speak of courts between the fifteenth and the nineteenth centuries
thus means retracing European history. Lhistoire des cours ne peut tre que
europenne, as Cdric Michon rightly concludes in his essay.
It is thus important to pay attention to the processes of aggregation and
disaggregation of states and the cases of contamination: as with the kingdom
of Poland-Saxony-Lithuania, the relationship between England and the
United Provinces or Spain and Portugal, or the osmosis resulting from the
contiguity between Spain and the Maghreb or the Empires role in Italy. In
addition, the presence of foreigners and of foreign courts within courts lifts us
to a European vision; and here once again women play a leading role.
Nontheless, it is necessary to ask how foreign a courtier is who moves from
one court to another in modern Europe. Especially after the early sixteenth
century, a gentleman probably would feel completely at home at any court,
wherever it was.
So, what are the models? Can we begin with the Renaissance or should
we go back to the Middle Ages? When were the origins of European courts:
the dawn of Christendom, the Middle Ages of the popes or the principalities
and monarchies of the Early Modern age? Is there even a common root of the
institution of the court? Does it make sense to seek it? Or do the transversal
nature and uniformity of the structure, symbols, and manners of the court mat-
ter more than models? If this is the case, when can we begin to speak of a
common model of court for Christian Europe?
The search to find a supposed archetype of the court is waning, with a
search for elements of commonality on the rise. This comes about probably
because the search for the courtly primate was the province of national his-
toriographies. It is not hard to reconstruct the various genealogies: the Italian
model, that of Castiglione and the ideal cities, the triangle Urbino-Mantua-
Ferrara, later exported through Europe, was one of the basic theses of the
Europa delle Corti study center. Besides its importance for French histori-
ography, Versailles has taken on the status of exemplary case of court civi-
lization, thanks to the works of Norbert Elias. Identification of the Burgundian
court as the place where court ceremonies were worked out, then to be export-
ed to Spain and from there to the rest of Europe, is one of the paths of research
on courts followed in France and Spain. That the age of the renovatio imperii
initiated by the election of Charles V to the throne is a watershed in the sense
Marcello Fantoni
20
of the revival of the classical canon has been maintained by historians of cer-
emonies, but has also been explored by historians of iconography.
What is missing, above all, is an all embracing history of the court that is
not a history of a type of court, a circumscribed period, or a single country.
When was the court born? If the court is an organism in constant evolution,
what are the watersheds in its history and how does the court evolve struc-
turally or politically? Are there key moments or phases of greater or lesser
uniformity and integration of the network of courts? By now everyone seems
to agree in considering the Old Regime to be the golden age of the courts. The
age of the courts, as Alberto Tenenti stated in 1978, constitutes a homoge-
neous period that extends from the mid-fourteenth to the end of the eighteenth
century, to the Crise de la conscience europenne.
This does not mean that courts did not exist before the Renaissance or
after the Age of Revolution. The Restoration, for example, witnessed a sweep-
ing return of this institution with Napoleon III and Queen Victoria, Franz
Joseph and the Romanov dynasty. The connections between the nineteenth-
century courts and national states, parliamentary systems and the new bour-
geoisie still remain open questions for further study. But on their periodiza-
tions much more needs to be explored. The reasons for the lack of interest in
the nineteenth century and in the Middle Ages are not the mere absence of the
institution or sources; it is an ideological issue. It is ironic that the character-
istic element of anti-modernity the court has been studied mainly in rela-
tion to the Early Modern Age. The canonical periodizations appear not to be
valid for the history of the court, which seems to have its own chronology: the
terms Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Baroque capture only partially the phas-
es of development of the court system, and the paradigm of modernity is also
highly problematic, if for no other reason than that for a long time it was a
concept antithetical to the civilization that expressed itself in the courts.
Are we ready to write a general history of the court? I think so, but the
effort to synthesize and organize the huge amount of material available would
be enormous, in addition to maintaining a balance between an overall picture
and the countless histories with their endless variations. Perhaps we should also
try to take a snapshot of courts at a given moment, to capture their forms at pre-
cise points in time and space: this synchronic overview, intersecting a diachron-
ic one, could help identify the various types and stages of development of the
court, while furthering our understanding of the civilizing process.
The courts multifaceted nature derives from different perspectives. The
real problem, however, is not the multitude of senses courts have been
Introduction
21
referred to, but the impermeability, and at times the conflicts, between differ-
ent disciplines and historiographical schools. For art historians, for instance,
the court was often different from what it was for social or political historians,
just as in England, Italian scholars were criticized for their excessive empha-
sis on the cultural dimension. That is to say and we go back to our original
point the word court has been used a great deal, but with different mean-
ings assigned to it, and little has been done to amalgamate them into one over-
all vision. Precisely for this reason, the essays collected in this volume are
important for laying the foundations for future work together.
Now that the time when the court was a non-existent problem has
passed, it seems we have entered a phase in which it gives way to myriad new
questions and topics enclosed in or in some way tangential to it. The courts
success has, so to speak, brought about a Pandoras box of new directions
for research, topics earlier neglected and aspects never imagined. This is a
veritable pulverization, and the court emerges from it omnipresent, but shat-
tered into a thousand different rivulets, almost as though the increased num-
ber of its facets makes it no longer possible to study it as a whole.
In short, after having complained of the prejudices against the court, we are
now facing its overinflated presence: all roads lead through the court, every-
thing is based in or derives from it. This might make us begin to think that this
is just one more instance of a historiographical fad, that what happened for the
Renaissance or with studies on witchcraft, or microhistory is now for the court:
intense, but often brief, brushfires that burn out quickly living little trace behind.
At the moment of its greatest popularity, whth study centers on the court spring-
ing up, conferences, exhibitions and publications coming fast and furious, royal
palaces restored and tourist appeal of courts growing, it might seem to invite
bad luck now to be pondering these questions. And yet, just as until a short
while ago we were trying to understand the reasons for its marginalization, it is
now time to reflect on the reasons for its resounding success.
Does the court arouse so much interest because, finally, its true impor-
tance has been realized? Or because the court and with it the Baroque Age and
the Counter-Reformation are today the center of attention instead of the
Renaissance? Or because the need for affinity has been replaced by a search
for diversity in the past? Has this happened because the issues and tensions of
the present have changed, or does it derive from the ripple effect of the social
sciences? Is it the fault of revisionism, or because we are in the presence of
yet another virgin territory to be colonized by historians, since the previous
terrains have now grown arid? Is it only a matter of time before court studies
too will run their course, without having brought much meaning to a deeper
understanding of the civilization of the Old Regime?
Marcello Fantoni
22
I do not think so. The changes seem irreversible. The discovery of the
court has marked the end of some categories or rather it has radically
changed their characteristics and expanded their facets enormously. Once the
new horizons of which we spoke have opened up, it remains difficult to imag-
ine that, even after its popularity wanes, court studies will leave only faint
traces of its passage.
In light of the above, does it make ultimately sense to study the court,
and if so, how should this be done? Can the court still be studied? It certain-
ly can, but new paths are needed. We know what it looks like and how it
works, we are familiar with its various types, and light has been shed on its
manifold implications and aspects. What is left to be done is first and fore-
most I repeat a true interdisciplinary history of the court. But the task is
also to put the vast, complex, but frequently messy material in order, taking
notice of the new and richer aggregate of problems and meanings that
research has uncovered for the court. It is also a question of moving from the
analysis of the many individual facets of courts to a global vision of the
whole.
We have to start from such an overview to set in motion comparative
studies, to bring into focus the common traits of the courtly civilization, but
also to grasp the forms it assumes in the various historical contexts.
Unquestionably it will become necessary to overcome the last resistance to
move beyond the boundaries of Europe, broadening our scope to take in the
courts of Islam, imperial China, or India. In this regard, courts could play a
major role not only for a global history of courts, but for global history in gen-
eral.
Having done that, I believe, the court will take on new value and mean-
ing, and just as it has been helpful for the study of the Old Regime, it will
become an invaluable tool for understanding other cultures and conversely for
creating a true European history. Now that national histories seem to be los-
ing their appeal, precisely the intrinsic nature of the court proposes the court
as one of the most fitting categories for searching common identities, whose
characteristics lie in the values, rules, and customs of courts and were trans-
mitted by osmosis to the rest of society. Only the civilization of the court
remains, after all, an indisputable element of homogeneity in a time of frag-
mentation of religious and political universalisms.
Therefore, it is no longer necessary to study the court as much as to study
an entire civilization in light of the court. It has been well-established that
many problems and issues hark back to the court, and that it is the fulcrum of
a civilization. We have to start from this idea to reopen the prospects for future
study. It is necessary, so to speak, to return to the court, so as to avoid the dan-
Introduction
23
ger that the multitude of approaches can result in our losing our epistemolog-
ical way. But it is also necessary to abandon the court as a subject in and of
itself. This is I believe a reasonable way to treasure what we have learned
in order to move forward.
Marcello Fantoni
24
I. National historiographies
Cdric Michon
LHISTORIOGRAPHIE ANGLAISE SUR LA COUR:
ENTRE ANALYSE POLITIQUE, REMONTE CHRONOLOGIQUE,
VASTES SYNTHSES ET LARGE COUVERTURE GOGRAPHIQUE
Il y a de cela une cinquantaine dannes, il y avait, au cur de lEurope,
un grand lac de montagne auquel laccs tait interdit par un puissant barra-
ge
1
. Seuls quelques rares curieux avaient, loccasion, parcouru ses rives; cer-
tains mme y avaient nags. Si ce lac tait si peu frquent, alors que son
accs ntait en fait pas si difficile, ctait tout simplement parce que les gens
le jugeaient dpourvu intrt. Et puis un jour, sans que lon sache vritable-
ment pourquoi, le barrage cda et les eaux retenues envahirent la valle.
On dcouvrit alors que ce lac tait une eau dormante, mais profonde. Il
devint rapidement un objet dtude dont on dcouvrit progressivement la
richesse insouponne. Venus de partout, les scientifiques sefforcrent de le
quadriller dans tous les sens et de le comprendre: les Anglais en tirrent un
Guide Murray, les Franais un Guide Joanne, les Allemands un Baedeker.
Cette simple tendue deau dormante dont on navait pas bien mesur la
profondeur, on laura compris, cest la cour. Et les guides Joanne, Murray et
Baedeker, ce sont les historiographies nationales qui, pour traiter dun objet
commun, la cour, nen sont pas moins porteuses de traditions et dapproches
diverses. Le point commun toutes ces historiographies est une certaine
concordance chronologique dans le dbut de leurs travaux. Les diffrences
interviennent dans les mthodologies et les a priori scientifiques. L o la
dmarche anglaise se caractrise par un empirisme trs riche qui a produit des
27
1
Je remercie Malcolm Smuts et Steve Gunn davoir accept de relire une premire ver-
sion de cet article.
tudes dune rudition remarquable, la dmarche continentale a t large-
ment influence par une approche thorique et notamment par les travaux de
Norbert Elias
2
. Ctait lun des enjeux du colloque qui nous a runi
Versailles la fin du mois de septembre 2009 que de faire un bilan de ces his-
toriographies nationales et desquisser les perspectives de ce que pourrait tre,
voire mme de ce que devrait tre, la recherche historique sur la cour, dans les
annes venir.
Mon propos, limit au cas anglais, sarticulera autour de quelques points.
Quelles sont les raisons spcifiquement anglaises qui expliquent que les tu-
des sur la cour aient t longtemps bloques outre-Manche? Pourquoi se sont-
elles ensuite dveloppes? Quelles sont les caractristiques les plus marquan-
tes de prs de 40 ans de recherche universitaire anglaise? Quelles sont les
principaux axes aujourdhui de la recherche anglaise sur la cour?
I. Lhistoriographie anglaise sur la cour, du blocage au dcollage
I.1. Quel verrou? Le problme de la Whig History
Comme leurs homologues franais ou italiens, les historiens anglais ont
eu se dfaire de pesanteurs spcifiques qui dlgitimaient a priori la cour
comme objet historique. Toutefois, de mme que lvnement rvolutionnai-
re en France ou la question de lunit italienne en Italie sont des motifs spci-
fiquement nationaux qui ont bloqu les tudes sur la cour, lAngleterre a eu
ses raisons anglaises dune non-histoire de la cour. Ainsi, la Whig history qui
voit lhistoire de lAngleterre comme une longue marche vers la libert a pri-
vilgi les tudes sur le parlement considrant quil tait lun des principaux
moteurs qui poussait lAngleterre vers la modernit. Par dfinition donc, la
cour ne se prtait pas lanalyse des historiens. Laccent mis Outre-Manche
sur le parlement et sa lutte contre labsolutisme Stuart, son rle donc dans le
sens de lhistoire a longtemps fait de la cour lincarnation de ce qui ntait pas
moderne et mme, selon lexpression de David Starkey, de ce qui ntait pas
anglais
3
. Et pourtant, si lon examine, en volume, la production historique
Cdric Michon
28
2
J. Duindam, Early Modern court studies: an overview and a proposal, dans M. Vlkel
A. Strohmeyer (ed.), Historiographie an europischen Hfen (16.-18. Jahrhundert), Berlin
2009, pp. 37-60.
3
The dominant school of Whig historiography saw the use of Parliament as the cen-
tral thread of British history. This made the Court not only unimportant but somehow un-
anglaise sur la cour, on saperoit quavec labandon progressif de la Whig
history, les tudes ont dcoll quelques annes aprs la Seconde Guerre mon-
diale.
I.2. La sortie dune tradition de mpris pour la cour: bilan chiffr de 50 ans
de travaux
Lhistoriographie anglaise sest donc progressivement dtache de ces
pesanteurs et a fini par voir en la cour un objet digne dtude et susceptible
denrichir la comprhension de lAngleterre moderne. Une tude quantitative
de la production anglaise sur la cour est rvlatrice de la naissance dun int-
rt nouveau partir des annes 1960-1970. Pour illustrer ce point, quelques
sondages ont t effectus. Il a ainsi t procd un dpouillement systma-
tique des articles publis par lEnglish Historical Review et lHistorical
Journal ainsi que des livres publis par Oxford University Press et Cambridge
University Press. Le critre de slection a consist retenir toutes les produc-
tions (articles ou livres) dont le sujet principal tait la cour. Les rsultats sont
assez loquents.
Pour commencer, analysons la courbe des publications de livres par
Oxford University Press et Cambridge University Press (on notera que lap-
proche ici nest pas seulement historiographique, mais aussi dhistoire litt-
raire, voire mme dhistoire de lart). Il ny a dabord aucun livre publi avant
les annes 1960
4
. Puis, 5 sont publis dans la dcennie 1960, 7 dans les annes
70, 10 dans les annes 80, 24 dans les annes 90 et 26 depuis 2000. Pour les
mmes priodes, les chiffres de lEnglish Historical Review et de lHistorical
Journal sont respectivement de 0 entre 1945 et 1959, 3 dans la dcennie 1960,
4 dans les annes 70, 10 dans les annes 80, 10 dans les annes 90 et 8 depuis
2000.
Lhistoriographie anglaise sur la cour
29
English as well, D. Starkey, Foreword, dans E. Cruickshanks (ed.), The Stuart Courts,
Gloucestershire 2000, p. XII.
4
Ce qui ne veut pas dire quil ny en ait pas en Angleterre; on peut penser par exem-
ple aux livres de I. K. Fletcher, The British Court: its traditions and ceremonial, London
1953 ou de R. Dutton, English Court Life from Henry VII to George II, London 1963. On
peut penser aussi aux travaux de Frances Yates, Roy Strong et mme, dans une certaine
mesure de G. H. Gombrich, autant dhistoriens qui se sont intresss la cour bien avant le
dcollage des tudes anglaises sur le sujet. On retiendra tout spcialement le livre de F.
Yates, French Academies of the Sixteenth Century, London 1947. Voir larticle de Malcolm
Smuts dans le prsent livre.
On le voit, la tendance est la hausse depuis 40 ans, le dmarrage commen-
ant dans les annes 1960, lacclration intervenant dans les annes 1970 et le
dcollage dans les annes 1980-1990. Depuis, on observe une certaine rgularit.
On peut se demander si lon va atterrir ou si lon est parti pour un long
vol. A priori, on namorce pas, actuellement, de phase datterrissage comme
en tmoigne la rgularit du nombre de thses soutenues dans les universits
anglaises et qui ont pour thme principal la cour
5
.
Il sagirait de savoir pourquoi on a ainsi dcoll.
Cdric Michon
30
5
Source: Institute of Historical Research, History Online, rubrique Theses.
I.3. Pourquoi et comment le verrou a-t-il saut? Norbert Elias secondaire?
A lchelle de lhistoriographie europenne, le rle dElias dans la des-
truction du verrou qui bloquait les tudes sur la cour est sans doute essentiel.
Pour la France par exemple, La Socit de Cour, a jou un rle essentiel en
abordant la cour comme processus de civilisation constituant la sociogense
de labsolutisme dans le processus de formation de lEtat. Toutefois, dans le
cas anglais, il est vraisemblable que le rle dElias ne fut pas directement
dterminant. Indirectement, il a certainement jou un rle par la cration dun
climat nouveau dans le champ des historiens occidentaux. Mais directement,
les forces souterraines de lhistoriographie anglaises ont certainement eu un
rle plus important. En effet, une histoire traditionnellement politique, aprs
stre beaucoup intresse au parlement et laffrontement de ce dernier avec
le pouvoir royal, ne pouvait manquer de sintresser, tt ou tard, au souverain
et/ou son entourage, donc la cour
6
. De la mme manire, suivant une
logique parallle, les historiens de ladministration ne pouvaient manquer de
sintresser ladministration curiale. On peut mme dire que le premier
grand uvre dun historien de ladministration comme Geoffrey Elton, peut,
dune certaine manire, tre lu comme une histoire, en creux, de la cour
dAngleterre. Or The Tudor Revolution in Government date de 1953, et son
laboration de limmdiat aprs-guerre. Le livre est totalement vierge donc,
dune quelconque influence liasienne.
31
6
On remarquera dailleurs que le travail dun historien comme Sir Lewis Namier
(1888-1960) sur les factions et le patronage parlementaire du XVIII
e
sicle peut avoir eu une
influence souterraine, en particulier dans ltude des factions de cour. Bien que Lewis
Namier ne se soit jamais intress directement la cour, ses mthodes et ses modles
conceptuels pouvaient tre transposs tels quels ltude de la cour et de la noblesse. En
effet, sa mthode qui consistait tudier le jeu politique en termes dalliance base sur la
parent, le patronage et les structures traditionnelles de loyaut et de rcompense, plutt
quen termes de partis organiss autour dune idologie ou dune religion rappelle des ana-
lyses nettement postrieures sur la cour. La mthode de Namier rappelle galement celle
dhistoriens conservateurs tels que Geoffrey Elton qui interprtaient le jeu politique comme
une question daffrontements en vue dobtenir pouvoir et rcompenses, plutt que comme
une bataille motive par des principes, une idologie ou un intrt de classe. Il faut recon-
natre toutefois que Geoffrey Elton nexcluait pas que certains politiciens (Thomas
Cromwell, mais aussi Cecil sans doute) aient eu des principes pour lesquels ils taient prts
se battre quil sagisse de leur conception du bon gouvernement, ou, comme Elton lad-
mettra vers la fin de sa vie, de convictions religieuses. Je remercie vivement Malcolm Smuts
et Steve Gunn qui ont bien voulu relire une premire version de cet article et auxquels cette
note en particulier et larticle dans son ensemble doivent beaucoup.
Par son sujet privilgi et par ses traditions, lhistoriographie anglaise ne
pouvait donc, tt ou tard, faire lconomie dune grande explication avec la
cour. Elias a peut-tre servi dhuile pour aider tourner le moteur explosion
que constituent les tudes historiques anglaises, mais il na vraisemblable-
ment pas t ltincelle qui la fait dmarrer. Dailleurs, les Anglais ne se rf-
rent pas massivement Elias qui reste pour eux une rfrence parmi dautres,
secondaire en tout cas par rapport leurs propres interrogations, qui, encore
une fois, sont dabord anglaises. Or lAngleterre nest pas du tout le champ
dtude dElias. Cest sans doute pourquoi les livres dirigs par A.G. Dickens,
The Courts of Europe (1977) et David Starkey, The English Court (1987), ne
mentionnent pas une seule fois Elias. Celui dirig par John Adamson, ne le
mentionne que cinq fois.
Pour autant, cela ne signifie pas quElias nait eu aucune influence. Ainsi,
Starkey rsume la communication de David Morgan sur le rle politique de la
late Plantagenet household, 1422-1485 par les mots suivants, en insistant
sur lvolution du vocabulaire qui intervient dans lAngleterre du XV
e
sicle:
at the beginning of that century, a member of the royal entourage was known
as a household man; at the end, as a courtier. The former was a fighter;
the latter a politician
7
.
On voit bien la tonalit liasienne de cette approche. Pourtant, encore une
fois, ni Starkey, ni Morgan ne mentionnent une seule fois Norbert Elias.
Vraisemblablement donc, ce dernier a pntr dans lhistoriographie anglaise,
au mieux, par capillarit, dune manire plus ou moins consciente, mais en
tout cas pas revendique comme telle, beaucoup moins par exemple que dans
lhistoriographie franaise
8
. Quoiquil en soit, la cour est devenue un objet
dtude important dans lhistoriographie anglaise partir des annes 1960-
1970. Ses mthodes se sont progressivement diversifies, ainsi que ses
champs dinvestigation, tel point quaujourdhui, nous sommes face une
multifaceted reality. A quoi ressemble cette multifaceted reality du ct
anglais?
Cdric Michon
32
7
D. Starkey (ed.), The English Court from the Wars of the Roses to the Civil War,
London 1987, p. 3.
8
On trouve toutefois chez lhistorien Mervyn James une approche qui nest pas sans
rappeler celle de Norbert Elias dans la recherche dun modle de processus de civilisation
grande chelle, anim par la cour (mais aussi par les universits, lhumanisme, la loi etc.).
Voir notamment, M. James, Society, Politics and Culture. Studies in Early Modern England,
Cambridge 1986. Je remercie Steve Gunn davoir attir mon attention sur luvre et les tra-
vaux de Mervyn James.
II. Lhistoriographie anglaise de la cour: analyse thmatique de 40 ans de
travaux
Plusieurs points caractrisent lhistoriographie anglaise sur la cour.
Premier point, les historiens anglais sont lorigine de vastes synthses. Il y
a dabord celle dA.G. Dickens, The Courts of Europe. Politics, Patronage
and Royalty, 1400-1800 (Londres, 1977). Ce livre est luvre de 14 histo-
riens, tous anglais. Son sous-titre, Politics, Patronage and Royalty, 1400-
1800, souligne la dimension politique de son approche. Il y a ensuite celle de
John Adamson, The Princely Courts of Europe. Ritual, Politics and Culture
under the Ancien Rgime. 1500-1750 (Londres, 1999). Dernire synthse en
date, elle runit 13 chercheurs dont 4 seulement sont Anglais
Deuxime point, les travaux anglais couvrent une large aire gogra-
phique. En effet, une tude chiffre rvle que la production universitaire
anglaise, si elle privilgie, ce qui nest pas surprenant, lhistoire de la cour
anglaise, ne se caractrise pas moins par une large couverture gographique
qui embrasse principauts et royaumes dEurope, mais aussi dAsie. Cette
impression, qui sexprime par les synthses dinspiration anglaise, se confir-
me lorsque lon analyse, de manire quantitative, les articles et livres publis
par lEnglish Historical Review et lHistorical Journal ainsi quOxford
University Press et Cambridge University Press. Sur la petite quarantaine
darticles sur la cour publis par lEnglish Historical Review et lHistorical
Journal, on voit clairement que lcrasante majorit des articles portent sur
lAngleterre. Toutefois, si lon regroupe lensemble des autres aires gogra-
phiques concernes et quon les compare avec les chiffres de lAngleterre on
arrive une relation un peu plus quilibre. On arrive des rsultats compa-
rables si lon analyse les publications dOxford University Press et de
Cambridge University Press, avec mme davantage douvrages portant sur
des cours autres que la cour anglaise. Cela sexplique en partie par le jeu des
traductions, mais marginalement seulement: si on enlve la petite dizaine de
traduction, on arrive une presque parfaite galit en chiffre de livres sur la
cour anglaise et les autres cours publis par des historiens anglais. Dailleurs,
la plupart des grandes cours europennes ont leur historien anglais. Pour ne
prendre que lexemple franais, on peut penser Robert Knecht, Roger
Mettam, David Potter, Peter Burke ou Peter Campbell.
33
Cdric Michon
34
Peu de pays europens pourraient aligner de la mme manire plusieurs
spcialistes sur des cours trangres. Ce qui compte dailleurs, ce nest pas
seulement lexistence de spcialistes qui font autorit, mais aussi le fait que la
cour comme sujet dtude soit ce point attractif que lon puisse aiguiller des
tudiants sur diffrentes aires gographiques. Cela apparat clairement dans la
rpartition par aire gographique des thses sur la cour qui, l encore, souli-
gne non seulement lintrt pour des cours europennes autres que la cour
anglaise, mais mme pour des cours extra-europennes:
Troisime point, une tude thmatique des publications anglaises sur la
cour (articles et livres) rvle galement la varit des approches thma-
tiques si lon fait une approche par mots cls. En volume, cest lapproche
synthtique qui est privilgie, suivie de manire peu prs quilibre par
lapproche politique, lapproche artistique, lapproche culturelle, lapproche
monographique (par courtisans). On notera enfin que la production sur le
genre (cf les thses) est en plein essor et que la dimension religieuse est mar-
ginale, mme si John Adamson insiste sur cet aspect dans lintroduction de la
synthse quil a dirige
9
.
Quatrime point, une approche gographiquement et thmatiquement
diversifie conduit naturellement une approche comparative trs dveloppe
en Angleterre. Cette approche, en soit toujours intressante, semble ici parti-
culirement pertinente. En effet, les cours, en particulier celles de la premire
modernit, mais aussi celles de lge classique, constituent une ralit proti-
forme faite de petites, de moyennes et de grandes cours qui interagissent les
unes avec les autres et dont les changes ne peuvent tre rsums par un dif-
fusionnisme sens unique (du type Bourgogne vers le reste de lEurope).
Elles constituent ce que Rita Costa Gomes a appel une Court Galaxy
10
. La
mtaphore astronomique rendant bien la dimension dinteraction entre ces
cours. Ce point est fondamental, mme chez Norbert Elias qui insiste sur lim-
portance dune socit de cour internationale, qui se caractrise par ses
valeurs partages. De ce point de vue, le livre de Peter Burke, The Fortunes
of the Courtie (Oxford, 1995) est rvlateur aussi bien du caractre inter-
national du modle courtisan que de la volont partage de lhistoriographie
anglaise de penser la cour la fois dans sa diversit et dans son unit par des
tudes comparatives. Cest le principe des synthses anglaises, cest aussi
35
9
Cet aspect sest un peu dvelopp ces dernires annes, cf. par exemple le livre de P.
McCullough, Sermons at Court: Politics and Religion in Elizabethan and Jacobean
Preaching, Cambridge 1998.
10
R. Costa-Gomes, The Court Galaxy, dans A. Molho, D. Ramada Curto, N. Koniordos
(eds.), Finding Europe: discourses on margins, communities, images, New York 2007, pp.
184-204.
celui du premier point de lintroduction dAdamson par exemple, The Court
and its Varieties.
Lavenir des tudes sur la cour passe par la comparaison, rendue possible
par 40 ans de travaux. Cette dimension comparative, vu formul par beau-
coup, mais ralis par peu, nest pas exclusivement anglaise videmment. Les
rencontres organises par la Residenzen-Kommission ont systmatiquement
observs des cas allemands, italiens, franais, anglais, bourguignons et espa-
gnols. Elles se sont efforcs chaque fois de replacer la cour dans une dyna-
mique densemble lchelle occidentale et dinsrer la cour dans une volu-
tion sociale, politique et culturelle globale: la cour lieu dinnovation ou de tra-
dition, lieu de concurrence ou de symbiose, lieu de pouvoir ou de contre-pou-
voir, lieu de confrontation ou dintgration, lieu dimpulsion culturelle, di-
mitation ou de transfert
11
. De la mme manire, chacune des institutions cons-
titutives du Court Studies Forum, insiste sur la ncessit de la comparaison.
La manifestation qui nous a runis Versailles est le tmoignage concret de
cette proccupation.
Ltude des cours a donc tout gagner une tude en parallle ou une
tude comparative. Les Anglais, plus que les autres, ont manifest cette pr-
occupation par les synthses qui viennent dtre voques mais galement par
des ouvrages plus cibls. On peut penser au moins trois livres rcents et
importants: The World of the Favourite; The Princely Court. Medieval Courts
and Culture in North-West Europe et The Court as a Stage. England and the
Low Countries in the Later Middle Ages
12
. La prochaine tape pourrait ajou-
ter la comparaison europenne une approche comparative qui ferait clater
le cadre occidental pour atteindre une comparaison avec des cours situes
dans dautres espaces que celui de lOccident. Si lon examine, ne serait-ce
que la priode qui, chronologiquement, correspond en Occident au Bas
Moyen Age et la premire modernit, on trouve, hors dEurope, de nom-
breuses cours trs brillantes, quil sagisse des cours pr-colombiennes
(Aztques, Incas), africaines (cours des Hafsides Tunis, des Abdelwadides
Tlemcen, des Mrinides au Maroc, cour mamelouke, cour malienne, cour du
Songhay, du Bnin ou de Monomotapa), proche-orientales (cours ottomanes
Cdric Michon
36
11
P. Monnet, Cours et rsidences dans lEmpire et en Europe, Bulletin dinformation
de la Mission Historique Franaise en Allemagne, . (2005), pp. 168-173.
12
Cf. J. H. Elliott L.W.B. Brockliss (eds.), The World of the Favourite, New Haven
1999; M. Vale, The Princely Court. Medieval Courts and Culture in North-West Europe,
Oxford 2001 et S. Gunn A. Janse (eds.), The Court as a Stage. England and the Low
Countries in the Later Middle Ages, Boydell 2006.
et cours timourides), asiatiques (Inde, Chine, Japon, Core, Java)
13
. Une
approche croise de ces diffrentes cours ne pourrait quapprofondir notre
connaissance du phnomne curial.
III. Dcloisonnement spatial et chronologique de lhistoire des cours
Sans tre all encore aussi loin dans lespace, des travaux anglais comme
ceux de Malcolm Vale incarnent particulirement bien le double enjeu de la
remonte chronologique et de la comparaison. Il est important de souligner
que la proccupation premire de Malcolm Vale lorsquil entreprend sa com-
paraison des cours du Nord-Ouest entre 1270 et 1380 nest pas de comparer
pour comparer, mais avant tout de montrer que la cour nest pas seulement une
ralit de la modernit, mais existe dj bel et bien ds le XIII
e
sicle. De ce
point de vue, la spcificit britannique consiste poser le problme par rap-
port au modle de la cour renaissante, l o le problme de lhistorien fran-
ais est de se positionner par rapport au modle louis-quatorzien. Quoiquil en
soit, lenjeu est de se positionner par rapport la confiscation dune notion par
une priode basse. Lenjeu est aussi de se positionner par rapport des notions
comme celle de modernit, dans toutes ses dclinaisons (Etat moderne,
homme moderne, etc.). Car la modernit, comme la charrue, ne cesse dt-
re dcouverte par les historiens pour caractriser la squence chronologique
laquelle ils consacrent leurs travaux.
Cette remonte chronologique apparat clairement dans les volumes de
production: lquilibre interne de la production anglaise sur la cour a t
modifi. Son histoire rvle en effet un dynamisme ingal et irrgulier des
centres dintrt par rapport aux grandes priodes historiques. Il apparat ainsi
que deux priodes ont longtemps attir le plus grand nombre dhistoriens de
la cour: les priodes Tudor et Stuart. Aujourdhui, la domination de ces prio-
des tend sestomper avec une baisse proportionnelle de la production et la
progression de la production sur la priode mdivale.
Pour expliquer les travaux croissant sur la cour au Moyen Age, il faut
quune rponse positive ait t apporte deux grandes questions: la cour
comme socit spcifique, avec une culture particulire, existe-t-elle au
Moyen Age? La cour comme instrument de pouvoir, point de contact exis-
te-t-elle au Moyen Age? Dans la rponse quils ont apport ces deux ques-
37
13
Voir E. Anheim, Les socits de cour, dans P. Boucheron (ed.), Le Monde au XV
e
si-
cle, Paris 2009, pp. 691-707.
tions depuis quelques annes, les mdivistes anglais se sont positionns
gnralement en faveur de lide dune ralit de la cour anglaise ds les
priodes hautes (XI
e
-XII
e
sicles) et parfois encore plus haute (cour carolin-
gienne). Lapproche privilgie toutefois est celle de la court culture, les
historiens du haut moyen ge identifiant une court culture partir de prio-
des trs anciennes.
III.1. Les tapes de la remonte chronologique dans lhistoriographie anglaise
Lun des enjeux de lhistoriographie anglaise sur la cour aujourdhui est
donc un dbat chronologique dont la ligne de front na cess de se dplacer.
Dune certaine manire, le dclencheur est laffirmation de Geoffrey Elton
selon laquelle il ny a pas de cour avant la priode Tudor (1976). Depuis, les
historiens anglais ne cessent de procder une remonte chronologique. Il y
a eu dabord D. A. L. Morgan (1987) qui a soulign quil se passait quelque
chose au milieu du XV
e
sicle. Il y a eu ensuite Nigel Saul (1997) qui a
dmontr de manire convaincante lexistence dune cour sous le rgne de
Richard II la fin du XIV
e
sicle. Il y a eu enfin Malcolm Vale (2001) qui a
dmontr lexistence de cours entre 1270 et 1380. Si Malcolm Vale souligne
bien que la cour de cette poque est plus une occasion quune institution, il
insiste toutefois sur deux lments. Dabord, lmergence dune culture de
cour spcifique commune aux socits de cour de lAngleterre, de la France
et des Flandres. Ensuite, la mise en place, aprs 1200, dun chamber system
cest--dire un systme qui codifie et utilise les mcanismes de la proximit
et du contrle de laccs la personne royale. Enfin, il montre que la crois-
sance du rle politique et financier des chambres est un phnomne que lon
observe trs clairement, au sein des cours de lespace tudi, ds le deuxime
quart du XIV
e
sicle. Ace moment l, les princes sentourent de familiares qui
ont dsormais des titres et des offices au sein de la chambre. Ce dveloppe-
ment prfigure dune manire trs nette les cours permanentes. Enfin, plus
rcemment encore, Catherine Cubitt, a publi Court Culture in the Early
Middle Ages
14
. Ce recueil dessais insiste sur le fait que lintrt nouveau pour
la court culture souligne limportance du rle de la cour dans le gouverne-
ment de lEtat, non seulement comme centre politique, mais aussi comme
cur moral et culturel. La cour agit comme un aimant pour les normes cour-
tisanes parses dans le reste de la socit. Par une approche croise qui traite
Cdric Michon
38
14
C. Cubitt, Court Culture in the Early Middle Ages, Turnhout 2003.
aussi bien des mathmatiques que de larchitecture, de larchologie, de lhis-
toire de lart, de lhistoire et de la littrature, ce livre affirme lexistence de
cours dveloppes ds le haut Moyen Age
Enfin, il faut souligner que la question de la remonte a t repose
rcemment au sujet de la priode 1400-1450. Y-a-t-il eu une interruption de la
cour pendant un demi-sicle? Cest ce quaurait tendance considrer un his-
torien comme John Watts
15
. Ce dbat parmi les historiens anglais soulve un
certain nombre de questions qui intressent en fait lensemble de la commu-
naut des historiens sintressant la cour, lune des premires tant celle de
la dfinition mme de la notion de cour.
III.2. Problme thoriques de la remonte chronologique et de louverture
spatiale
Cette question de la remonte chronologique pose en effet un certain
nombre de problmes quil est important de ne pas luder. Certains mdivis-
tes anglais mettent dailleurs en garde contre un usage trop gnreux du terme
de cour pour dsigner des ralits fort diffrentes. Lide selon laquelle il y a
toujours eu quelque chose comme une cour ds lors quil y avait quelque
chose comme un prince peut relever aussi bien de la paresse intellectuelle que
du bon sens. Sil y a toujours un risque utiliser les concepts sans les dfinir
rigoureusement, il y a aussi un risque vouloir confisquer un concept pour
lusage unique dune poque donne.
On ne peut dabord faire lconomie dun topo qui correspond en fait
une conviction partage par la plupart des historiens de la cour commencer
par lun des premiers dentre eux, lAnglais Walter Map (1148-1208/1210)
qui crit: In curia sum et de curia loquor, et quid ipsa sit non intellego (je
suis dans la cour et je parle de la cour, et je ne sais pas ce quelle est). Ds
linstant que la notion pose problme, toute confiscation par une priode ou
une autre parat suspecte. Clairement, la cour fait partie de ces notions appa-
remment videntes mais qui se drobent lanalyse ds que celle-ci vise la
prcision scientifique.
On peut sappuyer sur les mots.
Ainsi, on peut tre tent dutiliser le mot cour parce quil parat vident
et que tout le monde lemploie, des modernistes aux contemporanistes, en
39
15
J. L. Watts, Was there a Lancastrian Court, dans J. Stratford (ed.), The Lancastrian
Court, Donington 2003.
passant par les sociologues, les littraires et les politistes. Alors pourquoi pas
les mdivistes, hauts, bas et moyens? Une des raisons, pour certaines prio-
des du Moyen Age, de ne pas utiliser le mot cour peut rsider dans le fait
que lon observe une relative raret dans lusage des mots cour ou curia
ou court au sein des cours europennes des XIV
e
et XV
e
sicles
16
. On signa-
lera toutefois que le principe qui consiste soumettre lintelligibilit dune
priode la conscience historique de ses contemporains ne va pas de soi.
Ainsi, ce nest pas parce que le terme de cour est rarement employ certai-
nes priodes du Moyen Age, que la cour nexiste pas ces poques. Cet argu-
ment opre une confusion entre la chose et son nom, ou, pour employer le lan-
gage de la linguistique entre le signifi et le signifiant. Cela reviendrait dire
quil ne pourrait exister de pratiques sociales ou politiques sans la conscience
discursive de ce quelles sont. Cela reviendrait dire que M. Jourdain ne parle
pas en prose, puisquil ne sait pas ce que cest que la prose. Il est important
de mesurer la porte pistmologique dune telle affirmation. Affirmer que
lon ne peut pas parler pour une poque donne de ce qui ntait pas nomm
cette poque revient dire que lhistoire doit tre crite dans la langue de
ses acteurs. Cest un choix que lon peut dfendre, mais cest un choix qui ne
va pas de soi. Laffirmation selon laquelle la pratique ne peut pas prcder la
thorie reste encore dmontrer.
En fait, le problme qui se pose est celui des invariants historiques quil
importe de contextualiser. Il ne sagit pas de considrer quil nexisterait en
Europe quune cour de toute ternit qui, telle une force souterraine, traverse-
rait les sicles et dont lhistorien localiserait rgulirement les points de rsur-
gence. Il ne sagirait pas non plus dimaginer qu un instant t les diffren-
tes cours que lon observerait correspondraient diffrents moments du dve-
loppement dun organisme dont la croissance obirait un schma dynamique
unique. Il ne sagirait donc pas de dire la cour dHenri VIII existe exacte-
ment semblable trois sicles avant ou de distinguer des ges rigides de la
cour. Il sagit plutt de se demander sil ny aurait pas une ralit commune
diffrents rgnes et diffrentes socits qui trouverait sexprimer de telle ou
telle manire suivant les lieux et les moments? Il peut, thoriquement, exister
diffrents types de cour comme il y a plusieurs types de dmocraties. Cest
ainsi quon peut parler de dmocratie athnienne aussi bien que de dmocra-
Cdric Michon
40
16
Ibid., p. 254 et 261-262. Voir aussi J. L. Watts, Henry VI and the Politics of Kingship,
Cambridge 1996, p. 86; D. A. L. Morgan, .., pp. 35, 68; J. P. Genet, New Politics or New
Language? The Words of Politics in Yorkist and Early Tudor England, dans J. L. Watts
(ed.), The End of the Middle Ages?, Stroud 1998, pp. 45 et 60.
tie amricaine sans que cela ne prte confusion alors que tout le monde serait
bien daccord pour reconnatre quil y a des diffrences de fond entre ces deux
rgimes. Plutt que de se cantonner aux ralits dun moment pour monopo-
liser et confisquer un concept par un souci louable au dpart de rigueur scien-
tifique, ne serait-il pas plus ambitieux, et cela ne ferait-il pas davantage sens,
dessayer de penser les phnomnes dans leur globalit diachronique en
essayant de distinguer dune part les constantes structurelles et dautre part les
spcificits propres aux diffrents moments? Ne gagnerait-t-on pas analyser
franchement les cours de Richard II, Henry IV, Henry VII, Louis XI, Franois
I
er
, Henry VIII, Louis XIV etc. plutt que de prfrer sintresser, selon les cas
la familia, au trayne, aux servants, la household, au consilium etc.? Le
risque dune cour en miettes, de lclatement du concept, est coteux en ter-
mes heuristiques.
Pourquoi alors ne pas ouvrir la squence chronologique la plus large pos-
sible aux tudes sur la cour? On rejoint alors, dun point de vue chronologique
cette fois, les proccupations voques plus haut propos de lespace. On
mesure bien l lintrt que reprsenterait une ouverture des tudes sur la cour
dautres espaces que lespace europen, des espaces qui obissent donc
une autre temporalit que celle de lEurope. Les analyses qui couplent cour
et modernit ou cour et Etat gagneraient tre confrontes des prio-
des hautes aussi bien qu des espaces lointains. En soulignant aussi bien les
divergences que les analogies entre la cour de Charlemagne et celle des Ming,
entre la cour dHenri VIII et celle de Mansa Suleyman au Mali, entre la cour
de Louis XIV et celle de lEmpereur ou du Shogun au Japon ne peut-on esp-
rer connatre encore mieux chacune de ces six cours? La connaissance fine de
lune dentre elle devrait clairer notre comprhension de nimporte laquelle
des cinq autres aussi loin soit-elle loigne dans le temps et dans lespace.
Lanalyse des analogies aussi bien que des divergences entre des cours loi-
gnes dans le temps et/ou dans lespace est le meilleur moyen de dfinir ce
qui relve du structurel et ce qui relve du singulier dans la ralit des cours.
Loin de crer un objet virtuel dpourvu dincarnation, cette dmarche per-
mettrait au contraire de mieux comprendre chacune de ses incarnations. La
dmarche qui vise confisquer le concept de cour pour une priode donne
(Louis XIV pour la France, Tudor et Stuart pour lAngleterre) est dj contra-
dictoire en elle-mme puisque lon a affaire deux confiscations parallles
qui tmoignent de ce que lune dentre elle, au moins, est injustifie. Mais le
problme est en fait plus gnral, plus important et, de ce fait, plus intressant.
Car cest la dmarche historique elle-mme qui est ici en cause.
En effet, ce qui caractrise les sciences humaines en gnral et lhistoire
en particulier, cest quelles ne travaillent pas uniquement partir de concepts
41
gnriques que lon pourrait galement appeler noms communs (comme
par exemple population, densit, change), mais galement partir de
noms propres. Ces concepts gnriques ou noms communs peuvent tre
dfinis hors de toute dsignation, mme implicite, de contexte, tandis que
les noms propres constituent eux, au contraire, des dsignateurs rigides,
prcisment situs dans le temps et dans lespace (Shogunat, condottiere,
conntable). Toutefois, la spcificit des sciences humaines est de disposer
de trs nombreux concepts qui ne sont ni des noms communs ni des noms pro-
pres, des concepts donc, qui relvent dun statut mixte, cest--dire la fois
de lun et de lautre. Cest l une ralit dont la rflexion pistmologique
sest proccupe depuis longtemps. Lapproche de Max Weber par le type
idal renvoie ainsi cette notion de singularit (le protestantisme, le capita-
lisme) construite pour les besoins de lanalyse des faits sociaux. Weber sef-
force ainsi, pour analyser la ralit sociologique, de construire un concept
partir de quelques traits jugs dominants. Dans une perspective et un sens un
peu diffrents, il est important de souligner que lacteur type ainsi cr ne cor-
respond peut-tre aucun acteur concret, dans sa totalit, mais est un moyen
indispensable lanalyse. On peut mme aller plus loin en affirmant que l-
lasticit du concept est lune des caractristiques essentielles des concepts en
sciences humaines. Les sciences humaines, et lhistoire en particulier, seffor-
cent de parvenir une bauche de dfinition gnrique. Il est toutefois capital
de ne jamais oublier que cette bauche est ouverte, que le sens nest jamais
clos et quil y a toujours du jeu, au sens mcanique, dans le concept ainsi uti-
lis. Cest ce jeu qui permet dajuster le concept une srie de cas singuliers.
Et cest prcisment cet ajustement qui permet, par lanalogie, la fois de
faire vivre le concept et de le prciser et en mme temps dillustrer cette rali-
t quil nest pas clos, que lon a jamais tout dit ou tout compris. Cela ne jus-
tifie daucune manire un comparatisme brutal. Le jeu du concept nest pas
infini et ne tolre que des adaptations lamplitude limite. La dmarche his-
torique revient en fait resituer chaque cas singulier au sein dune srie dau-
tres cas singuliers avec lesquels la comparaison est possible et pertinente,
mais lidentification parfaite, toujours impossible
17
. Le concept de cour incar-
ne parfaitement cette ralit.
Sans lavoir thoris, ma connaissance, cest clairement cette ouver-
ture gographique et chronologique que lhistoriographie anglaise nous invi-
te. En procdant par la multiplication des tudes de cas issus de tous les espa-
Cdric Michon
42
17
Pour tout ce passage, voir J. C. Passeron, Le raisonnement sociologique. Un espace
non popprien de largumentation, Paris 2006.
ces du globe et situes dans diverses poques, les historiens anglais de la cour
ont contribu plus que les autres rendre possible une telle approche compa-
re du phnomne curial dans le monde, des origines nos jours. Sur lune
des ralits principales de la cour, en particulier, la question des rapports entre
la cour et lEtat, les historiens anglais se sont particulirement distingus.
IV. Point of contact, factions, affinities, household, ou lapproche
par les groupes sociaux dans une perspective politique
Parmi les diverses fonctions de la cour, la dimension politique est vi-
demment essentielle. Il est vrai que lobjet sy prte, mais il nen reste pas
moins quil reste frappant de voir combien lhistoriographie anglaise a
presque toujours un biais politique, mme lorsquelle adopte une approche
sociale, culture, artistique ou symbolique et cela, quelque soit la priode
concerne. Les historiens anglais, ou anglo-saxons en gnral ont donc insis-
t sur cette dimension avec quelques notions cls: le court and country de
Perez Zagorin; le point of contact de Geoffrey Elton; le rle cl de lentou-
rage immdiat avec la privy chamber ou la chamber de Starkey et Vale.
Au dpart pourtant, le renouveau de lhistoire politique anglaise dans les
annes 1950 passe par une analyse qui naccorde que peu de place la cour.
Geoffrey Elton dans The Tudor Revolution in Government (Cambridge, 1953)
donne de la cour une vision trs efface; on pourrait mme parler de la cour
comme angle mort. Dans cet ouvrage et dans ses travaux ultrieurs, Geoffrey
Elton expose la thorie suivante: selon lui, on assiste un affrontement mul-
tisculaire entre la maison du roi et les institutions administratives qui connat
son aboutissement dans la dcennie 1530 avec la victoire dune administration
bureaucratique et publique qui lemporte sur le gouvernement personnel du
monarque. A ce moment l, selon Elton, on entre dans un monde bureaucra-
tique domin par des experts administratifs qui dominent le conseil et les dif-
frents corps administratifs et remplacent les magnats. La problmatique de
Geoffrey Elton renvoie une conception spcifique du politics: il consid-
re que les institutions du gouvernement et de ladministration sont le lieu o
se droule le combat entre les prerogative and constitutionalist forces
que A.F. Pollard et Sir John Neale et les gnrations antrieures dhistorien
Tudor avaient localises dans le Parlement
18
. Cette approche politique passe
par quelques notions cls comme la question des affinities (des clientles
43
18
J. Guy, General introduction, dans Id. (ed.), The Tudor Monarchy, Londres 1997, p. 4.
royales ou nobiliaires), des rapports entre court and country, rapports qui
passent par la cour envisage ici comme un point de contact entre le centre
et les priphries. Les historiens anglais traitant de la cour au XIV
e
sicle
(comme Nigel Saul), au XV
e
sicle (comme David Morgan), au XVII
e
sicle
(comme Kevin Sharpe, Derek Hirst ou Andrew Barclay) en passant par les
historiens de lpoque Tudor (de C.S.L. Davies Steven Gunn ou David
Starkey) ont t nombreux labourer ce champ.
IV.1. Affinities, court and country ou la cour comme point de contact
Une des lectures classiques de la cour partir de lexemple de Louis XIV
est celle de la domestication de la noblesse. Sur ce point, les historiens anglais
diffrent dans leurs analyses pour savoir dans quelle mesure une position cl
la cour et laccs au patronage royal joue un rle dans le maintien ou dans
le renforcement du pouvoir local des nobles
19
. En revanche, presque tous vo-
quent lenjeu que reprsente pour le pouvoir central le fait de pouvoir comp-
ter sur des relais locaux quils sefforcent de sassurer en les attirant la cour.
Ainsi, de nombreux historiens comme Simon Adams, Andrew Barclay,
George Bernard, C.S.L. Davies, C. Given-Wilson, Steven Gunn, Eric Ives,
David Morgan, Nigel Saul, David Starkey et Penry Williams ont propos une
analyse des structures of Politics dans lAngleterre de la fin du Moyen Age,
des Tudor et de lpoque Stuart qui centre la perspective sur la cour et la mai-
son royale
20
ou sur la question du patronage, des factions et du rseau des
transactions socio-politiques par lequel courtisans et conseillers construisaient
leurs clientles dans les provinces
21
. Les Anglais ont de ce point de vue t
Cdric Michon
44
19
C. Carpenter, Wars of the Roses, Cambridge 1997, pp. 43-44 et 63-64.
20
Lun des premiers est David Starkey, avec sa thse indite soutenue lUniversit de
Cambridge en 1973, The Kings Privy Chamber. 1485-1547. Mais on peut galement citer
C. Given-Wilson, The Royal Household and the Kings Affinity: Service, Politics and
Finance in England 1360-1413, London 1986, ou D. A. L. Morgan, The Kings Affinity in
the Polity of Yorkist England, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5
th
ser. 23
(1973), pp. 1-25; R. Horrox, Richard III: A Study of Service, Cambridge 1989; S. J. Gunn,
The Courtiers of Henry VII, HER, 108 (1993), pp. 34-48.
21
Guy, General introduction, cit., p. 5. S. L. Adams, The Dudley Clientele, 1553-1563,
dans G. W. Bernard (ed.), The Tudor Nobility, Manchester 1992, pp. 241-265; G. W.
Bernard, The Power of the Early Tudor Nobility: A Study of the Fourth and Fifth Earls of
Shrewsbury, Brighton 1985; G. W. Bernard (ed.), The Tudor Nobility, Manchester 1992; S.
J. Gunn, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, 1484-1545, Oxford 1988 (en particulier chapit-
re 3, Power in the Counties, Power at Court: 1523-1529, pp. 75-115); E. Ives, Faction at the
peu prs les seuls en Europe procder des tudes fouilles de groupes de
type parfois prosopographiques, et dune manire assez systmatique cou-
vrant ainsi une priode assez longue
22
.
Dans lanalyse de Nigel Saul par exemple, limportance politique de la
cour est bien mise en avant
23
. Nigel Saul souligne ainsi que le rgime de
Richard II a des relents absolutistes, Richard was effectively without inter-
nal challenge to his power. The aspirations of the ambitious were focused
exclusively on the court, and the households of the magnates were left high
and dry. Laffinity du roi constituait a major new power base in the shires
tel point que la couronne was able to assimilate the local power structures
to those of the centre.
Ce qui est valable la fin du XIV
e
sicle selon Nigel Saul (1996), lest
aussi selon Kevin Sharpe et Derek Hirst (1978). Dans larticle Court,
Country and Politics before 1629 publi dans Faction and Parliament
(Oxford, 1979), Derek Hirst souligne combien les conseillers du roi sont divi-
ss et que les Pairs jouent un rle important dans le jeu politique car au dbut
du XVII
e
sicle, les expressions Court et Country ne renvoient pas des
groupes qui sopposent, mais plutt des sphres qui se superposent et se
compltent
24
. De la mme manire, Andrew Barclay dans son article sur la
cour de Cromwell souligne quun tournant intervient lorsque le conseil du
Protecteur dcide de lui attribuer deux anciens palais royaux, ce qui implique
la cration de quelque chose ressemblant une household pour soccuper de
ces palais. La consquence en est qu la mort de Cromwell, ceux qui len-
tourent agissent comme des courtisans
25
. Lorigine de ces derniers est particu-
45
Court of Henry VIII: The Fall of Anne Boleyn, History, 57 (1972), pp. 169-188; E. Ives,
Factions in Tudor England, London 1986; W. T. MacCaffrey, Place and Patronage in
Elizabethan Politics, dans S. T. Bindoff, J. Hurstfield, C. H. Williams (eds.), Elizabethan
Government and Society: Essays Presented to Sir John Neale, London 1961, pp. 95-126; P.
Williams, The Later Tudors: England, 1547-1603, Oxford 1995 et Id., The Tudor Regime,
Oxford 1979.
22
Il est intressant de souligner de ce point de vue que si les historiens anglais nont
pas connu avec la mme intensit quen France par exemple la mode des grandes thses et
des grands articles prosopographiques, en revanche, sur le sujet de la cour, ils ont pratiqu
ltude de groupes, notamment sur le peuple courtisan sur un modle assez proche et beau-
coup plus quailleurs.
23
N. Saul, Richard II, New Haven 1999, pp. 327-365.
24
D. Hirst, Court, Country and Politics before 1629, dans K. Sharpe (ed.), Faction and
Parliament, Oxford 1979, pp. 139-173.
25
A. Barclay, The Lord Protector and his Court, dans P. Little (ed.), Oliver Cromwell:
New Perspectives, Basingstoke 2009 those around Cromwell had started to act like cour-
tiers. They had come to believe in both the concept and the reality of a Cromwellian court.
lirement intressante: en effet, Cromwell, au lieu de choisir parmi ses
anciens amis dEast Anglia et de larme, peuple sa maison de civilian poli-
tical leaders et de membres de sa famille (son gendre John Claypole est fait
master of horse; son cousin, John Barrington, est fait gentleman of the bed-
chamber). Il semble quil ait voulu par l se distinguer de larme qui consti-
tuait la base de son pouvoir, comme sil avait souhait se rendre plus accep-
table lensemble de la population
26
. Toutes ces tudes ont largement montr
la dimension de fidlit croise qui caractrise les relations entre rois
dAngleterre, magnat et gentry, le cur de ces relations se jouant la cour
27
.
IV.2. Factions
Un autre aspect qui a t trs largement tudi est celui des factions.
Comment se rpartissent, la cour, les rapports de force entre magnats, sou-
verain et bureaucrates? La question des factions a en effet t pendant prs de
25 ans lun des aspects les plus dynamiques de lhistoriographie anglaise, ou,
pour employer lexpression de David Starkey, lun des principaux buzz parmi
les historiens anglais
28
. Avec la rvaluation de la cour comme centre poli-
tique essentiel, ltude du rle jou par les factions de cour simposait. Cest
selon lexpression de Steven Gunn The Structures of Politics qui sont en jeu
ici
29
. Il sagit notamment de savoir dans quelle mesure le roi reste matre du
Cdric Michon
46
26
Ivi.
27
S. K. Walker, The Lancastrian Affinity 1361-1399, Oxford 1999; R. Horrox, Richard
III: A Study of Service, Cambridge 1989, pp. 27-88; D. E. Lowe, Patronage and Politics:
Edward IV, the Wydevills, and the Council of the Prince of Wales, 1471-1483, Bulletin of
the Board of Celtic Studies, 29 (1981), pp. 545-573; A. Boyle, Cultural Life and the
Exercise of Power at the Residences of Henry Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, 1512-1580, dans
Gunn Janse (eds.), The Court as a Stage, cit., pp. 169-182. On pourrait faire une analyse
comparable des travaux de David Potter sur la cour de France entre 1450 et 1550.
28
R. Shephard, Court Factions in Early Modern England, Journal of Modern History,
64 (dcembre 1882), pp. 721-745 et D. Starkey, The Reign of Henry VIII: Personalities and
Politics, London 1985, p. 168. Voir aussi les travaux de Ives, Faction, cit., et Id., Faction in
Tudor England, cit.; G. Walker, Persuasive Fictions: Faction, Faith and Popular Culture in
the Reign of Henry VIII, London 1996; S. Adams, Faction, Clientelage and Party: English
Politics, 1550-1603, History Today, 32 (1982), pp. 33-39; D. Starkey, From Feud to
Faction: English Politics c. 1450-1550, History Today, 32 (1982), pp. 16-22.
29
S. J. Gunn, The Structures of Politics in Early Tudor England, Transactions of the
Royal Historical Society, 6
th
ser., 5 (1995), pp. 59-90. Voir aussi G. W. Bernard, Power and
Politics in Tudor England, London 2000, pp. 1-18 et N. Mears, Courts, Courtiers and
Culture in Tudor England, Historical Journal, 46 (2003), pp. 703-722.
jeu des factions. La conclusion de Steve Gunn est trs prudente: As our sour-
ces rarely take us into the kings council, more rarely into his privy chamber
and never into his head, it may be only right to be a little unsure about the ulti-
mate balance between the king and his factions
30
. Quoiquil en soit, certains
se sont efforcs de trancher, comme Simon Adams qui, dans Favourites and
factions at the Elizabethan Court, remet en cause lide de la domination du
jeu politique par les factions la cour dElisabeth I
re31
.
IV.3. Cour et bureaucratie ou la monarchie mixte: la cour comme lieu de coe-
xistence, de collaboration et daffrontements entre hritiers et parvenus
Les thses de Geoffrey Elton sur une rvolution administrative orchestre
par Thomas Cromwell ont donc t remises en cause par les tudes sur la
chambre prive et limage dune monarchie domestique a t oppose celle
dune monarchie bureaucratique. LorsquElton opre quelques ajustements
son premier modle lorsquil propose une analyse de la cour comme point de
contact, il ne veut pas compltement renoncer sa rvolution. La difficul-
t pour lui rside dans le fait quil veut remettre jour ses thories, mais sans
les renier totalement. Comment faire puisque, selon lui, la rvolution Tudor
a limin la maison du roi du gouvernement au profit dune bureaucratie sous
contrle du conseil. Il sagit donc pour Elton de faire une petite place len-
tourage royal sans remettre en cause ses interprtations antrieures. Cest
pourquoi il oppose deux ralits: la politique qui serait laffaire des courti-
sans autour de la personne du monarque (il voudrait que lon cesse de quali-
fier de courtisans ceux qui ne sont pas dtenteurs dun office de cour); le
gouvernement qui serait laffaire du conseil et des conseillers. David
Starkey remet en cause cette analyse en soulignant que The kings court was
the government (1987) et quon ne peut pas faire de distinction entre les
conseillers et les courtisans, qui sont les mmes individus. Parmi lensemble
des favoris ou des ministres qui ont dirig lAngleterre de Henri VIII jusqu
Charles I
er
, plus de la moiti ont servi dans la Privy Chamber ou dans la
Bedchamber
32
. Starkey souligne ensuite quon ne peut distinguer la poli-
tique et le gouvernement ou la cour et le gouvernement. Le principal repro-
che que lon peut formuler lencontre de Geoffrey Elton est que la distinc-
47
30
Gunn, The Structures, cit., p. 90.
31
R. G. Asch A. M. Birke (eds.), Princes, Patronage and the Nobility. The Court at
the Beginning of the Modern Age c. 1450-1650, Oxford 1991.
32
Starkey (ed.), The English Court, cit., pp. 11-12.
tion entre household et bureaucratic (ou national) est abusive tant la
confusion est forte entre les deux mondes
33
.
Il est manifeste que lon a affaire au dbut du XVI
e
sicle en Angleterre
(tout comme en France dailleurs), une monarchie mixte, qui est la fois
bureaucratique et domestique
34
. Dabord, parce que les courtisans collaborent
avec les juristes dans ladministration du royaume. Ensuite, parce que la fron-
tire entre les deux mondes est poreuse. Des techniciens occupent des charges
domestiques; des courtisans remplissent des missions techniques. De ce point
de vue, on peut signaler un aspect qui manque peut-tre lhistoriographie
anglaise de la cour. Il sagit de la question de la cohabitation entre des hri-
tiers et des parvenus. En effet, mme si les domestiques sont aussi des bureau-
crates et les bureaucrates sont aussi des courtisans, il nen reste pas moins que
le chancelier Thomas Wolsey nest pas le duc de Suffolk; que le secrtaire
Thomas Cromwell nest pas le duc de Norfolk et mme, que lvque Stephen
Gardiner nest pas larchevque Thomas Cranmer. La question de la cohabi-
tation, la cour, des parvenus et des hritiers est donc un lment tout fait
essentiel qui jusqu prsent na t abord qu la marge dans quelques
monographies sur de clbres parvenus comme Gardiner par exemple, ou
Thomas Wolsey
35
. Cette problmatique, indiscutablement valable pour
lAngleterre Tudor, lest trs vraisemblablement aussi pour des priodes plus
hautes, et aussi pour dautres cours. Toutefois, cet angle dattaque qui prolon-
gerait lhistoire politique traditionnelle de la cour pourrait tre complt par
une approche culturelle de la mise en scne de la vie de cour; mise en scne
du pouvoir bien sr, mais aussi mise en scne des courtisans par eux-mmes.
Cest de manire gnrale la question de la reprsentation qui est en cause ici
et cest lune des dimensions les plus dynamiques de lhistoire de la cour en
Angleterre.
Cdric Michon
48
33
Sur la position de Geoffrey Elton, voir The Tudor Constitution, cit., p. 132, note 11.
34
Sur cette question voir le lumineux article de R. Descimon, Les lites du pouvoir et
le prince: lEtat comme entreprise, dans W. Reinhard (ed.), Les lites du pouvoir et la cons-
truction de lEtat en Europe, Paris 1996, et notamment p. 139.
35
On signalera toutefois les deux articles de S. Gunn, New Men and New Monarchy
in England, 1485-1524, dans R. Stein (ed.), Powerbrokers in the Late Middle Ages: Les
Courtiers Du Pouvoir Au Bas Moyen Age, Turnhout 2001, pp. 153-163 et S. Gunn, The
Court of Henry VII, dans Gunn Janse (eds.), The Court, cit., pp. 139-141. On peut penser
galement K. Sharpe, Faction and Parliament, Oxford 1978 (sur lopposition
Buckingham) et M. James, At a Crossroads of the Political Culture: the Essex Revolt,
1601, dans Society, Politics and Culture. Studies in Early Modern England, Cambridge
1986, pp. 416-465.
V. Pour une nouvelle histoire politique de la cour: lapproche culturelle,
artistique et gender?
V.1. La question des reprsentations
En effet, lhistoriographie anglaise ne se limite pas seulement ltude
des hommes, des rseaux et des rapports de force. Elle sintresse galement
ltude des reprsentations. L encore, cette approche est notamment impor-
tante chez les historiens de la priode Tudor. On notera dailleurs que cette
dimension est trs nouvelle par rapport aux travaux de Geoffrey Elton qui
crivait que ces aspects l taient dpourvus dintrt
36
. Lun des premiers
articles est l encore celui de David Starkey, Representation through intima-
cy: A study in the symbolism of monarchy and Court office in early modern
England
37
. Analysant lenjeu que constitue la dimension sacre de la monar-
chie, Starkey ne sen tient pas la question de la propagande ou de la mani-
pulation de lopinion. Appliquant les mthodes de lanthropologue autant que
celles du sociologue ou de lhistorien, il analyse la confusion qui existe entre
public et priv, entre formel et informel. Il analyse notamment le
pouvoir de reprsentation jou par le personnel domestique de la Chamber et
de la Privy Chamber sous les Tudors
38
. Au dpart de ses recherches, il y a la
constatation que la symbolique royale sarticule autour dune double dimen-
sion: la dimension matrielle (couronne, sceptre, orbe etc.) dune part, la per-
sonne royale dautre part. Evoquant les travaux de Kantorowicz, Starkey sin-
tresse surtout la personne relle du roi. Il souligne ensuite linsuffisance de
ladministration royale, encore embryonnaire au tournant des XV
e
et XVI
e
si-
cles pour reprsenter efficacement le pouvoir royal. Lune des composantes de
la rponse royale consiste se dplacer. Ainsi, en 1464, Edward IV effectue
un long priple au sein de ses possessions. Ne pouvant tre partout, il dlgue
ses proches, eux-mmes numriquement peu nombreux. Un autre instrument
de dlgation devait tre trouv et le fut dans le personnel de la Privy
Chamber. Les Groom of the Stool, Knights of the Body, puis gentlemen of the
49
36
G. R. Elton, Tudor Government: the points of contact, III: The Court, Transactions
of the Royal Historical Society, 5
th
ser., 26 (1976), p. 225.
37
Dans I. Lewis (ed.), Symbols and Sentiments: Cross-Cultural Studies in Symbolism,
Harcourt Brace 1977.
38
D. Starkey, Representation through intimacy: A study in the symbolism of monarchy
and Court office in early modern England, repris dans J. Guy (ed.), The Tudor Monarchy,
London 1997, pp. 42-77.
Privy Chamber reprsentrent ainsi le roi la tte des armes dans la diplo-
matie (parmi les 5 ambassadeurs dHenri VIII la cour de Franois I
er
dans la
dcennie 1520, 4 sont issus de la Privy Chamber).
V.2. Mise en scne du pouvoir
Cette question de la reprsentation passe aussi par la question de la mise
en scne du pouvoir. On peut reprendre le titre de louvrage dit en 2006 par
Steven Gunn et Antheun Janse, The Court as a Stage, pour prsenter les dif-
frents aspects de cette approche. Steven Gunn souligne combien la mta-
phore du thtre permet une approche intressante du phnomne de la cour
au sein de laquelle se joue un quadruple drame: un drame politique, un drame
de gouvernement, un drame de statut social, un drame de relation publique
39
.
Mais le thtre est dabord un lieu o lon joue et met en scne une pice.
De ce point de vue, la cour comme dcor a t bien tudi. Cette dimension
intervient ds les travaux de Hugh Murray Baillie qui dans Etiquette and the
Planning of the State Apartments in Baroque Palaces souligne que lorgani-
sation des palais des monarchies europennes est porteuse dtiquettes natio-
nales spcifiques
40
. Aujourdhui, cette perspective est videmment poursuivie
par les travaux de Simon Thurley et notamment, pour nen retenir quun, The
Royal Palaces of Tudor England. Architecture and Court Life 1460-1547
(New Haven 1993)
41
. Notamment par la ralisation de plans prcis de la dis-
tribution interne des palais royaux, Simon Thurley met en valeur la com-
plexit et la richesse de lorganisation de lespace qui permet au roi de par-
faitement matriser sa reprsentation: il se montre quand il le veut qui il veut.
Cdric Michon
50
39
Gunn, The court, cit., p. 132.
40
Archaelogia, 101 (1967), pp. ..
41
Simon Thurley illustre ainsi lune des caractristiques des tudes anglaises sur la
cour, savoir le fait quelles ne sont pas seulement le fait duniversitaires, mais quelles doi-
vent galement beaucoup aux travaux de chercheurs appartenant soit au monde des muses
soit celui de lheritage industry. On peut penser Roy Strong (directeur de la National
Portrait Gallery puis du Victoria and Albert Museum), mais aussi Simon Thurley, Anna
Keay ou Susan Foister. Il faudrait aussi mentionner les travaux sur Van Dyck dOliver
Millar (Surveyor of The Queens Pictures et Director of the Royal Collection). Cest le dsir
de dvelopper larrire-fond historique de la production de certains artistes (comme Holbein,
Hilliard ou Van Dyck), de certaines formes artistiques (les portraits miniatures) ou de lar-
chitecture (domestique puis royale) qui, partir des annes 1970 engendra le dveloppement
des tudes sur la culture de cour. L encore, je remercie Malcolm Smuts de mavoir fait
raliser limportance de cet aspect de lhistoriographie anglaise sur la cour.
La dialectique de lexhibition, de la monstration volontaire est parfaitement
incarne par la distribution des logements royaux sous Henri VIII. Cest le
principe de ltiquette bien connu dont lanalyse est reprise par Norbert Elias
qui en souligne la fonction symbolique de grande porte en symbolisant
justement la rpartition du pouvoir en indiquant trs clairement la hirar-
chie des conditions
42
.
La cour est galement analyse travers le spectacle de la monarchie et
cela ds le premier livre de Sydney Anglo, Spectacle, Pageantry and Early
Tudor Policy (Oxford, 1969) dans lequel il souligne le raffinement et la com-
plexit des efforts de reprsentation et de mise en scne du pouvoir royal.
Vingt ans plus tard, dans Images of Tudor Kingship (Londres, 1992), il souli-
gne que leur impact resta sans doute trs limit, en raison justement de leur
complexit. Ils taient trop subtils pour tre compris. On en est aujourdhui
la troisime tape de cette rflexion, grce au stimulant dernier livre de Kevin
Sharpe qui analyse la communication royale, dHenri VIII Elisabeth tra-
vers les spectacles aussi bien que les portraits, les vtements, les bijoux, la lit-
trature. Kevin Sharpe souligne la fois la richesse de la communication
Tudor et combien ces derniers ntaient pas en mesure de contrler ce que leur
peuple pensait deux. Ils devaient notamment faire face aux prophties, aux
rumeurs, aux rvoltes autant de ralits en mesure de contrer leurs discours,
sous toutes ses formes
43
.
Sur cette question de la mise en scne de la monarchie, une mention sp-
ciale doit tre rserve aux analyses des Masques la cour de Charles I
er
.
Les Court masques sont des spectacles qui mlent chants, dance, thtre et
dont lobjectif est de clbrer la dynastie Stuart. Ils incarnent, bien tort, la
distraction frivole et coteuse. Un recueil dessais paru en 1998 sefforce de
montrer comment la production de masques reflte la rivalit des factions la
cour de Jacques I
er
et de Charles I
er
telle quelle sexprime travers la danse
et le spectacle
44
. La diversit dapproche reflte bien les tudes actuelles sur
la cour qui abordent aussi bien les sources crites que le contexte politique, la
musique et la danse. Les essais qui constituent le livre sont dailleurs crits par
des spcialistes de la danse, de la musique, des spectacles visuels et de lhis-
toire politique. Dans un livre paru trs rcemment, Martin Butler insiste sur le
fait que ces mises en scnes, riches et complexes, parlaient de diffrentes
51
42
N. Elias, La Socit de Cour, Paris 1985, p. 71
43
K. Sharpe, Selling the Tudor monarchy. Authority and image in sixteenth-century
England, New Haven 2009.
44
D. Bevington P. Holbrook (eds.), The Politics of the Stuart Court Masque,
Cambridge 1998.
manires aux diffrentes audiences qui y assistaient et que ces festivits dEtat
avaient une fonction politique de premier plan. Ils taient un vhicule essen-
tiel du discours politique officiel, sefforant de modeler lopinion politique
des sujets et constituent pour lhistorien une source exceptionnelle pour
apprhender les aspirations politiques de la cour des Stuarts
45
. Lapproche est
la fois littraire et historique et souhaite souligner aussi bien limportance
politique que culturelle des masques.
Ltude des reprsentations et des discours sur la mise en scne du pou-
voir renvoie de manire plus gnrale la question de la culture politique de
la cour. Celle-ci a t analyse sous langle de son impact sur le processus
politique. Et cela dautant plus que les modes historiques changent et que le
boom de lhistoire culturelle sest progressivement impos. Les travaux sur la
culture politique se sont donc trs largement dvelopps. On peut penser
ceux de Dale Hoak, mais galement laffirmation de John Guy selon laquel-
le le meilleur moyen de comprendre la politique sous les Tudors consiste
tudier la littrature politique et sefforcer de reconstruire les relations entre
le peuple, les institutions et les ides
46
. De la mme manire, Nigel Saul sou-
ligne comment, sous Richard II, le vocabulaire change et que les appellations
de Highness et Majesty se dveloppent soulignant la mise en place dun
protocole, dun rituel et de la distanciation croissante du roi vis vis de ses
sujets
47
. Si ces approches culturelles sont souvent porteuses danalyses poli-
tiques, elles senrichissent ces dernires annes, notamment pour les priodes
postrieures au XVII
e
, dune approche par le genre et le mcnat.
V.3. Le genre et le mcnat ou une nouvelle manire daborder le politique
On peut penser par exemple aux trs nombreux travaux sur Henrietta
Maria, notamment ceux de Caroline Hibbard
48
, mais galement ceux de
Cdric Michon
52
45
M. Butler, The Stuart Court Masque and Political Culture, Cambridge 2009.
46
D. Hoak, Tudor Political Culture, Cambridge 1995; C. Mears, Courts, Courtiers, cit.,
p. 710-715. Voir aussi M. Smuts (ed.), The Stuart court and Europe: essays in politics and
political culture, Cambridge 1996 et E. Cruickshanks (ed.), The Stuart Courts, Stroud 2000.
47
Saul, Richard II, cit., pp. 327-365.
48
C. M. Hibbard, The role of a queen consort: the household and court of Henrietta
Maria, 1625-1642, dans Asch Birke (eds.), Princes, Patronage, cit., pp. 393-414;
Henrietta Maria in the 1630s: perspectives on the role of consort queens in Ancien Regime
courts, dans I. Atherton J. Sanders (eds.), The 1630s: interdisciplinary essays on culture
and politics in the Caroline era, Manchester 2006, pp. 92-110; A Cosmopolitan Court in a
Clare McManus
49
dont Women and culture at the courts of the Stuart Queens
(Palgrave 2003) analyse la littrature, le thtre, le mcnat la court dAnne
de Danemark (1603-1619) et dHenrietta Maria (1625-1642). Il sagit bien sr
dune histoire de la cour, mais aussi dune histoire culturelle et dune histoire
des femmes. Il y a enfin, trs rcemment, le recueil dessai dirig par Erin
Griffey, Henrietta Maria: Piety, Politics and Patronage (London 2008). L
encore, les essais sont crits par des historiens, des musicologues, des histo-
riens de lart et de la littratures qui sefforcent de traiter la cour sous langle
de leur spcialit tout en sefforant de proposer a new assessment of fema-
le power and influence at the early modern cour
50
.
Conclusion en forme de perspectives
Lhistoriographie anglaise sur la cour est donc particulirement riche et
diversifie et a connu plusieurs mutations importantes. Aujourdhui, ce que
lon peut attendre delle, cest sans doute danalyser le plus finement possible
linteraction entre les hommes, les institutions et les ides; de sintresser
lEsprit de la cour en soulignant sa logique interne et sa cohrence historique.
Cela implique dlargir au maximum le spectre chronologique, jusquau Haut
Moyen Age, et les aires couvertes, pour bien comprendre le phnomne cour
dans la perspective la plus large possible. La cour es un organisme vivant; le
jeu curial, quil sagisse du jeu politique, du jeu culturel, du jeu artistique est
en fait lexpression de lorganisme social quest la cour. De ce point de vue,
plus on aura tudi dexpressions de la cour, plus on comprendra chacune
53
Confessional Age: Henrietta Maria Revisited, dans R. Corthell et alii (eds.), Catholic cultu-
re in early modern England, London 2007, pp. 117-134. By Our Direction and For Our
Use: The Queens Patronage of Artists and Artisans seen through her Household Accounts,
dans E. Griffey (ed.), Henrietta Maria: piety, politics and patronage, London 2008, pp. 115-
138. On notera toutefois que Caroline Hibbard et Erin Griffey sont deux historiennes am-
ricaines.
49
C. McManus, Women and culture at the courts of the Stuart Queens, Palgrave 2003.
50
Voir aussi M. White, Henrietta Maria and the English Civil Wars, London 2006; K.
Britland, Drama at the Courts of Henrietta Maria, Cambridge 2006 et R. A. Bailey, Staging
the Old Faith: Queen Henrietta Maria and the Theatre of Caroline England, 1625-42,
Manchester 2009. Sur le pouvoir des reines en Europe en gnral, voir R. Bucholz C.
Levin (eds.) Queens and Power in Medieval and Early Modern England, Lincoln 2009; C.
Campbell Orr (ed.), Queenship in Europe 1660-1815, Cambridge 2004 et Id. (ed.),
Queenship in Britain, 1660-1837: Royal Patronage, Court Culture and Dynastic Politics,
Manchester 2002.
dentre elles. De mme que lanthropologie biologique qui tudie les groupes
humains du point de vue physique et biologique analyse les bases biologiques
du comportement des humains, notamment par la comparaison avec les pro-
ches parents de lespce humaine que sont les grands singes, gorilles, chim-
panzs et Bonobo, de la mme manire ltude des cours dapparence les plus
primitives ont sans doute beaucoup nous apprendre sur les cours dapparen-
ce les plus abouties en soulignant, par del les divergences clatantes, les ana-
logies fondamentales.
Cdric Michon
54
Malcolm Smuts
COURT HISTORIOGRAPHY, 1970-2009:
ONE NORTH AMERICANS PERSPECTIVE
Although numerous North American scholars have studied European
courts, they have not created a distinct historiographical tradition. Instead they
have approached their research from varied perspectives, shaped less by a
common interest in court societies than by other issues. In America as in
Europe, academic life is divided between disciplines and fields defined pri-
marily by period and nationality. Americans who concentrate on European
history may receive a somewhat broader training than their counterparts
across the Atlantic, because we have to teach a less specialized curriculum.
But for the most part we still end up studying one country in one period, and
our research agendas can be every bit as narrow as those common in Europe
1
.
ANorth American researching the court of Great Britain or France may there-
fore be unaware of work by other North Americans on courts in Italy or
Germany. On the other hand American scholars will invariably read and
engage work by Europeans in their own areas of research. Their historio-
graphical approaches therefore tend to reflect trends in their fields of study
more than any peculiarly North American traits.
Nevertheless, working on the far side of the Atlantic probably does shape
perspectives on courts in more subtle ways. Because North America has never
had a true court
2
, we lack both the traditions and the monumental physical
55
1
The exceptions tend to be scholars in disciplines like the History of Painting or the
History of Science, which impose other restrictions.
2
Unless one counts the vice regal court in Mexico City, for which see the interesting
study of L. Curcio- Nagy, The Great Festivals of Mexico City: Performing Power and
Identity, Albuquerque 2004.
remains of former court societies. Our political culture predisposes us to
regard courts and monarchs as foreign institutions that Americans long ago
rejected
3
. This makes it harder to feel that ancien rgime courts have any
meaningful connection to our own society. To be sure, a handful of scholars
of the early American republic have challenged ingrained assumptions by
arguing that a courtly society did develop around the early presidency
4
. They
have done fascinating work teasing out paradoxical relations between the
egalitarian ideology of the early American nation and courtly traditions inher-
ited from Europe, often promoted especially by women like Dolly Madison,
who virtually invented the role of the First Lady, the Presidential wife who
represents cultural refinement and social grace. But they have barely dented
the predominant view that Americas character derives partly from the fact
that it has never had a native court or aristocracy.
Most North Americans who study courts came to the subject through
other interests, and the majority do not consider themselves court historians.
A good example is a school of historians associated with the University of
Iowa that specialized in the study of French court ceremonies. The original
inspiration behind this group derives from an influential book of the 1950s:
Ernst Kantorowicz, The kings two bodies: a study in medieval political the-
ology
5
. As the title implies, this was essentially a work of intellectual history
that attempted to trace the gradual development, beginning in the Middle
Ages, of a theoretical distinction between the physical body of any particular
king and an abstract religious and juristic concept of kings body as a corpo-
rate entity, a king who never dies. Kantorowicz devoted most of his book to
tracing this distinction in the writings of English jurists but he suggested that
it also existed in France, where it found its fullest expression in court rituals.
His student, Ralph Giesey, developed this insight through a study of the his-
torical evolution of French royal funerals, published in 1960
6
. Three of
Gieseys students Richard Jackson, Lawrence Bryant and Sarah Hanley
Malcolm Smuts
56
3
Canada is to some extent an exception but even here the British court and monarchy
were essentially a distant symbolic presence.
4
See, for example, C. Allgor, Parlor politics: in which the ladies of Washington help
build a city and a government, Charlottesville 2002 and Id., A perfect union: Dolley Madison
and the creation of the American nation, New York 2006; D. Shields, Civil Tongues and
Polite Letters in British America Chapel Hill 1997 and several of the essays collected in D.
R. Kennon (ed.), A republic for the ages: the United States capitol and the political culture
of the early republic, Charlottesville 1999.
5
E. Kantorowicz, The kings two bodies: a study in medieval political theology,
Princeton 1959.
6
R. Giesey, The royal funeral ceremony in Renaissance France, Genve 1960.
subsequently went on to write comparable studies of French coronations,
royal entries and lit de justices
7
. In 1985 Jacques LeGoff christened this group
lecole Giesey, at about the time that its work began attracting serious atten-
tion from historians in France
8
. But although the Giesey school ultimately had
a significant influence on French studies of the court, its members did not
think of themselves as court historians, but rather historians of political and
legal thought, who happened to use royal ceremonies as sources. Of the three
only Bryant eventually came to regard the court itself as a central object of
study, at a relatively late stage of his career
9
.
In many ways the orientation of Giesey and his students was representa-
tive of a wider interest in studies of ritual that flourished in North America
after about 1970, but which rarely led to serious studies of court history.
Natalie Davis, Robert Schneider, Alan Knight produced studies of urban ritu-
al culture in France
10
, while between 2002 and 2007 the Canadian government
invested $1,500,000 (Canadian) in a collaborative project, based at Concordia
University in Montreal but involving researchers in Europe and the United
States as well as Canada, to document sixteenth century royal entries in
French provincial towns
11
. Richard Trexler and Edmund Muir and Bonner
Court Historiography, 1970-2009: One North Americans Perspective
57
7
R. A. Jackson, Vive le roi!: a history of the French coronation from Charles V to
Charles X, Chapel Hill 1984; L. Bryant, The king and the city in the Parisian royal entry
ceremony: politics, ritual and art in the Renaissance, Genve 1986; S. Hanley, The lit de jus-
tice of the kings of France: constitutional ideology in legend, ritual and discourse, Princeton
1983.
8
See. e.g., R. Giesey, Crmonial et puissance souveraine: France, XVe-XVIIe sicles,
trans., J. Carlier, Paris, 1987.
9
Giesey produced additional studies of royal ritual and French monarchy. See esp. If
not, not: the oath of the Aragonese and the legendary laws of Sobarde, Princeton 1968.
Jackson continued to specialize in studies of coronations, while Hanley moved on to publish
studies of the Salic law and of family law. Bryants wide ranging essays on court ritual and
monarchical symbolism have been reissued in L. Bryant, Ritual, Ceremony and the
Changing Monarchy in France, 1350-1789, Aldershot 2009. I wish to thank Lawrence
Bryant for illuminating discussions of this subject.
10
N. Z. Davis, Society and culture in early modern France: eight essays, Stanford
1975; R Schneider, The ceremonial city: Toulouse observed, 1738-1780, Princeton 1995; A.
Knight, The Bishop of Fools and his Feasts in Lille, Cambridge (MA) 1996; Id., The stage
as mirror: civic theatre in late medieval Europe, Woodbridge (U.K.) and Rochester (N.Y.)
1997.
11
Le spectacle de pouvoir: les entres solonelle des rois dans les villes franais au
XVIe sicle, directed by M-F Wagner and supported by a multi-year grant of $1,500,000
(Canadian) from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada.
Several publications deriving from this project have appeared, including M. F. Wagner, L.
Frappier, C. Latraverse (eds.), Les jeux de lchange: entres solonelle et divertissements du
Mitchell published important studies of republican ritual culture in Florence,
Venice, Ferrara and other Italian cities. Muir and Trexler then broadened their
focus to examine ritual comparatively in different early modern societies
12
. A
society called Majestas, founded in Toronto in 1985 to promote the study of
rulership in medieval and early modern Europe, also devoted considerable
attention to ritual. Its most successful publication was a volume of essays on
coronation ceremonies that appeared in 1990
13
.
The American anthropologist Clifford Geertz provided influential con-
ceptual models for many of these studies, through a widely sited monograph
on the Balinese theatre state, a comparative essay on political ritual in
Indonesian, Islamic and European societies and other essays on the method-
ology of thick description, involving close analysis of ritual forms within
their social contexts
14
. Geertzs book on Bali can be regarded as a pioneering
example of court studies, integrating as it did analyses of palace topogra-
phy, political ceremonies and religious beliefs about sacred kingship. But few
historical studies inspired by his methodology followed a similar path. Work
on royal ceremonies tended to focus narrowly on abstract concepts of king-
ship, rather than the dynamics of court societies, while attempts to study ritu-
als within a deep social context almost always centered on urban or popular
culture rather than royal households. Moreover historians who studied politi-
cal ritual in republics or provincial cities rarely attempted to relate their find-
ings to work on monarchy.
Malcolm Smuts
58
XVe au XVIIe sicles, Paris 2007; J. V. Vincent H. Visentin (eds.), LInvraisemblance du
Pouvoir: Mises en scne de la souveraint au XVIIe sicle en France, Paris 2005, and N.
Russell H. Visentin (eds.), French Ceremonial Entries in the Sixteenth Century. Event,
Image, Text, Toronto 2007. A detailed description of the project can be found at
http://gres.concordia.ca/index.shtml.
12
R. Trexler, Public life in Renaissance Florence, New York 1980 and Id., The Libro
cerimoniale of the Florentine Republic: introduction and text, Genve 1978; E. Muir, Civic
Ritual in Renaissance Venice Princeton 1981; B. Mitchell, The majesty of state: triumphal
progresses of foreign sovereigns in Renaissance Italy, 1494-1600, Firenze 1986 and Id.,
1598, a year of pageantry in Late Renaissance Ferrara, Binghamton 1990; R. Trexler,
Church and community 1200-1600: studies in the history of Florence and New Spain, Roma
1987 and Id., Religion in social context in Europe and America, Tempe 2002; E. Muir, Ritual
in early modern Europe, Cambridge New York 1997.
13
See J. Bak, Coronations: medieval and early modern monarchic ritual, Berkeley
1990. The group collapsed from lack of engagement by the majority of its members early in
the new millennium.
14
C. Geertz, Kingship in Bali, Chicago 1975; Id., Centers, Kings, and Charisma:
Reflections on the Symbolics of Power, in J. Ben-David T. N. Clark (eds.), Culture and its
Creators, Chicago 1977, pp. .; Id., Local knowledge: further essays in interpretive anthro-
pology, New York 1983.
Even the relatively small number of scholars who did produce significant
work on courts usually came to the subject through some other interest. Thus
Richard Wortman wrote a pioneering study of the ritual and artistic culture of
the Czarist court in an effort to understand the early development of Russian
concepts of nationality
15
. Sharon Kettering illuminated court society oblique-
ly through her investigations of aristocratic patronage
16
. An interest in patron-
age also led several historians of science to undertake studies of courts. Mario
Biagioli, for example, examined Galileos efforts to promote his ideas and
advance his career at the courts of Florence and Rome, while Pamela Smith
produced a study of the role of alchemy in courts of the Holy Roman Empire,
and John Christianson became interested in the Danish court through his work
on Tycho Brahe
17
. But although Christianson went on to develop a serious
interest in court culture as a subject in its own right, Biagioli and Smith even-
tually moved on to other interests. Similarly, several North American histori-
ans of painting, architecture and music have studied courts in efforts to under-
stand the social, political and material contexts in which particular artists
worked
18
. But most studies of this kind remain focused on a specific artist or
art form within one court or region. Americans have been slow to produce the
sort of broad synthetic investigations of courts and court culture that have
appeared in England and Spain
19
.
Despite a growing number of significant books and articles on specific
topics, court studies therefore remains highly fragmented in North America,
to the extent that it exists at all. The situation does, however, look more prom-
ising today than it did a generation ago, when I began working in this field. In
the remainder of this paper I will reflect on my own experience and that of
several colleagues to explore in greater depth why some North Americans
59
15
R. Wortman, Scenarios of power: myth and ceremony in Russian monarchy,
Princeton 1995 and 2000, 2 vols.
16
S. Kettering, Patrons, brokers and clients in seventeenth century France, New York
1986; Id., The Historical Development of Political Clientelism, Cambridge (MA) 2001.
17
M. Biagioli, Galileo courtier: the practice of science in the culture of absolutism,
Chicago 1993; P. Smith, The business of alchemy: science and culture in the Holy Roman
Empire, Princeton 1994; J. Christianson, The Lord of Uraniborg: a biography of Tycho
Brahe, Cambridge New York 1990 and Id., On Tychos island: Tycho Brahe and his assis-
tants, Cambridge New York 2000.
18
See, among many examples, T. DaCosta Kaufmann, Court, cloister and city: the art
and culture of Central Europe, 1450-1800, Chicago 1995.
19
For England see the essay of C. Michon, above, pp. 000-000. For Spain see, among
many examples, J. M. Milln (ed.), La Corte de Felipe II, Madrid 1999 and J. L. Colomer,
Arte y Diplomacia de la Monarqua Hispnica en el siglo XVII, Madrid 2003.
have elected to study courts, and why it has proven so difficult to bring their
efforts together into a coherent field.
I began research on the culture of the English court in 1973, at the sug-
gestion of my thesis director at Princeton University, Lawrence Stone. Stone
was a social historian specializing in the English aristocracy, who greatly
admired the French Annales School historians like Fernand Braudel and
Emmanuel Le Roi Ladurie. Unlike them, however, he refused to regard polit-
ical history as unimportant. Although not himself a Marxist, he favored an
approach shaped by arguments over Marxism that attempted to relate politics
to underlying social, economic and cultural conditions. For seventeenth cen-
tury England this meant, above all, discovering the underlying causes of the
Civil War of the 1640s, which Stone regarded as the first great modern revo-
lution. The dominant interpretation at the time derived from an article by
Hugh Trevor-Roper on The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century, a term
meant to evoke both the economic dislocations of the period and the series of
rebellions that swept across Europe in the 1640s and fifties, from Scotland to
Naples
20
. Trevor-Roper saw the crisis as an outgrowth of structural tensions in
the relation between states and societies, caused by the rise of large parasitic
courts and royal bureaucracies. He argued that this trend everywhere pro-
duced conflict between court and country in other words between elites
whose prosperity derived from the growing apparatus of state power, and
everyone else. The revolts of the 1640s were an earthquake produced by these
tensions, with England as the epicenter. Stone and other historians adopted
this argument and gave it a further dimension, by arguing that as conflict grew
a cultural rift opened between the cosmopolitan, crypto-Catholic and morally
lax Stuart court and a puritan, moralistic and xenophobic English country
21
.
Just as in America during the 1960s, fundamental differences over moral and
aesthetic values, reflected in everything from art to masculine hairstyles,
became entangled with politics. My thesis was to be a study of the court cul-
ture that had contributed to this division.
The prevailing view of the Stuart court as a bloated parasitic institution
also partly explains why J. H. Hexter at Yale encouraged one of his students,
Linda Peck, to write a thesis on political corruption in early seventeenth cen-
tury England. Peck sensibly narrowed this topic to a study of one particularly
notorious Stuart courtier Henry Howard Earl of Northampton whom she
Malcolm Smuts
60
20
H. R. Trevor-Roper, The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century, originally pub-
lished in Past and Present XVI (1959), and reissued in T. Aston (ed.), Crisis in Europe
1560-1660, London 1967, pp. 63-103.
21
L. Stone, Causes of the English Revolution, London New York 1972, pp. 91-117.
eventually came to see as a reformer. She encountered some initial resistance
to this revisionist argument: one senior historian assured her that Stuart
courtiers were not only corrupt but perpetually drunk. But she persevered to
publish her findings and then went on to write a second wider study of con-
cepts of patronage, venality and corruption under the early Stuarts that again
presented a more complex and nuanced view than the stereotypes of historio-
graphical tradition
22
. Another Hexter student, Caroline Hibbard, had mean-
while begun working on the Scottish revolt against Charles I in the late 1630s.
This led her to an interest in Catholic religious influences at the royal court,
which had provoked Scottish outrage, and ultimately to a study of the courts
leading Catholic patron, Charles Is French Queen, Henriette Marie. Hibbard
published an important book on court Catholicism in the 1980s and then
embarked on a second study, still underway, of Henriette Maries English
household
23
. Peck, Hibbard and I thus converged on studies of the court from
very different starting points, only gradually becoming aware of the comple-
mentary nature of our research
24
.
I wanted to study court culture less because of debates over the causes of
the Civil War than because the topic offered opportunities for combining
political and social history with attention to the visual arts and literature. In
the 1970s North American historians of the Italian Renaissance routinely
treated painting, architecture and literary culture as central historical topics.
But specialists in other European countries and slightly later periods rarely did
so: they left such matters to art historians and literary scholars, while concen-
trating on politics, social history or intellectual history, studied almost exclu-
sively through prose treatises. In retrospect my interest in cultural history
seems typical of many other historians of my generation. Most of these went
into religious history or urban history, but a few, like Gieseys students and
61
22
L. Peck, Northampton: patronage and policy at the court of James I, London
Boston 1982 and Id., Court Patronage and Corruption in Early Stuart England, Boston
1990.
23
C. Hibbard, Charles I and the Popish Plot, Chapel Hill 1983. The first fruits of
Hibbards subsequent research on Henriette Marie have appeared in several important arti-
cles: C. Hibbart, The role of a Queen Consort, in R. Asche A. Birke (eds.), Princes,
Patronage and the Nobility: The Court at the Beginning of the Modern Age, Oxford 1991,
pp. 393-414; Id., The theatre of dynasty, in R. M. Smuts (ed.), The Stuart Court and Europe:
Essays in politics and political culture, Cambridge 1996, pp. 156-76 and Id., Translating
Royalty: Henrietta Maria and the transition from princess to queen, The Court Historian
V, (2000), pp. .
24
I again wish to thank Professors Peck and Hibbard for sharing their recollections
with me.
myself, ended up studying the cultural and ritual paraphernalia of monarchy.
What motivated us was less an interest in a specific topic than a desire to give
social and political history a larger cultural dimension.
Most young historians with this orientation developed a fascination with
anthropology. My interests were more conventional, slanted toward art histo-
ry and literary criticism. I was particularly influenced by Frances Yates of the
Warburg Institute in London and her student Roy Strong, who had written a
series of illuminating books and articles decoding the messages of court art
and ritual in late Renaissance societies, from Italy to Britain
25
. The interdisci-
plinary methodology and cosmopolitan perspectives of their work was strong-
ly appealing. But Stone had taught me to mistrust what he disparagingly
called intellectual history in a vacuum, by which he meant studies of ideas
and cultural representations detached from a social context. I therefore want-
ed somehow to combine Yatess methods with archival research on court soci-
ety and politics. I had only a vague idea of how to do this but it seemed clear
that the way forward lay in this kind of integration.
In the 1980s the historiographical climate changed in ways that favored
the kind of interdisciplinary work on which I had embarked. Many historians
were becoming more interested in culture, while art historians and literary
scholars grew more interested in social and political history. The American lit-
erary scholar, Stephen Orgel, had an especially large impact on my own
immediate area of research, through a series of brilliant studies of English
court masques, the Stuart counterpart to French ballets de cour
26
. Orgel saw
the masques not as ordinary dramatic fictions but events that held a kind of
allegorical mirror up to the court itself. In a masque courtiers assumed roles
meant to represent their actual positions in court society, and at the end of
every performance they always addressed the King or Queen, watching from
an elevated throne, before moving into the audience to select dance partners.
By doing so they removed the boundary between the masque stage with its
mythological symbols and the everyday world of court society. In the 1970s
Orgel began collaborating with Roy Strong and absorbed the work of Warburg
Malcolm Smuts
62
25
In Particular, F. Yates, French Academies of the sixteenth century, London 1947; Id.,
Astraea: the imperial theme in the sixteenth century, London Boston 1975; and Id.,
Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, London Boston 1964; R. Strong, Splendour
at court; Renaissance spectacle and illusion, London 1973 and various essays since col-
lected in Id., Art and Power: Renaissance festivals, 1450-1650, Berkeley 1984.
26
S. Orgel, The Jonsonian Masque, Cambridge (MA) 1965; Id., The Illusion of Power:
Political Theatre in the English Renaissance, Berkeley 1975 and his collaborative publica-
tion with R. Strong, The Theatre of the Stuart Court, Berkeley 1973, 2 vols.
historians on neo-Platonic philosophy within Renaissance court societies.
This led him to develop his analysis of court entertainments in essays sugges-
tively entitled Platonic Politics and The Illusion of Power
27
. In these he
interpreted masques as ideological statements and reflections of the mind of
Charles I, a king who viewed politics as a system of Platonic ideals and there-
fore failed to appreciate the real forces that would soon engulf him.
In many ways this interpretation merely reiterated the disparaging view
of Stuart absolutism prevalent at the time. It also not only followed but exag-
gerated the emphasis on iconographical analysis and neo-Platonic theories of
visual representation pioneered by Yates and other Warburg scholars. Orgels
analysis depended entirely on the study of texts, images and the spatial con-
figurations of masque performances, with almost no reference to surrounding
social and political circumstances. It displayed not only the power but the lim-
itations of an approach rooted in the formalistic methods of literary criticism
and art historical scholarship, as generally practiced in the period when he was
writing. But to his credit, he inspired a raft of studies of English court enter-
tainments on both sides of the Atlantic that continues down to the present,
including work that has begun to reveal more complex relations between the
masques and their social environment
28
. He also helped launch the movement
known as the New Historicism that swept through American literature
departments in the 1980s and nineties. New Historicists interpreted literature
as an activity that always arose from and fed back into wider historical
processes. Above all they saw literary expression as a way of mediating rela-
tions of power, a perspective strongly influenced by Michle Foucault and
other European theorists. This made court literature and the conventions of
court discourse central concerns. It also opened the door to a dialogue
between literary scholars, historians and a few art historians, about the rhetor-
ical and representational forms used by early modern rulers. One result was
the appearance in the 1980s and nineties of several interdisciplinary collec-
tions of essays, including two devoted explicitly to the English court: Linda
Pecks The Mental World of the Jacobean Court and my own The Stuart Court
and Europe
29
. 1980 also saw the appearance of an important collaborative
63
27
Ibid., chapter 3 and the book cited in the previous note.
28
See esp., D. Bevington P. Holbrook (eds.), The Politics of the Stuart Court Masque,
Cambridge 1998; B. Ravelhoffer, The Early Stuart Masque: Dance, Costume and Music,
Oxford 2006 and M. Butler, The Stuart Court Masque and Political Culture, Cambridge
2008.
29
L. Peck (ed.), The Mental World of the Jacobean Court, Cambridge 1991; Smuts,
Stuart Court and Europe, cit.
study of the Buen Retiro of Philip III, by American art historian Jonathan
Brown and the British-trained historian, J. H. Elliott, who was then based in
the United States
30
.
This trend toward interdisciplinarity reflected a wider linguistic and cul-
tural turn affecting scholarship on both sides of the Atlantic in the late twen-
tieth century. In America as in Europe, the cultural turn provoked complaints
from social and political historians impatient with the impressionistic quality
and highly theoretical approach of many literary studies, in particular. The gap
between interdisciplinary work on political culture and empiricist investiga-
tions of events grew especially pronounced in studies of early modern
England, as a group of self-styled revisionists reacted against the large-scale
syntheses of historians like Stone, Trevor Roper and the Marxist Christopher
Hill, by emphasizing the need for a return to focused archival research and
careful examination of events
31
. The revisionists had a mixed impact on stud-
ies of the court. They rejected the traditional historiographical focus on the
rise of Parliament, insisting that through most of the seventeenth century the
court remained the normal center of national politics. This should have
opened up a new field of research. But in practice, with the notable exception
of Kevin Sharpe
32
, they continued to focus their attention either on parlia-
ments or provincial gentry, invoking a view of the court as a center of aristo-
cratic faction without bothering to investigate it closely
33
. They were also
highly skeptical of attempts to attribute political conflict to ideology or social
tensions, and therefore saw little reason to study the court as a distinctive
social and cultural environment. On balance they probably did more to inhib-
it than to encourage systematic research on the royal court.
Malcolm Smuts
64
30
J. Brown J. H. Elliott, A palace for a king: the Buren Retiro and the court of Philip
IV, New Haven 1980.
31
J. S. Morrill, The Revolt of the Provinces, London 1976; C. Russell, Parliamentary
history in perspective, History, (1977), pp. 1-27; Id., Parliaments and English Politics,
1621-1629, Oxford 1979; K. Sharpe (ed.), Faction and Parliament: essays on early Stuart
history, Oxford 1978.
32
K. Sharpe, Criticism and compliment: the politics of literature in the England of
Charles I, Cambridge 1987; Id., The Personal Rule of Charles I, New Haven 1992.
33
This is especially true of the work of C. Russell sited in n. 31. A recent study of the
outbreak of the Civil War that begins to correct the problem is J. Adamson, The Noble
Revolt: the Overthrow of Charles I, London 2007. For two recent studies of the internal
political history of the Caroline court see M. Smuts, Religion, European Politics and
Henrietta Marias Circle, in E. Griffey (ed.), Henrietta Maria: Piety, Politics and
Patronage, Aldershot 2008, pp. 13-38 and Id., The court and the emergence of a royalist
party, in J. McElligott D. Smith (eds.), Royalists and Royalism during the English Civil
Wars, Cambridge 2007, pp. .
Fortunately we have now outgrown this revisionist phase, which in any
case had little impact on studies of other European societies. In North America
as in Europe, historians have become increasingly interested in studying not
just events but perceptions, rhetoric and forms of communication. The gap
separating cultural from political and social history has therefore narrowed. In
principal this should provide an ideal climate for the emergence of more sys-
tematic interest in court societies, as places where political power, elite soci-
ety and various forms of cultural and intellectual life intersected. But to date
this has happened only to a very limited extent.
One reason is the lingering stigma of elitism associated with studies of
courts, which especially deters young scholars worried about the academic
job market. But there are probably others, including the collapse of an older
view of early modern politics as a titanic struggle, lasting two centuries and
more, pitting absolutism against constitutionalism and republicanism. We
need not lament the passing of this paradigm, whose shortcomings have
become increasingly apparent
34
. The problem is that no alternative concept
has arisen in its place, capable of explaining why high politics matters and
how it ought to be studied. The relative decline of social history since the
1980s, along with integrative models influenced by Marxism and the Annales
School, has meanwhile weakened the rationale for work that attempts to give
politics a deeper social dimension. It has allowed some historians to go on
writing books about kings and royal ministers without paying much attention
to the court environments in which these figures lived and ruled, on the tacit
assumption that political history is a story of events and personalities rather
than one that also needs to investigate social environments, institutional struc-
tures and mental attitudes. Studies of cultural representations of monarchs, by
historians as well as literary scholars, also frequently continue to lack a mean-
ingful social dimension: the arts of power approach pioneered by Yates and
Strong more than a generation ago remains entrenched. In short we have seen
a decline in broad studies of early modern monarchy, as a political, social and
ideological system that must be understood in its totality. This has inevitably
hindered work on courts.
In the absence of more integrative approaches, the range of subjects stud-
ied by historians and other humanities scholars has proliferated. We live in an
academic environment saturated with journals, conferences and scholarly
65
34
One particularly trenchant critique by an American scholar is W. Beik, Absolutism
and society in seventeenth-century France: state power and provincial society in
Languedoc, Cambridge NewYork 1985. Beiks analysis has implications for studies of the
royal court but he has not systematically pursued this issue.
organizations, each with its own agenda, making it difficult for any particular
interest to attract widespread attention. In these circumstances court studies
has failed to establish itself as a central concern. The annual meetings of the
Renaissance Society of America exemplify the problem. This organization
welcomes practitioners from all scholarly disciplines who study any aspect of
the period 1300 to 1650, in any part of the world. It recognizes dozens of
smaller affiliated organizations, which are encouraged to organize their own
panels at its meetings, among them the Society for Court Studies. In a typical
year an RSAmeeting will have about 450 panels, including four or five spon-
sored by Court Studies, another six or seven directly on court topics and a
much larger number related to courts in more oblique ways. But virtually all
these panels will also have some other focus that places them in a different
scholarly niche. Some will deal with the English court and attract mainly spe-
cialists on England; others will focus on rituals in Italian court cities or court-
ly literature in Habsburg Spain. Almost invariably, there will be at least one
panel on Medici women, a subject that seems to have its own dedicated fol-
lowing. Since panels run concurrently it is usually impossible to attend all
those relating to courts studies even if one tries to do so. But in practice no
one does try: attendees stick to panels in their own disciplines and national
fields of study, ignoring others. This is not the fault of the RSA, which tries to
promote the widest possible exchange of ideas among early modernists. It
simply reflects the way North American scholars identify their interests
35
.
I do not want to convey too bleak a picture. Some broader trends have
generated interest in courts in North America. James Boyden, Antonio Feros
and Sharon Kettering have produced valuable studies of court favorites in
Spain and France
36
. The growth of womens history has inspired several stud-
ies of queens and court women, including Magadalena Sanchezs The
Empress the Queen and the Nun, on the female relatives of Philip III of Spain,
forthcoming work by art historian Nicola Courtright on queens apartments in
Valois and Bourbon France, and several studies of Elizabeth I and her female
attendants. Interest in the social construction of space among architectural and
urban historians has led to important investigations of palaces and court cities.
An interdisciplinary collection on court space deriving from a conference in
Malcolm Smuts
66
35
The programs of past and upcoming RSA conferences can be found at www.rsa.org.
36
J. Boyden, The courtier and the king: Ruy Gmez de Silva, Philip II, and the Court
of Spain, Berkeley 1995; A. Feros, Kingship and Favoritism in the Spain of Philip II, 1598-
1621, Cambridge New York 2000; S. Kettering, Power and Reputation at the Court of
Louis XIII: The Career of Charles DAlbret, duc de Luynes (1578-1621), Manchester 2008.
California has recently appeared from the Italian publisher, Bulzoni
37
. Royal
entries, festivals and theatrical events have also continued to receive attention.
Major museum exhibits dedicated to such topics as Renaissance and
Baroque tapestries, the courtly art of pietre dure, and Spanish painting during
the reign of Philip III have introduced aspects of court culture to a wider
public
38
. The few times that Court Studies has organized a major North
American conference, bringing together scholars who study different nations
and periods, the participants have reacted enthusiastically.
Unfortunately the size of North America and competing pressures make
it difficult to sustain an active conversation even among researchers genuine-
ly interested in comparative studies of courts. The fundamental problem, how-
ever, is that too many scholars regard courts as places in which to study some-
thing else, rather than as highly complex environments requiring investigation
in their own right. As one colleague put it in an e-mail exchange as I was writ-
ing this paper, most historians do not recognize the need for a sustained dia-
logue between court history and the field in which they were trained
39
. But it
must also be admitted that court historians have contributed to the problem.
By and large we have done a much better job at illuminating the internal
workings of specific royal households and court societies than in pursuing
questions that link investigations of courts to wider subjects. This has rein-
forced a stereotype of court studies as a narrow elitist field, preoccupied with
detailed investigations of the minutiae of palace life.
We need to encourage dialogue by developing more extroverted
approaches that encourage dialogue with researchers in other fields. These
fields include the study of political culture and ritual in non-courtly environ-
ments, such as provincial towns, republics and the Asian, African and
American colonies of European monarchs. One of our most successful North
American conferences of the Society for Court Studies focused on the ques-
tion of whether courts can exist without kings, in republics, provinces and
67
37
M. Fantoni, G. Gorse, M. Smuts (eds.), The Politics of Space: European Courts ca.
1500-1750, Rome 2009. Also worth mentioning in this context is B. Weiser, Charles II and
the Politics of Access, Woodbridge 2003.
38
T. P. Campbell, Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence, New York 2002;
Id., Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor, New York 2007; A. Giusti W. Koeppe,
Art of the Royal Court: Treasures in Pietre Dure from the Palaces of Europe, New York
2008; S. Schroth R. Baer (eds.), El Greco to Velzquez: Art during the Reign of Philip III,
Boston 2008.
39
Thanks to John Christianson for this and other insights.
colonies
40
. To what degree and in what ways does the center of any polity
come to resemble a court, whether or not its leader wears a crown? How did
polities without kings, like the young United States or Napoleonic France,
define their identities in a world dominated by monarchies? How did global
empires, like those of Spain in the sixteenth century and Britain in the nine-
teenth, develop networks of colonial courts, focused around viceroys, gover-
nors or native chieftains, and how did these sub-courts attempt to cope with
the ethnic and cultural diversity of imperial polities? These turned out to be
fruitful questions that sparked a lively discussion among more than twenty
participants whose research interests ranged from noble households in six-
teenth century France to politics in late imperial India. The common thread
was a set of methodological and conceptual issues deriving from studies of
courts that turned out to have much wider applications.
We need more work on courts as centers of consumption and engines of
economic activity that stimulated artisanal industries as well as elite fashions.
We need to ask more probing questions about processes of intellectual
exchange that connected courts to each other and to non-courtly environ-
ments, including some lying beyond Europe. What role did courts and their
gardens play, for example, in the remarkable explosion of botanical knowl-
edge that expanded the list of known plant species from barely 500 in the early
sixteenth century to nearly 20,000 two hundred years later?
41
Court historians
need to become more aware of new work on subjects like the history of state
archives
42
and the history of diplomacy that impinge directly upon our subject.
Specialists in these fields may or may not focus most of their attention on a
court. But they will always have important things to teach us, just as we will
have things to say to them. We need to collaborate with them to generate a
more adequate history of the state that breaks free from the anachronistic dis-
tinctions between public and private life, and misleading divisions between
cultural, political, and administrative history that have bedeviled the subject
in the past.
In short we need to study courts not in splendid isolation but as dynamic
social and political environments that were intricately connected to many
other environments, precisely because they were dominant institutions within
Malcolm Smuts
68
40
Courts without Kings? The political center in provinces, colonies and republics,
held in Boston (MA) in September 2001.
41
See, e.g., E. Hyde, Cultivated power: flowers, culture and politics in the reign of
Louis XIV, Philadelphia 2005.
42
J. Soll, The information master: Jean-Baptiste Colberts secret intelligence system,
Ann Arbor 2009.
a social and political system. This does not mean losing site of the central
organizing principles of our own field. But it does mean opening our subject
around its edges to explore more actively ways in which methods and insights
developed through studying courts will not only illuminate other subjects but
contribute to synthetic studies of politics, culture and society. The absence of
a coherent and vital field of court studies in North America is symptomatic of
the scarcity of attempts to develop a systematic history of the early modern
state and its relation to culture and society. The big questions and wide-scale
attempts at synthesis advanced by historians like Stone and Trevor-Roper in
the 1960s have been replaced by smaller questions and more tightly focused
research agendas. Because courts functioned simultaneously as centers of
power, high culture, elite society and luxury consumption, they provide ideal
subjects through which to develop interdisciplinary methodologies and per-
spectives that bridge political, social, cultural and economic history. By study-
ing them we can show, in concrete detail, how the representational systems
created by artists were related to diplomatic exchanges, social customs and
rivalries over power
43
, and how formal institutional structures of interacted
with informal social conventions and arrangements. And if we follow lines of
power and influence outward from royal palaces into other environments we
will begin to glimpse much larger patterns of social and political organization.
For all these reasons court studies ought to provide models not only for schol-
ars of monarchy, but all early modernists. But this will happen only if we can
demonstrate in detail how our subject is meaningfully connected to many
other fields of research. The assumptions and ingrained habits of thought that
have tended to marginalize courts in the past will not go away unless we
actively challenge them. If we can do this, in both Europe and North America,
we stand a much better chance of attracting talented younger scholars and
establishing the study of courts as a central historiographical concern.
69
43
Brown and Elliott, A palace for a king, cit., remains a good example of this kind of
study.
Werner Paravicini
DES RSIDENCES LA COUR, DU MOYEN GE AUX TEMPS
MODERNES: RECHERCHES EN LANGE ALLEMANDE DEPUIS 1985
I. La recherche sur les rsidences princires dans lespace allemand est
partie du constat initial que lEmpire connaissait des capitales, mais point la
capitale. Nos voisins sont fiers de Moscou et de St-Petersbourg, de Cracovie
et de Varsovie, de Prague, de Londres, de Paris et de Versailles. Rien de pareil
pour lensemble de lEmpire. Vienne tait bien la capitale de la maison
dHabsbourg puis de lAutriche, Berlin celle de la Prusse, puis, en parallle,
de lEmpire allemand. Mais qui oserait dire que Innsbruck, Salzbourg, Graz
face Vienne, ou Munich et Hambourg, Dsseldorf et Stuttgart, Francfort et
Leipzig face Berlin soient des quantits ngligeables? Toutes les capitales
des Lnder actuels sont danciennes rsidences princires, les Villes-tats
de Brme et de Hambourg exceptes. Lhistoire territoriale, princire de
lEmpire sest profondment inscrite dans ses structures, jusqu nos jours
Das Hauptstadtproblem in der deutschen Geschichte le problme de la capi-
tale [non existante] dans lhistoire allemande, fut donc un grand moteur de
recherche. Il a initi entre autres le grand rpertoire des Deutsche
Knigspfalzen (Palais royaux allemands), paraissant depuis 1983 et pr-
par par de grandes tudes depuis 1963 dj.
Ce fait dhistoire constitutionnelle, si trange face au centralisme franais
ou anglais, nest pourtant pas le seul motif de la recherche en langue alle-
mande qui fait flors aujourdhui. Lautre racine cest lhistoire des villes. Elle
a grande tradition en Allemagne, prenant pour modle les puissante villes lib-
res et hansatiques dEmpire: Nuremberg et Berne, Lbeck et Brme,
Francfort et Ulm, Strasbourg et Cologne. La bourgoisie triomphante du XIX
e
sicle y voyait le progrs et y trouvait un pass. Pendant tout un temps, lhis-
toire des villes fut la voie royale de recherche librale et progressiste. Aprs
71
la II
e
Guerre Mondiale, ce fut en plus le domaine dune histoire qui voulait se
dmarquer de ltatisme nazi. Le Sdwestdeutscher Arbeitskreis fr
Stadtgeschichtsforschung (Cercle der recheche du Sud-Ouest de
lAllemagne sur lhistoire des villes) naquit en 1960/1961, publiant une
importante srie de colloques dans une collection qui sera bientt appelle
Stadt in der Geschichte (La ville dans lhistoire)
1
. En 1969 lAutriche sui-
vit en fondant le sterreichische Arbeitskreis fr Stadtgeschichtsforschung
(Cercle de recherche pour lhistoire des villes) Linz, lui aussi diteur
dune belle srie de colloques
2
. Un an plus tard, stablit Munster en
Westphalie un Institut fr vergleichende Stdtegeschichte (Institut de
recherche compare dhistoire des villes) qui, fond en 1970, fleurit toujours,
publiant entre autres le Deutsche Stdteatlas (lAtlas historiques des villes
allemandes) et son frre, le Westflische Stdteatlas pour qui est de la
Westphalie; il est diteur dune belle srie de monographies et de repertoires
et organise et publie de beaux colloques dans sa collection intitule
Stdteforschung (Recherches sur les villes)
3
.
Troisime lment: lhistoire plus ou moins romantique et historisante
des chteaux. Victor Hugo dans ses Burgraves ntait pas le seul sen-
thousiasmer pour les chteaux du Rhin. Cest l que naquit en 1899 la
Deutsche Burgenvereinigung (Association allemande des chteaux) qui
possde de surcrot lun des plus beaux chteaux rhnans, la Marksburg,
entretient le Europisches Burgeninstitut (Institut europen des chteaux)
sigeant depuis 1999 dans la Philippsburg Braubach sur le Rhin
4
, et dite
depuis sa fondation un journal intitul dabord Der Burgwart (Le garde du
chteau), depuis 1960 Burgen und Schlsser (Chteau forts et maisons de
plaisance), accompagn de plusieurs sries de monographies
5
.
La cour en tant que telle et la dynastie restaient longtemps encore un sujet
de recherche quasi impossible, discrdit, dlgitim tant par les venements
de 1918 que par ceux de 1933, toute lattention se portant sur lhistoire des
classes ouvrires, la bourgoisie montante, les chemins de la libert. Lhistoire
de lart navait pas ces problmes-l, mais il prit un temps avant que la cour
Werner Paravicini
72
1
www.stadtgeschichtsforschung.de/. Cf. le periodique Die Alte Stadt, paraissant
depuis 1974, organe initialement dune association de seize anciennes villes dEmpire de la
Haute-Allemagne, ne galement en 1960, comptant maintenant quasi lensemble des villes
anciennes allemandes ayant gard leur patrimoine architectural et voulant le conserver.
2
http://www.stgf.at/
3
http://www.unimuenster.de/Staedtegeschichte/
4
http://www.marksburg.de/burgeninst.htm
5
http://www.deutscheburgen.org/
fut reconnue non seulement un haut lieu culturel, mais le plus important cen-
tre politique, social et conomique de lEurope prmoderne, et ceci jusquau
XIX
e
, voire XX
e
sicle.
II. En somme: les palais royaux, la ville, le chteau beaucoup de topo-
graphie, peu de socit. Cest dans cette situation quest intervenu dans les
annes 1970 et 1980 un grand historien dveloppant la vision dun quatrime
lment manquant. Ce fut Hans Patze (1919-1995), catedratico de la chaire
dhistoire rgionale (Landesgeschichte) Gttingen, voisin donc immdiat
de la Pfalzenforschung (recherche sur les palais). Actif dans les trois
domaines indiqus, en plus centr sur le bas Moyen ge, il inaugura, en 1980,
avec le moderniste Hermann Weber de Mayence, un tournant qui prenait plus
au serieux les phnomnes dynastiques dans lEuropa prmoderne
6
. Dj en
1972 il avait publi un grand article sur le formation des residences princires
au XIV
e
sicle, dans les actes dun colloque organis par le Cercle autrichien
de recherche sur lhistoire des villes, et en 1982 il fit suivre un programme et
un questionnaire systmatiques dont le but tait la saisie gnrale de toutes
rsidences territoriales de lespace allemand. Deux colloques sur les rsiden-
ces princires lchelle europnne furent organises par lui en lle de la
Reichenau en 1984 et 1985, puis publis
7
. Cette mme anne 1985 fut inau-
gure par ses soins une commission de lAcadmie des sciences de Gttingen
ayant pour sujet de recherche La naissances des rsidences des princes terri-
toriaux dans lEmpire allemand du bas Moyen ge la Residenzen-
Kommission qui compte ainsi parmi les plus anciennes institutions dans son
Des rsidences la cour, du Moyen ge aux Temps modernes
73
6
A loccasion du colloque organis en 1980 pour le 800
e
centenaire de laccession de
la maison de Wittelsbach au duch de Bavire: H. Patze, Die Wittelsbacher in der mittelal-
terlichen Politik Europas, et H. Weber, Die Bedeutung der Dynastien fr die europischen
Geschichte der frhen Neuzeit, Zeitschrift fr Bayerische Landesgeschichte, 44 (1981),
pp. 33-79 et 5-32. Cest Karl-Heinz Spie (Greifswald) qui a attir lattention sur ce fait dans
sa confrence Stand und Perspektiven der Forschung zu den Reichsfrsten im Mittelalter,
dans Frstlicher Rang im sptmittelalterlichen Europa. Stand und Perspektiven der
Forschung, Heidelberg, 17-18 septembre 2009, dir. Jrg Peltzer (sous presse). Hans Patze a
trait en 1981 galement des Guelfes et en 1986 des Wettin, les trois articles rimprims
dans Id., Ausgewhlte Aufstze, P. Johanek, E. Schubert, M. Werner (eds.), Vortrge und
Forschungen, 50, Stuttgart 2002, pp. 629-727.
7
H. Patze, Die Bildung der landesherrlichen Residenzen im Reich whrend des 14.
Jahrunderts [1972], dans Id., Ausgewhlte Aufstze, cit., pp. 729-788; avec G. Streich, Die
landesherrlichen Residenzen im sptmittelalterlichen Deutschen Reich [questionnaire,
1982], ibid., pp. 789-805; H. Patze W. Paravicini (eds.), Frstliche Residenzen im spt-
mittelalterlichen Europa, (Vortrge und Forschungen, 36), Sigmaringen 1991.
genre dans le monde
8
. Le malheur voulut cependant que, peu aprs linaugu-
ration, un arrt du cur enleva Hans Patze sa mmoire courte. Il ne pouvait
plus travailler
9
.
Le directeur de lInstitut dhistoire compare des villes de Munster, Peter
Johanek prit la relve pendant trois ans et inaugura la srie des publications
nomme Residenzenforschung (comme celle de Mnster fut appelle
Stdteforschung), dont le premier volume parut en 1990
10
. Puis, partir de
cette mme anne de 1990, la direction de la commission me fut confie.
cette poque je savais peu de lhistoire des villes, mais javais beaucoup tra-
vaill sur la cour des ducs de Bourgogne. Je fis dplacer le bureau
(Arbeitsstelle) de la Commission mon universit Kiel, et je fis inclure
explicitement la cour dans le programme de travail, tout en largissant son
horizon chronologique jusqu la guerre de Trente ans, le Sptmittelalter ou
Bas Moyen ge restant au centre. Depuis, elle aurait pu sappeler Hfe-
Kommission (Commission des cours), mais on garda le nom par pit et
tradition.
La nouvelle Commission eut, ct dune bibliographie des rcits de voya-
ge des XIV
e
et XV
e
siecles, ralise pour lAllemagne, les Pays-Bas et la France
11
,
trois grands projets: servir dintermdiaire entre les chercheurs allemands, puis
europens; renouveller la recherche par des colloques intenationaux; crer un
manuel des dynasties, cours et rsidences de lEmpire tardomdival.
Werner Paravicini
74
8
resikom.adwgoettingen.gwdg.de/ Pour son histoire voir W. Paravicini, Les cours et
les rsidences du Moyen Age tardif. Un quart de sicle de recherches allemandes, dans J. C.
Schmitt O. Gerhard Oexle (eds.), Les tendances actuelles de lhistoire du Moyen ge en
France et en Allemagne, Paris 2002, pp. 327-350; Id., Die Gesellschaft, der Ort, die Zeichen.
Aus der Arbeit der Residenzen-Kommission der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Gttingen,
dans K. Neitmann H. D. Heimann (eds.), Sptmittelalterliche Residenzbildung in geistli-
chen Territorien Mittel- und Nordostdeutschlands, Berlin 2009, pp. 15-40; Id., Getane
Arbeit, knftige Arbeit: Die 25 Jahre der Residenzen Kommission, dans Stdtisches
Brgertum und Hofgesellschaft. Kulturen int grativer und konkurrierender Beziehungen in
Residenz und Hauptstdten vom 14. bis ins 19. Jahrhundert (Residenzenforschung, 25),
Ostfildern 2011 (en prparation).
9
Voir pour Hans Patze Mitteilungen der Residenzen-Kommission der Akademie der
Wissenschaften zu Gttingen, 5, 2 (1995), pp. 5-8, et surtout K. Neitmann,
Landesgeschichte im Zeichen der Teilung Deutschland: Walter Schlesinger und Hans Patze.
1. Teil: Hans Patze, Jahrbuch fr die Geschichte Mittel. und Ostdeutschlands, 47 (2001),
pp. 193-300. Voir aussi ses Ausgewhlte Aufstze, cit., avec notice de Peter Johanek et
bibliographie de ses travaux.
10
Voir lannexe.
11
W. Paravicini (ed.), Europische Reiseberichte des spten Mittelalters. Eine analy-
tische Bibliographie, voir lannexe. La continuation est en projet.
La premire cible fut atteinte, au moins pour lespace allemand, par la
cration des Mitteilungen [Communications] der Residenzen-
Kommission[ MRK], paraissant depuis 1991 deux fois par an, distribues
gratuitement et consultables sur rseau; bientt des cahiers spciaux
(Sonderhefte) des Mitteilungen commencrent publier des bibliogra-
phies, des textes, des ateliers de recherche
12
. Des colloques internationaux
bisannuelles se consacrrent des sujets tels que La vie quotidienne la
cour, Crmonial et espace, Cours et ordonnances de lhtel, La cham-
bre des dames, ducation et formation la cour, Le cas/la chute [Der
Fall] du favori. Factions de curiales en Europe, La cour et la ville,
Economie de la cour, Modle, change, concurrence: cours et rsidences
dans la perception mutuelle, enfin. Dans ces colloques, lEmpire, dpassant
dja largement les frontires de lacutelle Allemagne, restait en centre, mais
la perspective comparative a toujours t prsente, ceci dautant plus que, en
tant que directeur de lInstitut historique allemand de Paris de 1993 2007
jtais quasi oblig de veiller une prsence de collgues franais, belges et
hollandais. Une mention particulire mrite une initiative ne en quelque sorte
de la Residenzen-Kommission, un groupe informel runissant sous le patro-
nage de Gert Mellville et de moi-mme de plus jeunes chercheurs qui tra-
vaillent une thorie globale de la cour et qui ont commenc publier une
srie intitule Hof und Theorie (Cour et thorie)
13
.
Mais le gros morceau, ce fut le Manuel, dont le dtail est donn en lan-
nexe sous Residenzenforschung, t. 15. Un travail de douze ans la finalement
ralis.
Une premire partie prsente les 39 dynasties princires de lEmpire vers
1500, leurs 165 principauts et cours et leurs 353 rsidences.
Une deuxime est intitule Bilder und Begriffe (Images et notions) et
fournit en 60 articles et 114 mots-cls les notions fondamentales du monde
curial de lEmpire en troite relation avec environ 450 images, ordonns selon
trois axes: approvisionnement et administration, rprsentation et lgitima-
tion, intgration et communication.
75
12
Voir lannexe.
13
R. Butz, J. Hirschbiegel, D. Willoweit (eds.), Hof und Theorie. Annherungen an ein
historisches Phnomen [Dresdener Gesprche I], (Norm und Struktur, 22), Cologne 2004.
R. Butz J. Hirschbiegel (eds.), Hof und Macht. Dresdener Gesprche II zur Theorie des
Hofes, (Vita Curialis. Form und Wandel hfischer Herrschaft, 1), Munster 2007. Id. (eds.),
Informelle Strukturen bei Hofe. Dresdner Gesprche III zur Theorie des Hofes, (id., 2),
Munster 2008.
Une troisime partie porte le titre Hof und Schrift (La cour et lcrit) et
met la disposition des chercheurs, dans lordre alphabtique avec textes
tmoins, une typologie critique des diffrents crits manant de la cour ou la
concernant.
La quatrime et dernire partie, devant paratre vers la fin de lanne
2010, descend dun dgr lhirarchie sociale et se penche sur les nombreuses
familles (plus de 150), les cours et les rsidences de la haute noblesse non
princire de lEmpire, les Grafen und Herren, les comtes et seigneurs.
Comme vous le savez, en Empire, le fait dtre prince, noble ou gentilhomme
(Ritterschaft) est un statut juridique bien dfini, et non seulement social.
Lensemble de louvrage compte sept volumes et plus de 4000 pages. A
partir du site de la Commission une partie de ces pages sont consultables sur
rseau ainsi que certains matriaux additionnels; la mise dispostion compl-
te est en projet, mais pas encore pour demain.
III. Survint, en 1990 galement, la runification allemande. Elle eut, les
annes avanant, des effets sur la recherche de plus en plus notables. Les nou-
veaux Lnder firent la redcouverte de leur pass noble, princier, curial, rsi-
dentiel. Il y eut de grandes expositions, ainsi concernant la Thuringe, terre
particulirement morcele et orne de petites principauts
14
. Weimar et Gotha,
Sondershausen et Rudolstadt, Erfurt, Schwerin et Potsdam, Halle et Dresde
revcurent et devinrent nouveau des lieux de mmoire aprs avoir presque
disparu de la conscience publique communiste et occidentale. Cette rappro-
priation du pass eut pour consquence la fondation de deux organismes.
Dabord en 1992 la Wartburg-Gesellschaft zur Erforschung von Burgen
und Schlssern (Socit Wartburg pour la recherche sur les chteaux). Elle
sige dans cette icne mdivale allemande quest la Wartburg en Thuringe au
dessus de la ville dEisenach. Elle prolonge et partiellement concurrence le
travail de la Deutsche Burgenvereinigung (qui nest pas que scientifique), et
fut inspire par G. Ulrich Gromann, directeur du Germanische
Nationalmusem Nuremberg, historien de larchitecture. Elle est axe sur le
chteau fort (Burg en allemand, Schlo signifiant le chteau non fortifi);
elle a en projet louverture dun autre Burgenmuseum dans la Heldburg en
Werner Paravicini
76
14
Voir Thuringe, pay des rsidences, exposition organise (en la rsidence de la mai-
son de Schwarzburg) Sondershausen, accompagne dun volumineux catalogue en trois
volumes: Neu entdeckt. Thringen, Land der Residenzen 1485-1918. 2. Thringer
Landesausstellung Schlo Sondershausen, 15. Mai 3. Oktober 2004, Mayence, 2004.
Thuringe qui doit ouvrir ses portes en 2013
15
, et publie, part ses colloques
et monographies, de fort utiles cahiers-guides consacrs des monuments
individuels. Elle a tenu en mai 2010 sa XVIII
e
runion annuelle, consacre
aux chteaux dans lespace alpin, Hallein au Tyrol, ce qui fait comprendre
quelle a rapidement dpass le cadre qui la fit natre
16
.
Lautre initiative, ne en 1996, est le Rudolstdter Arbeitskreis zur
Residenzkultur (Cercle dtude de Rudolstadt pour la culture de rsiden-
ces). Ce groupe sinspir dune tradition ouest-allemande cre par des his-
toriens dart et des littraires de Marbourg et ailleurs, remontant, elle, aux
annes 1975. Sa spcialit est le dcryptement de la grammaire des signes
dans la reprsentation princire, tude mene principalement par Andreas
Beyer (le nouveau directeur du Centre allemand dhistoire de lart Paris), par
Ulrich Schtte et Peter-Michael Hahn. Il y priodiquement des colloques
publies, et des monographies
17
.
Depuis la runification, les Fondations (Stiftungen) concernant les
Grten und Schlsser (Parcs et chteaux) dtat dans les diffrents
Lnder recommencrent travailler et publier. Dans les universits revi-
vies, la recherche sur le monde de la noblesse et des princes prit un nouvel
lan, ainsi Potsdam autour de Heinz-Dieter Heimann et Kurt Neitmann, tra-
vaillant sur les rsidences piscopales
18
, et Greifswald sous limpulsion de
Karl-Heinz Spie qui nous fait redcouvrir le monde princier de lEmpire du
Bas Moyen ge, et qui est lauteur de la premire synthse y consacre
19
.
A lOuest, ltude des pratiques mmorielles et rituelles, lanalyse des
rgles de jeu, dabord du Haut Moyen ge (Gerd Althoff), puis des temps
modernes (Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger), et le dchiffrement de la grammaire
de la communication symbolique marquent des renouveaux des tudes mdie-
vales et modernes lies aux initiatives inlassables des quipes actives luni-
versit de Munster
20
.
ct delles il faut mentionner galement les efforts de luniversit de
Gieen en Hesse. Anciennement lieu denseignement de lminent historien
77
15
http://www.deutschesburgenmuseum.de/
16
Voir lannexe.
17
Voir lannexe.
18
Supra, n. 8.
19
K. H. Spie, Frsten und Hfe im Mittelalter, Darmstadt 2008, avec riche bibliogra-
phie.
20
Ont t publis rcemment le catalogue dexposition B. Stollberg-Rlinger, M. Puhle,
J. Gtzmann, G. Althoff (eds.), Spektakel der Macht. Rituale im alten Europa 800-1800,
Darmstadt 2008, ainsi que la somme de B. Stollberg-Rilinger, Des Kasiers alte Kleider.
Verfassungsgeschichte und Symbolsprache des Alten Reiches, Munich, 2008.
Peter Moraw, grand inspirateur de lhistoire prosopographique du politique
21
,
elle se spcialise actuellement dans le domaine de la mmoire sociale. Sous la
direction de Werner Rsener, auteur dune trs rcente synthse sur les cours
royales et princires dans lEmpire mdival
22
, on y travaille et publie sur la
mmoire des cours et de le noblesse
23
. A Osnabrck on met sur chantier un
Handbuch der kulturellen Zentren der Frhen Neuzeit (Manuel des centres
culturels des Temps Modernes), se limitant lEmpire et choisissant les 60
les plus importants
24
. Dautres initatives son localises Fribourg-en-Brisgau
autour de Thomas Zotz et Ronald G. Asch, Constance o travaille Mark
Hengerer, ou Heidelberg, autour de Jrg Peltzer qui sattaque la compa-
raison germano-britannique
25
. Puisque le sujet intresse, il trouve beaucoup
damateurs, de haute qualit, et sen enrichit. Les travaux dhistoire culturel-
le du politique
26
sont dsormais en plein essor.
Paralllement, en 1999, se constitua Vienne le Arbeitskreis Hfe des
Hauses sterreich (Cercle dtude des cours de la maison dAutriche), et le
Hofburg-Projekt (Projet dtude du chteau imprial Vienne) severtuant
tudier et faire mieux connatre ce point de mire et limmense hritage des
cours et rsidences de la maison dAutriche
27
. En attendant, un magnifique
manuel concernant les sources auliques disponibles a paru par les soins de M.
Josef Prauser, faisant pendant Hof und Schrift de la
28
.
Le tournant des annes 1989/1990 na bien sr pas seulement fait rsur-
gir le pass en lancienne RDA, mais dans toute lEurope libere du joug
sovitique. Ainsi, et dja au paravant, en Pologne o le chteau royal de
Werner Paravicini
78
21
Voir son recueil darticles R. C. Schwinges (ed.), ber Knig und Reich. Aufstze
zur deutschen Verfassungsgeschichte des spten Mittelalters, Sigmaringen 1995, et les
Mlanges lui ddies sous le titre P. J. Heinig et. a. (eds.), Reich, Regionen und Europa in
Mittelalter und Neuzeit, (Historische Forschungen, 67), Berlin 2000.
22
W. Rsener, Leben am Hof, Knigs- und Frstenhfe im Mittelalter, Ostfilden 2008.
23
Voir la collection Formen der Erinnerung, paraissant depuis 2000 chez Vandenhoek
& Ruprecht Gttingen.
24
http://www.ikfn.uniosnabrueck.de/pages/fokulturellezentren.html
25
Pour son groupe de recherche Rang und Ordnung. Ausbildung und Visualisierung poli-
tischer und sozialer Ordnung im sptmittelalterlichen Frstentum im europischen Vergleich
voir: http://www.uniheidelberg.de/fakultaeten/philosophie/zegk/ranguordnung/index.html, et cf.
supra, n. 6.
26
Cf. B. Stollberg Rilinger (ed.), Was heit Kulturgeschichte des Politischen,
Zeitschrift fr Historische Forschung, 35 (2005), pp. .
27
Voir lannexe.
28
J. Prauser (ed.), Quellenkunde der Habsburgermonarchie (16.-18. Jahrhundert). Ein
exemplarisches Handbuch, Mitteilungen des Instituts fr sterreichische
Geschichtsforschung, 44 (2004), pp ..
Varsovie, compltement disparu, a t compltement reconstruit. La mme
renaissance se produit Vilnius, capitale de la principaut de Lithuanie, o le
chteau renaquit, inaugur, mais pas encore termin, loccasion du mill-
naire du pays en 2009. M. Serwanski va nous en parler, ainsi que de la
Bohme, membre dEmpire. L, non seulement le chteaux de Prague et du
Karlstein ont toute lattention, mais aussi les rsidences de la puissante mai-
son de Rosenberg (tudie surtout lUniversit de esk Budjovice par
Vclav), les rsidences en Moravie ( luniversit Masaryk de Brno) ou en
Silsie (universit de Breslau). Partout on rebtit aussi, plus au moins heureu-
sement, les anciennes rsidences, ainsi Brunswick et bientt, je lespre,
Berlin.
Depuis 1990 on peut donc parler dune vritable renaissance europenne
de la recherche sur laristocratie, ses cours et ses rsidences, et elle nest pas
prte sessoufler. Au contraire.
IV. Et la Residenzen-Kommission dans toute cette effervescence? Aprs
avoir pendant un quart de sicle inspiration et modle au service de la recher-
che internationale, elle va prendre fin avec lanne 2010, ayant alors publi le
dernier volume de son manuel et ayant organis en septembre 2010 son XII
e
et dernier symposium Coburg, ce sympathique berceau de tant de dynasties
europennes. Le sujet de ce colloque sera Stdtisches Brgertum und
Hofgesellschaft. Kulturen integrativer und konkurrierener Beziehungen in
Residenz- und Hauptstdten vom 14. bis ins 19. Jahrhundert (Bourgoisie et
socit de cour. Culture intgratives et concurrentielles dans rsidences et
capitales du XIV
e
au XIX
e
sicle). Il esquissera la nouvelle direction que les
travaux futurs pourraient ou devraient prendre: Laccent se dplace de la cour
la ville
29
et du Moyen ge aux Temps Modernes. La coopration entre his-
toire conomico-sociale, culturelle et artistique devrait produire trois sries de
manuels: un rpertoire des villes-rsidences des Temps Modernes, un rper-
toire des sources dhistoire financire et conomique des villes et des cours de
la mme poque, et un rpertoire de la rpresentation mdiatico-artistique.
Ces manuels analytiques pourraient tre suivis de volumes systmatiques pr-
sentant les avances de nos connaisances rendues possibles par ce travail pr-
alable. On devrait descendre lchelle nobiliaire des princes et de la haute
79
29
Cf. dej, dans lannexe, le volume 20 de la srie Residenzenforschung 2006, et S. C.
Pils J. P. Niederkorn (eds.), Ein zweigeteilter Ort? Hof und Stadt in der Frhen Neuzeit,
Innsbruck 2005.
noblesse jusquau dernier dgr du petit seigneur vivant en troite symbiose
avec la communaut qui peut-tre na mme pas le statut de ville, mais seule-
ment de bourg ou de march. La thse inspirant cette nouvelle tranche de tra-
vaux futurs pourrait tre la suivante: il ny a pas opposition fondamentale
entre la cour et la ville, mais relation intgrative, symbiose permanente, mal-
gr les frictions qui semblent les sparer. Le hiatus ne sannone qu partir
du milieu du XVIII
e
sicle. Consquence de lindustrialisation, il nest effec-
tif qu partir du milieu du scle suivant. Dans un avenir plus lointain, une
troisime tranche pourra suivre, traitant du dclin irrmdiable du modle
courtois et menant la fin des monarchies, au moins en Europe centrale et
orientale, en 1918. Lhistoire de ce dclin, allant de la fin de lhgmonie poli-
tique celle du modle culturel, malgr defforts et de succs impression-
nants, sera passionnante raconter, ceci dautant plus que se pose la question
de savoir pourquoi et comment les monarchies britanniques, bnlux et scan-
dinaves ont pu survivre la tourmente de la guerre et de la revolution. Ce pro-
gramme, la Residenzen-Kommission ne le relisera plus, mais elle le pro-
pose qui veut et peut sen charger.
V. Depuis 1985, la perspective a donc bien change. Centre sur la rsi-
dence, le chteau fortifi ou non, de topographique elle est dabord devenue
politique, prosopographique, sociale. La rsidence, initialement comprise
comme manifestation de pouvoir envers les domins, est apparue comme
manifestation de concurrence entre gaux, vhicule dune ambition de monter
en grade dans les yeux des concurrents princiers ou tout simplement de gar-
der son rang
30
. Nous sommes dsormais conscients, et Peter Moraw y est pour
beaucoup, quexistait une hirarchie dans la socit des princes qui ne cessait
de sobserver. LEmpire des princes si nombreux, se rencontrant rgulire-
ment aux dites, tait particulirement sensible au rang et la prcdence.
Nous comprenons mieux maintenant cette socit dambition et de prestige,
ses lois et logiques internes fort svres. Luxe, calme et volupt restent de
chimres. Il na pas t de tout repos que dtre prince dAncien rgime.
Le regard sest ouvert sur lespace rsidentiel, sur la structuration du pay-
sage, les parcs et jardins les bosquets, eaux et canaux cotant de sommes
inimaginables
31
. Nous commenons entendre et comprendre le langage des
Werner Paravicini
80
30
Voir dans lannexe le volumes traitant de ces phnomnes, MRK, Sonderheft 12 et
Residenzenforschung 23.
31
Cf. dans lannexe le volumes traitant de lconomie curiale, MRK Sonderheft 9 et
Residenzenforschung 21.
reprsentations artistiques, ce gaspillage qui parat superflu et hont au bour-
gois vertueux du XIX
e
sicle, mais qui est, sauf de trs rares exceptions, un
investissement indispensable pour garder son rang, cette obsession de la
socit des princes
32
.
Chemin faisant nous avons presque oubli que la cour nest que lavers
de la mdaille qui montre au revers la ville
33
. Et nous avons trop peu fait pour
comprendre lconomie de la cour. Les mtres linraires darchives financi-
res dpassent de loin tout ce qui nous a t laiss concernant dautres occupa-
tions de ladministration princire
34
.
Mais sil est vrai quun prince se comparait aux autres princes, partout o
il y en avait (et il y en avait partout), et quun roi ne se comparait quaux aut-
res rois, alors lhistoire des cours ne peut tre que europenne. En rflchis-
sant sur lavenir, la ncessit dorganiser la recherche curiale sur lchelle
europenne parat vidente, y compris un organisme sen chargeant.
Maintenant cest chose faite, et nous nous en flicitons, reconnaissant
Versailles le droit vident den tre le sige comme on reconnat Lbeck
celui dtre le centre de la recherche hansatique condition que cette
recherche soit vraiment europenne et non seulement occidentale et quelle
intgre de plein droit le monde germanique, slave, baltique et finno-hongrois.
Nous, les Europens, nous devons faire un effort dapprendre la langue du
voisin. Si la connaissance de langlais est indispensable, celle de litalien et de
lespagnol recomande, celle des langues slaves, baltes, finno-hongroises
bienvenue, la pratique du franais et de lallemand reste de rigueur si lon veut
faire lhistoire de notre cotinent.
Dans un non trop lointain avenir le dernier pas dorganisation mondiale
doit cependant tre franchi par la cration dune Commission internationale
dhistoire des cours au sein du Comit internationale des sciences historiques.
Car le phnomne de la cour est universel dans ce monde, la recherche la
concernant doit ltre galement, europnne et interculturelle la fois. Il exis-
te dj un tel groupe vraiment international et interculturel, la Court Culture
Group qui reunit des chercheurs europens et amricains spcialistes des
81
32
Cf. W. Paravicini (ed.), Luxus und Integration. Materielle Hofkultur in Westeuropa
vom 12. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert, Munich 2010.
33
A. Bihrer, Curia non sufficit. Vergangene, aktuelle und zuknftige Wege der
Erforschung von Hfen im Mittelalter und in der Frhen Neuzeit, Zeitschrift fr
Historische, 35 (2008), p. 235-272 (sur rseau:
http://www.atyponlink.com/DH/doi/pdf/10.3790/zhf.35.2.235?cookieSet1).
34
O. Auge (Kiel), contribution au colloque de Heidelberg, indiqu supra, n. 6. Cf. le
livre de M. Mersiowsky, Residenzenforschung, t. 9 (2000), indiqu en annexe.
cours aussi bien europens quasiatiques. Elle se runit pour la prochaine fois
en juillet 2010 Greifswald pour traiter de la mort la cour
35
. Mais progres-
sons prudemment, sans bousculer les choses, attentif toutes les voix, tou-
tes les langues.
Werner Paravicini
82
35
Sadresser lorganisateur sur place, M. K. H. Spie de lUniversit de Greifswald
(spiess@uni-greifswald.de), le chef du groupe tant M. Scott L. Waugh de lUniversit de
Californie Los Angeles (swaugh@conet.ucla.edu).
Des rsidences la cour, du Moyen ge aux Temps modernes:
Recherches en lange allemande depuis 1985
Annexe:
Bibliographie des publications des principales institutions de langue allemande tra-
vaillant sur cours et rsidences
Residenzen-Kommission
http://resikom.adw-goettingen.gwdg.de
Mitteilungen der Residenzen-Kommission 1,1 (1991) 20,2 (2010)
Mitteilungen der Residenzen-Kommission. Sonderhefte 1, 1995 14 (2010):
Vol. 1: Auswahlbibliographie von Neuerscheinungen zu Residenz und Hof 1991-
1995, par Christian Halm et Jan Hirschbiegel, Kiel, 1995.
Vol. 2: Ordnungsformen des Hofes, dir. Ulf Christian Ewert und Stephan Selzer,
Kiel, 1997.
Vol. 3: Hirschbiegel, Jan, Wettlaufer, Jrg: Materialien zum Werk: Frstliche Hfe
und Residenzen im sptmittelalterlichen Reich. Ein dynastisch-topographis-
ches Handbuch, Kiel, 1999.
Vol. 4: Dynastie Hof Residenz. Frstliche Hfe und Residenzen im sptmitte-
lalterlichen Reich. Allgemeine Auswahlbibliographie zu einem Projekt der
Residenzen-Kommission der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Gttingen, rd.
Jan Hirschbiegel, Kiel, 2000.
2000, rd. Jan Hirschbiegel, Kiel, 2000.
Vol. 6: Hfische Feste im Sptmittelalter, dir. Gerhard Fouquet, Harm von Seggern
et Gabriel Zeilinger, Kiel, 2003.
Vol. 7: Das Gehuse der Macht. Der Raum der Herrschaft im interkulturellen
Vergleich Antike, Mittelalter, Frhe Neuzeit, dir. Werner Paravicini, Kiel,
2005.
2005, rd. Jan Hirschbiegel et Silke Meier, Kiel, 2006.
Vol. 9: ATELIER. Hofwirtschaft. Ein konomischer Blick auf Hof und Residenz in
Sptmittelalter und Frher Neuzeit, dir. Jan Hirschbiegel et Werner
Paravicini, Kiel, 2007.
Vol. 10: Ulrich von Hutten, Eines deutschen Ritters Dialog ber den Hof, d.
Rainer A. Mller et Klaus Schreiner, trad. Ernst Wenzel, Kiel, 2008.
Vol. 11: Briefe der Herzogin Sidonia von Sachsen (1449-1510) an ihren Sohn
Georg (1471-1539), d. Sven Rabeler, Alexandra Kursawe et Claudia Ulrich,
Kiel, 2009.
Vol. 12: ATELIER. Vorbild, Austausch, Konkurrenz. Hfe und Residenzen in der
gegenseitigen Wahrnehmung, dir. Werner Paravicini et Jrg Wettlaufer, Kiel,
2009.
83
Vol.. 13: Auswahlbibliographie von Neuerscheinungen zu Residenz und Hof 2006-
2010, Kiel, 2010 (en prparation).
Vol. 14: 25 Jahre Residenzen-Kommission. Eine Bibliographie, Kiel 2010(en pr-
paration).
Residenzenforschung:
Vol. 1: Vortrge und Forschungen zur Residenzenfrage, dir. Peter Johanek,
Sigmaringen, 1990.
Vol. 2: Jschke, Karl-Ulrich: Nichtknigliche Residenzen im sptmittelalterlichen
England, Sigmaringen, 1990.
Vol. 3: Amann, Konrad: Die landesherrliche Residenzstadt Passau im sptmitte-
lalterlichen Deutschen Reich, Sigmaringen, 1992.
Vol. 4: Kerber, Dieter: Herrschaftsmittelpunkte im Erzstift Trier. Hof und Residenz
im spten Mittelalter, Sigmaringen, 1995.
Vol. 5: Alltag bei Hofe, dir. Werner Paravicini, Sigmaringen, 1995.
Vol. 6: Zeremoniell und Raum, dir. Werner Paravicini, Sigmaringen, 1997.
Vol. 7: Scholz, Michael: Residenz, Hof und Verwaltung der Erzbischfe von
Magdeburg in Halle in der ersten Hlfte des 16. Jahrhunderts, Sigmaringen,
1998.
Vol. 8: Kolb, Johann: Heidelberg. Die Entstehung einer landesherrlichen Residenz
im 14. Jahrhundert, Sigmaringen, 1999.
Vol. 9: Mersiowsky, Mark: Die Anfnge territorialer Rechnungslegung im
Deutschen Nordwesten. Sptmittelalterliche Rechnungen, Verwaltungspraxis,
Hof und Territorium, Stuttgart, 2000.
Vol. 10: Hfe und Hofordnungen 1200-1600, dir. Holger Kruse et Werner
Paravicini, Sigmaringen, 1999.
Vol. 11: Das Frauenzimmer. Die Frau bei Hofe in Sptmittelalter und Frher
Neuzeit, dir. Jan Hirschbiegel et Werner Paravicini, Stuttgart, 2000.
Vol. 12: Chtelet-Lange, Liliane: Die Catharinenburg. Residenz des Pfalzgrafen
Johann Casimir von Zweibrcken. Ein Bau der Zeitenwende 1619-1622,
Stuttgart, 2000.
Vol. 13: Erziehung und Bildung bei Hofe, dir. Werner Paravicini et Jrg Wettlaufer,
Stuttgart, 2002.
Vol. 14: Principes. Dynastien und Hfe im spten Mittelalter, dir. Cordula Nolte,
Karl-Heinz Spie et Ralf-Gunnar Werlich, Stuttgart, 2002.
Vol. 15 [Handbuch/Manuel], dir. Werner Paravicini, rd. Jan Hirschbiegel et Jrg
Wettlaufer:
15, I,1-2:
Hfe und Residenzen im sptmittelalterlichen Reich. Ein dynastisch-topographis-
ches Handbuch, 1
re
partie: Dynastien und Hfe. 2
e
partie: Residenzen,
Ostfildern, 2003.
15, II,1-2:
Hfe und Residenzen im sptmittelalterlichen Reich. Bilder und Begriffe, 1
re
partie:
Begriffe. 2
e
partie: Bilder, Ostfildern, 2005.
Werner Paravicini
84
15, III:
Hfe und Residenzen im sptmittelalterlichen Reich. Hof und Schrift, Ostfildern,
2007.
15, IV, 1-2:
Hfe und Residenzen im sptmittelalterlichen Reich. Grafen und Herren,
Ostfildern, 2010 (sous presse).
Vol. 16: Hirsch, Volker: Der Hof des Basler Bischofs Johannes von Venningen.
Herrschaftspraxis und Kommunikation, Wirtschaftsfhrung und Konsum,
Ostfildern, 2004.
Vol. 17: Der Fall des Gnstlings. Hofparteien in Europa vom 13. bis zum 17.
Jahrhundert, dir. Jan Hirschbiegel et Werner Paravicini, Ostfildern, 2004.
Vol. 18: Bihrer, Andreas: Der Konstanzer Bischofshof im 14. Jahrhundert: herrs-
chaftliche, soziale und kommunikative Aspekte, Ostfildern, 2005.
Vol. 19: Babendererde, Cornell: Sterben, Tod, Begrbnis und liturgisches Gedchtnis
bei weltlichen Reichsfrsten des Sptmittelalters, Ostfildern, 2006.
Vol. 20: Der Hof und die Stadt. Konfrontation, Koexistenz und Integration in
Sptmittelalter und Frher Neuzeit, dir. Werner Paravicini et Jrg Wettlaufer,
Ostfildern, 2006.
Vol. 21: Hofwirtschaft. Ein konomischer Blick auf Hof und Residenz in
Sptmittelalter und Frher Neuzeit, dir. Gerhard Fouquet, Jan Hirschbiegel et
Werner Paravicini, Ostfildern, 2008.
Vol. 22: Frsten an der Zeitenwende zwischen Gruppenbild und Individualitt.
Formen frstlicher Selbstdarstellung und ihre Rezeption (1450-1550), dir.
Oliver Auge, Ralf-Gunnar Werlich et Gabriel Zeilinger, Ostfildern, 2009.
Vol. 23: Vorbild, Austausch, Konkurrenz. Hfe und Residenzen in der gegenseiti-
gen Wahrnehmung, dir. Werner Paravicini und Jrg Wettlaufer, Ostfildern,
2010 (sous presse).
Vol. 24: Hfe und Residenzen geistlicher Frsten, dir. Jan Paul Niederkorn et
Wolfgang Wst, Ostfildern, 2011 (en prparation).
Vol. 25: Stdtisches Brgertum und Hofgesellschaft. Kulturen integrativer und
konkurrierender Beziehungen in Residenz und Hauptstdten vom 14. bis ins
19. Jahrhundert, dir. Jan Hirschbiegel, Werner Paravicini et Jrg Wettlaufer,
Ostfildern, 2011 (en prparation).
Vol. 26: Hof-, Regiments- und mterordnungen von Jlich-Kleve-Berg, d. Brigitte
Kasten dt Margarete Bruckhaus, Ostfildern, 2011 (en prparation).
Europische Reiseberichte:
Europische Reiseberichte des spten Mittelalters. Eine analytische Bibliographie,
dir. Werner Paravicini
Vol. 1: Deutsche Reiseberichte, rd. Christian Halm, Francfort/Main, 1994 (Kieler
Werkstcke. D 5). 2., durchgesehene und um einen Nachtrag ergnzte Aufl.,
Francfort/Main, 2001.
Vol. 2: Franzsische Reiseberichte, rd. Jrg Wettlaufer en coopration avec
Jacques Paviot. Francfort/Main, 1999 (Kieler Werkstcke. D 12).
85
Vol. 3: Niederlndische Reiseberichte, en utilisant les travaux prparatoires de
Detlev Kraack rd. par Jan Hirschbiegel, Francfort/Main, 2000 (Kieler
Werkstcke. D 14).
Rudolstdter Arbeitskreises zur Residenzkultur
http://www.rudolstaedter-arbeitskreis.de/publikationen.html
Rudolstdter Forschungen zur Residenzkultur:
Vol. 1: Die Knste und das Schlo in der frhen Neuzeit, dir. Lutz Unbehaun en
coopration avec Andreas Beyer et Ulrich Schtte, Munich et Berlin, 1998.
Vol. 2: Bildnis, Frst und Territorium, dir. Andreas Beyer, Munich et Berlin, 2000.
Vol. 3: Zeichen und Raum. Ausstattungen und hfisches Zeremoniell in den deuts-
chen Schlssern der Frhen Neuzeit, dir. Peter-Michael Hahn et Ulrich
Schtte, Munich et Berlin 2006.
Vol. 4: Hof und Medien im Spannungsfeld von dynastischer Tradition und politis-
cher Innovation zwischen 1648 und 1714. Celle und die Residenzen im
Heiligen Rmischen Reich deutscher Nation, dir. Heiko La, Munich et
Berlin, 2008.
Schriften zur Residenzkultur:
Vol. 1: Residenzschlo, Landschlo und Palais. Studien zur Schloarchitektur in
Thringen, dir. Ulrich Schtte et Lutz Unbehaun (en prparation).
Vol. 2: Vinzenz Czech: Legitimation und Reprsentation. Zum Selbstverstndnis
thringischer Grafen und Herren in der Frhen Neuzeit, Berlin, 2003.
Vol. 3: Dagmar Sommer: Frstliche Bauten auf schsischen Medaillen. Studien zur
medialen Vermittlung landesherrlicher Architektur und Bauttigkeit, Berlin,
2007.
Vol. 4: Herrschaft Architektur Raum. Festschrift fr Ulrich Schtte zum 60.
Geburtstag, dir. Stephanie Hahn et Michael H. Sprenger, Berlin, 2008.
Wartburg-Gesellschaft zur Erforschung von Burgen und Schlssern
http://www.wartburggesellschaft.de/
Forschungen zu Burgen und Schlssern:
Vol. 1: Die Wartburg und der Burgenbau des 12. und 19. Jahrhunderts, dir.
Hartmut Hofrichter et G. Ulrich Grossmann, Munich, 1995.
Vol. 2: Burgenbau im spten Mittelalter [I], dir. Hartmut Hofrichter et G. Ulrich
Grossmann, Munich, 1996.
Vol. 3: Der frhe Schlobau und seine mittelalterlichen Vorstufen, dir. Hartmut
Hofrichter et G. Ulrich Grossmann, Munich,1997.
Vol. 4: Schlo Tirol Saalbauten und Burgen des 12. Jh. in Mitteleuropa, dir.
Thomas Biller, Munich, 1998.
Vol. 5: Burgen und frhe Schlsser in Thringen und seinen Nachbarlndern, dir.
G. Ulrich Gromann et a., Munich, 1999.
Werner Paravicini
86
Vol. 6: Burgen kirchlicher Bauherren, dir. G. Ulrich Gromann u.a., Munich, 2001.
Vol. 7: Burgenbau im 13. Jahrhundert, dir. G. Ulrich Gromann, Munich, 2002.
Vol. 8: Burgen und Schlsser in den Niederlanden und in Nordwestdeutschland,
dir. Guido von Bren et a., Munich, 2004.
Vol. 9: Neue Forschungen zum frhen Burgenbau, dir. Hans Heinrich Hffner,
Munich, 2006.
Vol. 10: Burgenrenaissance im Historismus, dir. Christine Mller et a., Munich,
2007.
Vol. 11: Burg und Stadt, dir. Christine Mller et a., Munich, 2008.
Vol. 12: Burgenbau im spten Mittelalter, II, dir. Thomas Biller et a., Berlin, 2009
[comprenant une table des vol.1 10].
Forschungen zu Burgen und Schlssern. Sonderbnde:
Vol. 1: Burger, Daniel: Die Cadolzburg. Dynastenburg der Hohenzollern und
markgrflicher Amtssitz, Nuremberg, 2005.
Vol. 2: Burg Lauf an der Pegnitz. Ein Bauwerk Kaiser Karls IV., dir. Daniel Burger,
Ratisbonne, 2006.
Vol. 3: Crac des Chevaliers, dir. Thomas Biller, Thomas, Ratisbonne, 2006.
Vol. 4 ( vol. 4 des Schriften des Deutschen Burgenmuseums)
Kohnert, Tillmann Die Forchheimer Burg genannt Pfalz. Geschichte und
Baugeschichte einer frstbischflich bambergischen Stadtburg, Petersberg,
2008.
Burgen, Schlsser und Wehrbauten in Mitteleuropa. Einzelfhrer:
(Paraissant chez Schnell & Steiner Ratisbonne)
1 Die Kaiserpfalz Nrnberg. 1999, anglais 2006.
2 Schlo Bdingen. 1999.
3 Schlo Marburg. 1999.
4 Welterbe Wartburg. 2000, anglais 2006, franais 2007.
5 Schlo Gottorf. 2000.
6 Die Ronneburg. 2000.
7 Die Drei Gleichen. 2001.
8 Burg Ranis. 2001.
9 Neues Schlo in Ingolstadt. 2003.
10 Weienburg Festung Wlzburg. 2002.
11 Burg Fleckenstein im Elsa. 2003, franais 2003.
12 Die Moritzburg in Halle. 2002.
13 Schlo Detmold. 2002.
14 Schlo und Zitatelle Jlich. 2005.
15 Schlo Horst (Gelsenkirchen). 2006.
16 Burg Guttenberg am Neckar. 2007.
17 Burg und Festung Rheinfels. 2002.
18 Das Goldene Dachl in Innsbruck. 2004, anglais 2009.
19 Burg und Festung Forchheim. 2005.
87
20 Burg Runkelstein. 2005, italien 2005.
21 Bozen Schlo Martesch. 2005, italien 2005.
22 Trient, Castello del Buonconsiglio. 2007.
Arbeitskreis Hfe des Hauses sterreich
http://www.oeaw.ac.at/home/thema/thema_200809_5.html
Voir Jan Paul Niederkorn, 10 Jahre Arbeitskreis Hfe des Hauses sterreich,
MRK 19,1 (2009) p. 17-20.
dans FrhneuzeitInfo:
Vol. 12,2 (2001): Contributions de Jeroen Duindam, Katrin Keller, Heinz
Noflatscher und Vclav Bucek; prsentation de lArbeitskreis par Jan Paul
Niederkorn et Stefan Sienell.
13, 1 und 2 (2002): Contributions DAngela Romagnoli, Jaroslava Hausenblasova
und Petra Luniazckov.
dans Archiv fr sterreichische Geschichte:
Vol. 138: Der Innsbrucker Hof. Residenz und hfische Gesellschaft in Tirol vom
15. bis 19. Jahrhundert, dir. Heinz Noflatscher et Jan Paul Niederkorn, Vienne
2005.
Diplomatische Praxis und Zeremoniell in Europa und dem Mittleren Osten in der
Frhen Neuzeit, dir. Ralph Kauz, Jan Paul Niederkorn et Giorgio Rota (sous pres-
se).
Kaiser, Hof und Reich in der Frhen Neuzeit, dir. Grete Klingenstein et Heinz
Duchhardt (en prparation).
dans Publikationen des Historischen Instituts beim sterreichischen Kulturforum in
Rom. Abhandlungen:
Vol. 12: Kaiserhof Papsthof (16.-18. Jahrhundert), dir. Richard Bsel, Grete
Klingenstein et Alexander Koller en coopration avec Elisabeth Garms-Cornides,
Jan Paul Niederkorn et Andrea Sommer-Mathis, Vienne 2006.
dans Forschungen und Beitrge zur Wiener Stadtgeschichte:
Vol. 44: Ein zweigeteilter Ort? Hof und Stadt in der Frhen Neuzeit, dir. Susanne
Claudine Pils et Jan Paul Niederkorn, Innsbruck 2005.
dans Opera historica:
Ein Bruderzwist im Hause Habsburg (1608-1611) (en prparation).
dans Studien des Italienisch-Deutschen Historischen Instituts in Trient:
Hfe als Orte der Kommunikation. Italien und die Habsburger (16. bis 19.
Jahrhundert) (en prparation).
Werner Paravicini
88
Nicolas Le Roux Caroline zum Kolk
LHISTORIOGRAPHIE SUR LA COUR EN FRANCE
Lhistoriographie de la cour en France prsente une image trs contraste.
On considre gnralement que ce sujet na pas toujours t bien peru par les
historiens franais, et que la cour constituait un objet suspect, voire peu fr-
quentable. A tel point quen 1996 un jeune auteur pouvait livrer une rflexion
sur ce sujet en citant Pascal: Combien de royaumes nous ignorent
1
. Trs
rpandu est aussi lavis que cest avec la traduction franaise de La Socit de
cour de Norbert Elias, en 1974, que la recherche sur la cour aurait enfin pris
son envol.
Ces visions nous semblent trop pessimistes. Dune part, si les annes
1970 et 1980 ont certainement marqu un tournant dans lhistoriographie de
la cour, le sujet ne constituait pas avant cette poque un no mans land com-
plet. Dautre part, mme si la France na pas fait de la cour un champ de
recherche spcifique, comme cela peut-tre le cas dans dautres pays o se
sont dveloppes les court studies, elle est pourtant riche en travaux et en tu-
des qui la concernent. Pour mieux comprendre la situation actuelle, il est utile
de retracer brivement lhistoriographie qui a prcd les annes 1970.
Le XIX
e
sicle sest caractris par trois grands types de publications qui
intressent ltude de la cour en France. Dans un premier temps, lEtat a initi
ldition de documents historiques. Les collections qui en rsultent compor-
tent un grand nombre de Mmoires et de correspondances, des documents de
89
1
O. Chaline, Combien de royaumes nous ignorent: la cour dans lhistoriographie
franaise, Annali di Storia moderna e contemporanea, II (1996), pp. 384-392. Du mme
auteur, voir aussi: The Valois and Bourbon Courts, c. 1515-1750, in J. Adamson (ed.), The
Princely Courts of Europe: Rituals, Politics and Culture Under the Ancien Rgime 1500-
1750, Londres 1999, pp. 67-93.
ladministration royale ainsi que des comptes et des inventaires, tous prcieux
pour ltude de la cour.
Trs prsentes furent aussi les tudes biographiques qui apportent des
clairages sur la vie et la carrire de princes, de courtisans et dofficiers,
comme les articles dhistoire rgionale, traitant dune crmonie, dun itin-
raire, dune construction ou de la vie dun chteau.
Enfin on vit apparatre vers 1870 les premiers travaux de ce quon appel-
lera plus tard lhistoire des institutions. On sait que la cour ne compte pas
parmi les sujets majeurs traits par ce courant, qui privilgie les enqutes sur
les structures tatiques ayant donn naissance une institution rpublicaine.
La cour ne semblait pas faire partie de ces corps, cest pourquoi elle se trou-
vait relegue la sphre prive que les historiens des institutions dlaissaient.
Mais certaines tudes de ce courant ont pour objet des lments de la cour,
comme les conseils, les services financiers, voire les htels royaux.
La production historiographique du XIX
e
sicle sest penche tout parti-
culirement sur le Moyen-ge. En effet, il tait sans doute dlicat daborder
la cour de lAncien Rgime une poque o les royalistes taient encore trs
prsents sur la scne politique. Le sujet souffrait en outre dune mauvaise
rputation, car la cour tait perue dans sa seule fonction politique de ras-
semblement de laristocratie autour du monarque. Elle apparaissait comme un
champ strile de rivalits et de micro-conflits dpourvus de sens, parce quel-
le concernait un chantillon social trs rduit et vou la disparition. Cela
nempcha pas ldition de nombreux documents, en particulier de Mmoires
et de correspondances, mais les recherches concernant la cour de Versailles
taient avant tout le fait dhistoriens dart. De leur ct, les historiens por-
taient un intrt marqu aux plaisirs des monarques et aux cabales, cons-
quence de la relgation de la cour la sphre prive, et par consquent exclue
du terrain dinvestigation du champ politique.
Quelques tudes parues dans les annes 1920 et 1930 prsentent nan-
moins une vision nuance et dtaille de lentourage royal, mme sil ne cons-
titue pas leur sujet principal : les ouvrages de Lucien Romier, de Pierre
Champion, de Louis Rau et dautres chercheurs frus darchivistique en font
partie
2
.
Lhistoriographie dans la France de laprs-guerre a t marque par lin-
fluence grandissante de lcole des Annales. Les historiens se sont surtout pr-
occups dtablir des sries dmographiques et conomiques, donnes per-
90
2
Voir entre autres: L. Romier, Catholiques et huguenots la cour de Charles IX, Paris
1924; P. Champion, Catherine de Mdicis prsente Charles IX son royaume (1564-1566),
Paris 1937; L. Reau, LEurope franaise au sicle des Lumires, Paris 1938.
ues comme des sources objectives qui ne mentent pas, contrairement aux
lettres, aux Mmoires ou aux rcits des historiographes. La cour tait toujours
relgue lunivers de la petite histoire, au monde de lhistoire-rcit
laquelle devait se substituer une histoire-problme, pour reprendre la typo-
logie tablie par Franois Furet
3
.
Mais lcole des Annales ntait pas hermtiquement ferme aux ques-
tions qui concernent notre sujet. Marc Bloch livrait en 1924 avec son tude
Les Rois thaumaturges une enqute magistrale sur la sacralit du pouvoir
4
.
Les travaux de Lucien Febvre sur Marguerite dAngoulme traitent de la cul-
ture et sensibilit religieuse des cercles curiaux travers une relecture des
sources visant comprendre la mentalit de lpoque tudie, afin dviter les
interprtations anachroniques ou errones
5
.
Lcole des Annales est en outre lorigine de deux approches qui sav-
reront prcieuses pour la recherche sur la cour. En ouvrant le champ aux faits
sociaux et aux mentalits, elle a prpar le terrain ltude des groupes et des
factions de la cour. Par ailleurs, en insistant sur limportance des enqutes
interdisciplinaires, elle a ouvert la porte la sociologie, lanthropologie et
bien dautres disciplines qui auront un impact certain sur lhistoriographie de
la cour.
En 1974, la publication de la traduction franaise de La Socit de cour
de Norbert Elias intervient dans un contexte exceptionnellement favorable.
Son livre connait un succs immdiat, tel point quon a pu crire quElias a
connu une vritable canonisation en France
6
. Le sociologue venait point
Lhistoriographie sur la cour en France
91
3
F. Furet, De lhistoire-rcit lhistoire-problme, Diogne, 89 (1975), pp. ..
4
M. Bloch, Les Rois thaumaturges. tude sur le caractre surnaturel attribu la
puissance royale particulirement en France et en Angleterre, Strasbourg 1924.
5
L. Febvre, Amour sacr, amour profane. Autour de lHeptamron, Paris 1944.
6
D. Gordon, The Canonization of Norbert Elias in France. A Critical Perspective,
French Politics, Culture and Society, XX, 1 (2002), pp. 68-94 et Id., Citizens without
Sovereignty: Equality and Sociability in French Thought, 1670-1789, Princeton 1994. La lit-
trature sur Elias est considrable, on peut citer F. Delmotte, Norbert Elias: la civilisation et
lEtat. Enjeux pistmologiques et politiques dune sociologie historique, Bruxelles 2007; C.
Opitz (ed.), Hfische Gesellschaft und Zivilisationsproze. Norbert Elias Werk in kultur-
wissenschaftlicher Perspektive, Cologne 2005; R. Schnell (ed.), Zivilisationsprozesse. Zu
Erziehungsschriften in der Vormoderne, Cologne 2004; R. Butz, J. Hirschbiegel et D.
Willoweit (eds.), Hof und Theorie. Verstehen und Erklren eines historischen Phnomens,
Cologne 2003; Y. Bonny, J. M. de Queiroz, E. Neveu (eds.), Norbert Elias et la thorie de
la civilisation. Lectures et critiques, Rennes 2003; S. Delzescaux, Norbert Elias. Une socio-
logie des processus, Paris 2001 et Norbert Elias. Civilisation et dcivilisation, Paris 2003;
G. Schwerhoff, Zivilisationsproze und Geschichtswissenschaft. Norbert Elias
Forschungsparadigma in historischer Sicht, Historische Zeitschrift, 266 (1998), pp. 561-
nomm en apportant sa caution dtranger au-dessus de la mle, sociologue
qui plus est, la nouvelle histoire
7
. En effet, ses recherches ont t diffu-
ses une poque o les processus de discipline sociale et de contrle des
individus staient imposs comme de nouveaux chantiers historiographiques.
Aux cts des enfants
8
, des sorcires
9
, des fous et des prisonniers
10
, les cour-
tisans apparaissaient chez Elias comme dautres victimes de la construction de
ltat moderne, de la centralisation monarchique et de la civilisation des
murs, et cest pourquoi ils constituaient prsent un objet dtude lgitime.
Dans son analyse du lent mouvement de diffusion de lautocontrainte et de la
matrise de soi qui caractrise le monde moderne, Elias faisait de la cour un
paradigme de la socit moderne. En prsentant la cour comme lun des outils
ayant permis la monarchie dinstaurer un gouvernement centralis et abso-
lutiste, il la sortait de la sphre prive pour en faire un sujet dhistoire poli-
tique part entire
11
.
Cest au moment o la lecture dElias commenait simposer en France,
que les historiens franais se penchrent leur tour sur le monde de la cour,
mais en dtournant dans un premier temps le regard de Versailles. Dans ses
recherches pionnires sur la cour dHenri III, Jacqueline Boucher sest
employe reconstituer le cadre de vie du prince et des courtisans en identi-
fiant des pratiques sociales, culturelles et religieuses particulires, qui
taient implicitement prsentes comme exemplaires pour lensemble de la
socit
12
. Lauteur ne considre pas la cour comme un lieu dasservissement
de la noblesse par llaboration de rituels striles, mais comme un microcos-
me culturel original qui formait un creuset social et culturel, un lieu de ren-
contre entre les lites gravitant autour de la figure princire.
Dans le mme esprit, Jean-Franois Solnon a ralis la premire tude
densemble de la cour de France lpoque moderne
13
. Il a dmontr que cette
92
605; A. Garrigou B. Lacroix (eds.), Norbert Elias, la politique et lhistoire, Paris 1997; J.
Duindam, Myths of Power: Norbert Elias and the Early Modern European Court,
Amsterdam 1995.
7
Garrigou Lacroix (eds.), Norbert Elias, cit., p. 21.
8
P. Aries, LEnfant et la vie familiale sous lAncien Rgime, Paris 1960.
9
R. Mandrou, Magistrats et sorciers en France au XVII
e
sicle, Paris 1969.
10
M. Foucault, Histoire de la folie lge classique, Paris 1972 et Id., Surveiller et
punir. Naissance de la prison, Paris 1975.
11
J. Cornette, Lhistoire au travail. Le nouveau Sicle de Louis XIV: un bilan histo-
riographique depuis vingt ans (1980-2000), Histoire, conomie & socit, 19, 4 (2000),
pp. 561-605.
12
J. Boucher, Socit et mentalits autour de Henri III, Paris 2007.
13
J. F. Solnon, La Cour de France, Paris 1987.
cour na pas connu une volution linaire, mais au contraire une histoire mar-
que par des ruptures, tel point qu certaines poques, elle a mme pu per-
dre son caractre de centre culturel et politique du royaume. Jean-Franois
Solnon traite aussi de ltiquette et de la tension constante entre tradition et
innovation qui rgne en cette manire.
Ces premires tudes ont offert une approche avant tout culturelle du ph-
nomne curial. De son ct, lhistoire politique commenait dans les annes
1980 se dtourner du champ de lhistoire des institutions pour sinterroger
davantage sur la relation entre lEtat royal et les sujets, et sur les articulations
du rapport dominants-domins. Une question centrale concernait la formation
de lidentit nationale et ladhsion lEtat, ou son rejet. Mais le rle de la
cour dans ce processus na t que trs peu aborde: prenons comme exemple
la trs reprsentative Action Thmatique Programme Gense de lEtat
moderne, lance par le CNRS en 1984
14
. Les participants ce programme
ont enqut sur des sujets trs varis, mais sans jamais consacrer une tude
la question du fonctionnement de la cour.
En revanche, sous linfluence de lcole crmonialiste amricaine lhis-
toire politique intgrait dans les annes 1980 ses proccupations une
rflexion sur la mise en scne de lautorit princire travers les grandes cr-
monies monarchiques
15
. Lanalyse des rituels mene par les historiens franais
se diffrencie des travaux de lcole amricaine. Daprs Robert Descimon,
lhistoriographie franaise prouve un malaise certain face lhistoriogra-
phie amricaine rcente qui se rclame de la paternit dErnst Kantorowicz,
voire de Clifford Geertz
16
.
Sloignant du champ de lanthropologie et de lethnologie dans lequel
sinscrivait lapproche amricaine, cette historiographie sinterroge davantage
sur le lien qui existe entre la construction de ltat moderne et les crmonies:
les historiens franais confrontent ainsi le rituel aux textes liturgiques, juri-
93
14
J. P. Gent, La gense de lEtat moderne. Les enjeux dun programme de recherche,
Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, 118, 1 (1997), pp. 3-18.
15
Cette cole sinspire entre autres de louvrage de E. Kantorowicz, The Kings Two
Bodies. A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology, Princeton 1957. Marquants ont t les
ouvrages de R. A. Jackson, Vive le Roi! A History of the French Coronation Ceremony from
Charles V to Charles X, Chapel Hill 1984; R. E. Giesey, The Royal Funeral Ceremony in
Renaissance France, Genve 1960; S. Hanley, The Lit de Justice of the Kings of France.
Constitutional Ideology in Legend, Ritual, and Discourse, Princeton 1983.
16
R. Descimon, Introduction, in N. Bulst, R. Descimon, A. Guerreau (eds.), LEtat ou
le roi. Les fondations de la modernit monarchique en France (XIVe- XVIIe sicles), Paris
1996, pp. 2-6.
diques et politiques afin de cerner son implication dans la gense de lEtat.
Dautres questions concernent son importance pour le processus de construc-
tion dune identit nationale, et le dclin du rituel, et de sa porte, la fin de
lAncien Rgime
17
. Les formes des apparitions publiques des monarques et la
mise en scne de lautorit souveraine ont ainsi t tudis travers les gran-
des crmonies publiques que sont le sacre
18
, les funrailles
19
et les Te
Deum
20
. Par ailleurs est n, autour de ltude des entres royales, un courant
de recherche franco-canadien particulirement fertile. Les entres ont la par-
ticularit de mettre la cour en contact avec la socit qui lentoure, ce qui ne
va pas sans conflits et heurts
21
. Elles ont permis ainsi daborder dune part le
94
17
Sur le crmonial et la reprsentation voir entre autres deux numros des Annales:
41, 3 (1986) et 49, 2 (1994), ainsi que: J. Blanchard (ed.), Reprsentation, pouvoir et royau-
t la fin du Moyen ge, Paris 1995; A. Boureau, Les crmonies royales franaises entre
performance juridique et comptence liturgique, Annales ESC, 46, 6 (1991), pp. 1253-
1264. Pour une synthse sur les crmonies royales et le rituel de cour voir F. Lerferme-
Falguires, Les Courtisans. Une socit de spectacle sous lAncien Rgime, Paris 2007.
18
Ltude de Richard A. Jackson a t suivie de plusieurs enqutes dhistoriens fran-
ais: M. Valensise, Le sacre du roi: stratgie symbolique et doctrine politique de la monar-
chie franaise, Annales ESC, 41, 3 (1986), pp. 543-577; O. Bouzy, Les armes symboles
dun pouvoir politique: lpe du sacre, la Sainte Lance, lOriflamme, aux VIIIe-XIIe si-
cles, Francia, 22, 1 (1995), pp. 45-54; sur le sacre des reines voir F. Cosandey, La Reine
de France. Symbole et pouvoir, XV
e
-XVIII
e
sicle, Paris 2000, et pour le XIX
e
sicle, J.
Tulard, Le Sacre de lempereur Napolon. Histoire et lgende, Paris 2004.
19
Depuis les recherches de Ralph E. Giesey, plusieurs travaux sont parus: J. Balsamo
(ed.), Les Funrailles la Renaissance, Genve 2002; M. Gaude-Ferragu, Dor et de cend-
res. La mort et les funrailles des princes dans le royaume de France au Moyen Age,
Villeneuve dAscq 2005; A. Bande, Le Cur du roi. Les Captiens et les spultures multi-
ples, XIIIe-XVe sicles, Paris 2009. Pour 2011/2012 est attendu la parution de G. Sabatier, J.
A. Chroscicki, M. Hengerer (eds.), Mmoire monarchique et construction de lEurope. Les
stratgies funraires des dynasties princires du XVI
e
-XVIII
e
sicles.
20
M. Fogel, Les Crmonies de linformation dans la France du XVI
e
au milieu du XVIII
e
sicle, Paris 1989.
21
J. Chartrou, Les Entres solennelles et triomphales la Renaissance (1484-1551),
Paris 1928; B. Guene F. Lehoux, Les Entres royales franaises de 1328 1515, Paris
1968; J. Boutier, A. Dewerpe, D. Nordman, Un Tour de France royal. Le voyage de Charles
IX (1564-1566), Paris 1984; C. Desplat P. Mironneau (eds.), Les Entres. Gloire et dclin
dun crmonial, Biarritz 1997; M. F. Wagner D. Vaillancourt (eds.), Le Roi dans la ville.
Anthologie des entres royales dans les villes franaises de province, 1615-1660, Paris
2001; P. Lardellier, Les Miroirs du paon. Rites et rhtoriques politiques dans la France de
lAncien Rgime, Paris 2003; F. Michaud-Frjaville, N. Dauphin, J. P. Guilhembet (dir.),
Entrer en ville, Rennes 2006; M. F. Wagner, L. Frappier, C. Latraverse (dir.), Les Jeux de
lchange. Entres solennelles et divertissements du XV
e
au XVII
e
sicle, Paris 2007; voir
aussi le numro thmatique de la revue XVII
e
sicle consacre aux entres royales (n 212,
sujet de la reprsentation et ses formes, dautre part les tensions et rapports
sociaux qui se manifestent ces occasions.
La ritualisation de la vie quotidienne et les festivits la cour ont gale-
ment retenu lattention. Les ftes de cour, les bals et les ballets ont donn lieu
des approches pionnires ds les annes 1950
22
, mais ils ne se sont imposs
comme un objet dtude part entire que plus tard. On sait dsormais quel
rle essentiel tenait la danse la cour des Valois et des Bourbons, et comment
les festivits participaient dune politique de rintgration des lites
23
, mais
aussi comment les grands divertissements louis-quatorziens entendaient cons-
truire une vision idale de la monarchie
24
. Lanalyse des rituels quotidiens de
la mise en scne de lautorit royale dans le cadre du palais est assez long-
temps reste lcart du renouvellement historiographique. Il a fallu attendre
les travaux de Monique Chatenet sur les rglements de cour des Valois, ou de
Batrix Saule sur la journe du roi Versailles
25
, pour que lon commence
se familiariser vraiment avec lemploi du temps du souverain et les subtilits
du rituel quotidien du lever ou du coucher.
La recherche franaise se montre aussi particulirement attentive aux
expressions de la sphre publique qui se fait de plus en plus critique au XVII
e
et XVIII
e
sicle: les crits sur la cour, les pamphlets, mais aussi ce qui mane
dautres moyens dexpression comme le thtre, la littrature ou lopra, ont
t tudi dans ce sens. Comment a t perue la cour et donc la monarchie
par la socit qui lentourait? Le Sicle des Lumires a vu les traits ddu-
cation et de savoir-vivre clipser les traits de cour. Lhonnte homme,
comme le philosophe, apparaissait cette poque comme lantithse du cour-
tisan. Le premier devait en effet savoir faire harmonieusement concider vertu
95
anne 2001) et les livres de ftes publis sur Internet: Treasures in full. Renaissance Festival
Books, British Library (http://www.bl.uk/treasures/festivalbooks/homepage.html).
22
J. Jacquot (ed.), Les Ftes de la Renaissance, Paris 1956-1975, 3 vol.
23
N. Le Roux, The Politics of Festivals at the Court of the Last Valois, in R. Mulryne
E. Goldring (eds.), Court Festivals of the European Renaissance: Art, politics and perfor-
mance, Aldershot 2002, pp. 101-117; J. Boucher, Les ftes politiques au temps des guerres
de Religion, in Les Ftes au XVI
e
sicle, Saint-Etienne 2003, pp. 171-183.
24
J. de La Gorce, Carlo Vigarani, intendant des plaisirs de Louis XIV, Paris 2005; S.
du Crest, Des ftes Versailles. Les divertissements de Louis XIV, Paris 1990; M. C. Moine,
Les Ftes la cour du Roi Soleil, 1653-1715, Paris 1984; M. F. Christout, Le Ballet de cour
de Louis XIV, 1643-1672. Mises en scne, Paris 1967 et Id., Le Ballet de cour au XVII
e
sicle,
Genve 1987; P. Hourcade, Mascarades et ballets au Grand Sicle (1643-1715), Paris 2002;
J. M. Apostolides, Le Roi-Machine. Spectacle et politique au temps de Louis XIV, Paris
1981.
25
M. Chatenet, La Cour de France au XVI
e
sicle. Vie sociale et architecture, Paris
2002; B. Saule, Versailles triomphant. Une journe de Louis XIV, Paris 1996.
et vie sociale, conformment aux exigences de la nature, tandis que le second
voluait dans un espace de lartifice et des apparences
26
. La faillite progressi-
ve de lidal curial annonce le cataclysme de la Rvolution et la question de
lopinion publique prend ainsi une place particulire dans lhistoriographie
franaise. Elle constitue un domaine de collaboration privilgi entre les tu-
des littraires et historiques
27
.
Limage du monarque elle-mme constitue un autre sujet de recherche.
Elle sest diffuse de plus en plus partir du XVI
e
sicle et sortit des palais
royaux pour se rpandre chez les seigneurs, mais aussi chez des gens beau-
coup plus modestes
28
. On sait dsormais comment les reprsentations de
Louis XIV
29
et de Franois I
er30
, mais aussi dHenri III
31
et de Louis XII
32
, ont
volu et quel sens on a donn llaboration de ces images.
96
26
Sur limage du courtisan au XVIII
e
sicle, voir B. Hours, Louis XV et sa Cour. Le roi,
ltiquette et le courtisan, Paris 2002.
27
Sur limage du courtisan et de la cour: E. Russo, La Cour et la ville de la littrature
classique aux Lumires. Linvention de soi, Paris 2002; E. Bury, Littrature et politesse.
Linvention de lhonnte homme (1580-1750), Paris 1996; E. Auerbach, La cour et la ville, in
Id. (ed.), Le Culte des passions. Essais sur le XVII
e
sicle franais, Paris 1998; A. Couprie, De
Corneille La Bruyre: images de la cour, Lille 1984, 2 vol.; J. M. Apostolides, Le Prince
Sacrifi. Thtre et politique au temps de Louis XIV, Paris 1985; C. Thomas, La Reine scl-
rate. Marie-Antoinette dans les pamphlets, Paris 1989; C. Jouhaud, criture et action au XVII
e
sicle: sur un corpus de mazarinades, Annales ESC, 38, 1 (1983), pp. 42-64.
28
N. Hochner T. W. Gaehtgens (eds.), LImage du roi de Franois I
er
Louis XIV,
Paris 2006; A. Ellenius (ed.), Iconographie, propagande, lgitimation, Paris 2001; G.
Sabatier, Les rois de reprsentation: image et pouvoir (XVI
e
-XVII
e
sicle), Revue de
Synthse, IV
e
s., 3-4 (1991), pp. 387-422; A. M. Lecoq, La symbolique de lEtat: les ima-
ges de la monarchie des premiers Valois Louis XIV, dans P. Nora (ed.), Les Lieux de
mmoire, Paris 1986, vol. II: La Nation, pp. 145-192.
29
P. Burke, Louis XIV. Les stratgies de la gloire [1992], trad. fr., Paris 1995; L. Marin,
Le Portrait du roi, Paris 1981; G. Sabatier, Versailles ou la figure du roi, Paris 1999; E.
Pommier, Versailles, limage du souverain, dans Nora (ed.), Les lieux, cit., t. I, pp. 1253-1281.
30
. Jollet, Jean et Franois Clouet, Paris 1997; C. Scaillirez, Franois I
er
par Clouet,
Paris 1996; A. M. Lecoq, Franois I
er
imaginaire. Symbolique et politique laube de la
Renaissance franaise, Paris 1987.
31
I. Oger, Le rle de Henri III dans linvention et la diffusion de son portrait grav,
dans I. de Conihout, J. F. Maillard, G. Poirier (eds.), Henri III mcne des arts, des sciences
et des lettres, Paris 2006, pp. 67-80 et Gense des portraits gravs dHenri III, roi de France
et de Pologne (1574-1589). Limage du roi trs chrtien pendant les guerres de religion,
dans T. W. Gaehtgens N. Hochner (eds.), LImage du roi de Franois I
er
Louis XIV, Paris
2006, pp. 359-381; A. Zvereva, La gense du portrait de Henri III, dans Conihout, Maillard,
Poirier (eds.), Henri III mcne, cit., pp. 55-65; J. Jacquiot, Liconographie et liconologie
sous le rgne du roi Henri III, roi de France et de Pologne daprs des mdailles et des
jetons, dans R. Sauzet (ed.), Henri III et son temps, Paris 1992, pp. 141-153.
32
N. Hochner, Louis XII. Les drglements de limage royale (1498-1515), Seyssel 2006.
Dautres axes de recherche se sont dvelopps dans le cadre des tudes
sur laristocratie. La culture de la noblesse, son code dhonneur et les percep-
tions quelle eut delle-mme, ont suscit de nombreuses tudes chez les his-
toriens mdivistes et modernistes
33
. Les relations que la noblesse tisse entre
familles et allis mergent grce ce courant. Depuis les annes 1980, la
recherche sur les clientles et rseaux nobiliaires constitue lun des chantiers
majeurs de lhistoire de la socit de cour. Roland Mousnier a t lun des pre-
miers rflchir sur limportance des liens de fidlit dans la socit dAncien
Rgime, et il a soulign le caractre structurant des relations interpersonnel-
les dans la noblesse
34
. Les historiens anglo-saxons ont nuanc et approfondi
ces analyses; Sharon Kettering a marqu ce courant avec plusieurs tudes por-
tant sur la socit aristocratique dans la France du XVI
e
et XVII
e
sicle
35
. Ces
enqutes pionnires ont t suivies de recherches portant sur les rseaux fami-
liaux
36
, les structures et les effets du clientlisme la cour
37
. Elles ont mis en
97
33
P. Contamine (ed.), LEtat et les aristocraties (France, Angleterre, Ecosse) XII
e
-XVII
e
sicle, Paris 1989; A. Jouanna, Le Devoir de rvolte. La noblesse franaise et la gestation
de ltat moderne, 1559-1661, Paris 1989, et Recherches sur la notion dhonneur au XVI
e
sicle, Revue dhistoire moderne et contemporaine, 15 (1968), pp. 597-623; J. M.
Constant, La Folle Libert des baroques (1600-1661), Paris 2007, et La Noblesse en liber-
t, XVI
e
-XVII
e
sicles, Rennes 2004; Les Conjurateurs. Le premier libralisme politique sous
Richelieu, Paris 1987 et La Vie quotidienne de la noblesse franaise aux XVI
e
-XVII
e
sicles,
Paris 1985.
34
R. Mousnier, Les Institutions de la France sous la Monarchie absolue, 1598-1789, t.
I Socit et Etat, t. II Les organes de lEtat et de la Socit, Paris 1974-1980, 2 vol., Les
concepts dordres, dtats, de fidlit et de monarchie absolue en France de la fin du
XVI
e
sicle la fin du XVIII
e
, Revue historique, CCXLVII, 2 (1972), pp. 289-312, et Les
fidlits et clientles en France aux XVI
e
, XVII
e
et XVIII
e
sicles, Histoire sociale / Social
History, 15, 29 (1982), pp. 35-46.
35
S. Kettering, Patrons, Brokers, and Clients in the Seventeeth-Century France,
Oxford 1986; Patronage in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century France, Aldershot 2002;
Power and Reputation at the Court of Louis XIII: The Career of Charles dAlbert, duc de
Luynes (1578-1621), Manchester 2008.
36
D. Dessert J. L. Journet, Le lobby Colbert: un royaume ou une affaire de famille?,
Annales ESC, 6 (1975), pp. 1303-1336; C. Jouhaud, Politiques de princes: les Cond
(1630-1652), dans P. Contamine (ed.), LEtat et les aristocraties (France, Angleterre,
Ecosse) XII
e
-XVII
e
sicle, Paris 1989, pp. 335-356; J. Duma, Les Bourbon-Penthivre (1678-
1793). Une nbuleuse aristocratique au XVIII
e
sicle, Paris 1995; K. Bguin, Les Princes de
Cond. Rebelles, courtisans et mcnes dans la France du Grand Sicle, Seyssel 1999; A.
Boltanski, Les Ducs de Nevers et ltat royal. Gense dun compromis (ca 1550- ca 1600),
Genve 2006; M. Da Vinha, Les Nyert, exemple dune ascension sociale dans la maison du
roi au XVII
e
sicle, XVII
e
sicle, 214 (2002), pp. 15-34.
37
Y. Durand, Clientles et fidelits dans le temps et dans lespace, dans Y. Durand
(ed.), Hommage Roland Mousnier. Clientles et fidelits en Europe lpoque moderne,
vidence que la carrire dun homme ou dune femme la cour ne peut pas
tre prsente comme le rsultat dun parcours et effort individuel mais nces-
site une analyse approfondie des rseaux qui ont permis (ou entrav) sa rus-
site.
Des tudes rcentes ont mis en avant limportance dun autre lment
pour la comprhension du systme de la cour: la faveur royale
38
. Les favoris
et matresses royales ou princires, lus et dfaits daprs le bon vouloir de
leur matre, soulignent avec clat le pouvoir absolu du roi et contrebalancent
le pouvoir traditionnel des dignitaires et des officiers de lEtat royal. Les
conflits que leur prsence suscite rejoint les querelles de prsance qui sont
frquentes la cour et dont la rsolution dpend galement de larbitrage du
souverain. En 1978, inspir par ltude de Norbert Elias sur la socit de cour,
Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie a commenc enquter sur les rangs et les hi-
rarchies la cour
39
. Lhistorien a mis en lumire les caractristiques du sys-
tme de cour, comme larticulation lgitimit/btardise, lorganisation gn-
rationnelle des cabales, le clivage robe/pe et le rle des femmes dans las-
cension sociale. La question des querelles de prsance continue actuellement
tre tudie, non seulement en ce qui concerne les conflits internes la cour,
mais aussi en ce qui concerne ceux qui lopposent des acteurs externes,
comme lors des entres ou rceptions donnes par les villes
40
.
Les tudes sur le patronage politique ont mis en vidence limportance
des femmes dans le systme de cour. Celles-ci ne se trouvaient nullement
98
Paris 1981, pp. 3-24; M. Yardeni, Problmes de fidlit chez les protestants franais l-
poque de la Rvocation, dans Durand (ed.), Hommage , cit., pp. 297-314. D. Barthlemy,
La mutation fodale a-t-elle eu lieu? (note critique), Annales HSS, 47, 3 (1992), pp. 767-
777; A. Jouanna, Rflexions sur les relations internobiliaires en France au XVI
e
et XVII
e
si-
cles, French Historical Studies, 17, 4 (1992), pp. 872-881, et Des rseaux damiti aux
clientles centralises: les provinces et la cour (France, XVI
e
-XVII
e
sicles), dans C. Giry-
Deloison R. Mettam (eds.), Patronages et clientlismes 1550-1750 (France, Angleterre,
Espagne, Italie), Villeneuve dAscq-Londres p. 21-38 et Les enjeux des stratgies politiques
de la noblesse franaise (XVI
e
sicle et premire moiti du XVII
e
sicle), dans Socit, culture,
vie religieuse aux XVI
e
et XVII
e
sicles, Paris 1995, pp. 9-25.
38
N. Le Roux, La Faveur du roi. Mignons et courtisans au temps des derniers Valois,
Seyssel 2001.
39
E. Le Roy Ladurie, Systme de la Cour (Versailles vers 1709), dans Le Territoire de
lhistorien, Paris 1978, t. II; Auprs du roi, la Cour, Annales ESC, 38, 1 (1983), pp. 21-
41; avec la collaboration de J. F. Fitou, Saint-Simon ou le systme de la Cour, Paris 1997.
40
F. Cosandey, Entrer dans le rang, dans M. F. Wagner, L. Frappier, C. Latraverse
(eds.), Les Jeux de lchange: Entres solennelles et divertissements du 15e au 17e sicle,
Paris 2007; Illusion politique ou organisation monarchique. La question des prsances rap-
portes au souverain dans les traits politiques de Saint-Simon, Cahiers Saint-Simon, 28
(2000), pp. 29-37.
exclues des rseaux de clientlisme, et elles pouvaient tre des acteurs redou-
tables dans le rglement des affaires de cour
41
. Depuis les annes 1990, leur
place dans le systme politique est claire par un nombre grandissant dtu-
des. Cest dabord par le biais denqutes sur les rgences et la loi salique que
le sujet a t abord et quest discute cette particularit franaise qui veut que
les femmes ne peuvent ni rgner en leur propre nom, ni transmettre les droits
sur la couronne
42
. Dun autre ct, la France de lAncien Rgime a connu un
nombre exceptionnellement lev de rgences. Elle constitue ainsi un champ
dtude particulirement attirant pour lhistoire politique des femmes
43
: nom-
breuses sont les publications rcentes sur Catherine
44
et Marie de Mdicis
45
ainsi quAnne dAutriche
46
.
Dautres sujets mergent en 2000 dans une tude de Fanny Cosandey sur
la reine de France, qui se penche non seulement sur la fonction politique de
lpouse du monarque, mais galement sur son rle la cour et sur le cr-
monial exprimant sa position trs particulire
47
. La documentation utilise par
lauteur, des textes qui manent de traits politiques et juridiques, donne peut-
tre une image trop rductrice du statut de la reine. Dautres tudes affineront
et corrigeront cette vision en dmontrant que dans la pratique, linfluence de
lpouse royale dpassait bien souvent le cadre qui lui a t assign par les
thoriciens. Concernant le statut et le rle des femmes la cour, le XVI
e
si-
99
41
Sharon Kettering elle-mme avait estim dans un premier temps que les femmes ne
jouaient quun rle mineur dans le systme du patronage; elle a rvis ce constat par la suite:
S. Kettering, The patronage power of early modern french noblewoman, The Historical
Journal, 32, 4 (1989), pp. 817-841, et Id., Strategies of power: Favorites and Women
Household Clients at Louis XIIIs court, French Historical Studies, 33, 2 (2010), pp. 177-
200.
42
Sur la loi salique, voir C. Beaune, Naissance de la nation France, Paris 1985; E.
Barnavi, Mythes et ralit historique. Le cas de la loi salique, Histoire, conomie et soci-
t, 3 (1984), pp. 323-337; E. Viennot, Linvention de la loi salique et ses rpercussions sur
la scne politique de la Renaissance, dans L. Capdevila et al. (eds.), Le Genre face aux
mutations. Masculin et fminin, du Moyen ge nos jours, Rennes 2003.
43
D. Crouzet, Le Haut Cur de Catherine de Mdicis. Une raison politique aux temps
de la Saint-Barthlemy, Paris 2005; T. Wanegffelen, Catherine de Mdicis. Le pouvoir au
fminin, Paris 2005; M. Hoogvliet, Princely Culture and Catherine de Mdicis, dans M.
Gosman, A. MacDonald, A. Vanderjact (eds.), Princes and Princely Culture 1450-1650,
Leyden, 2003, vol. I, pp. 103-130. Pour une approche gnrale des rgences, voir A.
Corvisier, Les Rgences en Europe, Paris 2002.
44
MANCA
45
J. F. Dubost, Marie de Mdicis. La reine dvoile, Paris 2009.
46
C. Grell (ed.), Anne dAutriche infante dEspagne et reine de France, Madrid 2009.
47
Cosandey, La Reine de, cit.
cle apparat bien des gards comme un ge dor; le XVII
e
sicle, et sur-
tout le rgne de Louis XIV, semble tre marqu par un dclin: leur position
saffaiblit ou, tout au moins, change de nature
48
. Des tudes supplmentaires
pourraient nous clairer sur les raisons et modalits de ce processus.
Si les tudes sur le patronage et les femmes concernent avant tout la haute
noblesse et la famille royale, dautres travaux visent des groupes spcifiques
ou des services de la cour qui se situent un niveau bien plus modeste, comme
les valets de chambre
49
, les mdecins
50
ou les clercs de la cour
51
, pour ne citer
que quelques exemples
52
. Elles mettent en relief la composition htroclite de
lentourage royal, sa fonction de creuset social, et dmontrent aussi la per-
mabilit de cet ensemble qui renouvle rgulirement une partie de ses effec-
tifs par lintgration dindividus venus de toutes les rgions du royaume. La
place la cour des scientifiques, des historiographes, des gographes et dau-
tres savants, ainsi que le lien quentretient la cour avec les acadmies, four-
nissent dautres sujets de recherche particulirement fconds
53
.
Ces enqutes ont alert la recherche sur limportance des maisons roya-
les dans lorganisation de la cour. Les recherches ralises loccasion du
chantier de fouilles et de renovation du chteau de Vincennes ont constitu
une premire approche de ces questions. Elisabeth Lalou a ainsi analys les
htels royaux du XIII
e
sicle grce lexploitation rigoureuse des tats et
100
48
Lvolution des maisons de la reine et de la reine mre tmoignent de cette volu-
tion. Voir pour le XVI
e
sicle: C. zum Kolk, The household of the Queen of France in the
Sixteenth Century, The Court Historian, 14, 1 (2009), pp. . Une base de donnes relati-
ve aux membres des maisons des reines du XVI
e
sicle a t mis en ligne sur le site Cour-
de-France.fr: http://cour-de-france.fr/article131.html. Pour le XVIIe sicle, voir entre autres
Dubost, Marie de Mdicis, cit.; R. Kleinmann, Social Dynamics at the French Court: The
household of Anne of Austria, French Historical Studies, 16, 3 (1990), pp. 517-535; M. Da
Vinha, La maison dAnne dAutriche, dans Grell (ed.), Anne dAutriche, cit., pp. 155-208.
Trois thses, consacres aux maisons dAnne dAutriche, Marie-Thrse dAutriche et
Marie Leszczyska, sont actuellement en prparation.
49
M. Da Vinha, Les Valets de chambre de Louis XIV, Paris 2004.
50
A. Lunel, La Maison mdicale du Ro: XVI
e
-XVIII
e
sicles. Le pouvoir royal et les
professions de sant (mdecins, chirurgiens, apothicaires), Seyssel 2008; S. Perez, La sant
de Louis XIV. Une biohistoire du Roi-Soleil, Seyssel 2007.
51
A. Maral, La Chapelle royale de Versailles sous Louis XIV: crmonial, liturgie et
musique, Sprimont 2002.
52
S. Castelluccio, Le Garde-Meuble de la Couronne et ses intendants du XVI
e
au XVIII
e
sicle, Paris 2004; E. Delpeuch, Les marchands et artisans suivant la cour, Revue histo-
rique de droit franais et tranger, 52 (1974), pp. 379-413.
53
Un colloque consacr au rapport entre la cour et les sciences se tiendra Versailles
en fvrier 2011: La cour et les sciences. Essor des politiques scientifiques dans les cours
europennes aux XVII
e
et XVIII
e
sicles.
ordonnances de lpoque
54
. Le sujet fut galement abord dans les colloques
de la Residenzenkommission qui runissent rgulirement des chercheurs
europens, dont un certain nombre de scientifiques franais
55
. Les historiens
modernistes se sont penchs assez tardivement sur le sujet des htels royaux
56
.
En 2002 est parue la premire tude gnrale sur les domestiques commen-
saux du roi
57
. Actuellement, ldition en ligne de documents relatifs aux mai-
sons royales du XVII
e
et XVIII
e
sicle est en cours. Une base de donnes qui
rcense les membres des maisons royales principales (roi, reine, reine mre) a
t mis en ligne sur le site du Centre de recherche du chteau de Versailles
58
.
Les enqutes sur les structures et services de la cour ont fait merger un
sujet qui na pas t trait de manire approfondie : les finances. Malgr la
tenue dun colloque consacr cette question en 1998, le sujet de lconomie
de la cour, et la relation de la cour avec la vie conomique du royaume, na
pas donn lieu des enqutes approfondies
59
. Lvolution des dpenses somp-
tuaires et du cot de lentretien quotidien, ainsi que des frais lis au patrona-
ge et aux faveurs particulires mritent dtre mieux connue
60
. On sait par
exemple quau XVI
e
sicle, le roi nassume pas toujours lensemble des frais
dentretien des maisons de la cour, et que les membres de sa famille peroi-
vent des revenus propres. Limpact de cette indpendance conomique sur le
patronage et la vie polique reste tudier.
101
54
E. Lalou, Le Fonctionnement de lhtel du roi du milieu du 13
e
au milieu du 14
e
si-
cle, dans J. Chapelot E. Lalou (eds.), Vincennes aux origines de lEtat moderne, Paris
1996, et Les ordonnances de lhtel des derniers Captiens directs, dans H. Kruse W.
Paravicini (eds.), Hfe und Hofordnungen, 1200-1600, Sigmaringen 1999.
55
En 1999, un colloque a t consacr aux tats et aux ordonnances de la cour: Kruse,
Paravicini (dir.), Hfe und Hofordnungen, cit.
56
Soulignons lexception: Jacqueline Boucher traite le sujet en 1982 dans un article,
Lvolution de la maison du roi des derniers Valois aux premiers Bourbons, XVIIe sicle,
137 (1982), pp. 359-380. Voir pour la suite C. Blanquie, Dans la main du Grand matre. Les
offices de la maison du roi, 1643-1720, Histoire & Mesure, XIII, 3-4 (1998), pp. 243-288,
et N. Le Roux, La Maison du roi sous les premiers Bourbons. Institution sociale et outil poli-
tique, dans C. Grell B. Pellistrandi (eds.), Les Cours dEspagne et de France au XVIIe si-
cle, Madrid 2007, pp. 13-40.
57
S. de Laverny, Les Domestiques commensaux du roi de France au XVII
e
sicle, Paris
2002.
58
Les documents et la base de donnes peuvent tre consults sur le site du Centre de
Recherche du chteau de Versailles (http://chateauversailles-recherche.fr/curia/curia.html).
59
M. Aymard M. A. Romani (eds.), La Cour comme institution conomique, Paris
1998.
60
F. Bayard, Le Monde des financiers au XVII
e
sicle, Paris 1988; M. Da Vinha, Faire
vivre Versailles: budget de fonctionnement dune rsidence royale au XVII
e
sicle, dans R.
Masson (ed.), Mlanges offerts Pierre Arizzoli-Clmentel, Paris 2009.
Il faut galement souligner limportance des cours comme lieux de com-
munication entre les lites, et de transmission de modles culturels et poli-
tiques. Ltude des relations internationales, autant politiques que culturelles,
a connu un renouveau depuis 1990. Concentre par le pass sur les relations
bilatrales (Italie-France, Empire-France) et ressenti comme lanalyse dun
rapport de force ou de dominance, la recherche adopte aujourdhui une appro-
che plus nuance et rsolument europenne. Comme la montr Lucien Bly,
les monarques constituaient une vritable socit de princes dans laquelle
circulaient les individus, les ides et les modes
61
. La diplomatie, mais aussi le
rle des trangers la cour
62
et des femmes dans les changes politiques et
culturelles commencent tre mieux connus
63
. Il est esprer que la question
de la diffusion des modles soit aborde autrement que par le pass, et que la
recherche se servira des outils danalyse mis au point par Michael Werner et
Michel Espagne pour les changes et transferts entre la France et lAllemagne
au XIX
e
sicle
64
. On percevrait ainsi davantage les multiples objets, intercon-
nexions et agents de transfert, ainsi que les modalits des changes : leur rus-
sites, mais aussi leur checs, qui sont galement analyser.
Dans le domaine de la vie artistique et culturelle de la cour, mais aussi
concernant ltiquette et son volution, les impulsions les plus remarquables
des dernires dcennies sont venus de lhistoire de lart. Ce sont les lves et
les collgues dAndr Chastel qui, la fin des annes 1980, commencent
aborder larchitecture et lart royal autrement que par le pass. Jean Guillaume
parle dune histoire de larchitecture totale
65
, qui dlaisse ltude purement
stylistique pour souvrir des horizons plus vastes: les manires de vivre et
102
61
L. Bly, La Socit des princes, XVI
e
-XVIII
e
sicle, Paris 1999.
62
J. F. Dubost, La cour de France face aux trangers. La prsence espagnole la cour
des Bourbons au XVII
e
sicle, dans Grell Pellistrandi (eds.), Les Cours, cit., pp. 149-169;
Les trangers la cour de France: de la polmique lvaluation numrique (1515-1630),
dans K. Malettke C. Grell (eds.), Hofgesellschaft und Hflinge an europischen
Frstenhfen in der Frhen Neuzeit (15.-18. Jh). Socit de cour et courtisans dans
lEurope de lpoque moderne (XV
e
-XVIII
e
sicle), Mnster 2002, pp. 55-66; La France ita-
lienne, Paris 1997.
63
Voir entre autres N. Reinhardt, Les relations internationales travers les femmes aux
temps de Louis XIV. Lamiti quelle a pour moi, fait quelle mcoute et son mari aussi,
Revue dhistoire diplomatique, 2003, pp. 193-230; C. zum Kolk, Rene de France et
Hercule dEste: des difficults dun mariage international, dans I. Poutrin M. K. Schaub
(eds.), Princesses et pouvoir politique lpoque moderne, Paris 2007, pp. 102-119.
64
Voir entre autres M. Espagne, Les Transferts culturels franco-allemands, Paris 1999;
M. Espagne M. Werner (eds.), Transferts, les relations interculturelles dans lespace fran-
co-allemand, XVIII
e
et XIX
e
sicle, Paris 1988.
65
J. Guillaume, Introduction, dans Chatenet, La Cour de France, cit., p. 9.
dhabiter les chteaux ainsi que lusage des espaces intrieurs. A la fin des
annes 1980 paraissent les premires tudes qui tmoignent de ce tournant.
Elles abordent des rsidences disparus comme le chteau de Madrid, lusage
des espaces intrieures et liconographie royale
66
. En sinterrogeant sur la
fonction de leurs objets dtudes, ces chercheurs intgrent les problmatiques
de lhistoire culturelle et sociale leur discipline et se penchent sur des docu-
ments jusque-l rservs aux historiens (rapports dambassadeurs, correspon-
dances, Mmoires et traits). Un ouvrage majeur de ce courant sintitule ainsi
fort logiquement: La Cour de France au XVI
e
sicle. Vie sociale et architec-
ture
67
. Ltude de la distribution intrieure des rsidences royales a permit de
fournir des indices prcieux sur lvolution du crmonial au XVI
e
sicle, une
poque qui manque cruellement de documentation ce sujet
68
.
Les rsidences du XVII
e
et XVIII
e
sicle ont galement profit de cette
approche. Le palais est dsormais analys non plus seulement comme un
monument, mais aussi comme un lieu de pouvoir qui, par lclat conjugu de
son lvation et de son dcor, proclame la majest du souverain
69
. Versailles
70
103
66
M. Chatenet, Le Chteau de Madrid au bois de Boulogne, Paris 1987 et Id., Une
demeure royale au milieu du XVI
e
sicle. La distribution des espaces au chteau de Saint-
Germain-en-Laye, Revue de lArt, 81, 1 (1988), pp. 20-30.
67
Chatenet, La cour de France, cit.
68
Voir entre autres F. Boudon, M. Chatenet, A. M. Lecoq, La mise en scne de la per-
sonne royale en France au 16
e
sicle: premires conclusions, dans J. P. Gent (ed.) Ltat
moderne, gense. Bilans et perspectives, Paris 1990; M. Chatenet, Henri III et lordre de la
cour. volution de ltiquette travers les rglements gnraux de 1578 et de 1585, dans R.
Sauzet (ed.), Henri III et son temps. Actes du colloque de Tours, octobre 1989, Paris 1992;
Architecture et crmonial la cour de Henri II: lapparition de lantichambre, dans H.
Oursel J. Fritsch (eds.), Henri II et les arts, Paris 2003, pp. 355-380.
69
M. F. Auzpy J. Cornette (eds.), Palais et pouvoir. De Constantinople Versailles,
Saint-Denis 2003.
70
Sur lvolution du chteau et la distribution intrieure: D. Gallet-Guerne C.
Baulez, Versailles: dessins darchitecture de la direction gnrale des btiments du roi,
Paris 1983; J. C. Le Guillou, Les chteaux de Louis XIII Versailles, Versalia, 7 (2004),
pp. 142-167, et du mme auteur Le chteau neuf ou enveloppe de Versailles. Conception et
volution du projet automne 1668- t 1670, ivi, 8 (2005), pp. 112-133. J. C. Petitfils,
Versailles la passion de Louis XIV, Paris 2005; T. Sarmant, Les Demeures du Soleil, Seyssel
2003; B. Hours, Louis XV et sa Cour, Paris 2002; H. Himmelfarb, Versailles, fonctions et
lgendes, dans P. Nora (ed.), Les lieux de Mmoire, Paris 1997, vol. I, pp. 1283-1329; J. C.
Le Guillou, Le Grand et le Petit Appartement de Louis XIV au chteau de Versailles, 1668-
1684. Escalier, tage, attique et mansardes. volution chronologique, Gazette des beaux-
arts, juillet-aot 1986, pp. 7-22; C. Samoyault-Verlet, Les Appartements des souverains en
France au XIXe sicle, dans K. F. Werner (ed.), Hof, Kultur und Politik im 19. Jh., Bonn
1985, pp. 121-137.
avec la galerie des Glaces
71
, mais aussi le Luxembourg, Fontainebleau, avec
ses galeries
72
, ou encore les Tuileries
73
, apparaissent dsormais non seulement
comme des btiments destins loger la famille royale et la cour, mais aussi
comme de gigantesques portraits du prince et de sa dignit. Cette volution va
de pair avec une sparation plus nette entre espaces dhabitat et les espaces
rservs aux domestiques
74
.
Les jardins des palais royaux participaient eux aussi lexaltation du
monarque et sont tudis sous cet aspect. Leur ordonnancement donne voir
lidal dordre et de matrise que le souverain entendait imposer ses sujets,
et qui faisait bien souvent dfaut la cour, ensemble difficile contrler et
maitriser. Les jardins de Versailles et leur personnel ont donn matires de
nombreuses recherches, et la figure dAndr Le Ntre a t approche rcem-
ment par plusieurs auteurs
75
. Plus dlicat est le rapport entre le chteau et la
ville qui lentoure, qui, dans le cas de Versailles, connait le destin particulier
davoir t form en fonction des besoins de la rsidence. Les travaux ce
sujet sont nombreux
76
; le lien entre Versailles et Paris na pas t tudi avec
le mme entrain
77
.
104
71
G. Sabatier, Versailles ou la figure du roi, Paris 1999; La Galerie des glaces: histoi-
re et restauration, Dijon 2007; Les grandes galeries dans les palais dEurope, XVII
e
-XIX
e
sicles, Paris 2010.
72
F. Boudon, J. Blcon, C. Grodecki, Le Chteau de Fontainebleau, de Franois I
er

Henri IV. Les btiments et leurs fonctions, Paris 2000; P. et F. Joukovsky, travers la
Galerie Franois I
er
, Paris 1992; S. Bguin, J. Guillaume, A. Roy, La Galerie dUlysse
Fontainebleau, Paris 1985; S. Bguin et alii, La Galerie Franois I
er
au chteau de
Fontainebleau, Paris 1972; E. Panofsky, tude iconographique de la galerie Franois I
er

Fontainebleau, Brionne 1992.
73
M. N. Baudouin-Matuszek (ed.), Paris et Catherine de Mdicis, Paris 1989.
74
C. Morin, Au service du chteau. Larchitecture des communs en Ile-de-France au
XVIII
e
sicle, Paris 2008.
75
P. Bouchenot-Dchin, Henry Dupuis, jardinier de Louis XIV, Paris 2007; D.
Garrigues, Jardins et jardiniers de Versailles au Grand Sicle, Seyssel 2001; V. Maroteaux,
Versailles, le roi et son domaine, Paris 2000; T. Mariage, LUnivers de Le Nostre. Les origi-
nes de lamnagement du territoire, Paris 1995.
76
J. Castex, Lecture dune ville: Versailles, Paris 1980; B. Lepetit, La formation dune
population urbaine sous lAncien Rgime: Versailles de 1545 1715, Etude dmographique
et sociale, thse de doctorat de troisime cycle, sous la direction de Pierre Goubert, Universit
de Paris I, juin 1976; M. Michaux, Le dveloppement de la ville de Versailles en fonction du
chteau. Aperu sur les marchands et artisans versaillais de 1661 1688, Bulletin de la
Commission des Antiquits et des Arts (de Seine-et-Oise), LVI (1959), pp. 31-38.
77
H. Himelfarb, Regards versaillais sur lhtel parisien: le silence des chroniqueurs et
pistoliers de cour la fin du rgne de Louis XIV (1700-1715), XVII
e
sicle, 162 (1989),
pp. 85-100.
On constate aussi un intrt croissant pour le mcnat artistique
78
et les
collections, leur constitution et leur gestion. Des tudes rcentes ne concer-
nent non seulement le mcnat royal mais aussi celui des grands seigneurs, et,
fait nouveau, des femmes de la cour. Le mcnat de Catherine de Mdicis et
de Marie de Mdicis ainsi que de Madame de Pompadour a donn lieu des
expositions, des colloques et des publications
79
. La question du genre et du
sens politique du mcnat des femmes a t aborde rcemment dans un
ouvrage collectif
80
. Leur rle dans les transferts culturels merge en force
dans ces travaux, comme la place quelles revtaient dans cette grande entre-
prise de la civilisation des murs, si chre Norbert Elias
81
.
Dautres aspects de la vie quotidienne de la cour sont explors par des
chercheurs qui, sous linfluence de lhistoire anthropologique, se sont tourns
ds le dbut des annes 1980 vers ltude des objets et gestes du quotidien.
Lhygine et le corps
82
, lalimentation et lart de la table
83
, le costume
84
et les
passe-temps et objets
85
de la vie quotidienne
86
ont men de nombreuses
enqutes et expositions.
105
78
P. Beaussant, Louis XIV artiste, Paris 1999; B. Saule, Le premier got du roi
Versailles: dcoration et ameublement, Gazette des beaux-arts, octobre 1992, pp. 137-147.
79
Baudouin-Matuszek (ed.), Paris et Catherine, cit.; S. Frommel G. Wolf (eds.), Il
mecenatismo di Caterina de Medici. Poesia, feste, musica, pittura, scultura, architettura,
Venise 2008 et Marie de Mdicis et le Palais du Luxembourg, Paris 1991; X. Salmon (ed.),
Madame de Pompadour et les arts, Paris 2002.
80
K. Wilson-Chevalier (ed.), Patronnes et mcnes en France la Renaissance, Saint-
tienne 2007.
81
Voir entre autres K. Wilson-Chevalier, Femmes, cour et pouvoir: la chambre de la
duchesse dtampes Fontainebleau, dans Id. E. Viennot, Royaume de Fmynie.
Pouvoirs, contraintes, espaces de libert des femmes, de la Renaissance la Fronde,
Paris.., pp. 203-236.
82
E. Soullard, Eaux, fontaines et salles de bains. Le propre et le sale Versailles,
LHistoire, 240 (2000), pp. 62-67; S. Perez, Lhygine de Louis XIV, dans M. Da Vinha,
C. Lano, B. Laurioux (eds.), Cultures de cour, cultures du corps, Paris, paratre.
83
B. Saule, Tentative de dfinition du grand couvert, dans C. Arminjon B. Saule
(eds.), Tables royales et festins de cours en Europe (1661-1789), Paris 2004, pp. 29-35;
Tables royales Versailles, 1682-1789, dans Versailles et les tables royales en Europe:
XVIIe-XIXe sicles, Paris 1993, pp. 41-68; M. F. Nol-Waldteufel, Manger la cour: ali-
mentation et gastronomie aux XVII
e
et XVIII
e
sicles, ivi, pp. 69-84.
84
Fastes de cour et crmonies royales. Le costumes de cour en Europe (1650-1800),
Paris 2009. Du 3 au 5 juin 2009 a eu lieu Versailles le colloque Cultures matrielles, cul-
tures visuelles du costume dans les cours europennes (1400-1815) (http://veticourcol-
loque2009.blogspot.com/) (actes paratre).
85
C. Arminjon (ed.), Quand Versailles tait meubl dargent, Paris 2007.
86
Versailles et la musique, Versailles 2007, pp. 95-103.
Conclusion
En conclusion, soulignons dabord une particulartit franaise qui
consiste en lexistence de nombreuses tudes relatives la cour, mais lab-
sence de court studies en tant que domaine dtudes autonome. En effet, les
historiens franais se sont intresss avant tout ltude de la formation de
lEtat, dabord monarchique puis rpublicain, et sils ont abord la cour, cest
souvent dans cette perspective. Ceci explique aussi leur absence plus ou
moins marque dans le domaine de la thorie et de la reflexion historiogra-
phique sur la cour au sicle dernier.
Cette attitude a t peut-tre moins prononce chez les historiens dart et
les historiens mdivistes qui ont examin la cour sous dautres aspects et qui
ont donn des impulsions importantes la recherche. Leurs travaux dmont-
rent en outre lintrt de franchir les barrires des priodes pour suivre lvo-
lution de la cour dans la longue dure. Les poques charnires prsentent un
sujet dtudes particulirement passionnant : les cours de la fin du XV
e
et du
dbut du XVII
e
sicle mritent dtre mieux explores, comme celles de Louis
XV et de Louis XVI.
Depuis lan 2000, les tables rondes et colloques consacres la cour se
multiplient et plusieurs institutions et rseaux ont t crs
87
. La thmatique
de la cour apparat davantage dans les programmes denseignement
88
et fait
lobjet dun nombre croissant de publications scientifiques.
Terminons avec un phnomne rcent: linternationalisation de la recher-
che sur la cour. Les liens troits qui ont exist entre les cours des diffrents
pays de lOccident mergent en force lors de rencontres scientifiques qui
runissent des spcialistes de pays diffrents. Les publications qui manent de
ces colloques internationaux se prsentent souvent sous forme dune compi-
lation dinterventions et ne donnent pas toujours lieu une synthse ou
conclusion qui tente de dresser un bilan. Le dveloppement de rseaux inter-
nationaux comme le Court Studies Forum, cr en 2007, permettront une mise
en perspective et recherche comparative, indispensables ltude de lvolu-
tion des cours en Europe.
106
87
ct de nombreux colloques, la cration en 2006 du Centre de recherche du ch-
teau de Versailles en tmoigne; il a pour objectif de soutenir la recherche sur les cours euro-
pennes grce lorganisation de colloques et ldition dactes de colloques, dtudes et
dun bulletin (http://chateauversailles-recherche.fr/). Dans le mme courant sinscrit la cra-
tion dun site Internet sur la cour de France (http://cour-de-france.fr).
88
La thmatique de la cour a t intgr en 2008 dans le programme du concours den-
tre de lEcole Normale Suprieure.
Maria Antonietta Visceglia
ITALIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY ON THE COURTS: A SURVEY
1. Italian historiography first began to open up the question of courts at
the end of the 1970s, thanks in part to the activity of an association, the
Centro studi Europa delle Corti that included scholars from various disci-
plines and hailing from different Italian universities. The origins of the asso-
ciation date back to October 1976, to a conference that was devoted to the
Farnese courts of Parma and Piacenza. The Centre set itself the goal of
launching an important research project that would bring together historians
of literature, theatre, art, music, as well as historians tout court for the purpose
of studying Italian Renaissance Courts and, in a wider sense, the courts of the
Ancien Rgime, while at the same time acquiring a formal identity for itself.
As result, on June 14, 1979 a stable institution came into being, one that had
no particular affiliations with any academic bodies and resembled more a
loose network comprising various interconnected areas of expertise and disci-
plines with a focus not only on Italy, but as its name suggests, on Europe. The
centres first president was Paolo Prodi and it began to publish an edition of
books that was published in Rome by Bulzoni the Biblioteca del
Cinquecento. At the beginning of the 1980s it proposed the creation of the
Istituto di studi rinascimentali di Ferrara which was later founded in 1983 and
which itself launched a journal (still appearing) entitled Schifanoia published
by Panini in Modena. Adriano Prosperi, the first director of the Ferrara
Institute, introduced the project in the pages of Schifanoia and justified the
choice of Ferrara as not an accidental setting for an initiative on the
Renaissance. He recalled the illustrious precedent of the Ferrara Centro
di Studi Rinascimentali which had been established in 1956 and had includ-
ed the likes of Gertrud Bing, Delio Cantimori, Eugenio Garin, Frances Yates
107
among others
1
. Prosperi went on to explain that unlike the 1956 Centre, the
1983 Institute aimed to take in a vaster area that of the Po states and not just
the court of Ferrara and that the period to be studied would not be narrowly
confined to the Renaissance but would run from the fifteenth to the eighteenth
centuries. The result was that the project was very European in its scope,
though it initially remained very much circumscribed to the Po Valley as well.
In terms of its chronology, it focussed mainly on the Renaissance and what
else could we expect given its interest in the phenomenon of courts?
Nonetheless, it considered the Renaissance to be a testing ground for a more
general interpretation of the Ancien Rgime.
I believe it is important to examine the internal history of the group
Europa delle Corti, of the Biblioteca del Cinquecento, of the Ferrara Institute
that was associated with it, as an investigation into how a particular research
project was organised: for example, one might look at when individual schol-
ars joined or left the project, and the places and subjects of periodic confer-
ences.
In order to grasp the projects cultural significance, we must, of course,
first contextualise it among the currents of Italian historiography of the last
century. During the postwar years when democratic Italy was in the process
of being reconstructed amid bitter political and ideological clashes, Italian
historians (who were a much tinier academic group than they are today) tend-
ed to orient their research towards topics whose choice implied an interpreta-
tive stance on the great questions of the modern and contemporary world; top-
ics such as the transition to capitalism, the modernization of the state, the role
of intellectuals in relation to ruling power. It was around such themes that the
debates on ethical-political historiography (the Crocian paradigm) and on the
Gramscian interpretation of Italian history revolved. Basically, the entire
course of Italian history from the Middle Ages to fascism was being called
into question, while historians aimed to determine the limits that had held
back the Risorgimento and the process of unification
2
. Debate on categories
108
1
A. Prosperi,
2
A large scale assessment still needs to be done. For a wider survey cf. P. Prodi, Il X
Congresso internazionale di Scienze Storiche, Roma 1955. Cinquantanni di distanza, in H.
Cools, M. Espada Burgos, M. Gras, M. Matheus, M. Miglio (eds.), La storiografia tra pas-
sato e futuro. Il X Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storiche (Roma 1955) cinquantan-
ni dopo, Rome 2008, pp. 9-23. On the relationship between Marxist historiography and his-
torical research in Italy during the nineteen fifties and sixties cf. the critical anthology edit-
ed by L.Masella, Passato e presente nel dibattito storiografico. Storici marxisti e mutamen-
ti della societ italiana 1955-1970, Bari 1979; on how international historiography views
such as the late 18th century notion of passive revolution (Vincenzo Cuoco),
or Gramscis more recent interpretation of the Risorgimento as a failed agrar-
ian revolution took place in a lively climate of exchange which at times was
even bitter and which ultimately led to a revision of the history of the Italian
peninsula before and after unification. According to the prevalent historio-
graphical canon of the 1950s and 1960s, Italys political fragmentation in the
early modern age, the Spanish hegemony, the decadence in the forms of urban
and cultural life during the 17th century under the twin burdens of economic
decline in the Mediterranean and the Counter Reformation were all parts of a
picture in which courts were seen in a negative light, a phenomenon that his-
torical researchers did well to shun unless for the purpose of pointing out its
undesirable effects on the nations history. This view that Italys decadence
could be traced back to the late 17th and 18th centuries has since come under
criticism, but in the last century it was just historiographical commons sense
3
.
For example, it was no coincidence that in the decades following unification,
a number of studies appeared dealing with the Roman court which was
thought to be the epitome of backward and corrupt practises, an icon of dis-
simulation cloaked by religion, tainted by the double sin of being both a
court and the expression of the same papal power that had opposed the cre-
ation of the Nation State.
In this context, the project Europa delle Corti was breaking with a histo-
riographical tradition and taking up a decidedly revisionist position. A useful
text in support my view is Cesare Mozzarellis long essay entitled, Principe e
Corte nella storiografia italiana del Novecento, appearing in a volume edited
by the author himself along with Giuseppe Olmi (the twenty-first in the series)
in La corte nella cultura e nella storiografia. Immagini e posizioni tra Otto e
Novecento. Mozzarelli shows how this negative view of courts had long roots
in the culture of the 19th century (but one might indeed trace it all the way
back to the Enlightenment and observe how the motif of the anti-court had
been ever present from the very origins of the phenomenon of the court). He
also draws attention to the fact that the dichotomy between modern State and
Italian Historiography on the courts: a survey
109
the crucial points of nineteenth and twentieth century Italian history cf F. Mazzonis (ed.),
Litalia contemporanea e la storiografia internazionale, Venice 1995.
3
J. Y. Frtign F. Jankowiak (eds.), La dcadence dans la culture et la pense poli-
tiques: Espagne France et Italie, XVIIIe-XXe sicle, Rome 2008; M. Verga, Decadenza ital-
iana e idea di Europa (XVII-XVIII secc.), Storica VIII, 22 (2002), pp. 7-33; Id, Nous ne
sommes pas lItalie grce Dieu: note sullidea di decadenza nel discorso nazionale ital-
iano, ivi, XV, 43/44/45 (2009), pp. 169-207.
court was motivated by ideology and to the supposition that the court was a
place where one served the prince but not where politics were practised.
Mozzarelli writes:
If the court has come to be considered as antithesis and complement to the mod-
ern state, if the very notion of the modern state has allowed itself to be defined
thanks to the creation of a negative pole courts, feudal vestiges etc.to which
everything might be ascribed that was not modern and not rationale, in short, if
a study of the origins of modern politics and the forms of power has been radi-
cally ideological, then an examination of the court outside this ideological frame-
work might be a way to reopen discourse both on the power and politics of today
and on the entire field of modern history
4
.
Another aspect of the intellectual climate of Italy in the early 1980s,
when Italian historians were just beginning to look at courts, was their great
openness to influences from the social sciences and the historiography being
done in France. At the end of the 1970s Nobert Elias masterly interpretation
of the society of the courts, on the role of good manners in the development
of a paradigm of civilit, on the disciplined regulation of violence through the
gradual differentiation in the functions of social groups and the controlled
interplay of social relations established itself as a central theme in European
debate in the human sciences, above all in France, thanks to scholars like
Andr Burguire and Roger Chartier. Noberts work ber den Prozess der
Zivilisation was published in Germany in 1939 (in Basel) and republished in
1969 with a methodological preamble. Later it was translated into French by
Calmann-Levy in two separate volumes that appeared two years apart La
Civilisation de moeurs (1973) and La Dynamique de lOccident (1975) a hia-
tus that certainly did not make what was intended to be a single work any eas-
ier to understand. Die hffische Gesellschaft whose first edition appeared in
1969 but which took up previous material from Elias German period was
later published by Calmann-Levy in 1974 under the title La Societ de Cour.
Almost a decade passed before Elias trilogy was translated into Italian by the
publisher Il Mulino, first Die hfische gesellschaft in 1980 with an introduc-
tion by Alberto Tenenti, then in 1982 La civilt delle buone maniere, the first
of the two volumes of ber den Prozess der Zivilisation with the introduction
110
4
C. Mozzarelli, Principe e Corte nella storiografia italiana del Novecento, in Id. G.
Olmi (eds.), La corte nella cultura e nella storiografia Immagini e posizione tra Otto e
Novecento, Rome 1983, p. 229.
by Elias himself (which is missing in the French translation) drafted in
Leicester in 1968, and finally, a year later in 1983, the second volume with the
title Potere e civilt. On more than one occasion scholars have pointed to the
ambiguous aspects of this late introduction into Italy of a general theory of
western civilisation that combined the methods and categories of German
sociology with Freudian psychoanalysis. While Elias profoundly affected
French historiography at a time when the school of Annales was redefining
itself, this same school of historiography provided the vehicle through which
Elias work reached Italy, where he was read, improperly so, alongside the
works of Aris and Foucault. This is not the place to trace the development of
Elias reception in Europe
5
. I would only venture to ask a question which has
a bearing on these pages, one that I think is unavoidable: to what extent dur-
ing the 1980s was Italian historiography on the courts influenced by the
translations of Elias.
To be sure, Elias argument that the organisation of the society of the
court could be considered indicative of a more general process of civilisation
in the west also served to confirm Italian historians in their discovery of the
phenomenon of the court. It also provided impetus to a new current of schol-
ars who straddled the fields of history, law, anthropology and art, spawning
seminar groups such as Il Laboratorio della Storia coordinated by Sergio
Bertelli. But this would be taking a superficial view of his influence. In real-
ity there existed a profound gap between Elias sociological model which he
developed in the context of European culture during the 1930s and applied
to the great Baroque court of Versailles and the work being done in Italy that
dealt with different models of small courts that had very different kinds of
chronologies, spatial contexts and citizens: the Po valley courts, the Medici
court, the Savoia court. Tenenti drew attention to this gap in his penetrating
introduction to the Italian edition of La societ delle corti. Without impugn-
ing the value of Elias work Tenenti observed how, for Elias, the court does
not correspond to the complex structure that was propping up France but
111
5
R. Chartier, Loeuvre de Norbert Elias, son contenu, sa rception, in Table Ronde,
Norbert Elias: une lecture plurielle, Cahiers internationaux de Sociologie, v. 99, n.s
Quarante-deuxime anne, July-December 1995, pp. 293-314. On how Elias was received
in Italy see S. Bertelli G. Crif (eds.), Rituale cerimoniale etichetta, Milan 1985, with par-
ticular reference to G. Crif, Tra sociologia e storia Le scelte culturali di N.Elias, ivi, pp.
261-272. Cf. also M. A. Visceglia, Corti italiane e storiografia europea. Linee di lettura, in
F. Salvestrini (ed.), LItalia alla fine del Medioevo: i caratteri originali nel quadro europeo,
Florence 2006, pp. 37-85.
almost exclusively to the mutual behaviours of courtiers and the monarch
6
.
Tenenti maintained that by limiting the concept of interdependence to a
restricted milieu, Elias had laid less importance on other types of relation-
ships. In support of this, Tenenti affirmed that it was no coincidence that
Colbert [was] mentioned only once and his influence equated or likened to
that of certain of the Sun Kings favourites
7
. He concluded by asking how far
could Elias method and results be applied to other models
8
. Tenentis intro-
duction should be read together with the preamble he wrote during roughly
the same period for the first volume in the series Biblioteca del Cinquecento
to which we shall return shortly. This distance between Italian historiography
and Elias was also repeated by Giuseppe Olmi and Cesare Mozzarelli in their
introduction, as co-editors, to the already mentioned volume of 1983
9
, and by
Mozzarelli again in the paper he gave at a conference organised by the CNRS
and by the cole Franaise which was held in Rome in October a year later
and entitled Culture et idologie dans la gense de ltat moderne part of a
French multi-year research programme on the State. Mozzarellis paper began
very polemically and I would like to quote from it:
Only a few years ago, a paper about the court in a conference devoted to the rise
of the modern state would have appeared inconceivable. What is the court for his-
torians if not the antithesis of the Modern State? The latter has to do with order,
rationality, progress and power, while the former is about disorder, irrationality
(luxury, intrigue, immorality), decadence (of politics and of men), impotence (of
the princes government) [] Then Elias came along and the court became a dif-
ferent kind of place, an experimental space from which to test the iron laws of
interpersonal relationships, the interdependency between dominators and the dom-
inated, an organic system where tout se tient comprising the private, social and
political. And so, the certainty that progress, order and rationality are in the court
and have only one name [] restores its sheen and confidence
10
.
112
6
A. Tenenti, Introduzione alledizione italiana, in N. Elias, La societ di corte,
Bologna 1980, pp. 12-13.
7
Ivi, p. 15,
8
Again we need to determine which theoretical results of an enquiry into a social
environment are applicable to those obtained from another. Certainly the present work can
only serve to make a significant contribution to clarifying and refining reflection on this type
of problem, while the caution of historians will no doubt continue to aid in the production
of models pursued by other cultivators of the human sciences (ivi, p. 19).
9
C. Mozzarelli G. Olmi, Premessa, in Id. (eds.), La corte nella cultura, cit., p. 8.
10
C. Mozzarelli, Principe, corte e governo tra Cinquecento e Settecento, in Culture et
idologie dans la gense de ltat moderne, Rome 1984, pp. 367-379; now in C. Mozzarelli,
Antico Regime e modernit, Rome 2009, p. 153.
In Mozzarellis view, by assuming the hypothesis that the structures of
civilised behaviour are closely connected to the development of the State in
western Europe, and by linking the socio-genesis of the State to the repression
of drives and the interiorization of constraints, Elias was suggesting that
European society had developed along a clearly linear pathway, what amount-
ed to a parallel history of modernization, a history that was based not on pol-
itics and economics but on psychology and sociology, indeed, on anthropolo-
gy
11
. Later again Mozzarelli, a key figure in the Centro Europea delle Corti,
during a conference he co-organised with Gianni Venturi in Trent in 1988
dealing with the system of courts on the eve of the French Revolution,
remarked in a brief note to the paper he gave on the Lombard nobility in the
age of Maria Theresa, how historians in Italy had also changed their perspec-
tive over the previous two decades when looking at the relationship nobility-
court: after the great amount of work done above all by the Centro Europeo
delle Corti and in the light of the parallel, though largely alternative, influence
of studies of Nobert Elias
12
.
I could refer to many other texts that would show how in Italy the histor-
ical study of courts developed independently of Elias influence and a logical
result of this was that the general distancing from Elias that occurred during
the 1990s was less bitter in Italy, in fact almost absent. When in 2000 the
journal Storica undertook to test the efficacy of Elias model by empirical
research they invited a non-Italian, Jeroen Duindam
13
, author of the well
known work Myths of Power. Nobert Elias and the Early Modern European
Court (Amsterdam 1994), and scholar of the courts of Versailles and Vienna.
The deconstruction Elias model, a process in which Duindam was not
the only participant, was also the effect of empirical research, above all, in the
English speaking world
14
, of the establishment of an approach based on net-
113
11
Ibid., p. 154. On the concept of self-control cf. A. Burguire, Le concept de auto-
contrainte et son usage historique, in S. Chevalier J.M. Privat (eds.), Norbert Elias et lan-
thropologie.Nous sommes tous si trangers, Paris 2004, pp. 71-81. On the rationality
implicit in Elias interpretation cf. C. Colliot Thlene, Le concept de rationalisation de Max
Weber Norbert Elias, in A. Garricou B. Lacroix (eds.), Norbert Elias. La politique et
lhistoire, Paris 1997, pp. 52-74.
12
C. Mozzarelli, Impero e citt. La riforma della nobilt nella Lombardia del
Settecento, in Id. G. Venturi (eds.), LEuropa delle corti alla fine dellAntico Regime,
Rome 1991, pp. 495-538. Now in Antico Regime e modernit, cit., p. 81 to note 6.
13
J. Duindam, Norbert Elias e la corte det moderna, Storica, VI, 16 (2000), pp. 7-
30. See by the same author the introduction to Vienna and Versailles. The Courts of Europes
Dynastic Rivals, 1550-1780, Cambridge 2003.
14
Of all the works I will only mention two of fundamental importance: R. Asch A.
Birke (eds.), Princes, Patronage and the Nobility. The Court at the Beginning of the Modern
work analysis, on the widespread use of the category of patronage political
and artistic of a return by both historians and anthropologists to the theme
of royalty as power represented through discourse, rites, images, and finally
of the relativization of the paradigm of modernity. This latter question, togeth-
er with the question of the central State, both key components of Elias work,
should also be considered in view of the wider methodological and theoreti-
cal relationship that exists between empirical research and the production of
strong interpretative models. The court is not the only case in point. Another
example is the complex problem of applying the category of the public sphere
in the wake of Jrgen Habermas theories to the history of books and read-
ing: a topic that is not unrelated that of the court itself having largely to do
with political discourse on modernity. Habermas, who published his thesis in
1962
15
, does not mention Elias, but posits a discontinuity between what he
calls the representative public sphere, where he locates the humanistic cultur-
al world that was integrated in the life the court, and the bourgeois public
sphere, not a continuity as it is assumed to be in the work of Elias.
2. Let us return to Italian historiography and develop the second point of
this paper by attempting to answer the question of which areas have been most
explored by Italian scholars of the courts since the 1970s and what have been
the most enduring results of their efforts. An initial and original area of inves-
tigation was the work done on texts, among which Castigliones Courtier
occupies a notable place. The perspective adopted by these studies viewed the
court as a complex system founded on the cultural codes of grazia and
sprezzatura, on a courtly grammar that was expressed in Castigliones text
and from which a knowledge and practises arose that spread over modern
Europe and acquired a significance of vast proportions. This textual approach
was launched in a seminar held in October 1978 marking the 500
th
anniver-
sary of Castigliones birth in Casanatico di Macaria, and its proceedings were
published in 1980 in two volumes. In the various essays The Courtier is pre-
sented both as the historical product of a precise set of circumstances in 16th
century Italy, and as a foundational or seminal work, a fertile matrix for a
series of subsequent discourses on the court
16
. In his introduction to the 1981
114
Age (c. 1450 -1750), Oxford-London 1991; J. Adamson (ed.), The Princely Courts of
Europe. Ritual, Politics and Culture under the Ancien Regime 1500-1750, London 1999.
15
J. Habermas, Strukturwandel der ffentlichkeit, Neuwied 1962.
16
La Corte e il Cortegiano, vol. I, La scena del testo, edited by C. Ossola; vol. II,
Un modello europeo, edited by A. Prosperi, Rome 1980.
edition of The Book of the Courtier
17
Amadeo Quondam interprets the work
as a lucid manifesto, an archtext, presented as the trunk of the arbor textu-
alis that forms, in the Aristotelian sense, through the use of words, the real
features of the court
Quondam writes:
It [The Courtier] takes on the proportions of an anthropological manifesto and
traces out the boundaries of a highly important and enduring semiotic field (an
authentic typology, a modelization) that gave rise to above all other sets of
discourses and other, even partial grammars: for example, those that were specif-
ically related to the Galateo or the Civil conversazione (and it is certainly symp-
tomatic that these two texts were closely connected to The Courtier in their
reception in Europe) or that very vast sector of treatises on the dance, games,
duels, hunting, horses, dressing, eating, on secretary
18
This interest in texts, their history, their reception and fortunes has been
a constant feature of the editorial work of the Centro Europeo delle Corti. It
has resulted in the editing of other texts that were complementary to The
Courtier
19
and survey studies on works of indisputable importance such as
Stefano Quazzos Civil conversazione also considered in its Po Valley con-
text
20
, or the Orculo manual y arte de prudencia (1647) by Baltasar
Gracin which has restored a Jesuitical or Spanish version of the
Courtier
21
. But often the Centres work on texts also spanned out into multi-
faceted analyses of single authors considered to be foundational such as
Giovanni della Casa
22
or studies of treatises, such as books dealing with
115
17
A. Quondam, Introduzione, in B. Castiglione, Il libro del Cortegiano, Milan 1981,
pp. VII- LI and Id., Introduzione, in B. Castiglione, Il Cortegiano, Milan 2002, pp. V- XCIX,
for the history of the writing of the book see also Id., Questo povero Cortegiano.
Castiglione, il libro, la storia, Roma 2000.
18
Quondam, Introduzione, cit., p. XXXVIII.
19
P. Giovio, Dialogo dellimprese militari e amorose, edited by M. L. Doglio, Rome
1978; G. F. Capra, Delleccellenza e dignit delle donne, edited by M. L. Doglio, Rome
1988; C. Sigonio, Del Dialogo, edited by F. Pignatti, Rome 1993; G. Pontano, I libri delle
virt sociali, edited by F. Tateo, Rome 1999.
20
G. Patrizi, Stefano Guazzo e la Civil conversazione, Rome 1980; D. Ferrari, Stefano
Guazzo e Casale tra Cinque e Seicento, Rome 1997 and last on conversation as an Italian
model of sociability: A. Quondam, La conversazione. Un modello italiano, Rome 2007.
21
M. Hinz, I mezzi umani e i mezzi divini. Cinque commenti a Baltasar Gracin, Rome
2005.
22
A. Santuosso, Vita di Giovanni della Casa, Rome 1979; A. Quondam (ed.), Giovanni
della Casa. Un seminario per il centenario, Rome 2006.
good manners
23
or economics
24
or duels
25
(an area to which Claudio Donati
26
has made a substantial contribution), or on chivalry
27
and the persistence of a
military or warrior ideal
28
which was functional to and not separate from the
ideal of the courtier.
This line of research that used a corpus of texts as a means to analyse the
court as a paradigm was immediately accompanied by another perspective
that studied the court as an all encompassing scene: the court as representa-
tion, but also as a theatre within the palace, in its texts of theatrical literature,
in the staging of its festivals and in the production of what was literally a the-
atre of the court
29
. And so we might well ask: was the court a closed system,
a symbolic, self-referential universe?
In 1993 at a conference held in Chicago on the origins of the modern state
in Italy, the importance of the historiographical shift that had occurred over
the previous fifteen years could be seen from the fact that one section was
116
23
I. Bottari,Galateo e Galatei. La creanza e linstituzione della societ nella tratta-
tistica tra Antico regime e Stato liberale, Rome 1999.
24
D. Frigo, Il padre di famiglia. Governo della casa e governo civile nella tradizione
delleconomica tra Cinque e Seicento, Rome 1985.
25
F. Espamer, La biblioteca di Don Ferrante. Duello e onore nella cultura del
Cinquecento, Rome 1987.
26
C. Donati, A project of expurgation by the Congregation of the Index treatises on
duelling, in G. Fragnito (ed.), Church, Censorship and Culture in Early Modern Italy,
Cambridge 2001, pp. 134-162. On Donati: M. A. Visceglia, Claudio Donati storico della
nobilt, Societ e Storia, XXXIII, 129 (2010), pp. 563-583. On the subject of duelling
from a European perspective: V. G. Kiernan, The Duell in European History. Honour and
the reign of Aristocracy, Oxford 1986; U. Israel G. Ortalli (eds.), Il duello tra medioevo ed
et moderna.Prospettive storico-culturali, Rome 2009.
27
On the chilvaric romance and the knightly library cf M. Beer, Romanzi di cavalleria.
Il Furioso e il romanzo italiano del primo Cinquecento, Rome 1987 and R. Alhaique
Pettinelli, Forme e percorsi dei romanzi di cavalleria da Boiardo a Brusantino, Rome 2004;
on the model of the knight as an enduring European model: M. Domenichelli, Cavaliere e
gentiluomo. Saggio sulla cultura aristocratica in Europa (1513 -1915), Rome 2002 and A.
Quondam, Cavallo e cavaliere. Larmatura come seconda pelle del gentiluomo moderno,
Rome 2003; on the decline of the knightly science, C. Donati, Scipione Maffei e la
Scienza chiamata cavalleresca. Saggio sulla ideologia nobiliare al principio del
Settecento, Rivista Storica italiana, XC (1978), pp. 30-71.
28
A. Bilotto, P. del Negro, C. Mozzarelli (eds.), Corti, guerra e nobilt in Antico
regime, Rome 1997.
29
G. Ferroni, Il testo e la scena. Saggi sul teatro del Cinquecento, Rome 1980; F.
Ruffini, Teatro prima del Teatro. Visioni delledificio e della scena tra Umanesimo e
Rinascimento, Rome 1983; F. Cruciani, Teatro nel Rinascimento Roma 1450-1550, Rome
1984; R. Ciancarelli, Il progetto di una festa barocca. Alle origini del tatro Farnese di
Parma (1618-1629), Rome 1987.
devoted to the courts
30
. In one of the conferences papers, English historian
Trevor Dean acknowledged that only two decades ago the court would not
have found a place so readily in the conceptual baggage of historians of the
modern State. However, Dean was also severely critical of the Italian
approach which he considered to have given too much importance to the
courts literary expressions and not enough to its historical forms and vari-
ations. He laid the blame for this structuralist approach on the absence of
dialogue between Italian and international historiography
31
. The lack of stud-
ies on Italian courts (the exception being Wolfgang Reinhards article on the
power of papal families) in Princes, Patronage and Nobility edited by R. Asch
and A. Birke
32
, which had appeared two years earlier, was held to be the result
of this lack of communication among historians. This verdict no longer holds
true today. Despite the predominance within the group of historians of litera-
ture and theatre, the Centre immediately took up the task of dealing with
everything that is outside of this system of art firstly, with the nature of the
real mechanisms of the courts powers, of all the courts in Italy and Europe,
and then with the nature of the profession of courtier in its various manifes-
tations [] Anthropologically based discourse on the court cannot avoid com-
ing to terms with the roles inside the courts, with the lists of the stipendi-
aries, and thus these many discourses, these many narratives again become a
task for the historian
33
.
Alberto Tenenti himself, in explaining the general project, proposed to
study the court as an institution and organisation of power. He did not intend
to rehash the traditional themes by continuing to dwell on the old dichotomy
court/state, nor simply to dissolve the latter into the court, but rather to focus
on the court itself as a political phenomenon, one that could not be conceived
of separately from the noble framework of European society, nor from the
dynamic evolution of that society
34
. But even when it was reformulated like
117
30
G. Chittolini, A. Molho, P. Schiera (eds.), Le origini dello Stato moderno in Italia,
secoli XIV-XVI / Origins of the State in Italy, 14th-16th Centuries, Bologna 1994. Section V
of this volume La Corte contains contributions by Trevor Dean, Marcello Fantoni, James
S. Grubb and Edward W. Muir.
31
T. Dean, Le corti. Un problema storiografico, in Chittolini, Molho, Schiera (eds.), Le
origini dello Stato, cit., pp. 425- 447, in particular pp. 428-430.
32
W. Reinhard, Papal Power and Family Strategy in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth
Centuries, in Asch Birke (eds.), Princes, Patronage, cit., pp. 329-356.
33
Quondam, Introduzione, cit., p. XL.
34
A. Tenenti, La Corte nella storia dellEuropa moderna (1300-1700), in M. A.
Romani, Le corti farnesiane di Parma e Piacenza (1545-1622), vol. I, Potere e societ nello
stato farnesiano, Rome 1978, p. XII.
this, the problem remained of how court and state were joined. As we shall
see, this is one of the recurrent themes of Italian court historiography.
Why the decision to begin with the Farnese court? The reason was stated
quite clearly. In the choice of a study sample writes Carlo Ossola the
most homogeneous system (political, cultural, economic and linguistic)
appeared to be the area of the Po []. The states of a national scale being dis-
carded for their great size [I think here he is referring to Naples, the only one
of the old Italian states that might be defined as national], followed by the
regional states such as those of Cosimo I or Carlo Emanuele, it appeared that
among the little states, such as the Este and Gonzaga, the Farnese were imme-
diately identified as emblematic of that manner of holding court and being
a state that made them desirable of study
35
.
Moreover, the Farnese state had been founded in a completely artificial
manner, through an act of papal nepotism, as a result of calculations played
out at a European level and located within a juridically complex area
36
. As a
result it could be best expected to represent the type of court that implants
itself as a new state. But aside from the specific motivations that lay behind
the choice of this particular case in point, we are safe in saying that by the end
of the 1970s Italian historians accompanied their research on texts and court
discourse with another, not less important, approach which focused on how
the Italian courts functioned in their original polycentrism.
The results of this long period of research that began with the Po Valley
courts and later expanded to include other areas of the peninsula have shown
the degree of complexity that characterised the relationship between state-
court-city in Early Modern Italy. Many of the princely regimes of north-cen-
tral Italy arose from dynamics that depended on urban situations that had been
imposed by a family-clan. The Este started from a popular investiture behind
which lay the Guelph faction; they consolidated their power in the face of
resistance from the city and revolts (1385) by obtaining the papal vicariate
and in the fifteenth century they increased their territory by adding Modena
118
35
C. Ossola, Il luogo della corte, ivi, p. XLV.
36
On Parma between Visconti domination and and local powers in the late Middle Ages
cf. M.Gentili, Terra e poteri Parma e il Parmense nel ducato visconteo allinizio del
Quattrocento, Milan 2001. On papal Parma during the first decades of the sixteenth century
cf. L. Arcangeli, Gentiluomi di Lombardia. Ricerche sullaristocrazia padana nel
Rinascimento, Milan 2003, pp. 331-364; on the papal decision for the investiture of Pier
Luigi Farnese, son of Paolo III, as duke of Parma and Piacenza cf. G. Fragnito, Il nepotismo
farnesiano tra Ragioni di Stato e Ragioni di Chiesa, in Continuit e discontinuit nella sto-
ria politica, economica e religiosa Studi in onore di Aldo Stella, Vicenza 1993, pp. 117-125.
and Reggio (1409), Garfagnana (1433), Polesine di Rovigo and Frignano: a
heterogeneous jumble of territories in an area that was dotted by little states
Novellara, Correggio, Guastalla, Carpi, Mirandola, Sassuolo. The urban,
communal roots that originally gave rise to this historical evolution, and the
tangle of seigniorial or patrician powers, the heterogeneity of the territory
resulted in a clear disconnection between court and state
37
. Marco Folin has
suggested applying the category of composite state to the Este possessions, a
term which was used by Grubb for the Venetian state and Elliot for the
Spanish monarchy, in which every territory maintained its political and
administrative separateness
38
.
In neighbouring Mantua the Gonzaga replaced the Bonacolsi, their for-
mer allies in 1328 and took up residence in their stronghold the civitas vetus.
While they continued to respect the municipal statutes, they rapidly swal-
lowed up the communal magistracies in the clanic court. The comparison
between the courts of the Este and the Gonzaga is made frequently in Italian
historiography: it was first proposed by Marco Cattini and Marzio Romani
39
,
and later pursued in greater detail by Marco Folin. This scholar showed how
in the case of Mantua, as early as the end of the Middle Ages, the Gonzagas
household was practically coterminous with the structures of the Gonzaga
State, while in the case of the Este, even in the Early Modern Age, the
offices of the court continued to retain a markedly domestic connotation, a
disparity between the two models that can be seen in the very structure of their
archives, which in the Este states were organised primarily on the basis of
geography
40
.
Further south, in the wide area between the Adriatic and the upper valley
of the Tiber a teeming of autonomies and forces hampered any real processes
119
37
Of the numerous studies on the Este states and courts I mention only: G. Papagno
A. Quondam (eds.), La Corte e lo spazio: Ferrara estense, Rome 1982; E. Fregni (ed.),
Archivi teritori e poteri in area estense (Secc. XVI-XVIII), Rome 1999; M. Folin,
Rinascimento estense. Politica, cultura, istituzioni di un antico Stato italiano, Bari 2001.
38
M. Folin, Officiali e feudatari nel sistema politico estense, in Fregni (ed.), Archivi
teritori e poteri, cit., pp. 81- 120. Cf. J. S. Grubb, Firstborn of Venice. Vicenza in the Early
Renaissance State, Baltimore London 1988, J. Elliott, A Europe of composite monarchies,
Past and Present, 137 (1992), pp. 48-71.
39
M. Cattini M. A. Romani, Le corti parallele: per una tipologia delle corti padane
dal XIII al XVI secolo, in Papagno Quondam, La Corte e lo spazio, cit., vol. I, pp. 47-82.
40
M. Folin, Rinascimento estense, cit., pp. 122-129. On the relationship between insti-
tutional framework and the production of documents in the Este dominions cf. E. Fregni,
Assetti istituzionali, organizzazione amministrativa e produzione documentaria nei territori
estensi, in Id. (ed.), Archivi teritori e poteri, cit., pp. 55-64.
of territorial aggrandizement. The Montefeltro were the only ones who, in
spite of their rivalries with other lords settled in the area (mainly the
Malatesta) managed to obtain the vicariate from Nicholas V and the ducal title
from Sixtus IV in 1474, resulting in the creation of a small state that was
recognised in the Italian system of Renaissance states, but one that in spite of
its tiny size was still fragmented into territorial micro-bodies, each jealous of
its own prerogative. It was a state caught between papal superiority above and
centrifugal forces pushing from below where the prince could exercise real
power only in the court
41
.
A different kind of complexity characterised the case of Florence-
Tuscany, also because of the peculiarity of its historiographical background:
the interest, above all among English and American historians in the history
of urban humanism, in the culture of republican Florence raised to the status
of paradigm for a Western Civilisation that sprang out of the Italian
Renaissance and extended on a trajectory spanning the Atlantic and the
Enlightenment
42
. It was an interest that discouraged much research on the
Florentine territorial state and the court. The former topic first became the
subject of study thanks largely to the impetus given by Elena Fasano Guarini
who, in her more than thirty years of work on districts, jurisdictions and
police orders has drawn attention to the co-existence of both republican and
princely forms of government within the Medici state and has, thus, enriched
the concept of regional State with new contents. Many systematic studies car-
ried out by historians of the Middle Ages and historians of institutions have
enlarged on this original perspective, and while not overemphasising the par-
adigm of the State, they have also managed to avoid dissolving it in local or
micro-political concerns
43
. While this current of historiography accompanied
as it was by a general discussion on the forms of the State in medieval and
120
41
G. Chittolini, Su alcuni aspetti dello stato di Federico, in G. Cerboni Baiardi, G.
Chittolini, P. Floriani (eds.), Federico di Montefeltro. Lo Stato, le arti, la cultura, Rome
1986, vol. I, Lo Stato, pp. 61-102.
42
A. Molho, American historians and the Italian Renaissance. An overview,
Schifanoia, VIII (1989), pp. 9-17; Id., Gli storici americani e il Rinascimento italiano,
Cheiron, VIII (1991), pp. 9-25.
43
Essential references: E. Fasano Guarini, Lo stato mediceo di Cosimo I, Florence
1973; Id., LItalia moderna e la Toscana dei prncipi. Discussioni e ricerche storiche,
Florence 2008; L. Mannori, Lamministrazione del teritorio nella Toscana granducale.
Teoria e prassi fra antico regime e riforme, Florence 1988; Id., Il sovrano tutore. Pluralismo
istituzionale e accentramento amministrativo nel principato dei Medici, Milan 1994; A.
Zorzi W. J. Connell (eds.), Lo stato territoriale fiorentino (secoli XIV-XV). Ricerche, lin-
guaggi, confronti, Pisa 2001.
early modern Italy, has done much to shed light on many specific features of
the Medici principality, it was only later that the Medici court itself became
the object of study with the work that Marcello Fantoni devoted to it in 1994.
Fantoni aimed to build a bridge between the study of ceremonial, of eti-
quette and the study of political history by taking a look at the Medici Court
over a long period. He particularly focussed on the forms of contamination
occurring between courtly entourage and government apparatus: the high
officials of the State, the knights of St. Stephen and the Florentine (or provin-
cial) notables all projected indiscriminately onto the court the common desti-
nation of their own aspirations, and those who were lucky enough to gain
admittance benefited from the precedence and privilege that made them ref-
erence figures in a network of personal clients
44
.
However different the courts of the Po valley and the Medici might have
been from each other in terms of their territorial dimensions and economic
and social dynamics, they were nonetheless anchored in a pre-existing urban
setting characterised by the commune. The court of the Savoia was quite a dif-
ferent matter. The Savoia princes, counts and imperial vicars from 1365, and
later dukes from 1416, held sway over a vast territory that straddled Italy and
France, organised into balivati in the older possessions beyond the Alps and
in castellanie in Italy. In this heterogeneous jumble of territories subject to a
restless policy of expansion, yet without a stable direction, no distinction
existed, at least in the transalpine domains, between rural communities and
cities. The dukes affirmed their dynastic authority in Piedmont over cities
such as Mondov, Vercelli, Chieri, Turin and they sought to impose the same
territorial organisation without managing to prevail over the radical difference
in structures
45
. The French model profoundly influenced the nascent Savoia
state: the consilium cum domino residens (which accompanied the prince as
itinerant organ was divided into two seats in Chambery and Turin), the assem-
bly of the Three States, the sale of public offices were, in fact, modelled on
the institutional profiles of the French principalities. At the same time the
structure of the court, which was already highly sophisticated at the beginning
of the early sixteenth century was based on the principle of trimesterial serv-
ice that had been established no later than 1518 and it looked to the courts of
France and Burgundy as models. The pre-eminence of Turin over the rest of
121
44
M. Fantoni, La Corte del Granduca. Forma e simboli del potere mediceo fra Cinque
e Seicento, Rome 1994, p. 26
45
A. Barbero, Il ducato di Savoia. Amministrazione e corte in uno stato franco-ital-
iano, Bari 2002, pp. 6-34.
Piedmont was based on the institution of the Consilium domini citra montes
residens (1419-36)
46
not only as a court of appeals but also as an organ of gov-
ernment, above all when a century later Emanuele Filiberto in 1563 decided
to move the court there from Chambery which was militarily more exposed.
As Robert Oresko has written:
The ancient city of Turin, instead, had a court imposed upon it, and here the clos-
est models are Madrid, where the court had a vacillating presence until the sec-
ond decade of the seventeenth century, and, especially, Modena, which found
itself the adopted home of the Este court only after the dynasty s principal duchy
of Ferrara had escheated to the papacy in 1597
47
.
As is well known, it was during the reigns of Carlo Emanuele I that Turin
decisively assumed the role of capital and the Sabaudian court increased in
size: a cosmopolitan court, that was originally bilingual with an ambitious
though changing foreign policy, also as a result of its strategic position in
Europes geopolitical arena
48
.
If we wish fully to understand the ambiguities inherent in the court/state
relationship in addition to as its specific characteristics, we must remember
how the princes of northern and central Italy did not avail themselves of the
full forms of sovereignty as did the monarchs of the contemporary nation
states. Instead they sought out higher forms of legitimization. Each court had
a narrative of its own, but all took part in a common story: within the penin-
sular system they were bound by an incessant tension to rise in the hierarchy
of states. This competition for prestige is not a negligible aspect in the histo-
ry of Italian courts and it drew in all the players whose strengths varied
according certain factors: the antiquity and origins of their House which
might be feudal (Savoia, Este), mercantile (Medici), the result of military
122
46
Ivi, p. 123
47
R Oresko, The Duchy of Savoy and the Kingdom of Sardinia The Saubadian Court
1563-c. 1750, in Adamson (ed.), The Princely Courts of Europe, ct., p. 232; on the organi-
zation of the ducal court under Carlo II which Barbero considers the foundational period for
the structure of the Sabaudian court cf. Il ducato di Savoia, cit., pp. 198 -255 and P. Bianchi,
L.C. Gentile (eds.), Laffermarsi della corte sabauda. Dinastie, potere ed lites in Piemonte
e Savoia fra tardo medioevo e prima et moderna, Turin 2006.
48
A fundamental reference work is P. Merlin, Tra guerre e tornei. La corte sabauda
nellet di Carlo Emanuele I, Turin 1991. For the period that followed, T. Obsborne,
Dynasty and diplomacy in the Court of Savoy. Political culture and the Thirty Years War,
Cambridge 2002.
adventure (Sforza, Montefeltro) the size of their dominions, the nobility of
their kin. Beyond the formal legitimization that an investiture might bring
from one or both of the two universal powers (Cosimo I sought recognition
from both Charles V and Pius V, first for his ducal then his grand ducal title)
princes also aspired to emulate models and win consensus and this meant their
image needed to be portrayed heroically. An entourage had to form around the
prince that was not only capable of performing bureaucratic and governmen-
tal functions, but also of taking diplomatic initiatives and producing ideolo-
gy. I use this latter expression not only in the sense of creating an image of
courtly life that expressed itself through festivals, theatre, etc.but also the
use of history in the rewriting of the dynastys mythical past, practices that all
the princely houses, from the Este to the Farnese and Savoia
49
, used freely and
adroitly. The princely mythology needed to be documented by means of
writing and whether these documents were false from the strictly scientif-
ic point of view had no bearing on their power to elicit belief
50
. It needed to
be visualized through the reconfiguration of urban, ecclesiastical and residen-
tial spaces and also through the great cycles of paintings that decorated the
interiors. In the planning of cities and buildings, major and minor princes
alike found an effective tool to construct identity in emulation of the figure of
the architect-prince who was legitimized by a classical tradition that had been
restored by the Renaissances rediscovery of Magnificence
51
. Perhaps the
aspect that has been most extensively documented by the research of the past
decades has to do with the models of the city- court, both in the case of micro-
courts
52
(Carpi Sabbioneta) and the larger Po courts such as Ferrara of the
123
49
On propaganda and historiography contemporary to the foundation of the Farnese
state cf Albano Biondis beautiful essay Limmagine dei primi Farnese (1545-1622) nella
storiografia e nella pubblicistica coeva, in Romani (ed.), Le corti farnesiane, cit., vol. I, pp.
189-229; on the Este chroniclers and historians cf. Folin, Rinascimento estense, pp. 3-49; on
the development of a court historiography in Turin, a genre in rapid expansion during the
seventeeth century in step with the the changing political situation cf. Merlin, Tra guerre e
tornei, cit., pp. 186 -204. Cf. also P. Cozzo, Fra militanza cattolica e propaganda dinastica.
La storiografia di Guglielmo Baldessano (1543-1611) nel Piemonte sabaudo, in M. Firpo
(ed.), Nunc alia tempora alii mores. Storici e storia in et postridentina, Rome 2005, pp.
397-414.
50
On this aspect a necessary reference is R. Bizzocchi, Genealogie incredibili. Scritti
di storia nellEuropa moderna, Bologna 1995.
51
For an overview with regard to the early modern age and on the importance of archi-
tectural theory for the model of the princely city cf, M. Fantoni, Il potere dello spazio.
Principi e citt nellItalia dei secoli XV- XVII, Rome 2002.
52
On Carpi and the model of the palatium again cf M. Fantoni, Un castello a forma
di citt. Architettura e potere dei Pio a Carpi, in Fregni (ed.), Archivi teritori e poteri, cit.,
Este, a city whose forma urbis
53
underwent complete renovation, or Mantua
under the Gonzaga where the diet convoked by Pius II in 1458 for a crusade
against the Turks can be seen as the symbolic inauguration date for a series of
urban and architectural initiatives planned by Alberti and Luca Fancelli
54
.
Research has drawn attention to the complex process of resignifying
republican spaces in Florence, which led to the construction of a new resi-
dence, the Palazzo Pitti
55
and several studies stressed the specific chronology
of the Savoy court. In Turin during a reign of Carlo Emanuele, projects were
launched to establish a real princely residence in the palace acquired from the
citys episcopal curia and to redefine the citys general profile
56
.
Through studies on the princes urban and architectural policy the com-
plex phenomenology of Italian courts has become clearer to us, as well as how
the courts evolved from Renaissance modules to those of the Baroque driven
by intrinsic changes. These were more than merely personal programmes for
the consolidation of power. What we have here is a strategy of state-building
that based itself on the court as a contact point, a strategy that relied on the co-
opting of local aristocracies into the city, on the circulation of intellectuals, on
the investment of resources.
At the end of the 1970s and during the 1980s it was common practice
among scholars to speak of a gap between the princes munificence, the
refined development of the spectacle of the court, the extraordinary knowl-
edge court intellectuals had of the great cultural traditions of the classical
world and of their own and the fragility of the courts political and adminis-
124
pp 407-424, on Sabbioneta, U. Bazzotti, D. Ferrari, C. Mozzarelli (eds.), Vespasiano
Gonzaga e il ducato di Sabbioneta, Mantua 1993
53
T. Thuony, Herculean Ferrara. Ercole dEste and the invention of a ducal capital,
Cambridge 1996; M. Folin, Un ampliamento urbano della prima et moderna: laddizione
erculea di Ferrara, in Id. (ed.), Sistole/Diastole Episodi di trasformazione urbana nellItalia
delle citt, Venice 2006, pp. 51-174.
54
P. Carpeggiani, Ludovico Gonzaga, larchitettura e il progetto di Renovatio urbis,
in C. Mozzarelli, R. Oresko, L. Ventura, La corte di Mantova nellet di A. Mantegna, 1450-
1550, Rome 1997, pp. 243-252, and A. M. Lorenzoni, Il Principe e larchitetto. Luca
Fancelli al servizio di Luovico II Gonzaga, ivi, pp. 235-242
55
S. Bertelli R. Pasta, Vivere a Pitti. Una reggia dai Medici ai Savoia, Florence 2003.
56
Merlin, Tra guerre e tornei, cit., pp. 36-52; G. Symcox. From comune to capital: the
transformation of Turin, sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, in R. Oresko, G. C. Gibbs, H. M.
Scott (eds.), Royal and Republican Sovereignty in Early Modern Europe. Essays in memory
of Ragnhild Hatton, Cambridge 1997, pp. 242-69; E. Catelnuovo et alii (eds.), La Reggia di
Venaria e i Savoia. Arte, magnificenza e storia di una corte europea, Turin- London- Venice-
New York 2008.
trative apparatus. For example, Cesare Vasoli observed how the princes
patronage, his munificence, wealth, pomp and the great spectacle of the court
were to a large extent the forms through which a power that was often weak
and precarious began to develop it own administrative frameworks
57
. This
idea was repeated for the Sforza court
58
and the Mantuan court
59
, but we
would do well to reconsider it, particularly in the light of the numerous stud-
ies that have looked at the ranks of personnel within both the state and the
court and at the real movement of courts and courtiers in space. In the struc-
ture of their respective Households the various Italian courts share the same
roles and functions that could be found in the households of the great monar-
chies
60
. And as in the case of the latter, the Italian courts did not gel into
immobile structures. Fantoni has shown how the Medici court responded to
the growth of the granducal familia and to a changing etiquette by evolving
and transforming instead of crystallizing
61
. The court also had to adapt to the
particular profile of the princes own blood kin who came with their own
entourages, palaces and residences. The demographics of the princely houses
had no small influence on what kind of situations they produced. In Turin the
junior branch of the Savoia, the Carignano, who became the main line in
1831, had their own court, their own palace in the centre of the city. In addi-
tion, numerous Savoia bastards were employed in the service of the court and
held diplomatic positions, a fact which helped to maintain equilibria in court
power network. The court of Savoia was a court in expansion also for demo-
graphic reasons and its ascent compensated for the disappearance of many
minor courts
62
.
125
57
C. Vasoli, La cultura delle corti, Florence 1980, p. 6.
58
G. Chittolini, Di alcuni aspetti della crisi dello stato sforzesco, in J. M. Chauchies
G. Chittolini (eds.), Milano e Borgogna. Due stati principeschi tra Medioevo e
Rinascimento, Rome 1990, pp. 21-34.
59
M. J. Rodrguez Salgado, Terracotta and Iron, Mantuan politics (c.a 1450 1550), in
Mozzarelli, Oresko, Ventura (eds.), La corte di Mantova, cit., pp. 15-59; D. Bodart, Tiziano
e Federico II Gonzaga. Storia di un rapporto di committenza, Rome 1998.
60
C. Mozzarelli (ed.),Familia del principe e famiglia aristocratica, Rome 1988; cf.
also now M. Folin, Roma e Urbino: due corti rinascimentali a confronto, in S. Luttazzo
G. Pedull (eds.), Atlante della letteratura italiana, vol. I, edited by A. De Vincentiis, Dalle
origini al Rinascimento, Turin 2010, pp. 57-63.
61
Fantoni, La Corte del Granduca, cit., pp. 23-44,
62
A. Merlotti, I Savoia: una dinastia europea in Italia, in Barberis (ed.), I Savoia, cit.,
pp. 86-132; P. Bianchi, La corte dei Savoia: disciplinamento del servizio e delle fedelt, ivi,
pp. 135-174.
3. The interest in the world of small or regional states that is such a dis-
tinct characteristic of the historiography of early modern Italy
63
is one reason
why the papal court and the court of Naples have received rather less atten-
tion. Of the limited work that has been done on the Aragonese court, up to the
recent studies by Giuliana Vitale and Francesco Senatore
64
, nearly all has been
produced by English speaking historians such as George Hersey
65
, Alan
Ryder
66
and Jerry Bentley
67
, the exception being a group of scholars of
humanistic literature working around Francesco Tateo who have made exten-
sive forays into that world of letterati, Neapolitan humanists, great courtiers
and advisers to the Prince, one of the most notable being Pontano
68
. This lack
of interest, which is also the result of particular trends in the historiography of
southern Italy has meant that a gap still remains to be filled, and we can now
point to a flurry of recent work that has been done to this very end particu-
larly to the research on the viceregal courts during the Spanish period, an
object of renewed interest in the context intense exchange between Italian and
Spanish scholars
69
.
126
63
The topic of small states has been a central theme in recent Italian historiography. I
mention only M. Bazzoli, Il piccolo stato nellet moderna. Studi su un concetto della polit-
ica internazionale tra XVI e XVII secolo, Milan 1990; L. Barletta, F. Cardini, G. Galasso
(eds.), Il piccolo Stato. Politica storia diplomazia, San Marino 2003. I. Lazzarini, LItalia
degli stati territoriali Secoli XIII-XV, Rome-Bari 2003; G. Chittolini, Ascesa e declino di
piccoli stati signorili (Italia centro-settentrionale, met Trecentoinizi Cinquecento). Alcune
note, Societ e storia,121 (2008), pp. 473-498; B. A. Raviola, LEuropa dei piccoli stati.
Dalla prima et moderna al declino dellAntico Regime, Rome 2008, which also contains a
thoughtful, accurate and up-to-date bibliography on the topic.
64
G. Vitale, Simbologia del potere e politica nella Napoli aragonese, Studi Storici,
44 (2003), pp. 111-151; Id., lite burocratica e famiglia. Dinamiche nobiliari e processi di
costruzione statale nella Napoli angioino-aragonese, Naples 2003; Id., Ritualit monarchi-
ca, cerimonie e pratiche devozionali nella Napoli aragonese, Salerno 2006; F. Senatore,
Cerimonie regie e cerimonie civiche a Capua, in G. Petti Balbi G. Vitolo (eds.), Linguaggi
e pratiche del potere. Genova e il Regno di Napoli tra Medioevo ed Et Moderna, Salerno
2007, pp. 151-205.
65
G. Hersey, Alfonso II and the artistic renewal of Naples 1485-95, New Haven 1969.
66
A. Ryder, The Kingdom of Naples under Alfonso the Magnanimous, Clarendon,
Oxford 1976
67
J. Bentley, Politics and Culture in Renaissance Naples, Princeton 1987.
68
F. Tateo, Introduzione, G. Pontano, I libri delle virt sociali, edited by Id., Rome
1999, pp. 9-38.
69
For Naples of the beginning of the sixteenth century on the viceregal courts as a neg-
lected study topic at the end of the nineteen eighties had attracted the attention, A.
Spagnoletti, La nobilt napoletana del 500: tra corte e corti, in Mozzarelli, (ed.),
Familia del principe, cit., vol.II, pp. 375 -390; on Naples in the sixteenth century cf C. J.
Asomewhat different situation exists with regard to the papal court. In an
article published in Studi Romani back in 1979, Amedeo Quondam launched
a open call
70
for more research to be devoted to the court of Rome, which, as
a study topic, had languished under nineteenth century antipapal prejudice,
and even before that as a result of an internal operation within the Church that
substituted the worldly term of court for curia, making the use of the latter
mandatory. To be sure, if we look through the titles published by Europa
delle Corti we find a number of excellent edited works and discussions of
sources: Fabrizio Crucianis extensive and thoughtful collection of documents
on festivals, ceremonies and theatrical occasions from Pius II to Paul III
71
; the
re-edition of Il ruolo della corte di Leone X
72
with a long preface by Vincenzo
di Caprio, an important document on the court viewed as the popes familia
and which contains specific profiles of individual domestic prelates; Cesare
Mozzarellis edition of a forgotten work of the sixteenth century, Giovanni
Francesco Commendones Discorso (1554)
73
. Yet we have to wait until the
1990s before Rome came generally to be regarded as a great laboratory for
the study of courts, also the result of a close relationship between German and
Italian historians. The papal court which had already assumed its modern
127
Hernando Snchez, Castilla y Npoles en el siglo XVI. El virrey Pedro de Toledo: linaje,
estado y cultura (1532-1553), Salamanca 1994; in particular on the urban planning reforms
of the viceroy Toledo: Id., Corte y ciudad en Npoles durante el siglo XVI: la construccin
de una capital virreinal, in F. Cant (ed.), Las cortes virreinales de la Monarqua espaola:
Amrica e Italia, Rome 2008, pp. 337-423; on courtly discourse and literature, T. R.
Toscano, Letterati corti e accademie. La letteratura a Napoli nella prima met del
Cinquecento, aples 2000; G. Muto, Linguaggio e categorie della letteratura cortigiana a
Napoli nella prima et moderna, in Cant (ed.), Las cortes virreinales, cit., pp. 511-537; for
the seventeenth century, G. Sabatini, Las cuentas del virrey: los gastos de la corte virreinal
de Npoles a finales del siglo XVII, ivi, pp. 313-334; on ceremonial, M. Rivero Rodrguez,
La alteracin del ritual como alteracin del orden poltico: virreyes frente a inquisidores en
Sicilia (1577-1596), ivi, pp. 207-231; F. Benigno, La corte disputata. Il cerimoniale vicere-
gio in Sicilia, ivi, pp. 233-245; G. Muto, Apparati e cerimoniali di corte nella Napoli spag-
nola, in F. Cant (ed.), I linguaggi del potere nellet barocca, vol. I, Politica e religione,
Rome 2009, pp. 113-149. J. Marino
70
A. Quondam, Unassenza, un progetto: Per una ricerca sulla storia di Roma tra
1456 e 1527, Studi romani, XXVII /2 (1979), pp. Cf also P. Hurtubise, Jalons pour une
histoire de la Cour de Rome aux XVe et XVIe sicles, Roma nel Rinascimento, . (1992),
pp. 123-134.
71
F. Cruciani, Teatro nel Rinascimento. Roma 1450 -1550, Rome 1983.
72
A. Ferrajoli, Il Ruolo della corte di Leone X, edited by V. de Caprio, Rome 1984.
73
G. F. Commendone, Discorso sopra la Corte di Roma, edited by C. Mozzarelli,
Rome 1996.
physiognomy during the Avignon period
74
, once it was back in Rome, estab-
lished itself as a place and occasion where every segment of Italian society
could represent itself, and this was especially true for the emerging classes
75
.
But Rome was also strategic centre of European politics, a hub where informa-
tion was processed and disseminated
76
and where ceremonial rules were creat-
ed and formalized
77
. Studies on the cardinalate
78
, on the families of cardinals
79
,
on questions related to the distribution of benefices, pensions, taxation
80
, on
128
74
B. Guillemain, La cour pontifical dAvignon (1309-1376. tude dune socit, Paris
1966; M. A. Visceglia, Denominare e classificare. Familia e familiari del papa nella
lunga durata dellet moderna, in A. Jamme O. Poncet (under the direction of), Offices et
papaut (XVe-XVIIe sicle), Rome 2005, pp. 159-195.
75
R. Bizzocchi, Chiesa e potere nella Toscana del Quattrocento, Bologna 1987; G.
Chittolini G. Miccoli (eds.), La Chiesa e il potere politico dal Medioevo allet contem-
poranea, in Storia dItalia, Annali 9, Turin 1988; P. Partner, The Popes Men The Papal Civil
Service in the Renaissance, Oxford 1990; M. Pellegrini, Per una lettura storico-sociale della
Curia romana. Corte di Roma e aristocrazie italiane in et moderna, Rivista di storia e let-
teratura religiosa, XXX (1994), pp. 443-602; Id., Il papato nel Rinascimento, Bologna
2010.
76
G. Signorotto M. A. Visceglia (eds.), Court and Politics in Papal Rome 1492-1700,
Cambridge 2002, Italian edition with some variations, La corte di Roma tra Cinque e
Seicento Teatro della politica europea, Rome 1998.
77
M. A. Visceglia C. Brice (eds.), Crmonial et rituel Rome (XVIe-XIXe sicle),
Rome 1997; M. A. Visceglia, La citt rituale. Roma e le sue cerimonie in et moderna,
Rome, 2002.
78
B. Mc Clung Hallman, Italian cardinals Reform and the Church as Property (1492-
1563), Berkeley-Los Angeles-London, 1985; M. Firpo, Il cardinale, in E. Garin (ed.),
Luomo del Rinascimento, Bari 1988, pp. 75-131; M. Rosa, Nobilt e carriera nelle mem-
orie di due cardinali della Controriforma: Scipione Gonzaga e Guido Bentivoglio, in M.
A. Visceglia (ed.), Signori, patrizi cavalieri nellet moderna, Rome-Bari 1992, pp. 231-
264; M. A.Visceglia, La Giusta Statera de porporati. Sulla composizione e rappresen-
tazione del Sacro Collegio nella prima met del Seicento, Roma moderna e contempo-
ranea, 4 (1996), pp. 167-212; I. Fosi, Allombra dei Barberini. Fedelt e servizio nella
Roma barocca, Rome 1997.
79
G. Fragnito, Parenti e familiari nelle corti cardinalizie del Rinascimento, in
Mozzarelli (ed.), Familia del principe, cit., pp. 589-609; Id., Cardinals Courts in
Sixteenth-Century Rome, Journal of Modern History, 65 (1993), pp. 26-56; Id., Le corti
cardinalizie nella Roma del Cinquecento, Rivista storica italiana, CVI, 1 (1994), pp. 5-41.
M. Vlkel, Kardinalshaushalte des 17. Jahrhunderts. Borghese-Barberini-Chigi, Tbingen
1993.
80
M. Rosa, Curia romana e pensioni ecclesiastiche: fiscalit pontificia nel
Mezzogiorno (secoli XVI-XVIII), Quaderni Storici, 42, XIV/III (1979), pp. 1015-48; Id.,
Lascarsella di Nostro Signore: aspetti della fiscalit spirituale nellet moderna, Societ
e Storia, X, 38 (1987), pp. 818-845; A. Prosperi, Dominus beneficiorum: il conferimen-
to dei benefici ecclesiastici tra prassi curiale e ragioni politice negli stati italiani tra 400 e
nepotism as a system of papal government
81
have alternated with studies on
European diplomacy in Rome and on the project of urban renewal that was
sponsored not only by the papacy but also by aristocratic patrons and foreign
diplomats to build a Christian/Catholic European capital. How papal art
patronage evolved in relation to the religious vicissitudes of the Roman
Church is another question taken up by studies combing the perspectives of
both history and art history, though generally these studies have tended to
dwell on the period following the sack of Rome and thus they have assumed
the existence of Reformation/Counter-reformation dichotomy and too drastic
a separation from the period that came before the sack
82
.
4. In conclusion, the research currently being done on the courts contin-
ues to be rich and innovative. Although this topic was initially viewed with a
degree of skepticism it is now a respected and necessary field in the history of
early modern Italy. But what questions are scholars interested in today?
Without claiming to provide an exhaustive survey, we might say that recent
interest in the symbolism of power that marks contemporary historiography
has breathed new life into the theme of religio principis. Indeed, the question
appeared in the Italian historiography of the courts from the earliest days
83
,
129
500, in P. Prodi P. Johanek, Strutture ecclesiastiche in Italia e Germania prima della
Riforma, Annali dellIstituto storico italo-germanico, 16 (1984), pp. 51-86; M. Giannini,
Tra politica, fiscalit e religione: Filippo II di Spagna e la pubblicazione della bolla In
Coena Domini (1567-1570), Annali dellIstituto storico italo-germanico in Trento, XXIII
(1997), pp. 83 -152.
81
I limit myself to mentioning only a few essential studies and refer the reader to the
bibliographies in them: W. Reinhard, Papstfinanz und Nepotismus unter Paul V (1605-
1621), Studien und Quellen zur Struktur und zu quantitativen Aspeketen des pstlichen
Herrschaftssystems, Stuttgart 1974; Id., Freunde und Kreaturen. Verflechtung als Konzept
zur Erforschung historicher Fhrungsgruppen. Rmische Oligarchie um 1600, Munich
1979; R. Ago, Carriere e clientele nella Roma barocca, Bari 1990; A. M. Ippolito, Il tra-
monto della curia nepotista. Papi, nipoti e burocrazia curiale tra XVI e XVII secolo, Rome
1999; S. Carocci, Il nepotismo nel medioevo. Papi, cardinali e famiglie nobili, Rome, 2001.
82
G. Labrot, Limage de Rome Une arme pour la Contre-Rforme 1534-1677, forward
by L. Marin, Syessel, Champ Vallon 1987; A. Esch C. L. Frommel (eds.), Arte, commit-
tenza ed economia a Roma e nelle corti del Rinascimento, Turin 1995; S. Ostrow, Art and
Spirituality in Counter-Reformation Rome: the Sixtine and Pauline Chapels in S. Maria
Maggiore, Cambridge 1996; M. Firpo F. Biferali,Navicula Petri. Larte dei papi nel
Cinquecento 1527 -1571, Rome-Bari 2009.
83
A. Prosperi, Dallinvestitura papale alla santificazione del potere. Appunti per una
ricerca sui primi Farnese e le istituzioni ecclesiastiche a Parma, in Romani (ed.), Le corti
but it was never treated as a topic of central importance at a time when (as we
have attempted to show) most studies focused on the textual tradition, on the
relationship between court and state, on the princely projects of urban con-
struction and on the theatralization of space. The theme of religio principis is
an ambiguous one, bearing two connotations: on the one hand, it refers to the
prince in the neo-platonic sense as possessor of an innate wisdom, a charisma
that confers on him a sacred authority and produces harmony around him. The
rites, the court ceremonials, the iconography must develop and represent the
superhuman figure of the prince
84
. On the other, the religio principis also
refers to princes role in relation to the urban ecclesiastical institutions and to
cult and cult objects. In this latter regard, a number of studies drawing on
extensive archival research have clearly shown how religion was a constant
interest for the political authorities because of the ideological benefits associ-
ated with the image of the pious and holy prince, but also because of the eco-
nomic and social value to be had by controlling the institutional structures of
the church
85
. Naturally, this relationship prince-courtly world-ecclesiastical
institution varied with the size of the State, the origins of the princes sover-
eignty and the particular moment in time in the states religious history
86
.
While in Florence the Medici for dynastic purposes appropriated the
citys sacred symbols and cults of the SS. Annunziata, whose miraculous
painting was housed in the church of the Servite order and around which a
veritable courtly and dynastic ritual evolved
87
, the situation in Piedmont was
entirely different. Paolo Cozzos recent book
88
has shown how the decision to
relocate the court to Turin was accompanied by a strategy to control and hier-
130
farnesiane, cit., pp. 161-188; Id, Lo spazio della Chiesa tridentina. Qualche domanda, in
Papagno Quondam (eds.), La corte e lo spazio, cit., pp. 83-91.
84
M. A. Visceglia, Cerimoniali di stato, in
85
G. Zarri, Le istituzioni ecclesiastiche nel Ducato di Urbino nellet di Federico da
Montefeltro, in Cerboni Baiardi, Chittolini, Floriani (eds.), Federico di Montefeltro, cit., vol.
I, pp. 121-175; I quote from p. 123
86
As an example of the range of distinct situations according to the size of the state and
type of sovereignty cf in addition to the essay cited above by Gabriella Zarri on Urbino, F.
Rurale, Chiesa e corte, in Mozzarelli, Oresko, Ventura (eds.), La Corte di Mantova, cit., pp.
105-124, on the other hand, a picture of the relationship Court of Madrid ecclesiastical
institutions in the second of two volumes devoted to Politica ecclesiastica e chiesa lombar-
da by P. Pissavino G. Signorotto, Lombardia borromaica Lombardia Spagnola 1554-1659,
Rome 1995.
87
Fantoni, La Corte del Granduca, cit., pp. 171-199.
88
P. Cozzo, La geografia celeste dei duchi di Savoia Religione, devozione sacralit in
uno Stato di et moderna, Bologna 2006.
archize the towns devotional centres: the Sanctuary of the Consolata, the
church of St. Lawrence (a Spanish martyr to whom Emanuele Filiberto was
particularly devoted) and the Shroud. This prestigious dynastic relic, housed
since 1453 in the Saint Chapelle in Chambery was brought by sacred pil-
grimage to Turin on September 15, 1578. This transfer is indicative of pre-
cisely the opposite process that had occurred in Medici Florence, since in the
Sabaudian state it was the new capital that ingested and absorbed the
dynastys sacred symbols. The case of Mantua is different again: Leon
Battista Albertis renovation of the Church of SantAndrea, a former
Benedictine monastery converted after long opposition into a collegiate
church under the patronage of the Gonzaga (1472), meant that the dynasty
was re-appropriating the relic of the Most Precious Blood of Christ which was
housed in the basilica of SantAndrea. The cult of the blood of Christ had a
royal connotation, but at the same time one that was popular and redemptive
for the entire community whose local liberties and prerogatives it sacralized
89
.
Afew years before Ludovico (1444-1468), a great patron of the cult, had com-
missioned a series of frescos to Pisanello for the Palazzo Gonzaga in Mantua
that were intended to represent the Arthurian cycle and the quest for the Holy
Grail and which allude to identifications between Mantua/Camelot,
Tristan/Gianfranco Gonzaga, the Holy Grail/the blood of Christ. The founda-
tion in 1608 by Vincenzo Gonzaga of the Knight Order of the Most Precious
Blood shows the persistence over time of this dynastic devotion which proved
to be an effective instrument in rallying local elites around the prince.
While from the beginning Italian historiography detected a change in the
tone and language of the treatises that were produced under the influence of
Christian neo-stoicism during the so-called the Counter-Reformation, this
trend began to be treated as a historical process by important studies on the
people who were entrusted with directing the princes religious life: from the
living saints the princes pious counselors in the Po courts to the confessors,
mostly Jesuits, players not only concerned with controlling consciences but
also with diplomacy and politics
90
.
131
89
R. Capuzzo, Sanguinis Domini Mantuae. Le inventiones del prezioso Sangue di
Cristo nella costruzione dellimperium Christianum e dellidentit civica a Mantova,
Florence 2009, pp. 101-109.
90
On women mystics as objects of popular devotion and sources of inspiration in
princely courts cf the pioneering study by G. Zarri, Le sante vive Profezie di corte e
devozione femminile tra 400 e 500, Turin 1990, on confessors and theological counsellors:
cf. F. Rurale (ed.), I religiosi a Corte. Teologia, politica e diplomazia in Antico regime,
Rome 1998; P. Broggio, La teologia e la politica. Controversie dottrinali, Curia romana e
Monarchia spagnola tra Cinque e Seicento, Florence 2009.
Our horizons have also been broadened by new approaches to the rela-
tionship between the court and the economy. Study of the art market, drawing
on various disciplines, has enabled us to reformulate the classic questions of
economic history with regard to prices, demand and consumption, as well as
to consider the production of objects from the standpoint of their material and
symbolic value, social conditioning, evolving tastes, the role of numerous
social players who animated the market such as commissioning patrons, inter-
mediaries (bankers, diplomats), artists and second hand dealers.
91
. Guido
Guerzoni has recently looked at the careers and technical skills of various
craftsmen at the Este court and has shown how demand from the courts pro-
duced beneficial effects on the citys entire system of labour and production
through the spread of refined and innovative products, processes, knowledge,
techniques and technologies which the Este always supported with consider-
able investments
92
, not to mention knock-on effects from building policies
and the festival economy. This new attention to daily life, to the court econo-
my with regard to the division of labour, to the history of techniques and
know-how has gone hand in hand with renewed interest in an already existing
field of research that of science in the court, we have known for some time,
extended well beyond the passion for astrology, natural history and natural
museums
93
, the wunderkammer, but also included the organisation of a court
medicine with its precise figures: proto-physicians, surgeons, pharmacists
who had the delicate and dangerous task of watching over the princes health,
over his health regime and of determining the cause of his death by exam-
ining his corpse
94
.
The image of the Italian courts that the most recent studies give us is the
very opposite of the stereotypically self-enclosed place where plots were
hatched within a rigid political structure: whether they look at the role of court
132
91
Cf. M. Fantoni L. C. Matthew S.F. Matthew-Grieco (eds.), The Art Market in
Italy 15th -17th Centuries / Il Mercato dellarte in Italia secc. XV-XVII, Modena 2003.
92
G. Guerzoni, Apollo e Vulcano. I mercati artistici in Italia (1400-1700), Venice 2006,
p. 158, which also deals with the historiographic debates on the topic.
93
Cf. for example La scienza a corte Collezionismo eclettico natura e immagine a
Mantova fra Rinascimento e Manierismo, Rome 1979 and more recently A. Conte L.
Giacardi, Scienza, tecnologia e politica, in Barberis, I Savoia, cit., pp. 177-205.
94
I limit myself to mentioning only the studies on court medicine; with regard to papal
Rome the fundamental work is: A. Paravicini Bagliani, Medicina e scienze della natura alla
corte dei papi nel Duecento, Spoleto 1991; cf. R. Palmer, Medicine at the Papal Court in the
Sixteenth Century, in V. Nutton (ed.), Medicine at the Courts of Europe, 1500-1837, London
1990, pp. 49-79; M. P. Donato, Morti improvvise. Medicina e religione nel Settecento, Rome
2010; E. ANDRETTA
confessors, artists or scientists, the studies draw a picture of networks where
men, objects, knowledge and techniques circulated.
New interest the role of women in princely dynasties has greatly con-
tributed to promoting this line of research. An important example is the proj-
ect studying the woman of the Medici in the European system, originally con-
ceived by Alessandra Contini and Riccardo Spinelli and later completed by
Giulia Calvi after Prof. Continis premature death. By looking at the real sto-
ries of the women who were given away and received by the Medici, the study
shows how these women introduced different manners, ceremonial codes,
objects and practices into the courts, and thus performed a great operation of
cultural transfert
95
. The history of the courts from the perspective of gender is
definitely an area that needs further exploration, but it shows that an impor-
tant change has taken place in recent decades in the political and diplomatic
historiography of the courts, which is increasingly concerned not only with
Italy but with the rest of Europe as well
96
. While current Italian historiogra-
phy has put behind it the fundamentally dualistic perspective court/state,
church/court, modernity/backwardness that characterised the research we
mentioned at the beginning of this survey, the time is ripe to undertake a com-
parative study of the history of the courts, a task which was originally includ-
ed also by the Italian project and which remains to be completed.
133
95
G. Calvi R. Spinelli (eds.), Le donne Medici nel sistema europeo delle corti, XVI-
XVIII secolo XVI-XVIII secolo, Florence 2008; M. A. Visceglia, Riti di corte e simboli della
regalit. I Regni dEuropa e del Mediterraneo dal Medioevo allet moderna, Rome 2009
96
Cf. for example see the introduction by G. Signorotto to the volume he edited,
Ferrante Gonzaga. Il Mediterraneo, lImpero (1507.-1557), Rome 2009, pp. 11-35. Cf
also M. Fantoni, G. Gorse, M. Smuts (eds.), The Politics of Space: European Courts ca.
1500-1750, Rome 2009 and M. A. Visceglia, Roma papale e Spagna. Diplomatici, politici e
religiosi tra due corti, Rome 2010.
Manuel Rivero Rodrguez
COURT STUDIES IN THE SPANISH WORLD
Court studies in Spain concerns not only the court, as it is known in other
European states and countries. In early modern times, in addition to the court in
Madrid where the king lived, there was a number of vice regal courts in Europe
andAmerica. So, court studies in Spain are not properly only a matter for Spanish
historiography, but must include Latin American and European scholars from
Italy, Portugal or the Netherlands. Moreover, the court was discovered by Spanish
historians through work by Latin Americans. Guillermo Hirata in Fondo de
Cultura Econmica in 1982 translated Norbert Eliass Court Society, into Spanish
in Mexico. The first analysis in Spanish of the political significance of the court
came through a description of vice regal power by Octavio Paz a fewmonths later.
Paz, in his research about the baroque poetry of a Mexican nun, Sor Juana Ins de
la Cruz, first applied Eliass methodology to a Spanish speaking society. Although
he was not a historian, as a notorious and brilliant literary scholar and poet, he
explored in Sor Juana Ins de la Cruz o Las trampas de la Fe (Mexico, November
1982) the courtly world of early modern Mexico. He described Mexican culture
and baroque society within the parameters defined by the Court Society. He also
sponsored the translation and publication of Eliass capital essay. The discovery
of Elias by Spanish language scholarship therefore began in a Mexican debate
about the colonial period. This episode can be a metaphor for court historiography
in Spain: it travelled from literary studies to historical scholarship and from the
overseas periphery of the Spanish world to Spain.
I shall describe in this paper three problems concerning court studies in
Spain: the loss of memory of the court, the emerging historiography concern-
ing the court and the characteristics of the court in early modern Spain or,
properly, in the Spanish monarchy.
135
An absence: the memory of the court in Spain
Madrid is now called the capital. Not so far in the past, before 1930,
people referred to it as the court. Intellectuals, writers and politicians
described this change from court to capital as a consequence of modernisa-
tion. The abolition of the monarchy in 1931 marked the end of the last sur-
viving elements of the Old Regime. It also meant the end of the court. In 1978,
King Juan Carlos I did not want to restore the court when he restored the
monarchy; nobody remembered its meaning or believed in its necessity
1
.
Forgetting took place simultaneously with this disappearance. Some writ-
ers, like Josep Pla or Francisco Ayala, wrote in their journals or notebooks or
recalled in their memoirs that the court had no meaning in 1931
2
. Madrid was
the court, but what did that signify? They had no answer. Francisco Ayala
wrote:
Por aquel entonces (1920) a Madrid se la sola llamar La Corte; y ante los ojos
de los provincianos disfrutaba del prestigio de serlo. Prestigioso quiere decir
falso brillo o por lo menos un brillo con sospechas de falso era un desengao de
Corte? Mereca el menosprecio para contraste con la alabanza de retirada y pl-
cida aldea? Son viejos tpicos de larga tradicin literaria.
According to Ayala, Europeanization destroyed Madrid as court, equating
it to the cosmopolitan Barcelona
3
.
During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) another writer, Agustn de
Fox, in his novel Madrid de Corte a checa portrays the end of the court as
the end of the humanistic tradition and the beginning of an inhuman political
choice between a Communist State and a Fascist State. The end of the court
tradition signalled the arrival of totalitarianism and the Leviathan
4
.
Paradoxically, Spanish historiography did not address these issues posed
by writers and intellectuals. It was most interested in other problems, for
instance, researching the reasons for the rise and fall of Spain, the reluctance
of Spaniards to embrace modernisation, our glory in the Golden Century, our
136
1
P. Preston, Juan Carlos: A Peoples King, London 2004.
2
J. Pla, Madrid, el advenimiento de la repblica, Madrid 1986.
3
By then, in 1920, Madrid was customarily called the Court; and in the eyes of the
provincials enjoyed the prestige of being such. Prestige meant a false brilliance or at least a
suspect brilliance. Was the court a disappointment? Did it deserve contempt for its contrast
with the often praised virtues of retirement and village tranquillity? These are old common-
places of a long literary tradition; F. Ayala, De mis pasos en la tierra, Madrid 2005, p. 115.
4
A. Fox, Madrid, de corte a checa, Madrid 1962.
handicaps as a nation and community and our economic and cultural back-
wardness
5
.
In Spain, Republican experience and the Franco dictatorship changed the
traditional concept of political power, family, culture and social relations
6
.
Tradition was broken in all senses. In the middle of the twentieth century,
Spanish historians tried to justify the new times by looking to the past for the
elements that generated the modern state and nation, forgetting the meaning
of the court. It was a historical amnesia (as described by Carolyn Boyd)
7
.
Modernisation was seen as a process from past to present that stopped in the
nineteenth century because of the civil wars, the failure of the Liberal
Revolution, political corruption and economic underdevelopment. The court
was seen as something that should be forgotten, as an anachronistic survival.
And it was ignored perhaps, as Gerald Brenan recalls in the prologue to his
Spanish Labyrinth, because Spain had no history except court history. In the
words of Karl Marx, there is perhaps no country except Turkey so little
known and so falsely judged by Europe as Spain because historians instead
of viewing the strength and resources of these peoples in their provincial and
local organization have drawn at the source of their court histories
8
.
Marx was not a great expert on Spain, but when he had to write a history
about the Spanish Revolution of 1868 he thought that all the available informa-
tion consisted of stories and courtiers gossip. All Spanish history seemed
reduced to society news and events in the palace; nothing was known about the
people, the economy and the social structure. It seemed comparable to a histo-
ry of the Ottoman Empire, explained through the Sultans court and harem
revolts. In part I agree with his point of view. Spanish historians from the sec-
ond half of nineteenth to the first half of the twentieth century were court his-
torians. In Spain positivism, historicism, the Whig school were barely known
9
.
Spain was isolated from European intellectual developments
10
. Academic his-
Court Studies in the Spanish World
137
5
J. Vicens Vives, Desarrollo de la historiografa espaola entre 1939 y 1949, in Obra
dispersa, Barcelona 1976, p. 17-34; C. P. Boyd, Historia Patria, history and national iden-
tity in Spain, 1875-1975, Princeton 1997, pp. 302-308.
6
Boyd, Historia Patria,cit., pp. 194-272.
7
Ibid., pp. 273-300.
8
Preface to the first edition (1931), in G. Brenan, The Spanish labyrinth: an account
of the social and political background of the Civil War, Cambridge 1990, p. xv.
9
I. Peir Martn, La historiografa espaola del siglo XX: aspectos institucionales y
polticos de un proceso histrico, in A. Morales Moya (ed.), Las claves de la Espaa del
siglo XX. La cultura, Madrid 2001, pp. 45-73.
10
M. Marn Gelabert, Historiadores locales e historiadores universitarios. La histori-
ografa espaola en su contexto internacional, in C. Forcadell I. Peir (eds.), Lecturas de la
Historia. Nueve reflexiones sobre la historia de la historiografa, Zaragoza 2001, pp. 151-165.
tory was weak; most of the historians were amateurs: politicians, lawyers,
doctors in medicine, etc. For example, Cnovas del Castillo, prime minister
and deputy, leader of the Conservative party, wrote a history of Spain under
the Habsburg dynasty as a parallel to his own time. King Phillip IV and the
regency of Mariana de Austria were portrayed as mirrors of King Fernando
VII and Isabel II. He portrayed the reign of Philip IV and the regency of
Mariana de Austria as reflecting events under King Fernando VII and Isabel
II. This is a pre-modern history, in the classical tradition: historia magister
vitae
11
. For some time, academic history continued in the same path. Court
politics provided moral lessons about power and human behaviour. The best
known of these historians, Jos Deleito y Piuela, professor (catedrtico) at
Valencia University, wanted to show the moral weakness of the monarchy by
researching corruption in the Spanish court of the seventeenth century. His
books have to be read as polemics
12
. Behind his portrait of Philip IV is
Alfonso XIII, the king deposed in 1931. In similar terms we can read the
Conde duque de Olivares biography written by Gregorio Maran, as a par-
allel story of Olivares and Phillip IV with Primo de Rivera and Alfonso XIII
or Benito Mussolini and Vittorio Emanuele III: the story of a strong prime
minister (and dictator) serving a weak king. Paradoxically these books lie at
the origin of our contemporary knowledge about the valido institution.
Maran focused his narrative not on research into the past but knowledge of
the leader, the dictator, the driver of crowds (el caudillo, el dictador, el con-
ductor de muchedumbres) as general types
13
.
The courtly story, discredited and rejected, was replaced in the second
half of the twentieth century by a positivist political history or by a new eco-
nomic and social history
14
.
The beginning of a new court historiography
In Europe, the study of the court has been renewed and consolidated from
three major directions: the sociological investigations opened by Norbert
138
11
A. Cnovas del Castillo, Roma y Espaa a mediados del siglo XVI, Revista de
Espaa, 2 (1868), pp. 5-47 y 416-471 y 3, pp. 169-239, and his most notorious essay
Bosquejo historico del la Casa de Austria en Espaa, Madrid 1911.
12
J. Deleito y Piuela, Solo Madrid es Corte. La capital de dos mundos bajo Felipe IV,
Madrid 1968.
13
G. Maran, El conde-duque de Olivares (La pasin de mandar), Madrid 1952, pp. 3-6.
14
A. Dominguez Ortiz, Madrid de villa a corte, in A. Eiras Roel (ed.), Historia y doc-
umentacin notarial, el Madrid del Siglo de Oro, Madrid 1992, p. 263-279.
Elias; studies of court politics, mainly developed by British historiography;
and cultural perspectives, primarily developed in France and Italy
15
. These
lines of enquiry were born of different experiences and academic traditions
expressed by my colleagues in this meeting, but the Spanish experience is not
congruent with any of them. Although the influence of these schools and
methodologies was important, the studies of the court in Spain arose from a
different experience.
Mid-twentieth-century Spanish historians were very interested in study-
ing institutions. Among them we can mention Juan Beneyto, Jose Antonio
Maravall, Benjamn Gonzlez Alonso, Jose Antonio Escudero and Francisco
Toms y Valiente. They wanted to explain the origin and development of the
Spanish state by reconstructing the history of the Spanish administration, pro-
jecting backwards the structures of a liberal-bourgeois political system
16
. As
an object of study, the modern state was shown as the antecedent of the con-
temporary state. These historians studied parliaments, institutions, military
forces, and taxation as instruments of a state born in the fifteenth century (or
before) but still living today
17
.
The dominant historical schools, Marxism, the Annales and positivism,
studied history from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century as a period of tran-
sition from the medieval age to the contemporary age. In parallel, institution-
al history confirmed that this transition was the moment of emergence, devel-
opment and completion of the Spanish state. Although they used slightly dif-
ferent terms, speaking of the modern, absolutist or dynastic state they studied
the same object. Their research followed the classical description of
Montesquieus three branches: executive, legislative and judicial. The state
139
15
P. Merlin, Il tema della Corte nella storiografia italiana ed europea, Studi Storici,
27, 1 (1986), pp. 203-244; T. Dean, Le corti. Un problema storiografico, in A. Molho, G.
Chittolini, P. Schiera (eds.), Origini dello Stato, Bologna 1994, pp. 425-447; M. Fantoni,
Corte e Stato nellItalia dei secoli XIV-XV, ivi, pp. 449-466.
16
J. Beneyto, Historia de la Administracin espaola e hispanoamericana, Madrid
1956; J. A. Maravall, Estado Moderno y mentalidad social, Revista de Occidente, Madrid
1972, 2 vols.; F. Toms y Valiente, Gobierno e instituciones en la Espaa del Antiguo
Rgimen, Madrid 1982; B. Gonzlez Alonso, Sobre el Estado y la Administracin de la coro-
na de Castilla en el Antiguo Rgimen, Madrid 1981; J. A. Escudero, Los Secretarios de
Estado y del Despacho, Madrid 1976, 4 vols.
17
I. Peir Martn, Aspectos de la historiografa universitaria espaola en la primera
mitad del siglo XX, in E. Sarasa E. Serrano (eds.), Historiadores de la Espaa medieval y
moderna, Zaragoza 2000, pp. 10-11; A. Domnguez Ortiz, Etapas de la formacin del
Estado espaol, Chronica nova: Revista de historia moderna de la Universidad de
Granada, 26 (1999), pp. 111-127.
would be found more or less developed in accordance with its greater close-
ness or distance to the ideal model of the three powers
18
.
This approach transcended the Spanish academis world to affect his-
panists abroad. John Elliott described and assumed this point of view in few
words, when he explained that queen Isabella I and King Ferdinand V found-
ed a unitary state in the only sense in which that was possible in the circum-
stances of the late fifteenth century
19
. In the 1980s, some historians, like
Bartolom Clavero and Pablo Fernndez Albaladejo voiced strong criticism of
this model, although the alternative they proposed was to reduce everything
to a single power, the judiciary. They argued that the Spanish monarchy was
not a state but a judicial apparatus, a Polysynody
20
. But (as Antonio Manuel
Hespanha pointed out) such approaches ignored an institution that was funda-
mental for monarchy and government: the court. The government was articu-
lated mainly through informal channels born at court
21
.
Then, in the 1980s, Pere Molas, Professor at the University of Barcelona,
began studying the social history of the administration
22
. He developed the
study of professional groups, making an important prosopographical recon-
struction of early modern bureaucracy, comprising officers, ministers, judges,
lawyers, etc., but his findings were ignored by the institutional school. On the
other hand, Molass practice was unusual within Spanish social history, only
interested in the knowledge of lower classes. Prosopographic studies from
Molas and his school were isolated, but a new generation of historians attend-
ed to some of his work
23
.
140
18
J. Martnez Milln, La historiografa sobre el siglo XVI espaol, in J. A. Munita
Loinaz, J. R. Daz de Durana Ortiz de Urbina (eds.), XXV aos de historiografa hispana
(1980-2004): HISTORIA Medieval, Moderna y de Amrica, ........ 2007, pp. 89-135; B.
Clavero, Cosas del dominio, Anuario de Historia del Derecho espaol, LXII (1992), pp.
623-632.
19
J. H. Elliott, Imperial Spain 1469-1716, Harmondsworth 1963, pp. 75-76.
20
P. Fernndez Albaladejo, El absolutismo y la transicin poltica, Zona Abierta, 30
(1984), pp. 63-75; B. Clavero, Tantas personas como estados. Por una antropologa polti-
ca de la historia europea, Madrid 1986, pp. 13-25.
21
A. M. Hespanha, La Corte, in Id., La Gracia del derecho. Economa de la cultura en
la Edad Moderna, Madrid 1993, pp. 107-201.
22
P. Molas Ribalta, La historia social de la administracin, in Id. (ed.), Historia Social de
la Administracin espaola. Estudios sobre los siglos XVII y XVIII, Barcelona 1980, pp. 9-18.
23
T. Nava Rodrguez, Problemas y perspectivas de una historia social de la
Administracin: Los secretarios del Despacho en la Espaa del siglo XVIII, Paris 1994; X.
Gil Pujol, Notas sobre el estudio del poder como nueva valoracin de la historia poltica, in
Tiempo de poltica: perspectivas historiogrficas sobre la Europa moderna, Barcelona
2006, pp. 88-90.
Nevertheless, there was very little interest in the subject. In Europe, cul-
tural perspectives dominated studies of courts, but in Spain things were dif-
ferent. Spanish cultural historians had no interest in the court; their subject
matter was the world of peasants, artisans, popular culture and the repression
of the lower classes by the upper ones. Today, cultural studies have changed
radically, taking the court as a reference for entertaining storytelling, cultural
curiosities and trinkets. But I am not sure that in Spain the cultural history
school has understood the phenomenon of the court in its entirety
24
.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Spanish historiography entered a very
serious crisis, the result of a wider European crisis. It abandoned great sys-
tems of analysis and turned instead to microstoria, narrative history etc. Some
historians realized that the methodological limitations of the dominant schools
were useless and outdated. Institutionalist historiography in Spain succumbed
to criticism. Bartolom Clavero in his book Tantas personas como estados
said that the reality of power and government in the Hispanic monarchy was
not known despite the large number of studies and monographs that described
the history of its institutions
25
.
Historians of art, literature and culture proposed a new view of the
Golden Age, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, reviewing the dominant
paradigm established by Jose Antonio Maravall in The Culture of the
Baroque, particularly in a chapter called a culture directed. Not everything
was propaganda and manipulation, not everything could be reduced to a prod-
uct of state power, as under a totalitarian regime
26
. Absolutism is not totalitar-
ianism. At the same time, several historians reviewed and criticized the sta-
tist paradigm represented by Escudero, Gonzlez Alonso, Maravall and even
Dominguez Ortiz. The court had been described by this statist paradigm
pejoratively, as a site of corruption that crippled the development of the mod-
ern state system. It may have caused the decline of Spain through state fail-
ure. However, research conducted by young historians showed another reali-
ty. They saw that this preconceived idea of the court was inaccurate, because
141
24
M. Pea Daz, La historiografa francesa en la Historia Cultural de la Edad
Moderna espaola, in B. Pellistrandi (ed.), Historiografa francesa del siglo 20 y su acogi-
da en Espaa, Madrid ......., pp. 177-190; I. Olbarri Gortzar F. Javier Caspistegui, La
nueva historia cultural: la influencia del postestructuralismo y el auge de la interdisci-
plinariedad. Cursos de verano de El Escorial, Madrid 1996.
25
Clavero, Tantas personas, cit., pp. 13-25.
26
A. Bustamante Garca, Gusto y decoro: El Greco, Felipe II y El Escoria, Academia:
Boletn de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, 74 (1992), pp. 163-198; F.
Maras, Velzquez, pintor y criado del rey, Madrid-Hondarribia 1999; F. Checa, Felipe II
mecenas de las artes, Madrid 1998.
the state was non-existent. Early modern Spain was governed by a system
with its own rules. As Professor Martnez Milln stated in 1992: From this
point of view, both the court and the institutions which were founded there,
take a new meaning, while the method of analysis is different from what has
traditionally been done
27
.
The Court in the Spanish Monarchy
During the last ten years work on the court has generated a huge bibliog-
raphy. I can say unequivocally that today court studies have become fashion-
able. We have monographs, essays, articles and books about court institu-
tions
28
, ceremonial
29
, courtesy
30
, culture
31
etc. We have a description of how
informal ties outweighed institutional structures
32
, of how institutions and
142
27
J. Martnez Milln, Introduction, in Id., La corte de Felipe II, Madrid 1994, pp. 13-36.
28
S. Fernndez Conti, Los Consejos de Estado y Guerra de la monarqua hispana en
tiempos de Felipe II, 1548-1598, Valladolid 1998; C. J. De Carlos Morales, El Consejo de
Hacienda de Castilla, 1523-1602: patronazgo y clientelismo en el gobierno de las finanzas
reales durante el siglo XVI, Salamanca 1998; E. Hortal, Las Guardas palatino-personales
de los Monarcas Austrias hispanos, Reales Sitios: Revista del Patrimonio Nacional, 179
(2009), pp. 4-21; F. Labrador Arroyo A. Lopez Alvarez, Las caballerizas de las reinas en
la monarqua de los Austria: cambios institucionales y evolucin de las etiquetas, 1559-
1611, Studia historica. Historia moderna, 28 (2006), pp. 87-140.
29
M. A. Visceglia, El ceremonial espaol en Roma en la poca de Felipe II, in E. Belenguer
Cebri (ed.), Felipe II y el Mediterrneo, Madrid 1999, vol. 3, pp. 163-192; A. Madruga,
Magnificencia urbana y Fiesta Real: Salamanca 1543. Elementos simblicos en torno a la figu-
ra del Prncipe, Anales de historia del arte, 1 (2008), pp. 103-120; J. J. Garca Bernal, El fasto
pblico en la Espaa de los Austrias, Sevilla 2006; M. Gonzlez Marrero E. Aznar Vallejo, Los
escenarios domsticos del ceremonial cortesano: la Casa de Isabel la Catlica, Tenerife 2002.
30
A. Alvarez Osorio, El cortesano discreto: itinerario de una ciencia ulica (ss. XVI-
XVII), Historia social, 28 (1997), pp. 73-94; J. Martnez Milln, El control de las normas
cortesanas y la elaboracin de la pragmtica de cortesas (1586), Edad de oro, 18 (1999),
pp. 103-133; C. Prez Salazar, Personas y cortesas en el lenguaje del siglo XVII,
Cuadernos de investigacin histrica, 18 (2001), pp. 101-116.
31
G. Labrador Lpez de Azcona, Gaetano Brunetti: Un msico en la Corte de Carlos
IV, Revista de musicologa, 26, 1 (2003), pp. 304-306; F. Bouza Alvarez, Palabra e ima-
gen en la Corte: cultura oral y visual de la nobleza en el Siglo de Oro, Madrid 2003; S.
Martnez Hernandez, El Marqus de Velada y la corte en los reinados de Felipe II y Felipe
III: nobleza cortesana y cultura poltica en la Espaa del Siglo de Oro, Salamanca 2004
32
J. Martnez Milln S. Fernndez Conti, La Monarqua de Felipe II: La Casa del
Rey, Madrid 2005, 2 vols.; F. Labrador Arroyo, La Casa Real en Portugal (1580-1621),
Madrid 2009; G. Labrador Lpez de Azcona, Msica, Poder e Institucin: La Real Capilla
de Carlos IV (1788-1808), Revista de musicologa, 26, 1 (2003), pp. 233-264.
ministers worked
33
, how individuals related to each other within court socie-
ty, how the distinction between public and private life was maintained and of
the significance of courtly ideals of loyalty and service
34
.
In the past, few Spanish historians knew that Norbert Elias studied court-
ly society as a distinct social system, very different from the bourgeois system
that eventually replaced it. He approached the court not simply as an object of
study but to develop methodological insights into how historical societies dif-
fer systematically from each other, not only in their outward characteristics
but their fundamental goals and inner dynamic. Is it possible to carry out a
similar purpose in the Spanish case? May we speak about a Spanish courtly
society?
In Spanish language, the word court had two meanings, curia and cohort,
a place where the king lived and an entourage of people who were at his serv-
ice. King Alfonso X the Wise wrote of: lugar do es el Rey, e sus vasallos e
sus ofiiales con l (the place of Kings residence with his subjects and with
his servants). In 1729 the Spanish Language Dictionary defined the term in
this double sense. This idea remained almost unchanged until the nineteenth
century. The word court, from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century, was
associated with three things: institutions of government, royal families and
royal entourages. The nucleus of it all was the Casa del Rey, the political cen-
tre of the monarchy
35
.
The Spanish court was a meeting point between rulers and ruled. It did
not differ in this respect from contemporaneous European courts. It was a
place in which the king controlled the game, where he certified power and
social prestige. There, he received subjects and foreigners. There ceremonies
fixed the status of subjects. There he met with his council, etc. It was a space
143
33
H. Pizarro Llorente, Don Gaspar de Quiroga (1512-1594) un gran patrn en la corte
de Felipe II, Madrid 2006; S. Martnez Hernndez, Rodrigo Caldern. La sombra del vali-
do. Privanza y corrupcin en la Corte de Felipe III, Madrid 2009.
34
A. Lpez Alvarez, Poder, lujo y conflicto en la Corte de los Austrias. Coches, car-
rozas y sillas de mano (1550-1700), Madrid 2007; E. Torres Corominas, Literatura y fac-
ciones cortesanas en la Espaa del siglo XVI, Madrid 2008.
35
J. Martnez Milln, La Corte de la Monarqua Hispnica, Studia Historica-Historia
Moderna, 28 (2006), pp. 17-61. This Article resumes the conclusion of major Research
Projects conducted by professor Martnez Milln. Reference works made under his direction
are: Las relaciones discretas entre las Monarquas Hispana y Portuguesa: Las Casas de las
reinas (siglos XV-XIX), Madrid 2009, 3 vols.; La monarqua de Felipe III: la Casa del Rey,
Madrid 2008-2009, 4 vols.; La monarqua de Felipe II: la Casa del Rey, Madrid 2005, 2
vols.; Carlos V y la quiebra del humanismo poltico en Europa (1530-1558, Madrid 2001, 4
vols.; La corte de Carlos V, Madrid 2000, 5 vols.
of political representation. Technically there was a division between the pri-
vate sphere (the royal household) and the public one (the court). In the royal
palace, the Alczar de Madrid, this difference was shown by the specializa-
tion of the lower rooms reserved for public use council meetings, receptions,
great events and various ceremonies and private rooms on the upper floor.
Here were the bedrooms, toilets, corridors and recreation rooms. The kings
house (casa) means three things: his family, his servants, and his residence.
His officers composed the court, supplying his entourage of ministers and
counsellors. Both public and private spaces were always contiguous, because
the domestic space was prolonged into the public space. This domestication
of the government, i.e. the extension of family space to public affairs, was the
most remarkable feature of the technical management used in the consolida-
tion of the monarchy
36
.
The private sphere of the court was complex. The House of the King did
not correspond exactly to the kings household; there were houses of the
queen, the crown prince, infants etc. Every house was a centre of relationships
and some of them often channelled political opposition movements.
Magdalena Sanchez in her essays about the household of Queen Margaret,
saw that her courtiers were enemies of the Duke of Lerma, an opposition led
by women organized through womens relationships in female spaces like
convents and lounges but that also included men encouraged by the queen
37
.
Royal houses had a strong relationship with noble houses. Between them,
there were very interesting and important political and social links, defining
an extended court space through forms of sociability that connected different
locations so that in a sense the whole city became the court. The famous sen-
tence Solo Madrid es Corte (Only Madrid is the Court) was an epithet
attached to an urban locale that represented the political theatre of the monar-
chy
38
.
As in other European courts, the king was the head of the body politic and
extended his authority through grace. In a Spanish dictionary of 1611 gracia
(grace) was defined as el gobierno de la persona real y de su reyno (the
government of royal person and his kingdom). In a theological sense grace
144
36
J. Martnez Milln, La funcin integradora de la casa real, in Id. S. Fernandez
Conti (eds.), La monarqua de Felipe II: la Casa del Rey, Madrid 2005, vol. 1, pp. 507-516.
37
M. Snchez, The Empress, the Queen and the Nun. Women and power at he Court of
Phillip III of Spain, Baltimore-London 1998, pp. 172-179. Most recently, about Mariana de
Austria see L. Olivn, Mariana de Austria: Imagen, poder y diplomacia de una reina corte-
sana, Madrid 2006.
38
Martnez Milln, La Corte de, cit.
was a free gift of God (un don gratuito de Dios). The king, like God him-
self, was the source of all grace, similar to a fountain in which water flows but
always falls back and returns to its origin. Grace produces returns of faithful-
ness and gratitude, which benefit the king. It is a game that consists of giving,
receiving and returning
39
.
The court system that Spanish historians describe in their essays seems
similar to what we know about foreign courts, but there is a difference. The
Spanish court is not really a geographical place but a virtual one. For exam-
ple: the ministers of the Chancilleria of Granada, the high court of the South,
in Andalusia, were named ministers of the court; they had the immunities and
privileges enjoyed by courtiers living in Madrid. These ministers lived far
from the royal house but they belonged to the court because they were the
kings servants. The court is where its members are. So, the relationship
between court and territories must be examined and studied carefully. The
court is more than a place
40
.
Institutionalist historiography argued that the main features of the mod-
ern state were territorial unity and political centralization. It assumed that
since 1561 there was a state whose capital was established in Madrid. From
this moment, the institutional structure of the monarchy was built on the cen-
tre-periphery relationship. The opposition between the centrifugal forces (the
centralizing state) and centripetal ones (the provinces and subjugated territo-
ries struggling to maintain their autonomy) marked the institutional and polit-
ical life of the monarchy. The Spanish domination of Italy, the Netherlands,
Portugal and Latin America was unilateral; the Spanish rulers exerted power
over the ruled natives. From this point of view, Spanish absolutism was par-
ticularly the enemy of the local nobility, parliaments and constitutions of sub-
jected countries. The people of these countries did not intervene in any impor-
tant matter of government. Institutionalist historians did not discover anything
new; they reworked a traditional view that was very successful in romantic
historiography: the struggle between power and the subjugated, a concept also
reworked by Marxist Historians and positivists
41
.
145
39
Voice Gracia, in C. Covarrubias Orozco, Thesoro de la lengua castellana o espao-
la, Madrid 1611.
40
Martnez Milln, La Corte de, cit.
41
B. Benedict, El Estado en Mxico en la poca de los Habsburgo, Historia
Mexicana, XXIII, 4 (1974), pp. 551-609; F. Altuve-Febres Lores, Los reinos del Per:
Apuntes sobre la Monarqua peruana, Lima 1996; M. Artola, La Monarqua de Espaa,
Madrid 1999; J. Elliott, Imperios del mundo Atlntico. Espaa y Gran Bretaa en Amrica
(1492-1830), Madrid 2006.
The main contribution of studies on the court has been to show the inter-
pretative mistakes of this venerable picture. The internal structure of the so-
called Spanish Empire did not exactly conform to the received image
42
.
In 1657, the writer Saavedra Fajardo wrote: El gobierno de la
Monarqua de Espaa (est) fundado con tanto juizio que los reinos y provin-
cias que desuni la Naturaleza los uni la prudencia. Todos tienen en Madrid
su Consejo particular: el de Castilla, de Aragn, de Portugal, de Italia, de las
Indias y de Flandes
43
. He said that none of those countries was ruled from
Spain: No domina el rey de Espaa en Italia como prncipe extranjero, sino
como prncipe italiano. He showed that Italy was governed in Italy and from
Italy
44
.
This is not a baroque paradox. In the seventeenth century, the vice regal
system legitimates this kind of arrangement. The viceroyalty was the legal
mechanism that allowed the doubling of the kings person, with the doubling
of the king in several persons (the viceroys); the court doubled as many times
as necessary
45
. Hence we can read in a Noticia general de el Estado de Miln,
su gobierno y forma ao 1645 this information: slos dos cuerpos represen-
tan al rey en este Estado, el governador en natural y el Senado en mstico.
146
42
A. Alvarez Ossorio, La Corte: Un espacio abierto para la Historia Social, in S.
Castillo (ed.), La Historia Social en Espaa, siglo XXI, Madrid 1991, pp. 247-260 and Id.,
Corte y provincia en la Monarqua Catlica: La Corte de Madrid y el Estado de Miln,
1600-1700, in E. Brambilla G. Muto (eds.), La Lombardia Spagnola, Milano 1997, pp.
283-341.
43
The government of the Monarchy of Spain is so well done that kingdoms and
provinces that are disunited by Nature are united by prudence. Each one has its own coun-
cil in Madrid: those of Castile, Aragon, Portugal, Italy, West India and Flanders; D.
Saavedra Fajardo, Empresas polticas, , Idea de un principe poltico cristiano: representa-
da en cien empresas, Barcelona 1845 [but first published in 1657], Empresa LVII Uni red-
datur, pp. 48-59.
44
Italy was not dominated by the king of Spain as a foreign prince, but as an Italian
prince; ibid., Empresa XCV, Novi adhaerendum, pp. 324-333.
45
H. Pietschmann, La Corte virreinal de Mxico en el siglo XVII en sus dimensiones
jurdico-institucionales, sociales y culturales: aproximacin al estado de la investigacin,
in M. Boss, B. Potthast-Jutkeit, A. Stoll (eds.), La creatividad femenina en el mundo barro-
co hispnico, Reichenberger, Kassel 1999, vol. II, pp. 481-499; C. Bueschges, La Corte vir-
reinal en la Amrica hispnica durante la poca colonial (periodo Habsburgo), in Actas do
XII Congresso Internacional de la Associaao de Historiadores latinoamericanistas
europeus, Porto 2001, vol. II, pp. 131-140; E. Torres Arancibia, Corte de Virreyes: El
entorno del poder en el Per en el siglo XVII, Lima 2006, pp. 63-108; T. Ferrer, El duque
de Lerma y la Corte virreinal de Valencia: Fiestas literatura y promocin social, Quaderns
de Filologia. Estudis literaris, V (2000), pp. 257-271; A. Caeque, The Kings Living Image.
The Culture and Politics of Viceregal Power in Colonial Mexico, New York 2004.
Both representations of the sovereign, natural and mystical, are not arms of a
distant power. The king is absent but also present because his nature has
unfolded in Milan) [present by virtue of the local institutions through which
his authority unfolded in Milan]
46
. Meanwhile, Milan unfolded in Madrid, as
we see in an explanation of government by councils made by Pietro Giannone.
These councils, he said, si riputavano fondati come in proprio territorio,
because tali consigli eretti in Ispaga, alla quale furono incorporati i regni
nuovamente acquistati, si reputavano stabili come in proprio territorio, e per
conseguenza poteano vicendevolmente comunicarsi glinterventi e mescolar-
si insieme
47
. This order did not come only from the will of the king. Councils
were not subjugated: they possessed and exercised jurisdiction. It is the same
analysis made by the Council of Aragn in response to a Council of State
demand: la Corte es patria comn y todos en ella se reputan para los negoios
de las provincias como si actualmente se hallaren en ellas y como si la corte
fuera parte de cada una en aquello que mira a sus naturales
48
.
Thus, kingdoms were integrated into the kings space and he could serve
them in person; councils were living embodiments of their countries within
the royal entourage. Conversely, vice regal courts kept alive the presence of
the natural sovereign among his distant subjects. Through this double game
the relationship between the court of Madrid and the vice regal courts was
established. Around this scheme, the idea of the court was built, effectively a
world of courts
49
. A court in Madrid, but also in Palermo, Mexico, Lima,
Brussels, Naples, Valencia, Pamplona, etc. Viva el rey muera el mal gobier-
no was the cry of popular revolts in Barcelona or Naples in the 1640s, a cry
that demanded the attention of a king felt to be closer as the court was closer
to them
50
.
147
46
M. Rivero Rodriguez, Una monarqua de casas reales y cortes virreinales, in J.
Martnez Milln M. A. Visceglia (eds.), La Monarqua de Felipe III: Los Reinos, Madrid
2008, vol. ...., pp. 31-60.
47
Such councils, raised in Spain, created by incorporating new territories, were estab-
lished as they were in their own country and they worked all together; P. Giannone, Opere
postume di Pietro Giannone giureconsulto ed avvocato napoletano, s.e. s.d. 1821, pp. 219-227.
48
The court is the common homeland; and all consider business of the provinces con-
ducted there as if it transpired in the provinces themselves, as if the court were part of each,
in whatever concerns its people; letter to the King Phillip IV (year 1650) in Archivo
Histrico Nacional (Madrid) seccin Estado, libro 1991, pages 368 to 369.
49
T. Ferrer, Corte virreinal, humanismo y cultura nobiliaria en la Valencia del siglo XVI,
in E. Berenguer (ed.), Reino y ciudad. Valencia en su historia, Madrid 2007, pp. 185-200.
50
L. Corteguera, Loyalty and revolt in the Spanish Monarchy, in P. Benedict M. P.
Gutmann (eds.), Early Modern Europe. From Crisis to Stability, Newark 2005, pp. 80-99.
Agnieszka Jakuboszczak Maciej Serwaski
ENTRE LE CENTRE ET LES PRIPHRIES.
LES COURS ROYALES DE LPOQUE MODERNE
DANS LHISTORIOGRAPHIE: LES CAS DE CRACOVIE,
VARSOVIE, VILNIUS, DRESDE ET PRAGUE
Un historien polonais plac devant la tche de montrer les tendances
reprsentes dans les rechecherches historiographiques ayant pour objet les
cours royales dans les pays de lEurope de lest comme nous lavaient pro-
pos, dans un premier temps, les organisateurs de notre confrence se trou-
ve dans une situation extrmement difficile, et cela pour plusieurs raisons.
Tout dabord, il est question de la vastitude territoriale du problme, et plus
spcialement de la ncessit de prciser quels sont les pays quil faut compter
comme appartenant justement lEurope de lest, tant donn quaux yeux
dun Polonais, dun Tchque ou dun Hongrois surtout aprs la chute du mur
de Berlin leurs pays respectifs sont situs dans lEurope centre-orientale et
non pas dans lEurope orientale tout court. Mme si nous acceptions, malgr
tout, de faire appartenir les pays en question la partie orientale du vieux
continent, il faudrait y faire appartenir galement, plus forte raison, les pays
baltes, savoir la Lituanie, la Lettonie et lEstonie, sans parler, bien videm-
ment, de la Russie, de la Bilorussie, de lUkraine et de la Slovaquie. la
lumire de ce qui prcde, il apparat donc pratiquement impossible un cher-
cheur, reconnaissons-le, dembrasser dun seul regard lhistoriographie
publie durant les trois dernires dcennies dans les pays quon vient de citer
et consacre la problmatique des cours, surtout si une telle prsentation,
forcment synthtique, devait encore tenir compte de lpoque moderne tout
entire. cela sajoutent aussi les impossibilits dordre pratique lies pre-
mirement un accs limit aux ouvrages, pas si peu nombreux dailleurs, qui
149
ont t publis dans chacun des pays voqus, mais aussi last but not least
les obstacles lis la connaissance ou plutt la non-connaissance des lan-
gues telles que le hongrois, le letton, lestonien ou le lituanien. Quant lal-
lemand et, bien videmment, quant aux langues slaves, cela reprsentait dj
un problme de moindre importance.
Face toutes ces difficults, nous, les co-auteurs de la prsente contribu-
tion, avons pris la dcision dadopter un certain nombre de limitations afin de
raffiner notre approche du sujet. La premire de ces limitations concerne, en
se rfrant nos remarques antrieures, la porte territoriale laquelle sap-
pliquera notre propos, avec comme principal point de dpart lancienne
Rpublique nobiliaire de Pologne qui aux XV
e
-XVIII
e
sicles appartenait aux
plus grands pays dEurope. Pour mieux sen rendre compte, il suffit de pen-
ser, en effet, que la puissante Monarchie des Jagellons, embrassant au dbut
du XVIme sicle la Pologne, le Grand-Duch de Lituanie, la Bohme et la
Hongrie, mme aprs avoir t ampute de ces deux derniers royaumes au
profit des Habsbourg (1526), continuait reprsenter un organisme multina-
tional et pluriconfessionnel norme, stendant sur une superficie de presque
dun million de kilomtres carrs. Dans ce contexte on ne saurait oublier de
mentionner lunion relle de la Pologne (elle-mme se composant de la
Couronne et de lUkrane) et de la Lituanie qui en 1569 donna naissance la
Rpublique des Deux Nations qui exista jusqu la fin du XVIII
e
sicle, cest-
-dire jusquau moment o les partages par les puissances voisinantes leffa-
crent de la carte de lEurope.
Un autre facteur dterminant pour cette partie de notre contribution est
sans doute la spcificit du systme institutionnel de la Confdration polono-
lituanienne, appel dmocratie nobiliaire, avec pour consquences majeu-
res le caractre lectif du trne et, corollairement, un pouvoir royal relative-
ment limit. En effet, cest justement en raison du fonctionnement du systme
de la dmocratie nobiliaire, et en particulier en raison de llection libre du
monarque, que le trne polonais fut souvent occup par des souverains qui
venaient de ltranger savoir de la cour de France, celles de Transylvanie,
de Sude ou de Saxe et qui, tout en pouvant former bien sr leur propre cour
en Pologne, devaient en mme temps tenir compte de certaines contraintes et
exigences typiquement polonaises qui influenaient aussi bien la position du
monarque lui-mme que le fonctionnement de la cour royale sur le plan poli-
tique, social et culturelle.
Chronologiquement parlant, il convient de distinguer trois cours qui ont
fonctionn dans la Rpublique nobiliaire des moments diffrents de son his-
toire. Dans la premire priode, qui dura jusqu la fin du XVI
e
sicle, la capi-
tale de la Pologne se trouvait Cracovie et la cour royale avait pour rsiden-
150
ce le chteau de Wawel qui jouait donc le rle dun vritable centre politique
et culturel du pays. Mais en 1596, le roi Sigismond III Wasa transfra la capi-
tale Varsovie qui tait une ville plus proche du centre gographique de l-
tat polono-lituanien. Bien sr, le dmnagement de la cour royale ne se fit pas
en un jour, mais en 1611 Varsovie jouissait dj pleinement de toutes les fonc-
tions de la capitale et ce fut alors le tour du chteau royal de Varsovie, syst-
matiquement agrandi et embelli, dattirer, aussi bien par la splendeur de son
architecture que par la vie de la cour, lattention des Polonais et de nombreux
trangers qui venaient en Pologne. Pourtant, en dehors des cours de Cracovie
et de Varsovie, il y en avait encore une troisime dans la Rpublique nobiliai-
re, savoir la cour de Vilnius: les monarques polonais y sjournaient plutt
souvent et certains dentre eux, comme ctait le cas de Sigismond II Auguste
au XVI
e
sicle, le dernier des Jagellons, y residrent plus longtemps. Enfin,
pour tre juste, il convient dajouter qu la charnire des XVII
e
et XVIII
e
si-
cles les monarques de la Rpublique nobiliaire eurent leur disposition enco-
re une autre cour. En effet, la mort de Jean III Sobieski, la couronne de
Pologne tait chue en partage dabord Auguste II dit le Fort, issu de la
Maison de Wettin, et ensuite son fils Auguste III, si bien que pendant plus
de cinquante ans la cour du souverain polonais se trovait en mme temps
Dresde et Varsovie, ce qui lobligeait dailleurs voyager constamment
entre la Saxe et la Pologne. Voil pourquoi les ouvrages historiographiques en
langue allemande sont, eux aussi, au centre de notre attention de chercheurs.
Enfin, quant au choix de la dernire des cours cites dans le titre de notre
contribution, cest--dire le choix de la cour de Prague, celui-ci tient deux
raisons. Premirement, il faut dire que dj au XVI
e
sicle, cest--dire au
moment o la cour de Hradany tait encore entre les mains des Jagellons, les
Polonais taient intresss par le pouvoir que cette dynastie exerait au
Royaume de Bohme. Et cet intrt polonais ne saffaiblit srement pas aprs
la conqute du territoire bohmien par la Maison dAutriche. Au contraire, le
sort du Royaume de Bohme sous la domination impitoyable des Habsbourgs
tait une espce de memento, une sorte davertissement contre llection ven-
tuelle dun candidat de Vienne au trne de Pologne. Deuximement, pour les
auteurs de la prsente contribution il tait relativement facile de tenir compte
des ouvrages historiographiques rdigs en langue tchque, notamment grce
la fraternit linguistique qui lie cette langue la langue polonaise et grce
aux contacts avec les chercheurs tchques
1
.
Entre le centre et les priphries
151
1
Les auteurs tiens remercier les collgues qui ont eu lamabilit de nous fournir les
informations concernant lhistoriographie en cause sur la Bohme, la Lituanie et la Saxe, a
savoir : les Professeurs Milena Lenderova de lUniversit de Pardubice, Radek Fukala de
Bien entendu, comme nous lavons dj signal plus haut, le point de
dpart pour notre recherche tait lhistoriographie polonaise.
Avant de passer la prsentation proprement dite de lvolution des
recherches historiographiques sur la problmatique des cours royales dans le
territoire de lancienne Rpublique polono-lituanienne (y compris la Bohme
et la Saxe), il nous parat encore trs important de souligner avec force quen
tant quauteurs de la prsente contribution nous entendons la cour royale
avant tout en termes dentit sociologique. Dans lacception large du terme, il
sagira donc de toutes les personnes faisant partie de lentourage du monarque
la familles, les dignitaires de ltat, la garde royale, les domestiques et les
courtisans ainsi que diffrents clients du roi. Une acception plus restreinte de
la cour limite, en revanche, lapplicabilit de ce terme aux courtisans et aux
domestiques, cest--dire toutes ces personnes dont les prnoms ou les noms
ont t retenus dans les registres officiels de la cour, ce qui veut dire quelles
taient rmunres par le trsor dune faon bien concrte.
En entrant dans le vif de la matire, disons dabord que pendant de nom-
breuses annes la cour royale avait intress les chercheurs polonais avant
tout en tant que centre et instrument de pouvoir; dans les tudes on y voyait
donc un symbole de ltat qui, on le sait bien, sappuyait entre autres sur lins-
titution du monarque. Les visions historiographiques dans lesquelles la cour
tait un inspirateur de la vie culturelle, un suport de la tradition et un propa-
gateur dides nouvelles ne manquaient pas non plus : dans les recherches
menes sous cet angle on analysait notamment linfluence que la cour avait
exerc sur le style de vie de la socit polonaise travers le modle quelle lui
fournissait
2
. Dans les dernires annes, une nouvelle approche a t propose
dans laquelle on a cherch se concentrer sur la structure et le fonctionnement
de la cour, en indiquant en mme temps la ncessit de puiser dans les trs
riches ressources documentaires recueillies dans les Archives du Trsor qui,
leur tour, font partie des Archives Gnrales des Actes Anciens de Varsovie.
Mais, sil est vrai quune premire proposition en ce sens avait dj t lan-
152
lUniversit Hradec Krlov, Jan Jurkiewicz de lUniversit Adam Mickiewicz de Pozna et
le Docteur Adam Perakowski de lUniversit Jagellon de Cracovie.
2
S. Tomkowicz, Na dworze krlewskim ostatnich Jagiellonw, Cracovie 1924; C.
Lechicki, Mecenat Zygmunta III i ycie umysowe na jego dworze, Varsovie 1932; W.
Czapliski, Na dworze Wadysawa IV, Varsovie 1957; W. Czapliski, Wadysaw IV i jego
czasy, Varsovie 1976; B. Fabiani, Na dworze Wazw, Varsovie 1984; S. Cynarski, Dwr kr-
lewski w Polsce za ostatnich Jagiellonw, dans T. Wasilewski (ed.), Krakw w dobie rene-
sansu. Materiay sesji naukowej z okazji dni Krakowa w roku 1986, Cracovie 1989; Id.,
ycie codzienne na zamku krlewskim w epoce Wazw, Varsovie 1996.
ce dans les annes trente du sicle pass, notamment par Wanda
Dobrowolska, et qu lpoque contemporaine elle a t rappele par Urszula
Augustyniak, lide ne semble pas avoir trouv de continuateurs parmi les
chercheurs
3
. Pourtant, il est incontestable que les travaux des grands histo-
riens de la charnire des XIXe et XXe sicles, face au progrs gnral des
recherches, exigent de plus en plus une mise jour importante et complte, ce
qui apparat dautant plus clairement lorsquon pense que sur plus de dix sou-
verains qui avaient rgn en Pologne dans la priode stendant du XVI
e
au
XVIII
e
sicles, les cours de trois monarques seulement y ont t dcrites
4
.
Dans ce contexte, on ne saurait oublier de mentionner le prcieux effort visant
combler cette lacune qui a t entrepris avec succs par Marek Ferenc dans
son ouvrage intitul La cour de Sigismond Auguste. Son organisation et ses
gens
5
. Ce travail est dailleurs considr comme tant la premire monogra-
phie qui ait t ddi la composition personnelle et lorganisation de la
cour royale en Pologne avec un recours trs large de la part de lauteur une
base de sources documentaires extrmement riche. De plus, Marek Ferenc a
sans doute le mrite de lancer avec son ouvrage un certain modle de travail
qui montre avec succs une nouvelle possibilit de prsentation de la probl-
matique de la composition et de lorganisation de la cour royale lpoque
moderne en utilisant des ressources qui navaient encore jamais t utilises
avant, savoir les comptes provenant de du trsor royal
6
.
Parmi les cours royales polonaises qui ont fait lobjet des diffrentes ana-
lyses publies jusqu prsent, cest srement la cour de la dynastie sudoise
des Wasa, dont le rgne en Pologne tomba sur les annes 1587-1668, qui a t
dcrite de la faon la plus riche et dtaille par les chercheurs. En effet, ceux-
ci avaient formul un ensemble de questions tellement complexe et labor
quils sont parvenus non seulement reconstruire la structure de cette cour,
caractre visiblement trangre, mais aussi son fonctionnement en tant que
centre de rayonnement de la culture, de lart et des sciences et en tant que cen-
153
3
U. Augustyniak, Wazowie i krlowie rodacy. Studium wadzy krlewskiej w
Rzeczypospolitej XVII wieku, Varsovie 1999, p. 17.
4
W. Czermak, Na dworze Wadysawa IV, dans Studia historyczne, Cracovie 1901, p.
107-136; S. Kutrzeba (ed.), Wykaz urzdw i suby dworu krlewskiego w Polsce z czasw
Henryka Walezego, Archiwum Komisji Historycznej Akademii Umiejtnoci, IX (1902),
p. 389-406; F. Fuchs, Ustrj dworu krlewskiego za Stefana Batorego, dans Studia histo-
ryczne wydane ku czci prof. Wincentego Zakrzewskiego, Cracovie 1908, p. 33-172.
5
M. Ferenc, Dwr Zygmunta Augusta. Organizacja i ludzie, Cracovie 1998.
6
K. Chapowski (ed.), Ordynacja dworu Zygmunta III z 1589 roku, Varsovie 2004, p. 11.
tre de diffusion des tendances provenant de la zone dinfluences habsbour-
geoises, italiennes et franaises ou de plusieurs autres pays europens
7
.
Quant la cour des Wettin, conue dans une acception large du terme, des
travaux historiographiques isols qui lui sont consacrs sont prsents en
Pologne dans le cadre du cycle des confrences de porte nationale, intitules
Entre le Baroque et les Lumires, qui se droulent rgulirement tous les deux
ans depuis 1996 dj. Tous ces colloques se sont termins par la publication
des actes de confrences respectifs
8
. Une autre initiative allant en ce sens sont
les confrences appeles Entre lOrient et lOccident qui ont pour but de rap-
procher, dans le contexte europen, limage de la Rpublique nobiliaire
comme celle dun tat situ aux confins de deux civilisations et celle dun
phnomne politique unique en son genre et, partant, ne trouvant de compa-
raison possible nulle part ailleurs, quoique disposant dune vritable cour
royale qui en tait la partie intgrante
9
. Bien sr, malgr les deux exemples
que nous venons de citer ci-dessus, lpoque des Wettin exige sans doute
quon lui consacre encore beaucoup dtudes, ce qui apparat encore plus clai-
rement lorsquon compare ltat de recherche actuel dans ce domaine avec
ltat de recherche sur le rgne de Stanislas Auguste Poniatowski. Les analy-
ses concernant les fonctions de la cour dans diffrents domaines de la vie poli-
tique, sociale et culturelle ne manquent pas pour cette dernire priode
10
.
Quant aux recherches historiographiques qui sont menes de nos jours,
elles sinscrivent dans lanalyse historico-politique visant montrer la nais-
sance et la transformation des diffrentes fonctions et dignits courtisanes,
154
7
J. Lileyko, ycie codzienne w Warszawie za Wazw, Varsovie 1984; L. Podhorodecki,
Wazowie w Polsce, Varsovie 1985; W. Leitsch, Finanse i dziaalno budowlana dworu kr-
lewskiego w latach 1626-1629, Varsovie 1999; J. Limon, Komedianci i muzycy angielscy na
dworze Wazw, Kronika Zamkowa, 2, 46 (2003), pp. .; S. Ochamnn-Staniszewska,
Dynastia Wazw w Polsce, Varsovie 2006; R. Szmydki, Artystyczno-dyplomatyczne kontak-
ty Zygmunta III Wazy z Niderlandami Poudniowymi, Lublin 2008; Id., Kontakty artystycz-
ne krlewicza Wadysawa Zygmunta Wazy z Antwerpi. Misja Mathieu Rouaulta do Polski
w 1626 roku, Varsovie 2002, voir note 2.
8
S. Achremczyk K. Stasiewicz (eds.), Midzy Barokiem a Owieceniem: nowe spojr-
zenie na czasy saskie, Olsztyn 1996.
9
J. Staszewski, K. Mikulski, J. Dumanowski (eds.), Midzy Zachodem a Wschodem.
Studia z dziejw Rzeczypospolitej w epoce nowoytnej, Toru 2002; J. Dumanowski, B.
Dyba, K. Mikulski, J. Poraziski, S. Roszak (eds.), Midzy Zachodem a Wschodem. Studia
ku czci profesora Jacka Staszewskiego, Toru 2003.
10
A. Zahorski, Spr o Stanisawa Augusta, Varsovie 1988; J. ojek, Stanisaw August
Poniatowski i jego czasy, Varsovie 1998; J. Michalski, Stanisaw August Poniatowski,
Varsovie 2009; voir en franais J. Fabre, Stanislas-Auguste Poniatowski et lEurope des
Lumires: tudes de cosmopolitisme, Paris 1984.
leurs comptences respectives et leur signification dans ladministration de
ltat. Cette problmatique intresse aussi bien les archivistes et les historiens
que les spcialistes qui soccupent du droit et de ladministration. Dans ce
contexte, nous ne saurions oublier de mentionner la prcieuse initiative dito-
riale que reprsente la sri des travaux qui sont publis par la Bibliothque
de Krnik appartenant lAcadmie Polonaise des Sciences et qui rassem-
blent des rpertoires de fonctionnaires et dignitaires rsidant autrefois, cest-
-dire dans la priode du XII
e
jusquau XVIII
e
sicles, dans les territoires de
la Couronne et de la Lituanie. Pour le moment, vingt-deux cahiers de la srie
ont dj t publis, dont deux taient consacrs aux fonctionnaires et digni-
taires qui taient lis la cour royale et qui, partant, en taient dpendants
11
.
En dehors des listes nominales de personnes investies dune fonction ou dune
dignit particulires, comprenant les dates dentre en fonction et les dates de
fin de service, on y a caractris galement lhistoire et lvolution de chacu-
ne des diffrentes fonctions et dignits courtisanes. Bien sr, on ne saurait en
aucun cas surestimer la valeur pratique de ces publications qui permettent
tout chercheur de mieux se retrouver dans la vraie jungle de fonctions, de
dignits et de noms que reprsentait lpoque qui nous intresse le double
systme administratif polono-lituanien. De plus, ce qui mrite sans doute une
mention part, cest que les chercheurs et analystes ont dcidment pntr
cette fois-l sur le terrain de lhistoire sociale, tant donn que lexercice des
fonctions, y compris des fonctions courtisanes, tait strictement li la strati-
fication sociale aux XIV
e
-XVIII
e
sicles. Signalons enfin quun important pas
en avant dans ce contexte a t accompli par Andrzej Wyczaski qui, dans sa
monographie consacre aux secrtaires du roi Sigismond I
er
dit le Vieux
(1506-1548), a mis laccent sur la ncessit dentreprendre une nouvelle
direction dans la recherche historiographique, et en particulier sur la ncessi-
t dapprofondir lanalyse de la prsence mme des secrtaires du roi la cour
et de leur activit, au lieu de continuer se lancer dans la macro-histoire,
tant donn que ltat de la recherche comme il le soulignait juste titre
ne permet toujours pas de formuler de manire raisonnable les questions rela-
tives au rle des secrtaires de la cour dans le processus historique polonais
12
.
La tendance entreprendre des recherches prosopographiques que les
historiographes polonais ont adopte depuis dj un certain temps sest mani-
155
11
Urzdnicy centralni i nadworni Polski XIV-XVIII wieku. Spisy, Krnik 1992;
Urzdnicy centralni i dygnitarze Wielkiego Ksistwa Litewskiego XIV-XVIII wieku. Spisy,
Krnik 1994.
12
A. Wyczaski, Midzy kultur a polityk. Sekretarze krlewscy Zygmunta Starego
(1506-1548), Varsovie 1990, p. 6.
feste dune faon assez nette dans le choix des sujets de diffrentes conf-
rences scientifiques qui ont t organises en Pologne dans les deux dernires
dcennies et qui ont donn lieu des publications quon peut sans aucun doute
qualifier dintressantes. titre dexemple, citons ici le cas de la session qui
tait consacre justement la problmatique des fonctions la cour royale
dans la Rpublique nobiliaire et dans les pays limitrophes
13
. Dans les diff-
rentes contributions qui ont t prsentes lors de la session, les auteurs ont
trs bien montr le grand rle que certaines dpendances entre les fonctions
sur le territoire de la Couronne et celles de la Lituanie jouaient dans le fonc-
tionnement de la cour royale. En outre, des comparaisons prcieuses avec la
situation dans le territoire du Brandebourg, dans le Duch de Prusse et en
Sude ont t prsentes
14
.
Le rejet de la perspective analytique consistant voir la cour royale come
un espace ferm a permis aux historiographes polonais de montrer le fonc-
tionnement de celle-ci au sein de tout un systme dinstitutions et dorganes
du pouvoir central ce qui a trouv aussi son reflet dans les synthses les plus
rcentes de lhistoire de la Pologne lpoque moderne
15
. Cette tendance est
dailleurs confirme galement dans des ouvrages caractre biographique
qui prsentent les silhouettes des differents souverains de la Rpublique nobi-
liare et qui, tout en ntant certes pas des monographies qui soient consacres
des cours royales en tant que telles, rapprochent quand mme au lecteur la
spcificit de la composition des cours et, ce qui nest sans doute pas moins
important, la spcificit de la vie des courtisans sous les rgnes des diffrents
rois. Et puisquon en parle, il y a lieu de souligner que le fait davoir opt pour
cette perspective douverture dans la prsentation des faits historiques a t
trs apprci des lecteurs, eux aussi, comme semble en tmoigner le succs de
la srie biographique la plus populaire en Pologne, publie par les ditions
Ossolineum et recueillant les biographies de presque tous les rois de la
Pologne de lpoque moderne, y compris celle de la reine Bona Sforza. En
156
13
A. Gsiorowski (ed.), Dwory i urzdy dawnej Rzeczypospolitej i pastw ociennych.
Materiay z sesji zorganizowanej przez Zamek Krlewski na Wawelu listopad 1993,
Cracovie 1996.
14
Voir I. Kkolewski, Urzdy centralne w Brandenburgii i Prusach Ksicych w XVI
i XVII wieku, dans Dwory i urzdy, cit., p. 73-83; M. Kopczyski, Axel Oxenstierna i
szwedzcy biurokraci XVII wieku. Kilka uwag o zastosowaniu weberowskich typw idealnych
w badaniach historycznych, ivi, p. 85-100.
15
M. Duczmal, Jagiellonowie leksykon biograficzny, Cracovie 1996; I. Kaniewska,
Krlowie elekcyjni leksykon biograficzny, Cracovie 1997; M. Markiewicz, Historia Polski
1492-1795, Cracovie 2004; U. Augustyniak, Historia Polski 1572-1795, Varsovie 2008.
effet, aprs lpuisement du tirage et sans doute face labsence dautres
publications de ce genre, la srie en question a t par la suite mise jour et
rdit.
Si dans la srie dite par les ditions Ossolineum Bona Sforza est la
seule reine qui a fait lobjet dune biographie part entire, il faut signaler que
dans lhistoriographie polonaise elle nest srement pas la seule reine dont la
cour ait t dcrite. En effet, certains ouvrages abordent dune faon assez
dtaille la problmatique des cours dans le cas des reines, des reines qui,
lexception dAnne Jagellon (femme dEtienne Batory) soulignons-le cette
occasion taient pratiquement toutes des trangres. Parmi les cours de rei-
nes qui ont fait lobjet danalyses des historiographes polonais, notamment du
point de vue de limportance des reines elles-mmes et de linfluence que cel-
les-ci taient capables dexercer sur leur entourage conu dune manire plus
ou moins vaste, ce sont srement les cours de Bona Sforza (femme de
Sigismond I
er
dit le Vieux), de Louise-Marie de Gonzague de Nevers (femme
de Ladislas IV Wasa et, ensuite, de Jean-Casimir Wasa) et de Marie-Casimire
de la Grange dArquien (femme de Jean III Sobieski) qui ont t dcrites de
faon la plus dtaille, en donnant lieu, fait sans doute loquent, des discus-
sions approfondies sur lvaluation et la signification de ces personnages
16
.
Louvrage le plus rcent en la matire est la thse de Agnieszka Marchwiska
qui dcrit et analyse les cours royales des femmes de Sigismond II Auguste
17
.
Cest un travail dautant plus prcieux et digne dattention quil touche la pro-
blmatique de la composition personnelle et du fonctionnement de la cour de
la reine, une problmatique qui reste toujours assez peu approfondie, au moins
en ce qui concerne le XVI
e
sicle en Pologne. De plus, il est louable que lau-
teur de la thse se soit appuy avant tout sur des sources documentaires pro-
venant du trsor royal et sur des instructions mises par le roi lui-mme, cest-
-dire sur des documents quon a encore trop souvent tendance ngliger. Un
autre travail qui mrite mention ici, cest celui de Edward Rudzki, encore que
son auteur se limite simplement une esquisse biographique de chacune des
reines
18
.
157
16
M. Bogucka, Bona Sforza, Wrocaw 2004; B. Fabiani, Warszawski dwr Ludwiki
Marii, Varsovie 1976; K. Targosz, Uczony dwr Ludwiki Marii Gonzagi (1646-1667). Z
dziejw polsko-francuskich stosunkw naukowych, Wrocaw 1975; Id., Sawantki w Polsce w
XVII w. Aspiracje intelektualne kobiet ze rodowisk dworskich, Varsovie 1997 (la version
franaise La cour savante de Louise-Marie de Gonzague et ses liens scientifiques avec la
France 1646-1667, Wrocaw 1982); M. Komaszyski, Pikna krlowa Maria Kazimiera
dArquien-Sobieska, Cracovie 1995.
17
A. Marchwiska, Krlewskie dwory on Zygmunta Augusta, Toru 2008.
18
E. Rudzki, Polskie krlowe, Varsovie 1985-1987, vol. 1-2.
Bien sr, malgr tous les exemples de travaux que nous venons de citer
plus haut, il reste encore beaucoup faire, notamment en ce qui concerne la
dtermination de la position des reines aux cours des diffrents rois de
Pologne, surtout dans les cas o les femmes ne jouaient pas de rle politique
aux cts de leur mari. Cela parat dautant plus justifi que labsence dun
rle politique ne veut point dire que les reines en question naient jamais jou
aucun rle du tout, bien au contraire : souvent elles sengageaient dans une
activit bien concrte, le plus sur le plan culturel. Aussi, serait-il ncessaire de
connatre le rle que les diffrentes reines ont jou dans la propagation des
courants culturels et artistiques de leurs propres poques. On sait par exemple
que Bona Sforza la reine venant dItalie propageait la cour royale et
incarnait par elle-mme tout ce qui, aux yeux dun Polonais, faisait penser
lindividu humain et la culture de la Renaissance. De la mme manire,
cest--dire dune manire pleine dexpressivit, on prsente en Pologne,
quoique par rapport au XVII
e
sicle, celui du baroque, la silhouette de Louise-
Marie de Gonzague, une princesse qui tait venue de France, en succdant
une archiduchesse; en effet, elle a t considr par une partie de la noblesse
comme immorale, parce quelle avait import de sa patrie jusquen Pologne
une mode et des coutumes tout fait nouvelles, consideres comme dver-
gondes. Et pour cette raison justement, la littrature stait longtemps
concentre sur la prsentation de la confrontation de la cour cosmopolite de la
reine avec le sarmatisme polonais, conservateur, xnophobe et rendant hom-
mage aux principes de la Contre-Rforme. Une autre reine franaise, Marie-
Casimire de la Grange dArquien, continuait, quant elle, le processus de
changement des moeurs en Pologne travers lintroduction des influences
trangres en gnrale et des influences franaises en particulier. Le dbut du
XVIII
e
sicle avait apport en Pologne la naissance de nouveaux courants, les
courants du sicle des Lumires. Pourtant, sil est vrai que des tudes inter-
disciplinaires, menes dans le domaine de la philosophie de la culture, ou
encore des tudes littraires ou historiques sont consacres la problmatique
de la cour royale, notamment dans son rle de propagateur de plusieurs nou-
veauts et des Lumires
19
, les chercheurs nont toujours pas entrepris de tra-
vaux visant examiner le rle jou par les deux reines polonaises qui avaient
vcu au XVIII
e
sicle, savoir Christiane-Eberhardine de Brandebourg-
Bayreuth, femme dAuguste II Wettin, et Marie-Josphe de Habsbourg,
femme dAuguste III Wettin
20
. En tout cas, ce qui est certain, cest que les
158
19
T. Kostkiewiczowa, Polski wiek wiate: obszary swoistoci, Wrocaw 2002.
20
Le dernier roi avant les partages, Stanislas-Auguste Poniatowski avait seulement une
pouse morganatique.
chercheurs ont pour le moment montr beaucoup plus dintrt lgard des
cours des aristocrates, sans doute parce-que celles-ci jouaient un rle primor-
dial aussi bien dans la politique que dans la vie culturelle du pays
21
. En effet,
au XVIII
e
sicle ctaient dj les maisons des lites les plus riches, qui
avaient commenc construire leur propre puissance encore au XVII
e
sicle,
qui dcidaient du caractre des transformations survenant dans le pays, en
propageant les idaux des Lumires
22
.
En regardant ltat des recherche historiographique sur les diffrentes
cours royales fonctionnant dans la Rpublique Nobiliare des Deux Nations
lpoque moderne, quil sagisse dailleurs des cours de rois ou des cours de
grands seigneurs, il faut bien sr tenir compte du fait que la tche de nos his-
toriographes savre sans doute plus difficile que la tche de leurs collgues
venant des autres pays. Cette difficult tient principalement lanantisse-
ment de nombreuses sources documentaires cause des nombreuses guerres
qui avaient saccag notre territoire national dans le pass, ce qui vaut surtout
pour la deuxime guerre mondiale. Il est ainsi paradoxal que lhistorien polo-
nais soit oblig de chercher des matriaux documentaires relatifs au fonction-
nement dune cour polonaise dans les archives trangres : Vienne, Paris,
Berlin, Potsdam, Dresde ou Uppsala. Lune des consquences naturel-
les de ces difficults est le nombre relativement insignifiant de publications
qui soient bases justement sur des matriaux documentaires, surtout lors-
quon compare ce nombre avec la situation connue en France. Pourtant, cette
lacune est peu peu remplie par la publication de documents (correspondan-
ce) crits de la main des membres de la cour royale dans lesquels la personne
du roi et celles de ses courtisans, tout comme les dcisions qui taient prises
la cour, sont montrs sous un jour moins connu au public, en nous fournis-
sant trs souvent des informations quil serait difficile de trouver dans les
registres officiels ou dans les documents du monarque
23
. Cela tant dit, il est
clair que de tels documents peuvent intresser les historiographes qui soccu-
pent de la problmatique de la cour royale lpoque moderne et certains
159
21
A. Aleksandrowicz, Izabela Czartoryska: polsko i europejsko, Lublin 1998; A.
Jakuboszczak, Sarmacka dama. Barbara Sanguszkowa i jej salon towarzyski, Pozna 2008;
D. Michalec, Aleksandra Ogiska i jej czasy, Siedlce 1999.
22
T. Kostkiewiczowa A. Roko (eds.), Dwory magnackie w XVIII wieku: rola i znac-
zenie kulturowe, Varsovie 2005.
23
S. Ochmann-Staniszewska, Listy Jana Andrzeja Morstina, Wrocaw 2002; A.
Perakowski (ed.), Interes WMPana wspomniaem Krlowi Jmci. Listy Jana Jerzego
Przebendowskiego podskarbiego wielkiego koronnego do Adama Mikoaja Sieniawskiego
wojewody beskiego i hetmana wielkiego koronnego z lat 1704-1725, Cracovie 2007.
dentre eux ont mme dj t publis, comme cest le cas du texte dun livre
dexpditions de la chancellerie de la cour, datant du milieu du XVI
e
sicle,
ou celui du rglement de la cour de Sigismond III Wasa, datant de 1589
24
.
Dailleurs, force est de remarquer quen raison de leur caractre prcurseur,
les deux publications reprsentent une proposition de modle ditorial en ce
qui concerne les sources documentaires lies la cour royale. De la mme
manire, elles nous fournissent toutes les deux des informations tout fait
inconnues au sujet du fonctionnement de la cour, en permettant de la sorte aux
historiographes de contrler et, ventuellement, de rectifier les notions dj
tablies depuis longtemps. Signalons encore cette occasion quen dehors des
ditions isoles qui leur sont entirement consacres, des listes de courtisans
et de dignitaires qui sjournaient autrefois dans lentourage du monarque et de
sa famille se trouvent de temps en temps lintrieur de certains ouvrages
caractre monographique ayant justement pour objet la vie de la cour
25
. Enfin,
nous ne saurions oublier de mentionner que le besoin urgent de publier des
sources documentaires ressenti de plus en fortement par les historiographes
polonais a encourag le milieu des historiens et des archivistes de Cracovie
organiser la fin de lanne 2009 une confrence consacre spcialement
cette problmatique
26
.
La complexit de la situation politique dans la Rpublique des Deux
Nations que nous venons de tracer plus haut a pouss de nombreux chercheurs
sintresser la confrontation de deux lments trs caractristiques pour cet
organisme : la cour et les priphries. Les historiens polonais ont adopt li-
de propose par Edward Shils qui se concentrait sur la relation entre le cen-
tre dun ct et la province de lautre
27
. Dans le cas de lancienne Pologne, les
chercheurs mettent laccent sur la structure bipolaire du centre, car ct de
la cour royale (qui, comme on lavait dj dit un peu plus haut, ne rsidait pas
ncessairement Varsovie), il existait la priphrie, ou bien la province de la
Rpublique nobiliaire, o seuls rgnaient en matres les grands seigneurs,
cest--dire les magnats, qui y dveloppaient leur guise un systme dorga-
160
24
I. Kaniewska (ed.), Ksiga Ekspedycji kancelarii nadwornej 1559-1572, Cracovie
1997; Chapowski, Ordynacja dworu, cit.
25
Marchwiska, Krlewskie dwory, cit., p. 163-242.
26
I krakowskie spotkania rdoznawcze. Teoria a praktyka edycji nowoytnych rde
w Polsce, Cracovie 19-20 listopada 2009 roku (organis par Institut dHistoire de
lUniversit Jagellon de Cracovie).
27
E. Shils, The Intellectuals and the Powers, and other Essays, Chicago-London 1972;
sur des possiblits dadaptation de la conception de Shils dans les conditions polonaises
lpoque moderne voir S. Roszak, Dwr magnacki a dwory prowincji: miedzy konfrontacj
a potrzeb adaptacji, dans Dwory magnackie w XVIII wieku, cit., p. 9.
nisation sociale bas sur des liens de clientle et prsupposant leur domination
totale sur la petite noblesse qui en tait dpendante
28
. Cela tant dit, il serait
vraiment difficile de surestimer le rle des magnats dans la mesure o ceux-
ci reprsentaient la vritable ossature du systme de lautonomie des tats.
Certes, le systme en question tait rpandu de faon universelle dans
lEurope tout entire, mais il ne jouait srement nulle part ailleurs un rle
aussi important quen Pologne: partir dun certain moment il avait peu peu
commenc remplacer lappareil de ltat lui-mme, cest--dire le pouvoir
royal, en affaiblissant la signification de la cour du monarque lchelle
nationale. Et comme cette rivalit opposant les cours des grands seigneurs
polonais la cour royale gagnait avec le temps en vigueur, elle laissait tout
naturellement une empreinte de plus en forte sur la vie politique, sociale et
culturelle du pays.
Les tendances historiographiques les plus rcentes se rfltent aussi dans
les projets de recherches menes au niveau national qui runissent les efforts
dhistoriens venants de diffrents centres dtudes situs dans toute la
Pologne. Les effets de leurs travaux aboutissent normalement des confren-
ces et sont recueillis dans les actes que lon publie par la suite. Lune des
meilleures occasions de rencontres sont par exemple les confrences organi-
ses par les chercheurs de Cracovie
29
qui partir de 1993 attirent au Chateau
Royal de Wawel les historiens et les archivistes de toute la Pologne. Les
confrences consacres spcialement la problmatique de la cour royale se
sont droules en 1998, en 2001 et en 2004, en donnant lieu chaque fois la
publication de recueils riches en travaux de grand intrt et de grande actua-
lit scientifique
30
. Comme a remarqu Antoni Mczak, minent historien
161
28
A. Mczak, Klientela: nieformalne systemy wadzy w Polsce i Europie XVI-XVIII
wieku, Varsovie 2000; Id., Rzdzcy i rzdzeni: wadza i spoeczestwo w Europie wczes-
nonowoytnej, Varsovie 2002.
29
Ce projet tait realis par Chateau de Wawel, Institut dHistoire de lUniversit
Jagellon et Institut dHistoire de lAcademie de Pdagogie de Cracovie.
30
A. Gsiorowski (ed.), Dwory i urzdy dawnej Rzeczypospolitej i pastw ocien-
nych. Materiay z sesji zorganizowanej przez Zamek Krlewski na Wawelu listopad 1993,
Cracovie 1996; M. Markiewicz R. Skowron (eds.), Teatrum ceremoniale na dworze
ksit i krlw polskich. Materiay konferencji naukowej zorganizowanej przez Zamek
Krlewski na Wawelu i Instytut Historii Uniwersytetu Jagielloskiego w dniach 23-25
marca 1998, Cracovie 1999; R. Skowron (ed.), Dwr a kraj. Midzy centrum a peryferia-
mi wadzy. Materiay konferencji naukowej zorganizowanej przez Zamek Krlewski na
Wawelu, Instytut Historii Uniwersytetu Jagielloskiego, Instytut Historii Akademii
Pedagogicznej w Krakowie w dniach 2-5 kwietnia 2001, Cracovie 2003; M. Markiewicz
R. Skowron (eds.), Faworyci i opozycjonici: krl a elity polityczne w Rzeczypospolitej XV-
XVIII wieku, Materiay konferencji naukowej zorganizowanej przez Zamek Krlewski na
polonais et promoteur du programme de recherche sur la cour royale aussi
bien en Pologne, dans la Rpublique nobiliaire, que dans lEurope tout enti-
re, la cour du monarque est la seule source de grces, une source unique en
son genre, qui a pourtant chang son rle avec la pratique de llection libre,
en rservant la noblesse polonaise une place privilgie, mais aussi une
place tout fait exceptionnelle par rapport la noblesse du vieux continent
31
.
Voil pourquoi on ne saurait se passer, dans lhistoriographie polonaise, de
questions concernant justement la nature de la rivalit entre la cour du
monarque et les familles des grands seigneurs, tout comme on ne saurait se
passer de questions concernant le degr de fermeture du centre par rapport au
reste du pays, de questions concernant la coexistence de la cour royale et des
institutions centrales par rapport aux diffrentes provinces ou encore aux pri-
fries, de questions concernant le rle du crmonial de la cour royale en tant
que propagateur principal de tendances dans les moeurs, de questions concer-
nant les fonctions culturelles de la cour du monarque et sa confrontation avec
ce qui tait tranger et ce qui tait polonais.
En dehors de lactivit caractre strictement scientifique, par exemple
sous forme de confrences dont nous venons de parler plus haut, la probl-
matique des cours royales a connu dans les trente dernires annes toute une
srie dinitiatives visant la vulgarisation du sujet auprs du grand public.
Parmi ces initiatives, il convient de citer en premier lieu les expositions orga-
nises au Chteau royal de Varsovie, avec des catalogues trs attrayants di-
ts cette occasion, contenant les textes des plus grands experts du domaine.
Citons ici les expositions qui taient intitules: Laigle et les trois couronnes.
Le voisinage polono-suodois sur la Mer Baltique lpoque moderne
(2002)
32
ou encore Stanisaw Leszczyski. Un roi de Pologne qui devient
Prince de Lorraine (2005), exposition qui a t montre dabord Nancy,
notamment dans le cadre de la Saison Polonaise en France (2004)
33
. Une autre
initiative de ce genre a t entreprise en 1997 par le Muse National de
Varsovie. Organise loccasion du tricentenaire de la signature de lunion
162
Wawelu, Instytut Historii Uniwersytetu Jagielloskiego i Instytut Historii Uniwersytetu ls-
kiego w dniach 15-17 listopada 2004, Cracovie 2006.
31
A. Mczak, Wprowadzenie do obrad, dans Dwr a kraj, cit., p. 19.
32
K. Poujan (ed.), Orze i trzy korony. Ssiedztwo polsko-szwedzkie nad Batykiem w
epoce nowoytnej (XVI-XVIII w.), wystawa 8 kwietnia 7 lipca 2002 w Zamku Krlewskim
w Warszawie, Varsovie 2002.
33
Z. Jurkowlaniec (ed.), Stanisaw Leszczyski. Krl Polski ksiciem Lotaryngii.
Wystawa na Zamku Krlewskim w Warszawie, 25 kwietnia 10 lipca 2005, Varsovie 2005.
La personne du roi et de son cour taient present recemment par M. Forycki, Stanisaw
Leszczyski sarmata i Europejczyk 1677-1766, Pozna 2006.
polono-saxonne, lexposition en question tait intitule: Sous une mme cou-
ronne: les Collections Royales dArt Dresde et a t ensuite enrichie par un
catalogue publi par le muse
34
. Il faut souligner avec force que toutes ces
initiatives sont particulirement prcieuses puisquelles sont organises par
des centres de culture importants qui ont une porte nationale et jouissent de
la coopration professionnelle de nombreux historiens, historiens dart, archi-
vistes ou spcialistes dans le domaine de liconographie et les musologues
35
.
Quant la cour royale de Vilnius, dans la Lituanie de lpoque moderne,
il convient de remarquer avant tout que ctait une cour spcifique, savoir
une cour de grand-duc. Dailleurs son fonctionnement dans la priode en
question na pas t de longue dure. En gnral, les souverains lectifs
taient Vilnius des invits plutt rares et malgr quelques exceptions
comme ctaient le cas de Sigismond Auguste et de Ladislas IV Wasa leurs
sjours taient normalement trop courts pour quils puissent aboutir la for-
mation dune cour lituanienne caractre fixe. On peut dire, en simplifiant un
peu la chose, quil y avait des fonctionnaires de la cour qui taient nomms,
mais il ny avait pas de cour en tant que telle ni, par consquent, de vie cour-
tisane, lexception des priodes o le monarque lui-mme sjournait
Vilnius ou dans le Grand-Duch de Lituanie. En revanche, sous le rgne des
Jagellons aux XV
e
-XVI
e
sicles la cour lituanienne du monarque tait, pen-
dant certaines priodes, un lment important dans la vie politique officielle
et culturelle de la Lituanie. Et cela est trs visible dans lhistoriographie des
dernires dcennies.
Sil sagit de la cour lituanienne dAlexandre I
er
Jagellon (1492-1506), il
convient de remarquer que son histoire avait pendant longtemps reprsent
une lacune importante dans la littrature scientifique, une lacune qui na t
comble quen 1997, notamment grce lexcellente thse de Krzysztof
Pietkiewicz, base sur des sources documentaires particulirement abondan-
tes
36
. Pourtant, tout en ayant t crite en polonais, la thse de Pietkiewicz
reste encore assez peu connue en Pologne. Et cest un grand dommage
163
34
Pod jedn koron: Krlewskie Zbiory Sztuki w Drenie. Katalog wystawy w
Muzeum Narodowym w Warszawie, 26 czerwca-12 padziernika 1997, Varsovie 1997.
35
Il est intressant de mentionner les derniers travaux sur les rsidences de la cour
royale de Cracovie et de Varsovie. K. Targosz, Krlewskie uroczystoci weselne w Krakowie
i na Wawelu 1512-1605, Cracovie 2007; J. Lileyko, Zamek Warszawski. Rezydencja kr-
lewska i siedziba wadz Rzeczypospolitej 1569-1763, Wrocaw 1984; B. Krl-Kaczorowska,
Teatr na Zamku Krlewskim w Warszawie, Varsovie 1986.
36
K. Pietkiewicz, Dwr litewski wielkiego ksicia Aleksandra Litewskiego (1492-
1506), dans Lietuvos valstybe XII-XIII a., Vilnius 1997, p. 75-128.
puisque, comme nous lavons dj signal, cest un travail de grand mrite en
ce quil prsente une richesse dinformations norme. De plus, ce qui nest
pas moins important, son auteur est parvenu expliquer certaines gnralits
(lies la spcificit de la cour lituanienne, y compris la structure de celle-
ci) et a men avec beaucoup dadresse des recherchs compares dont la
valeur est incontestable. Pour complter cette brve caractristique de lhisto-
riographie consacre la cour dAlexandre I
er
Jagellon, il faut galement men-
tionner une autre publication importante, savoir la publication des livres de
comptes de cette cour partir des sources documentaires qui ont t trouves
dans les Archives du Trsor de la Couronne (les Comptes royaux) qui font
partie des Archives Gnrales des Actes Anciens de Varsovie.
Si la cour lituanienne dAlexandre I
er
Jagellon na t lobjet de la recher-
che historiographique que trs rcemment, la cour de Sigismond Auguste atti-
rait lattention des historiens depuis bien longtemps. Parmi les ouvrages fon-
damentaux qui lui ont t consacrs, il faut citer dabord le travail de Ludwik
Kolankowski, datant du 1913
37
, mme sil est clair qu la lumire de ltat
actuel de recherche, ce travail ne peut plus tre considr comme suffisant.
Quant aux autres ouvrages, quil sagisse de travaux plus volumineux ou de
contributions de moindre taille, il est sans doute ncessaire de mentionner le
travail de la chercheuse lituanienne Raimonda Ragauskiene qui sest pen-
che sur une question trs importante dans les historiographies polonaise et
lituanienne, en cherchant notamment comprendre si aprs lavnement de
Sigismond Auguste au trne de Pologne en 1548 et, partant, aprs lunifica-
tion dans sa personne de la dignit de grand-duc lituanien et celle de roi de
Pologne, il est encore possible de continuer parler de lexistence de la cour
lituanienne ou il faudrait, en revanche, parler seulement dune limitation de
son fonctionnement. Cette question a t aborde par Raimonda Ragauskiene
dans son article intitul Lietuvikasis ygimanto Augusto dvaras (1548-1572)
realybe ar ficija?
38
. La chercheuse, en se servant de sources documentaires
trs prcieuses puisquelles ont t puises dans les actes des Mtrique de la
Lituanie, parvient la conclusion quen raison des longs et frquents sjours
du monarque en Lituanie et Vilnius, il est justifi de parler dune existence
relle de la cour. Disons enfin que la dissertation de la chercheuse lituanienne
est un travail complmentaire et, en quelque sorte, un travail polmique par
164
37
L. Kolankowski, Zygmunt August wielki ksi Litwy do roku 1548, Cracovie 1913.
38
R. Ragauskiene, Lietuvikasis ygimanto Augusto dvaras (1548-1572) realybe ar
ficija?, dans Vilniaus emutine pilis XVIa.-XIXa pradioje. 2005-2006 tyrimai, Vilnius 2007,
pp. 33-50.
rapport louvrage de Marek Ferenc que nous avons dj cit tout lheure
et qui stait concentr uniquement sur la cour de Cracovie du roi Jagellon,
sans tenir compte de lexistence de la cour de Vilnius.
En parlant de Raimonda Ragauskiene et de sa contribution aux recher-
ches consacres la problmatique des cours en Pologne et en Lituanie, il ne
faut oublier de dire quelle sest occupe aussi de la cour de Barbara
Radziwi, Cracovie
39
. En effet, dans sa monographie concernant la vie de la
femme de Sigismond Auguste, la chercheuse lituanienne a prsent aussi bien
la composition du milieu des courtisans que lorganisation et le fonctionne-
ment de la cour en question. Malheureusement, malgr son caractre precur-
seur, louvrage de Raimonda Ragauskiene na pas encore t traduit en polo-
nais.
Il faut dire que dans les dernires annes on assiste laccroissement de
lintrt des historiens lituaniens pour la rsidence royale de Vilnius, ce qui
tient sans doute sa reconstrucion, une reconstruction qui dailleurs devrait
bientt sachever. Dans le contexte de cet intrt accru des historiographes
lituaniens, il convient dvoquer surtout la publication dun recueil de travaux
qui sont consacrs au Chteau Bas de Vilnius
40
.
Quant au problme des sjours des rois lectifs Vilnius, il a t abord
par lhistorien lituanien Zigmantas Kiaupa dans une tude publie en 2006
41
.
Une autre publication qui mrite menton est la contribution de Mindaugas
Paknys qui a publi un matriel de source trs prcieux intitul Rvision des
stations de la cour royale qui avait t dresse Vilnus encore en 1636
42
. Ce
matriel a t lobjet de plusieurs publications, y compris dun article paru
dans la revue Lituano-Slavica Posnaniensia
43
.
Il faut constater que dans la recherche sur la cour royale en Lituanie, ce
sont les travaux des spcialistes lituaniens qui se font de plus en plus remar-
quer, alors que les travaux des chercheurs polonais se concentrent principale-
ment sur les cours des grands seigneurs
44
. Les contributions des historiens
165
39
Eadem, Barbara Radvilaite, Vilnius 1999.
40
Vilniaus emutine pilis XVIa.-XIXa pradioje. 2005-2006 tyrimai, Vilnius 2007.
41
Z. Kiaupa, Wilno w czasach pierwszych Wazw, dans W. Kriegseisen A. Rachuba
(eds.), Litwa w epoce Wazw, Varsovie 2006, p. 85-96.
42
M. Paknys, Vilniaus miestas ir miestieiai 1636 m.: namai, gyventojai, sveiai,
Vilnius 2006. Source orginale: BUJ, Slab. Fol. 12 (collection de Berlinki).
43
Id., Wilno roku 1636 wedug Rewizji gospd, Lituano-Slavica Posnaniensia. Studia
Historica, XII (2007), p. 87-107.
44
T. Kempa, Mikoaj Krzysztof Radziwi Sierotka (1549-1616). Wojewoda wileski,
Varsovie 2000; U. Augustyniak, Dwr i klientela Krzysztofa Radziwia (1585-1640).
Mechanizmy patronatu, Varsovie 2001; U. Augustyniak (ed.), Administracja i ycie cod-
lituaniens et polonais ayant pour objet surtout laspect culturel de lactivit
des cours de magnats en Lituanie ont t publies dans un recueil dit loc-
casion de la XVII
e
rencontre de la Commission dtudes Lituaniennes auprs
du Comit des Sciences Historiques de lAcadmie Polonaise des Sciences
45
.
Bien sr, cette coopration des historiens des deux nations qui nvitent pas
de dvelopper des recherches qui nous intressent ici dune faon plus parti-
culire est un phnomne trs positif qui ne peut que nous remplir de grande
satisfaction.
En passant lhistoriographie tchque relative aux cours royales de l-
poque moderne, on peut facilement remarquer quelle se concentre dans les
dernires annes principalement sur la prsentation du rle quavait jou en la
matire lactivit de la noblesse et de lartistocratie. Il faut bien sr tenir
compte de la situation trs spcifique de ces couches sociales vivant dans le
Royaume de Bohme aux temps modernes. En effet, la suite de la dfaite
que larme des rvolts tchques de confession protestante avait subie lors de
la bataille de la Montagne Blanche (1620) contre les troupes de lempereur,
leur royaume, qui jusque-l avait t peu prs indpendant, tait soudain
devenu une simple province de la monarchie habsbourgeoise, alors que les
nobles et les aristocrates qui avaient t la tte de linsurrection anti-imp-
riale et qui navaient pas russi abandonner le territoire national envahi par
lennemi, avaient t soumis des reprsailles et mme une extermination
atroces 600 personnes avaient t alors excutes ou encore avaient t
dmunis de leurs droits et de leurs privilges, sans parler de leurs patrimoines,
parfois normes, qui leur avaient t confisqus et transmis par la suite des
familles dorigine allemande. Dans cette situation dramatique, les dbris des
couches suprieures de la socit tchque essayaient de sauver tout prix les
traditions nationales. Et cest peut-tre pour cette raison justement que la cour
impriale de la Maison de Habsbourg, tout comme la rsidence habsbour-
geoise Prague, sont beaucoup moins prsentes dans les recherches de nos
collgues tchques. Mais cela ne veut pas dire quand mme que cette probl-
matique en soit totalement absente. En effet, elle a tout rcemment fait lob-
jet de la recherche mene par lhistorien tchque qui est sans dout le plus actif
dans ce domaine Vclav Bek et qui sest pench plus spcialement sur la
166
zienne w dobrach Radziwiw XVI-XVIII wieku, Varsovie 2009; en anglais M. Siekierski,
Landed wealth in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: the economic affairs of Prince Nicholas
Christophe Radziwi (1549-1616), Acta Baltico Slavica, XX (1991), pp. 239-308; XXI
(1992), pp. 195-300.
45
U. Augustyniak (ed.), rodowiska kulturotwrcze i kontakty kulturalne Wielkiego
Ksistwa Litewskiego od XV do XIX wieku, Varsovie 2009.
priode 1526-1740 en tant que rdacteur dirigeant une recherche collective
consacre justement aux relations entre la noblesse dans la monarchie hab-
sourgeoise et la cour impriale
46
. Parmi les nombreux travaux de cet auteur, il
faut citer aussi un article, publi dailleurs dans le mme recueil
47
, concernant
la prsence de la noblesse de la couronne tchque aux diffrentes cours habs-
bourgeoises au XVI
e
sicle et au dbut du XVII
e
sicle. Ensuite, on ne saurait
oublier de mentionner lexistence de certains travaux qui sont consacrs la-
nalyse de la composition du milieu des courtisans vivant la cour de lempe-
reur Rodolphe II et qui nous prsentent galement la manire dont cette cour
tait organise
48
. En plus, on peut trouver des publications de listes nominales
des courtisans de lempereur habsbourgeois et la caractristique des relations
entre les plus hautes fonctions du Royaume de Bohme et la cour impriale.
Cela dit, il faut aussi remarquer un fait trs loquent : la grande majorit des
travaux qui nous intressent ont t publis non pas sous forme de monogra-
phies indpendantes, mais dans des revues prodiques nationales ou dans des
ouvrages collectifs.
Rptons-le : les recherches tchques se concentrent dune faon trs nette
sur les diffrents aspects de fonctionnement des cours de la noblesse riche et des
grands seigneurs de la Couronne tchque et sur leurs relations avec la cour
impriale de la maison de Habsbourg. Bien sr, le champs dinvestigation est
trs vaste et il a t prsent il y a dix ans par un historien allemand dans un arti-
cle publi dans un recueil tchque qui tait consacr aux rsidences aristocra-
tiques et aux cours fonctionnant au dbut de lpoque moderne
49
. Les auteurs
167
46
V. Bek, Dvr habsburskch csa v letech 1526-1740 a historiografie na prahu
21. stoleti, dans lechta v habsbursk monarchii a csask dvr (1526-1740), Opera histo-
rica, 10, esk Budjovice 2003, pp. 5-32, rs. en allemand.
47
Id., lechta ze zem Koruny esk na habsburskch dvorech w pedblohorskm sto-
let, ivi, pp. 153-189, rs. en allemand. Voir aussi Id., Ferdinand Tyrolsk mezi Prahou a
Innsbruckiem. lechta z eskch zem na cest ke dvorm prvnch Habsburk, esk
Budjovice 2006.
48
E. Draarov, Dvr Rudolfa II. Pspvek k organizaci a personln skladb dvora
stedoevropskch Habsburk v 16. a na potku 17. stolet, Sbornik praci len
Socialistickho svasu mldee Sttniho stedniho archivu v Praze, 2 (1989), pp. 42-86; J.
Hausenblasov, Seznamy dvoan csae Rudolfa II. z let 1580, 1584 a 1589, Paginae his-
toriae, 4 (1996), pp. 39-151, rs. en allemand; Id., Vztah mezi csaskm dvorem a nej-
vymi sprvnmi ady eskho krlovstv v dob vldy Rudolfa II, Sbornik archivnich
praci, 52, 1 (2002), pp. 279-294.
49
M. Reisenleitner, Habsburgische Hfe in der frhen Neuzeit Entwicklungslinien
und Forschungsprobleme, dans Aristokratick rezidence a dvory v ranm novovku, esk
Budjovice 1999, p. 97-114. Voir aussi les nombreux travaux sous la direction ou avec la co-
paternit de V. Bek cit plus haut.
sintressent aussi bien aux aspects politiques et sociaux quaux aspects co-
nomiques de la problmatique quils avaient choisi dexaminer et il faut rele-
ver quen ce qui concerne lanalyse des aspects conomiques on y retrouve
encore quelques traces de lapproche marxiste
50
. Dans la prsentation de la
splendeur de la cour devant tmoigner de la position sociale de laristocratie
et de la noblesse, on met un accent trs net sur les lments gnalogiques et
hraldiques. Il y a beaucoup de travaux qui sont consacrs lactivit cultu-
relle des milieux nobles et aristocratiques
51
, la vie courtisane de tous les
jours, aux moeurs, aux distractions
52
, la mode
53
, lalimentation
54
et mme
leur statut lgal
55
. Il convient enfin de souligner la valeur pratique de ces tra-
vaux, surtout pour tous ces chercheurs intresss cette problmatique qui
sont trangers : la plupart de ces articles sont accompagns dune riche biblio-
graphie la fin et beaucoup dentre eux contiennent mme un rsum rdig
au moins dans une des langues de confrence.
Les historiens tchques noublient pas non plus de publier des sources
documentaires relatives la problmatique de fonctionnement des cours, quil
sagisse de la cour impriale ou des aristocraties
56
. Ces matriaux documen-
taires montrent par exemple trs bien la vie politique et la vie sociale la cour
de Ferdinand II, dans les annes vingt du XVII
e
sicle, la lumire de la cor-
respondance de lun de ses courtisans avec sa femme espagnole
57
. Enfin,
168
50
M. Korychov, Personlni sloeni dvora Jana Kristina z Eggenberku a jeho
manelky Marie Arnotki v eskom Krumlov mezi lty 1665-1719, Jihoesk sbornik his-
torick, 69-70 (2000-2001), pp. 30-51; M. Svoboda, Rezidence pn z Redernu na pelo-
mu 16. a 17. stolet, Opera historica, 7 (1999), pp. 201-222; P. Vorel, Dvory aristokrat v
renesannich echch, ivi, 3 (1993), pp. 137-154.
51
E. Fuikov, B. Bukovinsk, I. Muchka, Umn na dvoe Rudolfa II., Praha 1988.
52
J. Mikulec, Slavnosti a zbavy na dvorech a v rezidennich mstach ranho novov-
ku, esk asopis historick, 97, 3 (1999), pp. 675-676; M. Koldinsk, Kadodennost
renesanniho aristokrata, Praha Litomyl 2004.
53
M. Markov, Mda na dvoe pn z Hradce, Opera historica, 6 (1998), pp. 319-348.
54
Voir les nombreux ouvrages de Josef Hrdlika comme p. ex.: Hodovn stl a dvors-
k spolenost. Strava na ran novovkch ariistokratickch dvorech v eskch zemich
(1550-1650), esk Budjovice 2000.
55
T. Rataj, Panovnick dvr v rannovovkm titnm zpravodajstvi, Sbornik archiv-
nich praci, 52, 1 (2002), pp. 295-314.
56
V. Bek P. Krl (eds.), Rezidence a dvory v ranm novovku, Opera Historica, 7
(1999); Slavnosti a zbavy na dvorech a v rezidennch mstech ranho novovku, ivi, 8 (2000).
57
P. Lutter, Politick a spoleensk ivot na dvoe Ferdinanda II. bhem dvactch let
17. stoleti ve svtle panlsk korespondence Zdeka Vojtcha Popela z Lobkovic a jeho
manelky, Opera historica, 4 (1995), pp. 107-124. Voir aussi: P. Kopika, Dvr Zdeka
Vojtcha a Polyxeny z Lobkovic ve dvactch a tictch letech 17, ivi, 7 (1999), pp. 469-493.
citons ldition du journal dun autre courtisan de cet empereur, relatifs aux
annes 1602-1633
58
.
Comme dans beaucoup dautres pays (nous en avons parl aussi lors de
la prsentation de la situation polonaise), on organise en Rpublique Tchque
des vnements caractre spectaculaire, par exemple des expositions prpa-
res en coopration avec des historiens et des historiens dart qui dterminent
le choix des objets exposer et les dcrivent. Et il est certain que de pareilles
initiatives sont une excellente occasion pour propager la problmatique des
cours royales qui nous intresse ici. Un exemple concret quon peut sans
doute citer ici, cest ldition dun pais catalogue publi loccasion de lex-
position qui a t organise en 1997 et qui tait consacre la prsentation des
relations entre la cour impriale de Rodolphe II et la ville o il rsidait, cest-
-dire la ville de Prague, avec un accent particulier mis sur les valeurs de la
capitale tchque qui lpoque moderne tait un vritable centre culturel et
spirituel de lEurope centrale
59
. Remarquons dailleurs, en marges des pr-
sentes rflexions, que si la priode du rgne de cet empereur est tellement pr-
sente dans lhistoriographie tchque, cest justement parce quil avait transf-
r en 1583 la capitale de lEmpire des Habsbourg de Vienne Prague dans
laquelle il avait choisi de stablir avec sa cour fastueuse. Pour sen convain-
cre, il suffit de comparer le grand nombre de travaux qui ont t consacrs
la priode de son rgne
60
avec les quelques exemples de travaux isols quon
a consacrs aux rgnes de Lopold I
er61
ou celui de limpratrice Marie-
Thrse
62
.
Dautre part, il faut avouer que les recherches qui sont menes par les his-
toriographes tchques dans le domaine des cours connaissent un dveloppe-
ment systmatique. Certes, les monographies sous forme de livres sont enco-
re assez rares aujourdhui, mais le spectre dcidment vaste des articles qui
ont t publis jusqu maintenant ce sujet, laisse prsager un avenir opti-
169
58
M. Koldinsk P. Mata (eds.), Denik rudolfinskho dvoana: Adam mlad z
Valdtejna 1602-1633, Praha 1997.
59
E. Fukov, J. M. Bradburne, B. Bukovinsk, J. Hausenblasov, L. Konen, I.
Muchka, M. ronk (eds.), Rudolf II. a Praha. Csask dvr a rezidenn msto jako kul-
turni a duchovni centrum stedni Evropy. Katalog vystavench expont, Praha 1997.
60
Aux ouvrages sur cette priode cit dj, ajoutons, titre dexemple: J. Janek,
Rudolf II. a jeho doba, Praha 1987; Prag um 1600. Beitrge zur Kunst und Kultur am Hofe
Rudolfs II., Essen 1988; R. J. W. Evans, Rudolf II. a jeho svt. Mylen a kultura ve stedn
Evrop 1576-1612, Praha 1997.
61
Voir J. Mikulec, Leopold I. ivot a vlda baroknho Habsburka, Praha-Litomyl
1997.
62
Cf. E. Maur, Marie Terezie korunovace na usmenou 12.5.1743, Praha 2003.
miste pour cette branche de lhistographie tchque, dautant plus que de nou-
veaux chercheurs appartenant la jeune gnration rejoignent avec dtermi-
nation et enthousiasme le courant historiographique represent par leurs pr-
dcesseurs minents, tels que Vclav Bek, cit ici plusieurs reprises.
Parmi ces jeunes continuateurs de son approche, on peut mentionner Petr
Mata, auteur dune synthse stendant sur plus de 1000 pages, consacre
lunivers de laristocratie tchque au XVI
e
et au XVII
e
sicles
63
.
En revenant la situation polonaise, nous croyons indispensable de dire
encore quelques mots au sujet de la recherche ddi aux cours royales qui
fonctionnaient dans la Rpublique des Deux Nations sous la dynastie des
Wettin. Commenons par rappeler qu la fin du XVII
e
sicle, llection
dAuguste II au trne de Pologne eut comme consquence politique principa-
le lunion polono-saxonne que nous avons dailleurs dj voque un peu plus
haut. Son successeur fut son fils qui, aprs avoir t lu, prit le nom dAuguste
III et qui a rgn dans les annes 1733-1763. Son rgne, du point de vue qui
nous intresse ici dune faon plus particulire, fut marqu par le fonctionne-
ment de deux cours la fois, dont lune se trouvait Dresde et lautre
Varsovie. Lintrt des historiographes pour cette priode sest accru dune
certaine manire ds la fin des annes quatre-vingts du sicle prcdent,
notamment lorsque Jacek Staszewski a mis en question la vision plutt nga-
tive que les historiens avaient jusque-l propage en Pologne par rapport au
rgne des deux Wettin dAuguste II et dAuguste III
64
. En consquence de
ce regain dintrt pour la problmatique de cette poque, les chercheurs ont
examin, dans une double perspective, la prsence des monarques saxons et
de leur cour Varsovie et la situation des Polonais la cour de Dresde
65
.
Quant lhistoriographie allemande concernant ces deux cours, elle nest
pas trs riche, mme sil y a quelques ouvrages caractrisant la silhouette
dAuguste II en tant qulecteur de Saxe et roi de Pologne
66
; on trouve des tra-
vaux qui dcrivent la vie quotidienne lpoque des rois saxons, tant Dresde
170
63
P. Mata, Svt esk aristokracie: (1500-1700), Praha 2004. Voir aussi dautres publi-
cations de cet auteur.
64
J. Staszewski, August III Sas, Wrocaw 1989; Id., Czasy saskie rehabilitacja czy
lepsze poznanie?, Wiadomoci Historyczne, 40, 2 (1997), pp. ..
65
Id., Polacy w osiemnastowiecznym Drenie, Wrocaw 1986.
66
F. Frster, August der Starke. Kurfrst von Sachsen und Knig von Polen.
Geschildert als Regent und Mensch, Leipzig [sans date], pp. 405-434; August der Starke und
seine Zeit. Beitrge des Kolloquiums vom 16./17. September 1994 auf der Festung
Knigstein, SAXONIA Schriftenreihe des Vereins fr schsische Landesgeschichte e. V.,
Dresden 1995, vol. I, pp. 134-147; K. Czok, August der Starke und seine Zeit, [4. Aufl.],
Leipzig 2004; R. Gross, Geschichte Sachsens, Leipzig 2001, pp. 135-138.
qu Varsovie
67
. Le plus grand nombre de travaux sont consacrs des mani-
festations de diffrentes activits artistiques la cour de Dresde et la cour
de Varsovie, avec un accent particulier mis sur le fonctionnement de lopra
et du thtre, sur la musique et le ballet ou encore sur lactivit des diffrents
artistes au service de la cour saxo-polonaise
68
. Quoi quon en dise, il est clair
pourtant que ltat de la recherche consacre la priode saxonne dans la
Rpublique nobiliaire est beaucoup plus modeste que celui qui concerne la
priode de la dynastie des Wasa, si bien que de nombreux historiens formu-
lent des propositions de plus en plus concrtes visant intensifier les investi-
gations dans ce domaine.
Pour conclure, nous souhaiterions encore nous arrter un instant sur cer-
taines remarques gnralisantes concernant plus spcialement lhistoriogra-
phie polonaise, tant donn que les autres historiographies lituaunienne,
tchques et celle relative la Saxe ont dj t caractrises plus haut. Tout
dabord, force est de remarquer que lhistoriographie polonaise des dernires
dcennies ayant pour objet lpoque moderne ne se distingue pratiquement
pas des historiographies occidentales qui largissent constamment leurs
champs dinvestigations dans le domaine des cours royales la mme poque.
Cela tient dans une certaine mesure au fait que les analyses lies la
Rpublique nobiliare taient beaucoup moins assujetties des limitations ou
des contrles de la part des autorits communistes que les analyses ayant
pour objet diffrentes priodes postrieures, si bien que de nombreux ouvra-
ges importants et libres de toute vision marxiste existaient dj avant lanne
1989.
171
67
J. Bumel, Auf dem Weg zum Thron. Die Krnungsreise Augusts der Starken,
Dresden 1997, pp. 67-107 et 193-203; E. Mikosch, Denn Europa ist begierig dieses Fest
anzusehen [] Kleideraufwand und Kleiderzereminiell bei den Hochzeitsfeierlichkeiten in
Dresden im Jahre 1719, dans August der Starke und seine Zeit. Beitrge des Kolloquiums
vom 16./17. September 1994 auf der Festung Knigstein, SAXONIA, cit., vol. 1, pp. 134-
147; Geschichte der Stadt Dresden, vol. 2; R. Gross U. John (eds.), Vom Ende der
Dreiigjhrigen Krieges bis zur Reichsgrndung, Stuttgart 2006, pp. 34-37 et 196-215.
68
M. Gordon-Smith, Oper, Theater und Ballett am warschauer Hof unter den Knigen
August II. und August III, dans Polen und Sachsen. Zwischen Nhe und Distanz, Dresdner
Hefte, 15, 50 (2/1997), pp. 34-39; K. Rudert, Hofknstler in schsisch polnischen
Diensten?, dans Sachsen und Polen zwischen 1697 und 1765. Beitrge der wissenschaftli-
chen Konferenz vom 26. bis 28. Juni 1997 in Dresden, SAXONIA, 4/5 (1998), pp. 400-
418; C. Caraffa, Offene Fragen zu Gaetano Chiavieri, dans Sachsen und Polen, ivi, pp. 419-
441; M. Fechner, Die Musik am Hofe zu Dresden im Augusteischen Zeitalter, dans Sachsen
und Polen, ivi, pp. 442-449.
En outre, il convient de constater, que lhistoriographie polonaise respec-
te sans aucun doute les exigences de traitement pluridisciplinaire de la mati-
re analyse. En effet, nous avons affaire des ouvrages qui nont pas t crits
seulement par des historiens, mais aussi par des historiens dart, des littrai-
res, des archivistes qui placent normalement leur analyse dans un contexte
plus large, tant au niveau politique quau niveau social et culturel. La cour,
comme nous avons dj dit plus haut, nest plus traite comme un espace
ferm. Elle est, au contraire, analyse travers les aspects les plus varis de
son rayonnement sur le reste du territoire du pays. Et une telle approche sins-
crit bien dans la spcificit du systme politico-administratif de la Rpublique
nobiliaire, dans laquelle le roi ntait quun primus inter pares. partir du
XVII
e
sicle, on observe le rle de plus en plus important jou par les cours
des grands seigneurs. Et cette transformation a aussi trouv une rponse dans
les travaux des historiographes polonais qui y ont ragi en adoptant une
approche dichotomique qui met trs bien en relief les relations entre la cour
dun ct et le pays de lautre; ou encore la relation entre le centre et les pri-
phries. Cest justement en lien avec cette problmatique que des projets de
recherche long terme, runissant des historiens venant de diffrents centres
dtudes de toute la Pologne ont t lancs, en apportant des rsultats bien
concrets sous forme de confrences scientifiques et dactes qui sont publis
par la suite. En outre, lhistoriographie polonaise a connu un approfondisse-
ment remarquable de la recherche de type prosopographique qui nous per-
mette de mieux connatre la structure des diffrentes cours royales et lvolu-
tion des carrires des gens qui y rsidaient. Enfin, on observe le dveloppe-
ment dun domaine dans lequel autrefois, pour diffrentes raisons, il ny avait
pas de rsultats satisfaisants il sagt de la publication de sources, o sont
prises en considration plusieurs matriaux qui jusqul ntaient pas trats.
Et nous sommes profondment convaincus que ce sont exactement les tudes
allant dans cette direction qui reprsentent la plus importante tche de recher-
che que les historiens polonais doivent assumer.
172
II. Court and power
Peter Campbell Chantal Grell
LA COUR ET LES MODLES DE POUVOIR:
BILAN HISTORIOGRAPHIQUE
La tradition de la grande histoire de lEtat relate la monte en puissance
des Etats modernes travers une vision institutionnelle et lgale; elle voque
les diffrents dtenteurs du pouvoir et leur personnalit, les rouages du pou-
voir, son efficacit ou les rsistances quil suscite, sans sattarder sur lessen-
ce ou la nature du pouvoir. Cette histoire du pouvoir a t spontanment pen-
se comme histoire institutionnelle de lEtat. Bien que le concept dEtat de
la Renaissance ait dfini la cour comme centre du pouvoir princier et de la
cration artistique, pour les historiens et les sociologues de ltat, il ne sagis-
sait-l que dune forme transitoire vers la monarchie absolue
1
. La monarchie
absolue elle-mme tait dfinie comme une forme dEtat dont la logique cen-
tralisatrice devait conduire au dclin du pouvoir aristocratique et des institu-
tions reprsentatives caractrisant le Stndestaat, en faveur dune concen-
tration du pouvoir entre les seules mains du prince et de ses ministres. La cour
175
1
Un bon exemple de ce schma rvolu est le manuel de G. Poggi, The Development of
the Modern State. A Sociological Introduction, Stanford 1978. Voir aussi P. Anderson, Ltat
absolutiste: ses origines et ses voies, I, LEurope de l Ouest, Paris 1978. Pour apprcier les
progrs effectus depuis vingt ans, voir P. S. Gorski, Beyond Marx and Hintze? Third Wave
Theories of Early Modern State Formation, Comparative Studies in Society and History,
. (2001), pp. 851-861: Until quite recently, research in this area was completely domina-
ted by neo-Marxist and noe-Hintzian scholars, who emphasized the impact of economic
and/or geopolitical factorsand saw state power in purely fiscal and military terms Over
the last decade [a growing number of sociologists and historians] have argued that there is
more to state power than coercion and extraction, and more to state formation than econo-
mics and geopolitics. (p. 851)
nexistait pas comme objet dtude puisquelle avait vocation cder la place
un Etat administratif, prcurseur de lEtat de droit contemporain.
Cette vision rductrice a d cder la place des modles plus complexes
lorsque lhistorien a pris la mesure de limportance des cours
2
. La cour, en
outre, ne peut se laisser apprhender travers une approche institutionnelle
car elle na pas gnr darchives comme il peut en exister pour un secrtariat
ou un conseil royal. Elle joue tant de rles diffrents que son tude requiert
lanalyse de sources trs disparates, aussi bien prives que publiques, ces der-
nires archives refltant elles-mmes une certaine ide de lEtat. Lapproche
la plus fructueuse doit envisager les diverses formes de pouvoir qui sentre-
croisent dans les cours et sy fondent, faisant de la cour une institution part
entire, reflet dun pouvoir protiforme.
De ce fait, lhistoire des cours a d emprunter des modles et des outils
conceptuels dautres disciplines, notamment la sociologie, parce lhistoire
traditionnelle de lEtat ne rpondait plus ses questionnements. Ainsi le dve-
loppement des tudes sur les cours a-t-il notamment abouti un changement
de paradigme. Toutefois, sil est somme toute ais dvoquer les travaux sur
la cour comme expression, lieu dexercice, instrument, et mise en scne du
pouvoir, il lest beaucoup moins de mettre en relation cour et modles de
pouvoir. Au moment de rdiger ce bilan, force est de constater que la dfini-
tion du pouvoir nest ni vidente, ni transparente et que ce concept ne peut se
confondre avec la notion dEtat, ni avec celle dautorit, et quil peut aussi
tre envisag comme diffus dans le tissu social, et non rduit un ou quelques
dtenteurs
3
.
Cet article retrace donc les grands jalons qui ont permis aux cours de
devenir un prisme essentiel pour la connaissance du pouvoir et de la politique
lge moderne. A travers quelques titres importants dune bibliographie
aujourdhui immense, il prsente lvolution des rflexions sur la notion de
176
2
Comme un excellent exemple de ce nouveau champ de recherches sur la cour de la
renaissance, on pourrait citer S. Bertelli, F. Cardini, E. Garbero Zorzi (eds.), Italian
Renaissance Courts, Londres 1986. Il est noter quaucune tude comparable existe pour la
cour moderne.
3
Lhistorien espagnol, J. Vicens Vives, dans sa critique de larticle de Hartung et
Mousnier, a ainsi insist sur le fait quil ne faut pas seulement tudier le pouvoir et lEtat
travers les institutions, ni dans les crits figs des juristes (Loyseau), mais en mettant lac-
cent sur les actions des groupes et les individus, en insistant sur la ralit
tumultueuse: Estructura administrativa estatal en los siglos XVI y XVII, dans XIe Congrs
international des sciences historiques, rapports, IV, 1960, pp. 1-24, version anglaise dans H.
J. Cohn (ed.), Government in Reformation Europe, Londres 1971, pp. 58-87.
pouvoir et la manire dont elles ont inform et enrichi les recherches sur les
cours, pour aboutir une nouvelle conception de lEtat moderne.
1. Les cours : un objet dtude rcent
Longtemps, la cour fut un sujet dtude inexistant, qui navait pas lieu
dtre
4
, occult dans les discours sur les passs nationaux des diffrents pays
europens. En premier lieu, les historiographies romantique et librale, qui
ont nourri la rflexion sur les fondements politiques et idologiques de lEtat-
nation, ont relgu la cour hors du champ de lhistorien en rduisant le rle
des rois et des monarchies dans construction des nations modernes. La cour,
en effet, tait un espace historique inadapt aux enjeux de lhistoire des XIXe
et XXe sicles. En Angleterre, patrie du parlementarisme, de la libert et la
tolrance selon la vision dominante dite whig du pass, la cour ne pouvait
intresser, sinon comme image ou reflet dabsolutismes la franaise ou
lespagnole, videmment arbitraires, despotiques et archaques
5
. En France et
en Espagne, on jugea prudent de cantonner lhistoire anecdotique des cours
dont le dveloppement dsignait les drives dun pouvoir autocratique. En
Italie ou en Allemagne, la multiplicit des cours rappelait la division des his-
toriens soucieux de construire un pass commun, ft-il mythique. En somme,
pour des raisons diverses, chacun considrait la cour comme un espace frivo-
le o les princes donnaient libre cours leurs caprices et leurs dpenses
inconsidres.
Aces condamnations de lhistoriographie librale vinrent sajouter celles
du marxisme dont le succs fut durable au XXe sicle. Pour les marxistes, les
cours symbolisaient un ge honni, o les classes privilgies vivaient en para-
sites de loppression scandaleuse du peuple. Marque au sceau du marxisme,
lEcole franaise des Annales qui domina lhistoire dans les annes 50 et 60,
prolongea la disgrce des cours en dclarant la guerre lhistoire politique tra-
ditionnelle, celle des batailles, des rois, des grands hommes. Sintresser alors
la cour signifiait sattacher lvnementiel, la superficie de lhistoire,
linsignifiant.
Ainsi, deux sicles durant, lhistorien, qui sintressait la cour, dment
tiquet conservateur et ractionnaire, se condamnait-il lisolement, voire au
La cour et les modles de pouvoir: bilan historiographique
177
4
Comme lont soulign C. Mozzarelli G. Olmi (eds.), La Corte nella cultura e nella
storiografia: imagini e posizioni tra otto e novecento, Rome 1983.
5
P. Vasquez Gestal, El espacio del poder. La corte en la historiografia moderna espa-
ola y europea, Valladolid 2005, pp. 94-97.
mpris condescendant. Dans ce contexte, aucune analyse du pouvoir ou des
modles de pouvoir en relation avec la cour ntait donc possible. Ainsi, dans
les annes 50, ni G. Elton, dans The Tudor Revolution in government
6
(1953),
ni Roland Mounier et Fritz Hartung qui prsentrent leur schma du dvelop-
pement de la monarchie absolue lors du congrs international des sciences
historiques en 1955
7
, ne parlaient-ils de la cour ni ne lui accordaient de rle
politique.
Lapport de la sociologie
Une premire ouverture vint des sociologues. Non pas de Marx, qui mani-
festa videmment peu dintrt pour ce sujet. Mais de Weber et ses ides sur la
domination charismatique, patrimonial ou bureaucratique
8
. Limportance de
Weber, qui ne sest pas lui-mme intress aux cours, est cependant immen-
se. Bien que rarement cit par les historiens, qui se mfient des modles, ceux-
ci se sont nanmoins appropri son langage, ses concepts, ses catgories et sa
vision de lvolution historique de lEtat, un Etat irrationnel lorigine, puis
rationalis sous limpulsion du march. Il nous semble que la nouvelle histoi-
re des formes de pouvoir associes aux tats domins par des cours lpoque
moderne, remet en question lapplication de ses modles pour cette poque.
Norbert Elias est un critique de Weber en ce quil postule la rationalit de
la socit de cour. Elias envisageait le pouvoir comme un habitus domin par
des normes culturelles. Son gnie est davoir conu la cour comme un espace
social, dfendant lide que lon pouvait et devait parler dune socit de cour
articule tout un systme dinterdpendances et de fonctions qui la diffren-
ciaient des autres socits dans le temps et dans lespace, et des autres grou-
pes sociaux du temps.
Deux ouvrages ont fait date: La Socit de cour et, surtout, Le processus
de civilisatio
9
, plus novateur, qui visait inscrire le particulier dans le gn-
178
6
G. R. Elton, The Tudor Revolution in Government: administrative changes in the
Reign of Henri VIII, Cambridge 1953.
7
R. Mousnier F. Hartung, Quelques problmes concernant la monarchie absolue, in
Relazioni del X Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storiche, IV, Storia Moderna, Firenze
1955, pp. 1-55.
8
M. Weber, dir. Guenther Roth, Claus Wittich, Economy and society: an outline of
interpretive sociology, Berkeley-Los Angeles-Londres 1978, vol. 1.
9
N. Elias, Die Hofische Gesellschaft, Berlin 1969; La socit de cour, Paris 1974;
ber den Prozess der Zivilisation, Basel 1939; La Civilisation des murs, Paris 1969.
ral, lindividuel dans le collectif (voir les recherches sociogntiques et
psychogntiques
10
). Elias fit de la cour son champ dinvestigation privil-
gi pour tudier des identits collectives qui navaient pas dexistence en
dehors de la mcanique sociale dans lesquelles elles se trouvaient immerges.
Cette dmarche visait unir ce qui tait isol, donner un sens aux lments
disparates que vhiculait lhistoriographie moderne. Elias tait aussi un struc-
turaliste qui envisageait le pass comme un rseau complexe de structures hi-
rarchises. Il sintressa donc la socit de cour de lintrieur, comme lieu
de rencontre dindividus; et de lextrieur, comme partie de la socit du
temps et, dans la dynamique du dveloppement de la modernit, comme insti-
tution-clef qui assura le passage entre le Moyen Age et la socit contempo-
raine; en somme, il fit de la cour un instrument de comprhension et dinter-
prtation de processus historiques : une ide qui surprit par sa nouveaut et ses
perspectives. Une ide, en tout cas, riche de promesses.
Les ouvrages dElias furent tardivement publis et traduits; bien quil ait
successivement vcu dans plusieurs pays, la communaut acadmique fit par-
tout montre dune totale indiffrence avant les annes 70
11
et, par la suite,
dune frquente superficialit. Les nombreux travaux sur Elias soulignent la
mconnaissance de son principal apport, savoir sa rflexion conceptuelle et
mthodologique
12
. Paralllement, ses analyses historiques nont pas manqu
dtre contestes comme schmatiques
13
. Elias a nanmoins limmense mri-
te davoir fait de la cour une catgorie historiographique et sociologique, alors
mme que les historiens ne sy intressaient pas. Ses intuitions fcondes ont
ouvert de trs nombreuses perspectives dont lintrt nest apparu que trs
progressivement, suivant une logique qui nous intresse ici au premier chef.
La leon en tirer est que lhistorien est rarement un animal thorique, mais
quil emprunte aux thories ce dont il a besoin, au moment ncessaire.
179
10
Cette partie a t publie sparment en France sous le titre La dynamique de
lOccident, Paris 1975.
11
Elias est dcd en 1990. La Socit de cour fut crite et conue dans lAllemagne
des annes 20 et Le Processus de civilisation, dans la foule. Elias migra en 1933. Il gagna
dabord la Suisse, puis tenta dobtenir un poste acadmique Paris. Il vcut, avec de brves
interruptions en Angleterre de 1935 1975, comme professeur Leicester partir de 1954.
Il se retira Amsterdam en 1984.
12
Dans lordre chronologique des principaux travaux: S. Mennell, Norbert Elias. An
Introduction, Oxford 1989; S. Tabboni, N. Elias, un ritratto intellettuale, Bologne 1993; J.
Duindam, Myths of Power. N. Elias and the Early Modern European Court, Amsterdam 1995;
A. Garrigou B. Lacroix (eds.), N. Elias, la politique et lhistoire, Paris 1997; R. van Knieken,
N. Elias, Londres 1998; D. Smith, N. Elias and Modern Social Theory, Londres 2001.
13
Par exemple, Duindam, Myths of Power, cit., a Reappraisal.
Dans la foule de louvrage dElias, dont il navait pas eu le temps de
prendre connaissance, Jurgen Krudener
14
a soulign le rle de la cour dans la-
vnement de labsolutisme, dfini comme extension du pouvoir personnel
dynastique travers les institutions: arme, bureaucratie, finances et cour.
Krudener a insist sur limportance du prestige travers trois facteurs:
Kultursierung, Charismatisierung, Distanzierung qui a donn un caractre
thocratique aux cours allemandes, manifeste travers les parallles entre
palais et temples baroques, entre crmonials et liturgie. La cour mit en place
un mode de gouvernement par le prestige qui permit tant de domestiquer la
noblesse que dimpressionner le peuple. Ases yeux, lart baroque pouvait tre
considr comme le vecteur dun ordre thocratique.
Les historiens ntaient pas prts faire leur les analyses dElias, tardi-
vement diffuses, ni celles de Krudener, essentiellement connues en
Allemagne. Le modle wbrien de lEtat fodal du standes Staat et de la
monarchie absolue restait la norme. Toutefois certains historiens commenc-
rent attribuer des origines plus prcoces lEtat moderne, suscitant un pre-
mier dbat sur la notion dEtat lpoque de la Renaissance.
Les lments du renouveau: empirisme, sciences sociales, discours
En Angleterre, ce sont les recherches empiriques, souvent prosopogra-
phiques les Namierite studies qui furent dterminantes ds la fin des
annes 50
15
. Cette cole a rvl surtout le rle des factions et des patronages
la cour et au conseil du roi, travers les biographies et les rseaux reconsti-
tus dans les sources archivistiques
16
. Cette rvlation des factions et des
rseaux de clientle loeuvre a conduit les historiens largir le champ de
lhistoire politique. Lapproche de David Starkey, dans sa these sur La
Chambre toile
17
fut fructueuse entre toutes: il y rvla toute limportance du
180
14
J. Krudener, Die Rolle des Hofes im Absolutismus, Stuttgart 1973.
15
L. B. Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III, London 1957.
16
Voir par exemple C. Read, Mr. Secretary Cecil and Queen Elizabeth, London 1955;
C. Read, Lord Burghley and Queen Elizabeth, New York 1961. Il y a une dcouverte de la
faction, pour ainsi dire: W. MacCaffrey, Place and Patronage in Elizabethan Politics, dans
S. T. Bindoff, J. Hurstfeld C.Williams (eds.), Elizabethan Politics and Society, London
1961; J. Hurstfield, The Illusion of power in Tudor Politics, London 1979. Pour une mise au
point sur lhistoriographie des factions, voir R. Shephard, Court Factions in Early Modern
England, Journal of Modern History, 64, 4 (Dec., 1992), pp. 721-745.
17
D. Starkey, The Development of the Privy Chamber, 1485-1547, Cambridge 1973;
The Reign of Henry VIII. Personalities and Politics, London 1985.
patronage, de laccs personnel la personne royale ainsi que des procds
informels du pouvoir la cour, et ce au moment meme o lon pensait que la
rvolution administrative des Tudors avait mis fin ces pratiques
18
. La tra-
dition empirique sest impose dans les recherches anglaises avec notamment
les travaux de John Guy, Simon Adams et John Adamson
19
. De plus, dans le
milieu acadmique anglais des annes 1970, le rejet des nouvelles approches
historiques et littraires franaise et allemande (et surtout de lcole des
Annales) est particulirement sensible.
Ces travaux fleurirent paralllement llaboration des nouveaux mod-
les proposs par les sociologues. Parmi les emprunts alors faits la sociolo-
gie, le concept de culture politique prsentait un grand avantage: imprcis, il
permettait de runir et rendre compte des phnomnes socio-politiques les
plus divers. Pour faire bref, les sociologues avaient ralis des recherches sur
les rgles du jeu politique, sur les modalits des ngociations, sur les strate-
gies et les ambitions luvre
20
. Un autre chantier, focalis sur les corpora-
tions multi-nationales et le ngoce, apporta un autre regard pertinent sur la
nature du pouvoir, ses dtenteurs, ses moyens, ses modalits, apparentes ou
souterraines. De l, une distinction opratoire entre processus informels et for-
mes bureaucratiques du pouvoir. Ces recherches rvlrent au grand jour toute
limportance des rseaux, loeuvre mme dans les dmocraties occidenta-
les
21
. En outre, les travaux des sociologues sur les clienteles et le patronage
181
18
G. R. Elton a tardivement pris en compte la cour, voir son Tudor Government: the
points of contact. III The Court, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5
th
series,
XXVI (1976), pp. 211-228. Un dbat vhment a eu lieu autour de la question en 1987-1988:
voir D. Starkey (ed.), The English Court from the War of the Roses to the Civil War, London-
New York 1987: voir G. R. Elton, Tudor Government, Historical Journal, XXXI (1988),
pp. 425-434; D. Starkey, Tudor Government: the facts, ibid., pp. 921-931
19
J. A. Guy, The Public Career of Sir Thomas More, New Haven 1980; S. Adams, The
Dudley clientele, I553-1563, dans G.W. Bernard (ed.), The Tudor Nobility, Manchester
1992, pp. 241-265; S. Adams, Because I am of that contreye and mynde to plant myself
there: Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and the West Midlands, Midland History, 20
(1995), pp. 21-74.
20
Voir R. P. Formisano, The Concept of Political Culture, Journal of Interdisciplinary
History, 31, 3 (2001), pp. 393-426.
21
La gnration des annes 70-80 fut sans doute plus ouverte la grande thorie et aux
recherches interdisciplinaires que les prcdentes. Ainsi, la remise en question du fonction-
nement du pouvoir par la sociologie, en combinaison avec les tudes de prosopographie
(romaine et moderne), et le scandale du Watergate dans une dmocratie, mont ouvert des
perspectives nouvelles sur limportance du patronage et des clientlismes, ainsi que sur le
fonctionnement du pouvoir politique sous lancien rgime: P. R. Campbell, Power and
Politics in old Regime France, 1720-1745, London-NewYork 1996.
sattaqurent au pass. Ainsi Ernst Gellner et S.N. Eisenstadt
22
se sont-ils
appliqus conceptualiser, sur le plan thorique, des processus luvre dans
lEurope antique, de la renaissance et du XIXe sicle, sans prendre appui sur
les tudes des historiens, dnues de pertinence leurs yeux. Labsence de
tout dveloppement sur lpoque moderne dans ces ouvrages est remarquable.
Dans les annes 60, les recherches anthropologiques mirent de plus en
lumire les dimensions sociales du pouvoir. Clifford Geertz fut particulire-
ment influent avec son ouvrage sur The interpretation of culture
23
. Sa tech-
nique de la thick description, qui consiste rechercher travers un vnement
symbolique la clef des structures et comportements sociaux par exemple le
combat des coqs Bali a inspir Nathalie Zemon Davis et Robert Darnton
comme les historiens de lart et de la reprsentation
24
.
En outre, le post-modernisme des annes 60, favorisa des discussions
sans fin sur le pouvoir et les discours sur le pouvoir, dont Michel Foucault fut
le principal interprte
25
. Ses ides, adoptes avec enthousiasme par les sp-
cialistes anglo-saxons de la littrature et de lhistoire de lart, furent lorigi-
ne du nouvel historicisme. En revanche, les historiens se sont montrs plus
rservs face une approche qui savoue avant tout thorique, fonde sur la-
nalyse de textes littraires et non de sources archivistiques manant des
acteurs politiques. Toutefois, la focalisation sur les formes symboliques du
pouvoir et sur le discours a donn naissance lide de reprsentation,
aujourdhui accepte comme fondamentale pour toute tude sur la cour
26
.
Tous les ferments dune transformation taient donc luvre. Quen
surent tirer les historiens de la cour? Dans une large mesure, pas grand chose
dans un premier temps. Lhistoire des cours est longtemps reste le domaine
182
22
E. Gellner J. Waterbury (eds.), Patrons and Clients in Mediterranean Societies,
Londres 1977; S. N. Eisenstadt R. Lemarchand (eds.), Political Clientelism, Patronage
and Development, London 1981 avec, du premier, un article, The Study of Patron-Client
Relations and Recent Developments in Sociological Theory, p. 271-295.
23
C. Geertz, Thick description: toward an interpretive theory of culture, in Id., The
Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays, New York 1973, pp. 3-30.
24
N. Zemon Davis, Society and Culture in Early Modern France: Eight Essays,
Stanford 1975; R. Darnton, Le Grand Massacre des Chats. Attitudes et croyances dans lan-
cienne France, Paris 1985; E. Le Roy Ladurie, Le Carnaval de Romans. De la Chandeleur
au Mercredi des cendres 1579-1580, Paris 1979.
25
M. Foucault, Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-
1977, New York 1988.
26
Le meilleur exemple de cette approche, et qui a jou un rle important dans llabo-
ration de ce champ dtudes, est le livre de S. Orgel, The Illusion of Power: Political Theater
in the English Renaissance, Berkeley Los Angeles 1975.
du conservatisme. Ces approches nouvelles paraissaient teintes de radicalis-
me et peu transposables au milieu aristocratique. Il y eut donc une rsistance
aux nouveaux modles interprtatifs, sans doute encore dans les annes 70,
avant le cultural turn.
2. Le tournant culturel
Au milieu des annes 80, la situation volua rapidement. Jusque-l, les
historiens des cours avaient privilgi lhistoire empirique. Mais le besoin de
nouvelles grilles danalyse commenait de se faire jour pour comprendre la
cour comme institution, et la place de la cour dans le systme politique et
social du monde moderne. La description traditionnelle de lvolution du pou-
voir monarchique ne rpondait plus aux interrogations nouvelles. Le renou-
vellement de lhistoriographie des cours en Italie et en Grande-Bretagne fut le
fait dune nouvelle gnration dhistoriens.
En Italie, lhistoire des cours est intimement lie une association qui vit
le jour en 1976. Europa delle Corti. Centro studi sulle Societ di antico
Regime nest pas une cole de pense, mais une association qui regroupe des
historiens, des historiens de lart, de la littrature, des sciences, des philolo-
gues, venus dhorizons divers, usant dapproches diverses aussi, que rappro-
chent des objectifs communs exposs dans un ambitieux programme de publi-
cations chez lditeur Bulzoni, Rome
27
. Lobjectif est de promouvoir les
recherches sur la cour en tant quespace spcifique obissant une logique
propre, quelle soit considre comme clef de la modernit ou, au contraire,
darchasme
28
. La collection des titres propose aussi bien des ditions critiques
de textes dpoque que des monographies, des actes de colloques ou des th-
ses consacres la cour, toujours en relation avec la socit de lAncien
Rgime. Plus dune centaine de titres tmoignent dapproches historiogra-
phiques varies, traditionnelles parfois, attaches la sociologie, la critique
littraire fortement reprsente, proches aussi des approches pistmolo-
giques de la nouvelle histoire culturelle.
Pour le sujet qui nous intresse le pouvoir une partie des tudes porte
sur le pouvoir informel, ses pratiques et les mcanismes qui favorisent son
dveloppement. A la fin des annes 80, les recherches sur le lignage nobiliai-
183
27
www.europadellecorti.it. Le catalogue des titres est accessible sur cette adresse (ou
www.bulzoni.it)
28
Voir J. Larner, Europe of the Courts, Journal of Modern History, 55, 4 (1983), pp.
669-681.
re dans le tissu social, mais aussi sur la manire dtre noble et le comporte-
ment la cour ont contribu renouveler le regard sur les modalits du pou-
voir, la culture politique et les modles dadministration territoriale de lEtat
moderne
29
. La revue Cheiron, qui nest pas lie directement Europa delle
Corti mais accueille certains de ses chercheurs, sest fait lcho de ces recher-
ches sur la politique de lge moderne, dans une perspective europenne
30
.
Certaines recherches aussi se situent dans la ligne anglo-saxonne des rseaux
de clientlisme, des mcanismes de fonctionnement des groupes de pression
la cour, des trahisons, fidlits et amitis qui clairent les mcanismes din-
sertion, de slection ou de discrimination luvre dans la pratique du pou-
voir
31
.
Le renouveau de lhistoriographie vint aussi de lAngleterre qui prsen-
te, en Europe, un profil original car les recherches sur les cours y croisent des
thmes et des polmiques loigns de lhistoriographie curiale traditionnelle.
Longtemps lhistoire de la cour y avait t abandonne aux amateurs danec-
dotes et aux chroniqueurs mondains, ou aux traditionnels contempteurs de
labsolutisme et des drives des monarchies despotiques, soucieux dabord de
promouvoir le Parlement comme un heureux contre-pouvoir. La cour, leurs
yeux, tait une survivance, contraire au dveloppement institutionnel des
temps nouveaux. Toutefois, laccumulation des recherches empiriques, bien
que non focalises sur la cour proprement parler, ont conduit remettre en
cause la version orthodoxe de la naissance de lEtat moderne. La voie tait
donc ouverte pour de nouveaux questionnements sur les modalits du pouvoir
dans lEtat et, notamment, dans sa seule institution centrale, la cour.
Ainsi, laube des annes 70, des initiatives, dabord htrognes et iso-
les, ont-elles annonc un renversement des perspectives. John Beattie
32
qui
intgra la cour dans lhistoire politique anglaise, en fut lun des initiateurs,
mais son ouvrage, qui porte sur une priode dlaisse, neut aucun cho.
Le succs fut dabord prpar par lcole rvisionniste dont les tenants
se proposaient de visiter nouveaux frais lhistoire politique anglaise, en pre-
mier lieu les origines de la guerre civile et lhistoire constitutionnelle du par-
184
29
D. Frigo, Il padre di famiglia. Governo della casa e governo civile nella tradizione
delleconomica tra Cinque e Seicento, Rome 1985; C. Mozarelli (ed.), Famiglia del
principe e famiglia aristocratica, Rome 1988.
30
La corte in Europa. Fedelt, favori, pratiche di governo, Cheiron, 2 (1983);
Governo della casa, govern della citt, ivi, 4 (1985); Padrini e clienti nellEuropa moder-
na, ivi, 5 (1986).
31
R. Ago, Carriere e clientele nella Roma barocca, Rome 1990.
32
J. M. Beattie, The English Court in the Reign of George I, Cambridge 1967.
lement sous les rgnes dElisabeth et des deux premiers Stuarts, en vue dune
rinterprtation globale. Contre la thse de Geoffroy Elton
33
, de nombreux
historiens ont insist sur le rle central jou par la cour comme centre nerveux
des pouvoirs au pluriel. Progressivement, les rivalits quotidiennes, les com-
plots personnels et les intrigues des factions autour du monarque apparurent
comme un moteur des changements politiques. Les factions, le patronage
furent les grands sujets de lhistoriographie politique anglaise du milieu des
annes 80 avec les travaux de Malcolm Smuts
34
et de David Starkey
35
qui
mirent en valeur le rle concret de la cour dans le gouvernement et dans le
systme politique en gnral et firent de la cour un objet historiographique
part entire.
Du milieu des annes 80 au dbut des annes 90, insistance fut faite sur
le rle central de la cour dans lhistoire politique anglaise. Au titre des clas-
siques: David Loades
36
, Linda Levy Peck
37
, et Ronald Asch
38
qui largirent la
problmatique lEurope
39
.
Lhistoriographie anglo-saxonne sintressa aussi la France. Le premier
livre consacr au patronage en France fut celui de lAmricain Orest Ranum,
en 1963, mais il a fallu attendre 1978 et le livre de Robert Harding sur les gou-
verneurs de province pour retrouver le concept de clientlisme au service de
la monarchie
40
. Il semble que les historiens franais nont, de leur ct, dcou-
185
33
Elton, The Tudor Revolution, cit.
34
M. Smuts, The Culture of the Absolutism at the Court of Charles 1, Ann Arbor 1976;
Id., Court Culture and the Origins of a Royalist Tradition in early Stuart England,
Philadelphia 1987; Id., Culture and Power in England, 1585-1685, New York 1999.
35
Voir n. 16 et 17
36
D. Loades, The Tudor Court, London 1986.
37
L. Levy Peck, Northampton, Patronage and Policy at the Court of James 1, Londres
1982; Id., The Mental World of the Jacobean Court, Cambridge 1991.
38
R. G. Asch A.M. Birke (eds.), Princes, Patronage and the Nobility. The Court at
the Beginning of the Modern Age, c. 1450-1650, London 1991; R.G. Asch H. Duchardt,
Der Absolutismus ein Mythos?: Strukturwandel monarchischer Herrschaft in West und
Mitteleuropa (ca 155-1700), Mnster 1996.
39
Ces recherches ont vite fait cole. En 2003 Natalie Mears va pouvoir crire Research
influenced by new socially and culturally derived approaches thus shows that Tudor politics
were centred on the court as much as they were on the privy council, parliament, judicial
courts, and financial departments of the crown. The work of George Bernard and Richard
Hoyle on the nobility, Simon Adams on clienteles, and Perry Williams on social networks
demonstrate that successive monarchs relied more on social networks, formed by ties of kins-
hip, friendship, and clientage, to govern the realmthan institutional bodies, Courts, Courtiers,
and Culture in Tudor England, Historical Journal, 46, 3 (2003), pp. 703-722.
40
O. Ranum, Les cratures de Richelieu, Paris 1963; R. R. Harding Anatomy of a
power elite: the provincial governors of early modern France, New Haven 1978. Ce livre
vert le patronage sous le nom de fidlit, vocable usit par Weber quen
1981 dans le volume dhommage Roland Mousnier
41
. Toutefois, dans les
vingt et une contributions publies par ses disciples, on ne trouve pas une
seule rfrence aux tudes sociologiques ou anthropologiques. La question de
la terminologie et des dfinitions nest pas mme aborde.
La focalisation sur le patronage la cour de Louis XIV et de Louis XV
fut le fait de Roger Mettam
42
et de Peter Campbell, son lve
43
sur le rle cl
de la cour pour comprendre le systme politique de la monarchie absolue.
Ainsi ont-ils en grande partie fourni largument de la thse de N. Henshall
(The Myth of Absolutism, 1992
44
) selon laquelle labsolutisme en tant que sys-
tme gouvernemental centralis et bureaucratique nexiste pas, dcouverte qui
ouvre de nouvelles perspectives sur la cour
45
. Les travaux de Robert Knecht
46
,
de Mark Greengrass
47
et de Barbara Dieffendorff
48
ont paralllement mis lac-
cent sur la cour et le clientlisme au XVIe sicle. A la suite de ces travaux, il
est devenu possible de mettre laccent sur les continuits plus que sur un chan-
gement fondamental du rle de la cour entre le XVIe et le XVIIIe sicles. En
186
dmontre limportance du patronage des gouverneurs et, dune faon trs significative, que
les intendants de la premire moiti du XVIIe sicle sont souvent slectionns parmi les
fidles du gouverneur, par les gouverneurs eux-mmes.
41
Y. Durand (ed.), Hommage Roland Mousnier. Clientles et fidlits en Europe l-
poque moderne, Paris 1981. Ce volume reprsente peut-tre la suite des conclusions de
Roland Mousnier au numro spcial de XVIIe sicle, La mobilit sociale au XVIIe sicle,
Dix-septime sicle, CXXII (1979), p. 75. A chaque stade de lascension, la faveur est
indispensable, faveur dun grand seigneur, dun grand officier, puis dun membre des cer-
cles gouvernementaux, Chancelier, Surintendant, Prince du Sang, autre prince, Ministre, La
faveur est indispensable pour franchir les goulots dtranglement just quaux plus hauts
rangs de la socit, aussi ncessaire que la multiplicit des occupations.
42
R. Mettam, Power and Faction in Louis XIVs France, Oxford 1988.
43
P. R. Campbell, The Ancien Rgime in France, Oxford 1988, p. 62.
44
N. Henschall, The Myth of Absolutism. Change and Continuity in Early Modern
European Monarchy, London-New York1992.
45
Selon Campbell, la seule centralisation intentionelle et efficace au XVIIe sicle, est
lie au patronage royal la cour, centre nerveux du rgime.
46
R. J. Knecht, Francis I. Prince and patron of the northern Renaissance, dans A.G.
Dickens (ed.), The Courts of Europe. Politics, Patronage and Royalty, 1400-1800, London
1977, pp. 99-120. Voir plus rcemment, R. J. Knecht, Un prince de la Renaissance. Franois
Ier et son royaume, Paris 1998; et surtout, Id., The French Renaissance Court, New Haven
2008.
47
M. Greengrass, Governing Passions: Peace and Reform in the French Kingdom,
1576-1585, Oxford 2007.
48
Cfr. B. Dieffendorff, Paris City Counsellors in the Sixteenth Century. The Politics of
Patrimony, Princeton 1983.
mme temps parut le livre de Sharon Kettering, Patrons, Brokers and Clients
in Seventeenth-Century France, qui appliquait la France du Grand Sicle des
concepts sociologiques: intermdiaires, client, patron, notamment. Ses recher-
ches en archives ayant port sur le parlement dAix, son apport concerne sur-
tout les liens entre la cour et les provinces, et non pas sur la cour elle-mme
49
.
Dans le sillon ainsi trac, lhistoriographie franaise sengagea sur ltude de
la noblesse et mettant laccent dornavant sur le rle de la cour pour les stra-
tgies familiales.
Les annes 90 furent aussi marques par llargissement culturel de lhis-
toire de la cour anglaise qui, lavant-garde historiographique, a ml la nou-
velle histoire politique et la nouvelle histoire culturelle. Illustrent ce courant
Malcolm Smuts, qui sest appliqu extraire lAngleterre de son splendide
isolement pour la rintgrer dans lhistoire politique europenne, Kevin
Sharpe
50
, John Adamson
51
dont le livre porte la marque de linfluence anglai-
se sur lhistoriographie curiale europenne convertie aux thmatiques nouvel-
les. Ces trois historiens, entre autres, ont insist sur la ncessit denvisager la
cour dans sa complexit, dobserver attentivement le crmonial, les gestes, le
monde matriel en relation avec la pratique du pouvoir et lordre social. Ils ont
oeuvr donner une vision globale de la cour, envisage comme un tout. Cette
vision se trouve dans son entier dans la thse de Jacqueline Boucher sur la
cour de Henri III
52
.
Dans les annes 70, la remise en question des Etats-nations et des histoi-
res qui leur servaient de fondement accompagna ainsi, en Europe, la diffusion
des recherches anglo-saxonnes. Un long travail sbaucha alors de rinterpr-
tation, de critique, et, en cette occasion, la cour fit son entre dans le schma
dtude gnral de lge moderne avec, la clef, la critique du concept dab-
solutisme et un nouveau questionnement du pouvoir et du fait politique. Les
187
49
Cfr. S. Kettering, Patrons, Brockers and Clients in 17th Century France, New York
1986. Elle rectifia plus tard le tir, pour publier de nombreux articles sur le clientlisme la
cour.
50
Cfr. K. Sharpe, Criticism and compliment. The Politics of literature in the England
of Charles I, Cambridge 1987; Id., The Personal Rule of Charles I, New Haven 1992; Id.,
Remapping Early Modern England: from Revisionism to the Culture of Seventeenth-Century
Politics et Celebrating a Cultural Turn: Political Culture and Cultural Politics in Early
Modern England, dans K. Sharpe (ed.), Remapping Early Modern England, London 2000,
pp. 3-37 et 392-414.
51
J. Adamson (ed.), The Princely Courts of Europe: Ritual, politics and Culture under
the Ancien Regime, 1500-1700, London 1999 et, dans cet ouvrage, Id., Introduction. The
making of the Ancien Rgime Court, 1500-1700, pp. 7-41 et 314-320.
52
J. Boucher, La Cour de Henri III, Ouest-France 1986.
travaux sur le patronage ont condamn limage des monarchies bureaucra-
tiques et favoris le dveloppement des recherches sur les lites et les nobles-
ses, sur les stratgies familiales, les enjeux de pouvoir, les rseaux, soulignant
le rle essentiel de la cour dans la dynamique sociale, mais aussi dans la cons-
truction spatiale des Etats modernes
53
. Au-del des schmatismes initiaux,
cest la complexit des systmes curiaux qui retient aujourdhui lattention.
3. Nouvelles perspectives
Lieu dexercice et de ngociation et de toutes les varits du pouvoir, la
cour est un espace rglement et organis o vit et gouverne le prince. Dans
tous les pays, on retrouve dans les cours un ensemble complexe dadminis-
trations qui se superposent et sentrecroisent (maison du roi, des diffrents
membres de la famille royale, services les plus divers), qui sordonnent et se
hirarchisent suivant la position, le caractre, les pouvoirs du prince. Cette
organisation interne de la cour a permis danalyser le fonctionnement de la
mcanique politique, mais aussi sociale.
La nouvelle histoire culturelle (ou globale) de la cour prend appui sur
les recherches des annes 80 et 90 et les nombreux matriaux accumuls sur
les diffrentes cours et les diffrents princes, sur les arts et sur les lettres, sur
les stratgies sociales et les pratiques politiques, qui ont aid les historiens
prendre conscience de la ncessit de lier lensemble et dlaborer un discours
global sur la cour en tant que phnomne propre.
Les annes 90 sont ainsi marques par de nouvelles tentatives, comme le
colloque sur Le trame della moda
54
ou les travaux de Marcello Fantoni
55
qui
mettent laccent sur le rseau de symboles et de comportements qui caractri-
sent le pouvoir princier et trouvent leur expression dans la cour. Ces symbo-
les et comportements dterminent lidentit du prince, mais aussi sa capacit
188
53
Pour lAngleterre, voir G. W. Bernard (ed.), Power and Politics in Tudor England,
Aldershot Burlington 2000, pp. 20-50. Pour la France, voir le bilan des recherches de C.
Grell, Les historiens franais, la noblesse et la cour de France, 1650-1789, bilan des recher-
ches, dans G. Lottes I dAprile (eds.), Hofkultur und aufgaklrte ffentlichkeit, Potsdam
im 18. Jahrhundert im europischen Kontext, Berlin 2006, p. 103-114 et bibliographie, pp.
114-119.
54
A. G. Cavagna G. Butazzi (eds.) Le trame della moda, Rome 1995.
55
M. Fantoni, La corte del granduca. Forme e simboli del potere mediceo fra Cinque
e Seicento, Rome 1994; Id., Il potere dello spazio. Principi e citt nellItalia dei secoli XV-
XVII, Rome 2002.
imposer politiquement son pouvoir par la manire de matrialiser celui-ci,
travers les jeux de proximit et de distance, les rgles de ltiquette, les codes
alimentaires et vestimentaires, et tout le monde matriel et culturel des objets
environnants: ce que Fantoni appelle la culture du pouvoir. La cour nest
plus seulement la rsidence du prince. Elle se dfinit aussi par les courtisans
qui participent cette construction du politique
56
.
Les dveloppements actuels
La multiplication des maisons se traduit par la multiplicit des ordonnan-
ces et des tiquettes, par la diversification et la division des offices, par la
complexit des savoirs acqurir pour tenir son rang et dvelopper des stra-
tgies efficaces.
Ladministration curiale se distingue des grands services et institutions
dEtat: ministres, parlements, cours de justice; mais les hommes de robe
comme les grands commis dEtat et les ministres sont amens, dans les plus
hautes sphres du pouvoir, frquenter aussi la cour. Ltude des rseaux
considre donc des cercles concentriques fonds notamment sur des critres
spatiaux.
Si les cours itinrantes ont disparu aprs le XVIe sicle, en France mais
aussi en Europe, les cours, grandes ou petites, continuent de se dployer et de
se dplacer sur plusieurs sites. Et lespace mme quoccupent les cours a lui-
mme une fonction politique et symbolique. Il y a un plan type non seulement
de la rpartition des palais dans lespace (emprise sur le territoire), mais aussi
de la distribution des pices lintrieur des palais, qui traduit physiquement
lorganisation administrative et les hirarchies politiques, qui rglemente lac-
cs avec des rituels similaires, selon les heures, les saisons, les divertisse-
ments.
La Cour est ainsi devenue lobservatoire privilgi des pratiques et de
lexercice du pouvoir sous lancien rgime. De lItalie et du monde anglo-
saxon, les pratiques de la cour (accs au souverain, enjeux du crmonial et
de ltiquette, usages priv et public de lespace) ont fait lobjet dune rva-
luation lie lanalyse du jeu des ngociations, changes, ajustements, qui-
libres (de lconomie politique), ainsi qu lidentit culturelle qui permet de
les comprendre et de les expliquer.
189
56
G. Patrizi A. Quondam (eds.), Educare il corpo, educare la parola nella trattatis-
tica del Rinascimento, Rome 1998.
De l aussi une nouvelle gnration de travaux sur limage des souve-
rains, les diffrentes formes de reprsentation du pouvoir dans la socit, les
diffrents lments qui participent la construction du pouvoir, quils ma-
nent du prince, ou des sujets. Ltiquette diplomatique, la place de la religion,
mais aussi lordonnancement des lieux, la distribution des personnes et le jeu
des relations personnelles, le choix mme des objets domestiques, tout en
vient jouer un rle dans les crmonies monarchiques, notamment dans les
rgimes dits absolutistes, ceux qui laissent en ces domaines le moins de
place au hasard.
Rcemment, lhistoriographie a fait sienne lide dune culture de cour,
plus frquemment toutefois comme lieu o se consomme la culture que
comme espace ayant sa propre identit culturelle. La nouvelle histoire cultu-
relle nen affiche pas moins des objectifs ambitieux. Elle suppose un syst-
me de signifis, de signes, de codes, de comportements proposant, dans le cas
concret de la cour, une nouvelle grille danalyse des uvres dart
57
et des tex-
tes littraires
58
. Lespace de la cour est toutefois tudi comme culture et pro-
duction dobjets culturels, sans que linfluence du monde socio-culturel de la
cour soit toujours analyse dans la conception mme de luvre dart. Le
comportement de lhomme de cour et sa psychologie; sa vision du monde
contribuent donner une autre image de lhomo politicus moderne. Certains
champs sont encore explorer comme, par exemple, les reprsentations du
pass et, sans aucun doute, toute la culture gnalogique dont Saint Simon
rvle chaque page lampleur. Ltude du pass, travers la littrature et
lhistoire, peut tre aussi aider comprendre la nature dun espace tel que
celui de la cour. Les historiens de la culture renouvellent le champ dtudes de
Magendie et dElias sur la civilit, faisant de la cour un modle du mimtis-
me social de la bourgeoisie.
Enfin, signe de limportance acquise par les cours dans lhistoriographie,
un nouveau champ dtude sest aujourdhui constitu, dont lobjet est non
plus les cours, mais lhistoriographie des cours, dont un excellent ouvrage,
publi en Espagne a rcemment pos les jalons essentiels. Pablo Vasquez
Gestal associe dan son titre mme les deux termes despace et de pouvoir, el
190
57
C.. Grell C. Michel (eds.), LEcole des princes ou Alexandre disgrci. Essai sur
la mythologie politique de la France absolutiste, Paris 1989; G. Sabatier, Versailles ou la
figure du roi, Paris 1999.
58
J. P. Nraudau, LOlympe du roi Soleil. Mythologie et idologie royale au Grand
Sicle, Paris 1986; J. M. Apostolids peut faire figure de contre exemple qui voit dans le
roi-machine le triomphe de labsolutisme, Le Roi-Machine. Spectacle et politique au
temps de Louis XIV, Paris 1981.
espacio del poder. Il ne propose pas une nouvelle tude sur les cours, ni
mme simplement dun bilan historiographique; lobjet en est plus complexe.
En effet, la cour, objeto historiografico especialmente problematico, que
tiene gran capacidad para generar dudas, replateamientos e interpretaciones
dadas anteriormente
59
exige un angle dapproche rsolument critique.
Lhistorien entreprend danalyser les enjeux de questionnements qui nont
rien dinnocent: Me he detenido en el concepto y los rasgos que la corte
como espacio historico y objeto historiografico posee con el fin de dotar al
objeto de estudio de densidad y hacer consciente al lector de que la recupera-
cion del significado de un tema historico por parte de los historiadores no es
una operacion ni facil, ni gratuita y, por supuesto, nada inocente
60
.
En dautres termes, la cour est un excellent prisme pour tudier nou-
veaux frais lhistoire de lEurope moderne, un prisma imposible de contem-
plar desde una sola de sus fachadas (administrativa, cultural, social o politi-
ca), donde la interdependencia de cada una de las mismas es tan intima que la
contemplacion y estudio de una de ellas no es mas que un espejo incompleto
y deformante
61
. Do la ncessit dune analyse globale, qui nisole aucune
approche, mais au contraire privilgie les interrelations. Ainsi une nouvelle
gnration dhistoriens se positionne dans une perspective interdisciplinaire,
qui reflte les nouvelles tendances en rupture avec une historiographie plus
traditionnelle.
Pouvoir, cour, Etat: ces notions familires mais toujours opaques, intro-
duites de concert dans le champ des analyses ont rvl la complexit des sys-
tmes politiques des XVI-XVIIIe sicles. Personne nenvisage plus les cours
des temps modernes comme un appendice parasitaire quil a suffi de margi-
naliser et de supprimer pour entrer dans lge de la modernit. La cour fut une
partie essentielle des Etats, et notre connaissance des monarchies sen est
trouve considrablement modifie et enrichie. Nombre dides reues, rela-
tives labsolutisme notamment, sont aujourdhui obsoltes et lon peut
mme avancer lide que la forme spcifique de lEtat est caractrise par les
cours, qui joue a wide range of roles. Lpoque moderne tmoigne de la
naissance dun Etat dans lequel les multiples formes et expressions du pou-
voir social, personnel, genre, rituel, reprsentation, administrative sont
toutes lies ensemble dans et par linstitution complexe de la cour royale.
Nous aimerions terminer avec sur une question et une hypothse. Un tel Etat
191
59
Vasquez Gestal, El Espacio, cit., p. 14.
60
Ibid., p. 13.
61
Ibid., p. 68.
ne peut tre qualifi ni de monarchie absolue, ni dEtat royal, ni mme
dEtat absolutiste. Eu gard la centralit de la cour, quelles que soient les
formes du pouvoir lpoque moderne, il ne peut sagir non plus dune
socit de cour, expression trop rductrice. Le terme appropri ne serait-il
pas un Etat de cour?
192
Jos Martnez Milln
LA SUBSTITUCI DEL SISTEMA CORTESANO
POR EL PARADIGMA DEL ESTADO NACIONAL
EN LAS INVESTIGACIONES HISTRICAS
La historiografa europea sobre el poder real y otros poderes conexos al
monarca como la Corte, Casa Real, Consejos (y administracin, en general)
durante la Edad Moderna, no resulta muy satisfactoria y ello, no tanto por la
mayor o menor produccin de trabajos, cuanto por los planteamientos meto-
dolgicos desde los que se han realizado. Tales proyectos tericos, siempre
han sido construidos sobre el presupuesto de una racionalizacin progresiva e
ininterrumpida del poder estatal, en los que el rey tiene poca cabida a no ser
como monarca absoluto. Valga recordar que el Centre National de la
Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) y la European Science Foundation (ESF) des-
arrollaron un grandioso proyecto (entre 1984 y 1997) para estudiar los
Orgenes del Estado Moderno en Europa (siglos XIII-XVIII), que culmin en
la publicacin de siete volmenes, en los que participaron los historiadores
ms prestigiosos del continente, que sirve de referencia para las investigacio-
nes de buena parte de los estudiosos europeos.
Estos planteamientos resultan tan ambiciosos como carentes de conteni-
do porque se muestran incapaces de dar cuenta ordenada del intrincado des-
arrollo poltico de las Monarquas europeas durante la Edad Moderna y del
juego de poderes diversos que existieron dentro de ellas, lo que contradice
toda pretensin de abstraccin absoluta e impersonalidad que le conceden al
Estado (modelo que se aplica en todos estos anlisis histricos). Para solu-
cionar esta contradiccin, propongo realizar las investigaciones en torno a
conceptos que no encuentran una clara correspondencia en las categoras de
la modernidad (de estado-nacin), sino a una pluralidad de instituciones y
de recorridos tericos y disciplinarios, que no son tenidos en cuenta por la
193
gran mayora de los historiadores a la hora de estudiar la organizacin polti-
ca y cultural del Antiguo Rgimen, solamente de esta manera considero
nos aproximaremos a la realidad de aquella poca y podremos poner en prc-
tica la interdisciplinariedad, que tan ansiosamente nos esforzamos por incor-
porar en nuestros planes de estudio y en nuestras investigaciones.
1. La configuracin poltica y cultural de Europa. El sistema cortesano
Una de las cuestiones ms arduas que plantean los estudios sobre la corte
es definir la relacin Corte-Estado. En realidad, este problema procede de la
falta de definicin del concepto corte. Resulta sorprendente que, a pesar de
la gran cantidad de publicaciones aparecidas en las ltimas dcadas sobre el
tema, an no exista un concepto consensuado e indiscutido para todos los
investigadores. Cada una de las definiciones realizadas, han sido rebatidas o
criticadas enseguida por otros estudiosos. As, la corte ha sido identificada
con la casa real (en las crnicas germnicas), con un espacio (sin especi-
ficar que tipo de espacio ni concretar su extensin), con el lugar donde est
el rey o con la sede de la administracin de la Monarqua. Asimismo, en
su intento de comprensin, muchos historiadores han confundido algunas de
las funciones de la corte por la totalidad de la misma; as, para un grupo de
historiadores ingleses, la corte fue el lugar de encuentro entre gobernantes y
gobernados
1
, es decir, consideran que las relaciones de poder no-institucio-
nales resultan fundamentales para explicar la prctica poltica; para otros, por
el contrario, se caracteriz por una cultura especfica, la de las buenas cos-
tumbres y la educacin; otros piensan que fue el punto de arranque desde
donde se disciplin la sociedad de los Estados modernos.
Fue G. Oestreich, quien en un artculo ya clsico resuma en parte sus
planteamientos sobre el neoestoicismo, relacionndolas con algunas aporta-
ciones que haba realizado Otto Brunner con respecto a la forma de vida nobi-
liaria en la poca moderna
2
. En dicho trabajo, el absolutismo ya no se expre-
saba de forma primordial en la administracin estatal ni en las doctrinas pol-
ticas; el eje del mismo se encontraba en el modo de vida. Los sbditos expe-
Jos Martnez Milln
194
1
D. Starkey (ed.), The English Court from the Wars of the Roses to the Civil War,
London 1987, p. 5.
2
El concepto de social disciplining, fue empleado, por primera vez, por G. Oestreich,
Strukturprobleme des europischen Absolutismus, en Geist und Gestaalt des frhmodernen
Staates, Berlin 1969, pp. 179-197. Desarroll el concepto en: Id., Neostoicism and the Early
Modern State, Cambridge 1982.
rimentaron el control y la represin de todas las manifestaciones de su vida
pblica y privada. El autocontrol y el autodominio fueron fenmenos propios
de este proceso psicolgico y moral de disciplina social que acab imponin-
dose al conjunto del Estado y de la economa a travs de la burocracia, el mer-
cantilismo y el militarismo. Es preciso advertir que la clave para comprender
en toda su amplitud este paradigma de la construccin del Estado (como es
la disciplina social) hay que remontarnos a Max Weber, al que invoca
expresamente Oestreich en sus escritos, cuando afirma que
Por dominacin debe entenderse la probabilidad de encontrar obediencia a un
mandato de determinado contenido entre personas dadas; por disciplina debe
entenderse la probabilidad de encontrar obediencia para un mandato por parte de
un conjunto de personas que, en virtud de actitudes arraigadas, sea pronta, sim-
ple y automtica
3
.
De esta manera, tanto Weber como Oestreich sealan la insuficiencia de
la coercin para la construccin del Estado.
La disciplina muestra la ntima conexin con los dos aspectos centra-
les de la historia europea: a) la individualizacin del hombre como centro del
actuar social. b) la construccin a tal fin de los aparatos institucionales y sus
fundamentos normativos. De la interferencia entre ambos aspectos surge la
poltica moderna. Los esfuerzos hasta ahora acabados en esta direccin se han
centrado en dos filones interpretativos: el de Norbert Elas sobre la corte
4
y el
de Michel Foucault sobre la represin
5
.
Desde este punto de vista, la disciplina hace referencia a la disposicin
del hombre a uniformarse con los criterios inspiradores del orden en el que
se encuentra inserto y por tanto en la formacin del Estado
6
. El concepto de
La substituci del sistema cortesano por el paradigma del estado nacional
195
3
M. Weber, Economa y Sociedad, Mxico 1964, p. 43.
4
N. Elias, El proceso de la civilizacin. Investigaciones sociogenticas y psicogenti-
cas, Mxico-Madrid 1987. Id., La Sociedad Cortesana, Mxico-Madrid 1982. La refunda-
cin del absolutismo social sobre los pilares de las buenas maneras y de la corte de Luis XIV,
ha sido acogida en historiadores como F. Von Kruedener, Die Rolle des Hofes im
Absolutismus, Stuttgart 1973. H. C. Ehalt, La corte di Vienna tra Sei e Settecento, Roma
1984; O. Ranum, Courtesy, Absolutism, and the Rise of the French State, 1630-1660,
Journal of Modern History 53 (1980), pp. 426-451.
5
M. Foucault, Vigilar y castigar, Madrid 1983. Las teoras de Foucault han sido aplica-
das, entre otros, por A. M. Hespanha, Representacin dogmtica y proyectos de poder, en La
gracia del Derecho. Economa de la cultura en la Edad Moderna, Madrid 1993, pp. 61-87.
6
Sobre el tema: P. Prodi (ed.), Disciplina dellanima, disciplina del corpo e disciplina
della societ tra medievo ed et moderna, Bologna 1994. E. F. Rice Jr, The Foundations of
Early Modern Europe 1460-1559, New York 1994. No obstante, el autntico defensor de
disciplina nos enva al individuo en su pura funcin social. A travs de la
disciplina se evocan dos legados ms elementales y ms fuertes que ligan al
hombre a la sociedad: la transmisin del saber, la regla de vida o de conduc-
ta. Resulta evidente que entre los dos hechos existe una proporcin de tipo
funcional: no se da regla comn de vida sin la posibilidad de transmitir y reci-
bir normas de comportamiento como tampoco es pensable una tradicin de
normas sin la existencia de una organizacin sistemtica de estas ltimas en
cuerpos definidos. La circulacin estrecha entre ambos momentos puede asu-
mir carcter virtuoso (civilizacin) cuando la identificacin de los sujetos
entre quienes van destinadas las normas y las normas mismas son satisfacto-
rias, o carcter vicioso (represin) cuando tal identificacin cae en crisis y
necesita de nueva sistematizacin o por degenerar las normas
7
. Para el profe-
sor Schiera, Le istituzioni non sono altro che la cristallizzazione dei molte-
plici incontri fra comando e obbedienza che sinstaurato attraverso le due vie
della legittimazione e della disciplina
8
.
Desde estos planteamientos
9
, el socilogo Norbert Elias se interes por el
fenmeno de la corte
10
, lo que cambi los planteamientos institucionales en
Jos Martnez Milln
196
esta forma de entender el Estado es el profesor Schiera, quien coordina el nmero mono-
grfico sobre Disciplina, disciplinamiento, en Annali dellIstituto storico italo-germani-
co in Trento, 18 (1992) y promueve congresos con ttulos tan expresivos como: G.
Chittolini, A. Molho, P. Schiera (eds.), Origini dello Stato. Processi di formazione statale in
Italia fra medievo ed et moderna, Bologna 1994; W. Schulze, Il concetto di disciplinamento
sociale nella prima et moderna in G. Oestreich, Annali dellIstituto storico italo-germa-
nico in Trento, 18 (1992), pp. ....
7
P. Schiera, Disciplina, disciplinamiento, Annali dellIstituto storico italo-germanico
in Trento, 18 (1992), p. 315.
8
P. Schiera, Legittimit, disciplina, istituzioni: tre presupposti per la nascita dello
Stato moderno, en Chittolini, Molho, Sschiera (eds.), Origini dello Stato, cit., p. 22.
9
La corte real y la sociedad cortesana son, por tanto, configuraciones especficas de
hombres que es preciso clarificar tanto como las ciudades o las fbricas, Elias, La Sociedad,
cit., p. 10.
10
Como en etapas anteriores a la evolucin del Estado, en las que la centralizacin
an no haba alcanzado el mismo grado de desarrollo, la corte real del ancien rgime mez-
claba todava la funcin de la Casa suprema de la familia-indivisa real con la del organismo
central de la administracin general del Estado, esto es, con la funcin de reinar Lo que
llamamos corte del ancien rgime primariamente no es ms que la casa y la economa
domstica extraordinariamente amplificadas de los reyes franceses y sus allegados, junto
con todos aquellos que, en sentido ms o menos estricto, pertenecen a ella (Elias, La
Sociedad, cit., fol. 9). Elas, segua la estructura social establecida por Weber, Economa y
Sociedad, cit. y las influencias historiogrficas de O. Brunner, Vita nobiliare e cultura euro-
pea, Bologna 1972 (edic. que he utilizado), de ah, que concluyese que Esta corte del
ancien regime es un derivado muy diferenciado de aquella forma de dominio patriarcal cuyo
los que se vena investigando el Estado moderno por otros planteamientos
sociolgicos; ahora bien, este mtodo no cambi ni renov el concepto de
Estado, que se vena aplicando a la organizacin poltica de la Edad
Moderna. Las obras de N. Elas han ejercido tal influjo en los estudios hist-
ricos, que las investigaciones sobre la corte se han realizado dentro de una
organizacin poltica del Estado liberal, sin preocuparse por definir el con-
cepto de corte, lo que hubiera puesto de manifiesto esta flagante contradic-
cin.
Con todo, la abundancia de obras aparecidas sobre la corte, durante las
ltimas dcadas, ha generado la necesidad de sistematizar, articular y resumir
los avances histricos que se han hecho sobre la materia, por lo que, perodi-
camente, han ido apareciendo una serie de estudios colectivos que han trata-
do de cumplir con esta necesidad cientfica, al mismo tiempo que se han esfor-
zado por crear una metodologa y vocabulario comn. Aun a riesgo de resul-
tar parcial, considero que los principales intentos compiladores, sobre el tema
de la corte, han sido los siguientes.
A) En 1977, A. G. Dickens diriga un ambicioso y novedoso libro, en el
que comenzaba fijando el perodo cronolgico en que surgi el fenmeno cor-
tesano: The era of court life most substantially covered by this book might
be labelled Renaissance and Baroque: it ranges from Lorenzo de Medici and
the dukes of Burgundy down to the sunset of the Ancien Regimen under Louis
XV of France
11
. Se trataba de realizar un estudio comparativo, pues justifi-
caba el estudio de las cortes elegidas not simply because these courts typi-
fied these periods, but also in order to display the rich constrast of styles
which could mark near contemporaries, por ejemplo, entre la corte de Felipe
IV y Luis XIV
12
. Al mismo tiempo que conclua sealando la novedad que
representaba este fenmeno y el carcter interdisciplinar que se derivaba de su
estudio: In age when Church and State tended to be dominated by physical
197
ncleo hay que buscar en la autoridad de un jefe de familia dentro de una comunidad doms-
tica (Elias, La Sociedad, cit. p. 60).
11
A. G. Dickens (ed.), The Courts of Europe. Politics, Patronage and Royalty, 1400-
1800, London 1977, p. 7.
12
That the courts of Europe exerted enormous historical influences cannot be denied,
yet as institutional phenomena they present the historian with quite exceptional problems.
Compared with parliaments, councils, law courts, and other such bodies, they show ragged
and shifting patterns. The greater ones pervaded their respective kingdoms and drew their
fluctuating from diverse regions, political interest, and social groups. [] A court did not
serve merely as the home and governmental head quarters of a ruler. It can also be observed
as the nucleus of a ruling class, as a planned monumental environment, as a prime focus a
medium propaganda suggesting power and stability (Ivi).
symbols, a court naturally tried to become a permanent pageant: a concentra-
tion of grandiose buildings. Art treasures, overdressed grandees so brilliant as
to dazzle the beholder and to impress even the subjects and the foreign rivals
who learned of it at second hand.
Estos primeros estudios dieron lugar a una serie de investigaciones que,
aunque tenan como sustrato la corte, analizaban las relaciones de gobierno
(distintas a las del estado liberal) y las componendas no-institucionales del
poder
13
, as como los elementos antropolgicos y culturales de la actuacin
cortesana. El profesor C. Ossola, tras advertir de que su investigacin supona
tocar uno de los nudos culturales y metodolgicos de la Edad Moderna, sea-
laba los distintos planos que concurran en el fenmeno cortesano,
dei rappori tra struttura e funzione, tra elemento stutturali e implicazioni sopra-
strutturali di un fatto storico, tra gestione del potere ed organizzazione del con-
senso; e nello stesso tempo della dificolt, preliminare, e quasi istituzionale giu-
ridicamente, di individuare la corte, tra famiglia, signoria, dinasta, tra la legge
di palazzo e le magistratura cittadine, tra feudo e nascente stato moderno, tra
principe e cortigiano-funzionario, tra egemonizzazione ed epifania dei poteri
14
.
En el mismo libro, A. Stegmann defina la corte con estas rotundas pala-
bras: La Corte una immagine simbolica dello Stato conosciuto e approva-
to dalla collettivit
15
. Por su parte, los profesores Ferroni y Quondam com-
pletaban esta definicin analizando el fenmeno de la corte como representa-
cin de poder: La Corte, dunque, come specifica forma del potere che si
manifesta, si mette in gioco [] nella representazione di s come scena, sulla
sua scena, come articolato/continuo manifestarse di una compresiva ideologa
della rappresentazione e del segno
16
, al mismo tiempo que la proponan como
tema de investigacin para los historiadores desde el punto de vista cultural y
antropolgico. Pocos aos despus, en las actas de otro congreso sobre la
corte, celebrado en Ferrara, los profesores Papagno y Quondam, de nuevo,
abordaban la definicin de corte, atribuyndole como elemento constitutivo
Jos Martnez Milln
198
13
Starkey (ed.), The English Court, cit.; A. Maczak (ed.), Klientelsysteme im Europa
der Frhen Neuzeit, Mnchen 1988; R. G. Asch A. M. Birke (eds.), Princes, Patronage
and the Nobility. The Court at the Beginning of the Modern Age, Oxford 1991; J. Martnez
Milln (ed.) Instituciones y elites de poder en la Monarqua hispana durante la Edad
Moderna, Madrid 1992.
14
C. Ossola, Il luogo della Corte, en M. A. Romani (ed.), Le Corti farnesiane di
Parma e Piacenza, 1545-1622, Roma 1978, pp. 39-40.
15
A. Stegmann, La Corte. Saggio di definizione teorica, ibid., p. XXI.
16
G. Ferroni A. Quondam, Dialogo sulla scena della Corte, ibid., p. XXIX.
y esencial de la misma el concepto de espacio
17
, al mismo tiempo que tra-
zaban su evolucin
18
.
Con todo, fue Cesare Mozzarelli tal vez debido a su propia formacin
intelectual quien daba el paso definitivo de presentar a la corte como una
organizacin poltica propia de una larga etapa de la historia de Europa, desde
el siglo XIII al XIX, cuando propona identificar la corte con el estado:
[] ritengo di dover parlare della corte non in rapporto al problema delle origi-
ni dellattuale forma istituzionale statale, bens in rapporto alla questione dei
modi del potere e della Politica, superando cos sia le impostazioni pi antiche
(corte versus Stato) sia quelle pi resent (corte eguale Stato)
19
.
B) Como respuesta a esta crtica de los paradigmas polticos tradiciona-
les de enfocar el estudio histrico, en 1994, los profesores G. Chittolini, A.
Molho y P. Schiera organizaban un nuevo congreso (esta vez en Chicago), con
ttulo muy significativo, que dio por fruto un magnfico libro colectivo, en el
que queran poner en claro los orgenes del estado, o por mejor decir, la
genealoga de las estructuras estatales liberales. El profesor P. Schiera procla-
maba la intencin de este proyecto ya en la introduccin del libro:
Venendo a una rapida presentazione delle relazioni guida, mi limater, per quan-
to mi riguarda, a sottolineare il tentativo da me fatto di riportare il fenomeno sta-
tale, nella sua genesi, ai tre presupposti della legittimit, della disciplina e delle
istituzioni. Esse mi sembrano condizioni necessarie perch si possa cominciare
a parlare di Stato, nel senso moderno del termine, cio avendo un occhio di
riguardo per lobbligazione politica che grazie a questo ultimo si realizza, nel
rapporto teso ma consapevole fra autorit e sudditi, fra comando e obbedienza,
199
17
Spazio vuol dire suprattutto estensione e lestensione richiama subito la geografia
[] La Corte, [], storicamente un fenmeno magmatico; lepicentro di un fenmeno
che si stenta a definire Stato tante sono le caratteristiche di questultimo che gli mancano.
Pur tutavia la Corte si propone come la formazione polticamente pi relevante per almeno
un paio di secoli. G. Papagno A. Quondam, La Corte e lo spazio. Appunti problematici
per il Seminario, en Id., La corte e lo spazio: Ferrara estense, Roma 1982, vol. III, pp. 823-
838.
18
M. Cattini M. A. Romani, Le corti parallele: per una tipologia delle corti padane
dal XIII al XVI secolo, ibid., vol. I, pp. 47-82. Vuelven a repetir el esquema evolutivo: M.
Aymard M. A. Romani (eds.), La Cour comme institution conomique, Paris 1998,
Introduccin.
19
C. Mozzarelli, Principe, corte e governo tra 500 e 700, en Cultura e idologie dans
la gnese de ltat Moderne, Roma 1985, p. 370.
che rappresenta a mio avviso il segno specifico dellesperienza politica occiden-
tale fino ad oggi
20
.
Sin embargo, a pesar del claro objetivo estatalista, los directores de la
obra ya no pudieron excluir que se hablara sobre la corte, como sealaba
uno de los participantes, el profesor Trevor Dean: Il naturale inserimento
della corte in una coferenza sulle origini dello Stato moderno una dimostra-
zione della lunga strada percorsa dagli studi sulla corte negli ultimi 15-20
anni, al mismo tiempo que sealaba las novedades que los estudios sobre la
corte haban aportado durante las dos ltimas dcadas: seguendo la lezione
degli antropologi, hanno cominciato ad interessarsi seriamente agli aspetti
simbolici e rituali della sovranit come a qualcosa di inserito e non di estra-
neo al sistema politico, y en segundo lugar, il riconoscimento che il gover-
no dei principi rimaneva pur sempre un governo personale ha spostato lat-
tenzione sulla totalit del mondo personale e domestico allinterno del quale
il principe viveva. Concluyendo: Corte e Stato sono ora considerati come
mondi complementari, indistinti o identici, e non pi come separati
21
.
Por su parte, el profesor Marcello Fantoni, tambien colaborador de la
misma obra, sealaba que el concepto de corte no se poda estudiar desde los
planteamientos del estado nacional, sino que en s mismo era una organiza-
cin de poder con sus propias caractersticas.
Poco despus, en 1998, apareca un ambicioso estudio tratando de explicar
los aspectos econmicos de la corte, lo que indicaba que el fenmeno de la
corte era algo que no se poda obviar en las investigaciones histricas, consi-
derandola una institucin fundamental en las Monarquas de la Edad Moderna
22
.
C) No resulta extrao que, en 1999, John Adamson volviera a proyectar
una obra en comn en la que, una serie de prestigiosos especialistas, estudia-
ran la corte. El esquema de la obra era muy semejante a la que propusiera
Dickens en 1977; no obstante, la definicin que fijaba de corte era mucho ms
amplia:
For in the period between the Renaissance and the French Revolution, the court
defined not merely a princely residence a lavish set of building and their pam-
pered occupants but a far larger matrix of relations, political and economic,
religious and artistic, the converged in the rulers household
23
.
Jos Martnez Milln
200
20
Chittolini, Molho, Schiera (eds.), Origini dello stato, cit., p. 11.
21
T. Dean, Le corti. Un problema storiografico, ibid., p. 426.
22
Me refiero a la obra de: Aymard Romani (eds.), La Cour comme, cit.
23
J. Adamson (ed.), The Princely Courts of Europe 1500-1750, London 1999, p. 7.
Al mismo tiempo que insista en su carcter cultural: Nor was the cour-
ts importance simply te result of its importance to affairs of state. Almost
invariably, it was the principal cultural and social centre of the realm
24
.
Fruto de estas discusiones, durante la ltima dcada, lo publicado sobre
la corte se ha multiplicado en todo el mundo y, lo que es ms importante, se
ha abordado desde todas las materias humansticas (interdisciplinariedad), lo
que ha hecho que la corte sea enfocada como instancia de poder donde se
ejerca la poltica. Ahora bien, contina existiendo una ambigedad sobre el
origen, durancin y clase de institucin que fue e, incluso, algunos historia-
dores se han atrevido a definirla como una moda (trmino inaceptable para
cualquier profesional que se precie de cientfico) dentro de la investigacin
histrica, por lo que, los distintos materias tratadas an se plantean desde el
paradigma del Estado moderno. Todo ello produce que an exista cierta
ambigedad a la hora de definir la corte
25
o que se busque dar una definicin
globalizante, pero vaga, con el fin de aglutinar todos sus aspectos, como hace
Jeroen Duindan, quien, en un intento de coordinar y resumir todas las defini-
ciones, afirma: En todas las modernas definiciones estn presentes los con-
ceptos de casa real y de gobierno
26
; asimismo, otros, pretenden darle entidad
tangible, optando por definirla como un espacio en el que se desarrolla
determinadas prcticas sociales relacionadas con el poder
27
.
2. La sustitucin del sistema cortesano por el paradigma del estado-
nacional
De acuerdo con los planteamientos que hiciera el profesor Mozarelli
(citados ms arriba), considero que la corte constituy la organizacin pol-
201
24
Ibid, p. 8.
25
Enjeu politique et lieu politique, la court Pert, dune part, tre considre comm n
microcosme privilg pour decrire et comprendre les transformations des rsaux du povoir
au bas Moyen ge ainsi que les modalits complexes de la gnese, y compris economique,
de lEtat moderne. Dautre part, le cur de lunivers curial nest autre que la domus prin-
cire (ou royale ou pontificale), qualifie, par la documentation en lanue vernaculaire de
lespace franais, dhotel du soverain, G. Castelnuovo, A la court et au service de nostre
princes: lhotel de Savoir et ses mtiers la fin du Moyen ge, en P. Bianchi L. C. Gentile
(eds.), Laffermarsi della corte sabauda. Dinastie, poteri, lites in Piemonte e Savoia fra
tardo medioevo e prima et moderna, Torino 2006, p. 24.
26
J. Duindam, Le corti di due grandi dinastie rivali (1550-1780). Vienna e Versailles,
Roma 2004, p. 9.
27
Castelnuovo, A la court, cit., p. 26.
tica de las Monarquas europeas desde el siglo XIII al XVIII. De esta mane-
ra, la corte no se puede identificar con un elemento concreto de la organi-
zacin poltica de dicho perodo histrico (como se ha venido haciendo), sino
que constituye un paradigma en s misma; esto es, la propia organizacin
poltica en la que se desarrollaron los acontecimientos durante este largo
perodo histrico, hasta el punto de que se puede afirmar toda actividad
que no se diera o influyera en la corte, no existi polticamente hablando.
Es decir, la corte se constituy (utilizando la terminologa aristotlica) en
la forma poltica del reino. Dicho paradigma comenz a cambiar durante
la Ilustracin y la manera en que lo hizo qued reflejado en el pensamiento
filosfico y en los escritos de los historiadores de la poca sin que lo haya-
mos percibido debido al influjo que ha ejercido en nosotros la estructura pol-
tica del estado liberal como paradigma de explicacin de la evolucin his-
trica.
La sustitucin del paradigma cortesano por el estatal en la historiografa
liberal decimonnica, empez a manifestarse a partir de finales del siglo
XVIII, cuando autores como Rousseau, Herder, Fichte o Ranke trataron de
formular una alternativa a la tesis del progreso de la civilizacin desarro-
llada en los tiempos de la Ilustracin. Este grupo, que haca hincapi en las
cualidades intelectuales y personales de un pueblo, mostr un profundo
rechazo hacia la nobleza cortesana y civilizada con poder poltico
28
; esto es,
al mismo tiempo, que Rousseau rompa con la idea optimista de la Ilustracin
acerca del influjo que ejerca la civilizacin en la sociedad, los intelectuales
alemanes empezaron a relacionar el concepto de Zivilisation, que inclua
referencias a las buenas costumbres como una expresin del progreso, con
superficialidad; a cambio, prefirieron el trmino Kultur
29
, que remita princi-
palmente al espritu de una colectividad que produca manifestaciones arts-
ticas, religiosas y culturales con rasgos especficos que la identificaba a lo
largo de la historia
30
.
Jos Martnez Milln
202
28
Elias, El proceso, cit., pp. 57-58.
29
P. Burke, Whats is Cultural History?, Cambridge 2004, p. 7.
30
I. Berlin, Las races del romanticismo, Madrid 2000, p. 78: Los alemanes tendan a
suponer que en Francia nadie se daba cuenta, nadie comenzaba a darse cuenta, de lo que eran
estos problemas ms profundos; que todos los franceses eran como monos disecados, sin
concepcin alguna de lo que mova a los seres humanos, en tanto poseedores de alma y de
algn tipo de necesidad espiritual. Id., El Mago del Norte. J. G. Hamann y el origen del
irracionalismo moderno, Madrid 1997, cap. 4; H. J. Lsebrink, Civilizacin, en V. Ferrone
D. Roche (eds.), Diccionario histrico de la Ilustracin, Madrid 1997, p. 152.
2.1 La idea de progreso de la Ilustracin
Durante el siglo XVIII, el trmino de civilizacin estuvo estrechamen-
te unido al de progreso. Esta noble y optimista doctrina arranca del
Renacimiento y llega hasta la Revolucin francesa e incluso la traspasa hasta
nuestros das
31
. Ambos trminos (progreso y civilizacin) reflejaban la
conciencia de un cometido particular de Europa en la evolucin de la huma-
nidad, cometido al que habra llegado gracias a los adelantos del comercio, la
industria, la imprenta y, en definitiva, al avance de las ciencias y de las artes
32
.
Este progreso an se pensaba dentro de un modelo cortesano de Monarqua en
el que la filosofa prctica clsica an tena clara influencia
33
. La organizacin
poltica de las Monarquas europeas segua siendo el despotismo o absolutis-
mo ilustrado
34
. En la Enciclopedia, Diderot an defenda que el orden polti-
co tiende al mayor bien del cuerpo social
35
. El honnte homme, que haba
sustituido al cortesano italiano como modelo, an viva en un mundo cortesa-
no. Paul Hazard afirma que este personaje, modelo del tiempo de la
Ilustracin:
Enseaba la cortesa, virtud difcil, que consiste en agradar a los dems para
agradarse a s mismo; deca que haba que evitar los excesos, incluso en el bien,
y no blasonar de nada, salvo del honor. Se formaba por una continua disciplina,
203
31
Los tres soportes ms fuertes sobre los que se apoy eran: la fe en la razn, esto es,
en una estructura lgicamente conectada de leyes y generalizaciones susceptibles de demos-
tracin o verificacin; la identificacin de la naturaleza humana a travs de los tiempos y
la posibilidad de fines humanos universales y, finalmente, la posibilidad de acceder a lo
segundo por medio de lo primero, de asegurar la armona fsica y espiritual y el progreso
gracias al poder de la inteligencia crtica guiada lgica o empricamente (Berlin, El Mago,
cit., pp. 85-86).
32
Lsebrink, Civilizacin, cit., pp. 150-151; J. F. Faure-Soulet, Economa poltica y
progreso en el Siglo de las Luces, Madrid 1974, pp. 16-22.
33
L. Krieger, Kings and Philosophers, 1689-1789, New York-London 1970, pp. 3-12.
F. Venturi, Utopia e riforma nellilluminismo, Torino 1970, passim.
34
I. Berlin, Las races del romanticismo, Madrid 2000, p. 25; C. B. A. Behrens,
Elightened Despotism, Historical Journal, 18 (1975), pp. 401-108; Id., Society,
Government and the Enlightenment. The Experiencies of Eighteenth-Century France and
Prussia, London 1985, passim; L. Krieger, An Essay on the Theory of Enlightened
Despotism, Chicago 1975, passim; R. Vierhous, Germany in the Age of Absolutism,
Cambridge 1988, cps. 1 y 2. F. Venturi, La prima crisi dellAntico Regime (1768-1776), en
Id., Settecento Riformatore, Torino 1979, vol. III, pp. 144-166.
35
F. Diaz, Discorso sulle lumires. Programmi politici e idea-forza della libert, en Id.,
Let dei lumi. Studi storici sul Settecento europeo in onore di Franco Venturi, Napoli 1985,
vol. I, pp. 140-141.
por una voluntad vigilante; es una empresa difcil impedir al Yo que se desbor-
de, obligarlo a n valer ms que como componente de un valor comn- tal obli-
gacin requiere un herosmo discreto; el honnte homme slo parece todo gracia
porque regula su fuerza interior y la gasta en armonas
36
.
La idea de progreso en la filosofa de la historia, expresin acuada por
Voltaire para sustituir la teologa de la Historia de San Agustn o Bossuet
37
,
admite dos significados. La ms optimista es la que determinados autores ven
el progreso como una fuerza histrica incontenible. Esta interpretacin (cuyos
seguidores fueron entre otros Iselin y Turgot) encontr su profeta ms des-
tacado en Condorcet que fue vctima de la Revolucin
38
. El hilo conductor de
la historia es para Condorcet el constante perfeccionamiento de los conoci-
mientos, de las formas de organizacin social, etc. El progreso se conceba ili-
mitado e irreversible. La segunda versin est representada por Voltaire,
quien, si bien cree en la idea de progreso, tiene una aguda conciencia de la fra-
gilidad el progreso, lo que representa una nota discordante del optimismo his-
trico caracterstico de la Ilustracin
39
, es decir, el progreso sera contingente
y reversible
40
. Con todo, los ilustrados, en general, reemplazaron la
Providencia trascendente por la idea de progreso en la Historia
41
.
En este sentido, el pensamiento de Kant constituye en mi opinin el
ltimo exponente de esta visin optimista y racional que an tiene lugar den-
tro del sistema cortesano, como se observa en las ideas que aport en su ensa-
yo Ideas para una historia universal en clave cosmopolita (1784), respecto a
la idea del progreso y la educacin humana. Consideraba la Historia como la
realizacin de un plan racional de la Naturaleza, todava desconocido, que se
plasmaba en este absurdo decurso de las cosas humanas
42
. El hombre, pues,
no se dejaba llevar por un plan preconcebido por l mismo, sin embargo, era
Jos Martnez Milln
204
36
P. Hazard, La crisis de la conciencia europea, Madrid 1952, p. 295.
37
Estudio preliminar de M. Caparrs a, Voltaire, Filosofa de la Historia, Madrid
1990, pp. XXIII-XXVI. No obstante, para este punto, resulta fundamental, M. Horkheimer
T. W. Adorno, Dialctica de la Ilustracin, Madrid 2001, especialmente, pp. 59-96.
38
M. J. A. Condorcet, Bosquejo de un cuadro histrico de los progresos del espritu
humano (1795) Madrid 1980; Berlin, El Mago, cit.
39
F. Sabater, El pensamiento ilustrado, en G. Vattimo (ed.), En torno a la postmoder-
nidad, Barcelona 1990, p. 115; Voltaire, Ensayo sobre las costumbres el espritu de las
naciones, Buenos Aires 1959.
40
Las ideas de progreso econmico en los autores de ambas posturas, Faure-Soulet,
Economa poltica, cit., pp. 111-124. Horkheimer y Adorno, Dialctica, cit., pp. 288-290.
41
A. R. J. Turgot, Discurso sobre el progreso humano (traduccin de G. Mayos), Madrid
1991; P. Hazard, El pensamiento europeo en el siglo XVIII, Madrid 1991, pp. 49 y 345.
42
I. Kant, Filosofa de la Historia, Buenos Aires 1964, pp. 41-42.
conducido por un plan oculto de la Naturaleza. Kant, sin embargo, tena su
propia explicacin del progreso. La razn, sostena, tena que evolucionar
hacia un fin. No lo haca en cada humano individualmente, pero llegara un
momento en que la especie humana en su totalidad, despus de generaciones
de aprendizaje, experimentara la realizacin de la razn. Tena que ser as,
puesto que sostener lo contrario, sera caer en el escepticismo y, en conse-
cuencia, la existencia humana se reducira a un juego infantil. La educacin
humana era un proceso racional de la Naturaleza, y como tal se poda llegar a
entender y conocer. Por el contrario, su discpulo Herder rompi con esta
perspectiva. Rechazaba esta antropologa ilustrada y liberal que subrayaba la
distancia entre humanidad y animalidad, mientras que defina la primera por
un impulso mecnico e insuperable posesivo que hace enfrentarse a los hom-
bres
43
.
El concepto de organizacin estatal kantiano es el mismo que el de la
Ilustracin y de los revolucionarios franceses
44
. La nacin es un concepto
abstracto que agrupa a todos los ciudadanos precisamente en tanto que ciuda-
danos (no solo como hombres), por ello, en cierta medida, puede identificar-
se con Estado. Con todo, Kant an no diferenci el espritu del pueblo del
Estado. El hombre alcanzara la felicidad nicamente a travs de la razn, y
no a travs del instinto, que describa como la estructuracin mecnica de la
existencia animal. La razn volva a ser para l, la nica va para alcanzar la
felicidad, puesto que no exista nada sin motivo en la Naturaleza y el sentido
de que el humano poseyera la razn, era precisamente que la usara como
medio para alcanzar la felicidad
45
. Ciertamente, Kant aada un nuevo matiz
a la idea ilustrada de que el objetivo de la existencia humana era la felicidad,
sosteniendo que el objetivo de la existencia humana no era vivir bien y cmo-
damente, sino con dignidad. Esto era el sentido de tener que haber superado
tantas dificultades con tan pocos medios en el camino hacia la realizacin de
la razn: las dificultades elevaban su autoestima racional. El objetivo final de
la Historia era la dignidad humana a travs de la perfeccin de la razn, y no,
una mejora de la vida social a travs del progreso de la civilizacin. La tarea
de la Historia era demostrar la evolucin de la constitucin poltica segn las
205
43
G. Mayos Solsona, Ilustracin y Romanticismo. Introduccin a la polmica entre
Kant y Herder, Barcelona 2004, pp. 282-285.
44
I. Kant, La paz perpetua (1795), traduccin de J. Alcoriza y A. Lastra, I. Kant, En
defensa de la Ilustracin, Barcelona 1999, p. 319.
45
Incluso Rousseau, cuyas ideas impactaron profundamente en Kant, segua siendo
un sofista ya que sus doctrinas apelaban a la razn, Berlin, Las races, cit., p. 82.
distintas etapas de perfeccionamiento
46
.
Kant reflexionaba sobre los aspectos irracionales del proceso de la per-
feccin de la razn a partir de un anlisis de lo que era segn l una contra-
diccin inherente a la naturaleza humana, lo que llamaba la insociable socia-
bilidad
47
. El hombre, por una parte tena inclinacin a socializarse para sen-
tirse ms humano y, por otra parte, una tendencia a individualizarse, por su
inclinacin a doblegar todo a su gusto. Como se sabe propenso a oponerse a
los dems, espera encontrar esta misma resistencia por doquier. Es esta resis-
tencia, lo que hace despertar sus fuerzas en l. Por medio de la ambicin, el
afn de dominio o la codicia, intenta buscarse un sitio entre sus congneres,
de los que no puede prescindir, pero tampoco es capaz de soportar. De esta
manera, el hombre avanzaba desde la barbarie hacia la cultura, que Kant defi-
na como el valor social del hombre. Finalmente, el consenso social surgido
de una manera patolgica, se convirtira en un mbito moral. Sin la contra-
diccin en la naturaleza humana, reinara la conformidad y no se desarrollar-
an las fuerzas racionales del hombre, ni se podra convertir en un ser digno y
moral. La civilizacin en el sentido de una ordenada vida social basada en el
refinamiento de las costumbres no era la meta para Kant, sino, como explica-
ba en su Antropologa, meramente una etapa hacia la moralidad.
Hasta entonces, la Ilustracin tena que empujar a la Humanidad hacia el
progreso. La Ilustracin era para Kant un proceso que surga desde el pueblo,
hasta que alcanzaba las regiones superiores del gobierno, puesto que no caba
esperar mucho de la instruccin pblica por falta de recursos econmicos. La
va opuesta, por tanto, de la extensin de la civilizacin desde la corte. La his-
toria filosfica poda cumplir un papel fundamental en el proceso de la
Ilustracin, puesto que sealaba el objetivo final. Esta historia filosfica ten-
dra que tener el carcter de la evolucin de la constitucin civil, y las rela-
ciones interestatales, desde los griegos hasta nuestros tiempos. Con esto, la
historia del Estado, se convirti en un vehculo para la educacin de la ciuda-
dana. El ensayo de Kant tom una posicin crtica frente a los soberanos, y
constituy una propuesta de cambiar radicalmente de poltica.
No obstante, si bien es cierto que Kant daba un paso ms en la sustitucin
del modelo cortesano por el estatal, a nivel de la filosofa de la historia, en la
que las buenas costumbres pierden su papel y son caracterizadas como super-
Jos Martnez Milln
206
46
E. Menendez Urea, La crtica kantiana de la sociedad y de la religin, Madrid
1979, pp. 31-37. I. lvarez Dommguez, La filosofa kantiana de la Historia, Madrid 1985,
pp. 75 ss.
47
Menendez Urea, La crtica kantiana, cit., pp. 55 ss.
ficiales, y por su crtica hacia el afn de los reyes de alcanzar la gloria a tra-
vs de una irracional poltica exterior, su teora an estaba hecha desde una
concepcin cortesana, por lo que no resulta raro que defendiese al despotismo
ilustrado
48
. Su posicin fue claramente reformista y no revolucionaria. Esto le
haca que sus planteamientos filosficos se hicieran desde un plano distinto al
de J. J. Rousseau, quien le influy profundamente en este planteamiento, o de
su discpulo Herder.
Pero fue Rousseau quien llev a cabo el rechazo de la opinin comn de
la Ilustracin acerca de los progresos de la razn. Ello se produjo en 1749,
cuando la Academia de Dijon convoc un premio sobre Si el progreso de las
ciencias las artes ha contribuido a corromper o mejorar las costumbres.
Rousseau se decidi a presentar un trabajo, con el que gan el premio, publi-
cado en 1750
49
. Este ensayo contiene a mi juicio la base del ataque de
Rousseau a la Ilustracin, pues no solo se limit a negar que el progreso de
las artes y de las ciencias mejoran la moral, sino que adems afirm todo lo
contrario, que tal progreso siempre conduce a la corrupcin moral. En su
Discour sur les sciencies et les arts afirm que existe relacin entre la vida
moral del hombre y el desarrollo de la cultura. Esta inversin de los valores
naturales en la sociedad ha provocado la sustitucin de la realidad por la apa-
riencia. Al hombre moderno no le importa lo que es, sino lo que parece ser. La
apariencia no nos muestra lo que el hombre es, sino encubre su naturaleza ori-
ginal. El hombre se ha alienado de su propio ser y ha adquirido un ser artifi-
cial. El hombre moderno vive fuera de s y basa su vida en la opinin ms que
en la naturaleza. Las artes y las ciencias necesitan para florecer una atmsfe-
ra de lujo y de ocio; surgen, en realidad, de vicios del alma. La sociedad domi-
nada por las artes y ciencias est llena de desigualdad.
De esta manera, el lenguaje tambin dej de ser un medio vlido de
comunicacin para convertirse nicamente en instrumento de jerga social
carente de sentido. La polmica podra ser superficial mientras la retrica
fuese el arma decisiva, pero el objetivo de Rousseau era distinto: Haba visto
que todo depende radicalmente de la poltica y que como quiera que se tome,
ningn pueblo ser jams otra cosa que lo que su gobierno quiera ser. Esto
es, el problema de la moral llevaba al problema de la poltica:
Mientras que el gobierno y las leyes persiguen la seguridad y el bienestar de los
hombres reunidos, las ciencias, las letras y las artes, menos despticas y quizs
207
48
Berlin, Las races, cit., pp. 99-114.
49
J. J. Rousseau, Discurso sobre el origen y fundamentos de la desigualdad entre los
hombres y otros escritos (1750), Madrid 2005, pp. 3-40.
ms poderosas, extienden guirnaldas de flores sobre las cadenas de hierro con
que aquellos hombres estn cargados, ahogan en ellos el sentimiento de esa liber-
tad originaria para la que parecan haber nacido, les hacen amar la esclavitud y
forman lo que se llama pueblos civilizados
50
.
Rousseau pona en crtica el modelo poltico en el que viva, que no era
otro que el sistema de corte: el modelo (paradigma) cortesano de Monarqua
en el que la filosofa prctica clsica an tena clara influencia. No se debe
olvidar que la organizacin poltica de las Monarquas europeas segua sien-
do el absolutismo ilustrado
51
.
Para Rousseau, el hombre natural sera el verdadero hombre una vez que
se le despoja de los adornos de la cultura sirviendo de norma ideal para juz-
gar las organizaciones de la vida humana. El filsofo ginebrino saba muy
bien que la sociedad era un hecho irreversible, pero lo que pretenda era hallar
una organizacin social que potenciase la naturaleza humana. Por consi-
guiente, la organizacin poltica era el objetivo de su escrito. La civilizacin
era la culpable por encubrir la fuente de los males sociales. Por consiguiente,
lo que pona en crtica Rousseau en su discurso era la imagen antropolgica
que era comnmente aceptada por la Ilustracin. Esta imagen corresponda
con la del cortesano del siglo XVIII. En la contestacin que el filsofo gine-
brino escribi al memorial crtico que Charles Bordes dedic al Discour sur
les sciencies et les arts, aparece con claridad esta crtica al mundo cortesano,
organizacin poltica de la poca:
Cuanto ms se corrompe el interior, ms se compone el exterior; es as como el
cultivo de las letras engendra insensiblemente el civismo. El gusto tambin nace
de la misma fuente. Siendo la aprobacin pblica el primer premio de los traba-
jos literarios, es natural que los que se ocupan de ellos reflexionen sobre los
medios de agradar; son reflexiones que a la larga forman el estilo, depuran el
gusto y extienden por todas partes el gusto de la urbanidad. Todas las cosas
sern, si se quiere, el suplemento de la virtud, pero nunca se podr decir que sean
la virtud y rara vez se asociarn a ella. Siempre habr esta diferencia: el que se
vuelve til trabaja por los dems, pero el que solo piensa en volverse agradable
solo trabaja para s.
Jos Martnez Milln
208
50
Ibid., p. 7.
51
Berlin, Las races, cit., p. 25; Behrens, Elightened Despotism, cit., pp. 401-108; Id.,
Society, Government, cit.; Krieger, An Essay on the Theory, cit., passim. R. Vierhaus,
Germany in the Age of Absolutism, Cambridge 1988, cps. 1 y 2.
Esta aguda reflexin era rematada con el siguiente epitafio que, a nuestro
juicio, descalifica el modelo cortesano que Rousseau contemplaba: El adula-
dor, por ejemplo, no ahorra ningn trabajo para agradar y, sin embargo, solo
hace dao
52
.
Las ideas de Rousseau, coinciden en mi opinin con las tesis que
defenda, en su ensayo Auch eine Philosophie der Geschichte zur Bildung der
Menschheit, sobre el espritu de los pueblos
53
, cuando criticaba a los historia-
dores que haban desarrollado la tesis del progreso, por la idea de que Europa
en el Renacimiento haba salido del oscurantismo y de la barbarie de la Edad
Media. Por el contrario, el verdadero fundamento para la cultura actual se
tena que buscar en la Edad Media, donde se podan encontrar los valores,
basados en la fe, que Herder contrapona con la superficialidad de la sociedad
ilustrada que, justamente, se consideraba heredera de la cultura clsica. De
esta manera, la cortesa era desvinculada del progreso de la humanidad
54
.
Los planteamientos propios de un modelo cortesano evolucionado y
racionalizado, como correspondan a la cultura de la Ilustracin, quedaron
reflejados en las obras de los historiadores ms influyentes del modelo de pro-
greso, como en las del escocs William Robertson, quien expona esta pers-
pectiva en la introduccin a su historia sobre el reinado de Carlos V, titulado
A view of the progress of society in Europe from the subversion of the Roman
Empire to the beginning of the sixteenth century. En la dedicatoria del libro al
rey Jorge III, explicaba que haba decidido escribir una historia sobre el rei-
nado del Emperador, porque fue en esta poca cuando se estableci un nuevo
sistema poltico: el equilibrio de poderes en Europa. Aadi que la historia de
Carlos V le poda ensear las consecuencias de una ambicin desmesurada y
la dicha de la prudencia: la ventaja de la paz sobre la gloria militar. El equili-
brio de poderes, segn explicaba Robertson, era el resultado de una larga evo-
lucin histrica que empez con la decadencia del Imperio Romano. El histo-
riador escocs esbozaba el progreso de la sociedad desde entonces, principal-
mente a travs de los conceptos leyes, gobierno y manners. El progreso se
produca a travs de determinados acontecimientos histricos que alteraron el
sistema feudal y tuvieron como consecuencia las transformaciones polticas y
209
52
Rousseau, Discurso sobre, cit., p. 67.
53
J. G. Herder, Idea para una filosofa de la historia de la Humanidad, Buenos Aires
s.a. vol. III, pp. 121-140; J. L. Villacaas, La quiebra de la razn ilustrada: idealismo y
romanticismo, Madrid 1994, pp. 75-121; Berlin, Las races del romanticismo, cit., p. 93.
54
M. L. Hulliung, The Autocritique of Enlightenment: Rousseau and the Philosophes.
Cambridge (MA) 1994.
sociales que estaban en el origen de la sociedad moderna. Era, pues, dentro de
este contexto, donde la corte como sistema cobraba su sentido
55
.
La corte imperial romana, era para Robertson el escenario por excelencia
de la decadencia del imperio. All se manifestaba cmo la ansiedad por el lujo
haba sustituido el espritu marcial, con los emperadores hundidos en la moli-
cie del lujo oriental, encerrados en sus palacios sin enterarse de los negocios
de la poltica, ni de las guerras, gobernados por mujeres y eunucos o minis-
tros afeminados. Para Robertson, sin embargo, la corte no slo era el esce-
nario de vicios y lujo, sino tambin de refinamiento, como mostr a travs del
papel que sta cumpla en tiempos brbaros. Despus de la oscura poca de
las invasiones, el historiador escocs distingua un punto de inflexin, cuando
la sociedad empez a recuperarse del desorden del sistema feudal, con su con-
secuente corrupcin del gusto y de las costumbres, para entrar en va del pro-
greso, con las Cruzadas como acontecimiento histrico clave. Estas tuvieron
como consecuencia indirecta un aumento de la riqueza, especficamente en las
cortes de los prncipes europeos, que mostraron mayor fasto y mayor pompa
en las ceremonias pblicas. Los cortesanos mostraron un gusto ms refinado
para los placeres y el ocio. Este cambio, junto con la extensin de un vital
espritu romntico sobre la sociedad, constituyeron los primeros rayos de
luz que resplandecieron e hicieron desaparecer la oscuridad de la barbarie y la
ignorancia.
Con el revivir de las ciudades, a partir del siglo XI, este proceso se invir-
ti, y familias distinguidas residieron de nuevo en ellas. Las ciudades, dentro
de este contexto, no slo fueron las antagonistas de los nobles, sino que tam-
bin fueron capaces de incorporarles y, con esto, creci su importancia y su
deseo de preservar sus libertades e independencia. Las ciudades fueron, por lo
tanto, repblicas, sistemas polticos que se oponan a la corte imperial, y a las
cortes de los seores feudales. Ya, definitivamente en camino del progreso,
empezaron a florecer, y se produjo un incremento de la riqueza que, segn
Robertson, siempre iba acompaado por la ostentacin y el lujo, algo que
caracterizaba como molesto y poco elegante, pero que en todo caso contribu-
y a fomentar el refinamiento en las costumbres sociales. El aumento de la
Jos Martnez Milln
210
55
W. Robertson, Historia del emperador Carlos V fue publicada por primera vez en
1769. Fue traducida al castellano, con algunos retoques, en 1821, por Flix Ramn
Alvarado. En 1839, Jos Mara Gutirrez Pea la traduca de manera completa, publicndo-
la en Barcelona en 4 volmenes. Su repercusin y significado dentro de la historiografa han
sido estudiados por J. G. A. Pocock, The Reign of Charles V and the emergence of European
states, en Id., Barbarism and Religion, Cambridge 1999, vol. II, pp. 189-299. En la actuali-
dad, mi discpulo Gijs Versteegen est realizando su tesis doctoral sobre el tema.
poblacin, a su vez, contribuy al desarrollo de la administracin, y fortaleci
la idea de que su seguridad dependa de la observancia de las leyes. De esta
manera, la mejora en el sistema de jurisprudencia y en la administracin de la
justicia, ocasion un cambio en las manners y la consolidacin de un com-
portamiento y un modelo de organizacin poltica que fue la corte; es decir,
para Robertson, las buenas costumbres, fundamento del sistema cortesano,
no estaban en contradiccin con una organizacin estatal.
2.2 La quiebra del modelo cortesano. El espritu del pueblo
El modelo cortesano fue interpretado de manera muy distinta por Herder.
Para el filsofo alemn, la perspectiva histrica ilustrada del progreso de la
civilizacin era algo mecnica, superficial y simplificadora. En su ensayo
Auch eine Philosophie der Geschichte zur Bildung der Menschheit, parta del
concepto de Bildung. Comparaba las pocas histricas con las distintas etapas
de la maduracin del hombre, que era la Bildung de la humanidad, e identifi-
caba a cada una con diferentes momentos espacio-temporales que se despla-
zaban geogrficamente desde Oriente hacia Occidente, segn la humanidad
alcanzaba mayor grado de madurez
56
.
Herder criticaba a los historiadores que haban desarrollado la tesis del
progreso, por la idea de que Europa en el Renacimiento haba salido del oscu-
rantismo y de la barbarie de la Edad Media. Por el contrario, el verdadero fun-
damento para la cultura actual se tena que buscar en el medievo, donde se
podan encontrar los valores, basados en la fe, que Herder contrapona con la
superficialidad de la sociedad ilustrada que, justamente, se consideraba here-
dera de la cultura clsica. Herder buscaba otros modelos, y remontaba hasta
los primeros hombres del Gnesis el heroico comienzo de la formacin de la
especie humana. Diferenciaba los valores de stos de los de su propio siglo
ilustrado. El filsofo alemn opona la sabidura y el temor a Dios, como el
fundamento eterno de la educacin [Bildung] de aquellos, a la ciencia. Esta
disyuntuva cobraba todo su sentido si se tiene en cuenta el papel atribuido a
la ciencia dentro de la idea ilustrada del progreso, que tambin comparta
Robertson. Opona el amor familiar de los primeros personajes bblicos con
las cortesas y el desenfreno moral de sus contemporneos. La cortesa era -
de esta manera- desvinculada del progreso de la humanidad. Para designar
cortesa, Herder usaba el vocablo Artigkeit, una palabra peyorativa que
211
56
Villacaas, La quiebra de la razn, cit., pp. 75-121.
tiene connotacin de artificialidad. La sociedad ilustrada, en consecuencia, se
caracterizaba por su faz de apariencias que ocultaba una falta de moralidad,
frente a la sinceridad del pasado patriarcal. Herder resaltaba el orden en la
vida, el dominio y gobierno divino en la casa como modelo de todo orden y
organizacin social, algo que implicaba una crtica inequvoca a la sociedad
civilizada y al Estado como culminacin del progreso, que eran centrales en
los escritos de los ilustrados
57
.
Su crtica hacia la sociedad ilustrada tambin influyo en su valoracin de
la cultura clsica. As, consideraba que la fortaleza de la cultura egipcia per-
di profundidad, naturalidad y sentido en Grecia. Relacionaba el teatro grie-
go, con una prdida de profundidad religiosa. En su nfasis al describir los
escenarios de la cultura griega el teatro, el mercado, etc. evocaba asocia-
ciones con la sociedad ilustrada y la cultura cortesana. Sostena que la cultu-
ra griega no poda perdurar por su delicadeza y ligereza, lo que significaba
que su valor era relativo como modelo para el presente. Roma, cuando domi-
n el mundo con su gobierno y su ejrcito, impuso las leyes, costumbres y las
virtudes, pero tambin sus vicios, adverta Herder
58
.
Los pueblos nrdicos despreciaban las artes y la ciencia, el refinamiento
y la opulencia, que haban destruido a la humanidad, pero, en cambio, aporta-
ron su buen entendimiento nrdico en vez de ciencia; la naturalidad en lugar
del arte y el artificio; las rudas pero buenas costumbres en vez de las costum-
bres refinadas romanas. Es decir, surgi una nueva cultura con unas leyes que
exhalaban bravura viril, sentimiento del honor, confianza en la inteligencia,
lealtad y veneracin de Dios, y unas instituciones feudales que segn Herder
socavaron el hervidero de las ciudades populosas y opulentas.
De esta manera, la Edad Media apareca como una poca mucho ms
compleja. Herder sostena que las virtudes de la Edad Media, como la corte-
sa medieval, la Hflichkeit, y el espritu caballeresco, haban perdido su con-
tenido y se haban transformado en superficialidades desvirtuadas, un refina-
miento sin contenido. ste formaba parte en opinin de Herder de la est-
tica de la sociedad ilustrada y lo asociaba con la superficialidad y la artificia-
lidad. La vida social era vista por Herder como una manera de garantizar la
obediencia de la sociedad al monarca y no era ms que resignacin.
En el ensayo, Herder no slo reflexionaba sobre Bildung como proceso
histrico, sino tambin como instrumento para difundir la civilizacin; por lo
tanto, proclamaba la educacin como plan de accin. Dentro de este contex-
Jos Martnez Milln
212
57
Herder, Idea para, cit., pp. 121-140.
58
Berlin, Las races, cit., p. 93.
to, identificaba la filosofa del progreso con ideas vanas e inoperantes y rela-
cionaba una forma de pensar surgida dentro de las culturas nacionales con la
accin. El ideal de la civilizacin lo refutaba como una ilusin uniforme, que
flotaba en el aire y que no estaba arraigada en el espritu del pueblo
59
. No crea
en la legislacin como instrumento para formar naciones, y calificaba una
recopilacin tan general de leyes como la espuma que se deshace en el
aire. Tampoco crea en las Academias, ni las salas de arte y las bibliotecas
para educar a la humanidad
60
. Situaba estas instituciones dentro del mbito de
la corte, y consideraba que su funcin era meramente halagar al rey. Herder
contrastaba este modelo de educacin con uno nacional y popular, basado en
la experiencia y en el sentimiento
61
. En definitiva, la cortesa, como expresin
de la civilizacin del progreso, es una continua referencia en el opsculo de
Herder. sta y la corte (gobierno) eran considerados como partes del ideal del
progreso de la civilizacin, asociado por Herder con la generalidad, la super-
ficialidad, la esterilidad, el despotismo y la decadencia. En cambio defenda
la individualidad, la profundidad, la vitalidad, la virtud, la fe y la educacin
basadas en la experiencia de la cultura nacional y en el espritu del pueblo.
Herder meta en el mismo saco a Voltaire, Hume, Robertson y Kant cuan-
do afirmaba:
resulta un cuadro tan bello de la forma segn la cual derivan ellos de la ilustra-
cin y progreso del mundo a partir de los turbios tiempos del desmo y del depo-
tismo de las almas; es decir, la ilustracin y mejora del mundo conducen de tal
modo a la filosofa y la tranquilidad, que el corazn que el corazn de los aman-
tes de su tiempo rebosa de alegra
62
.
Para Herder el espritu cortesano estaba representado en la cultura fran-
cesa, a la que critica reiteradamente
63
. La filosofa de Herder reivindica el
individuo o singular en la Historia. Herder pensaba en trminos de indivi-
duos colectivos y no solo como evolucin que conduca hacia una plenitud
213
59
W. Schmidt-Bigemann, Elemente von Herders Nationenkoncept, en R. Otto (ed.),
Nationen und Kulturen, Wrzburg 1996, pp. 27-34.
60
H. E. Bdeker, Academias, en Ferrone Roche (eds.), Diccionario histrico, cit., pp.
220-223.
61
La filosofa francesa para Herder era puramente cortesana, amante de las buenas for-
mas, A. Rodrguez Berraza, Identidad lingstica y nacin cultural en J. G. Herder, Madrid
2008, p. 84.
62
Citado por Mayos Solsona, Ilustracin y Romanticismo, cit., pp. 311-312.
63
J. G. Herder, Obras Selectas (traduccin P. Ribas), Madrid 1982, p. 98.
final
64
. En este sentido, el progreso laico desvaloriza aquellas cosas singula-
res e irrepetibles que tiene cada pueblo. Esta exaltacin de lo individual se
refiere a individuos colectivos, que son los pueblos, las civilizaciones, etc.
y no tanto a los seres humanos
65
: Desde cierto punto de vista, toda perfeccin
humana es nacional, epocal y, si lo consideramos con la mayor precisin, indi-
vidual
66
.
De esta manera, Herder pona los pilares ideolgicos de lo que iba a ser
el nacionalismo. El individuo humano defenda no se eleva a la humani-
dad por s solo, sino a travs de su participacin en su grupo, haciendo hinca-
pi en la religacin del individuo respecto a su sustrato cultural y a su grupo.
La cultura es algo ms que un acervo de costumbres y creencias, con lo que
Herder est muy prximo de convertir a la comunidad en un sujeto con vida
propia, en un alma nacional. Los espritus nacionales son los verdaderos
protagonistas de la historia, aunque se expresen a travs de sus individuos
67
.
Fichte asumi todos estos planteamientos y dio el ltimo paso para que
se produjera la definitiva ruptura entre la corte y el espritu nacionalista.
Fichte, en sus Discursos a la nacin alemana, escritos despus de que Prusia
habubiera sido derrotada por Napolen en 1806, se aproximaba a analizar la
organizacin de la corte desde una reflexin sobre la lengua alemana, acusan-
do a la cultura cortesana de ser una moda extranjera
68
. El filsofo considera-
ba al pueblo alemn como un pueblo originario, gracias a que haba conser-
vado su propia lengua, lo que le permita alcanzar una profundidad espiritual,
que otros pueblos germnicos no tenan. Aquellos que haban ido a vivir a las
antiguas tierras romanas y haban adoptado una lengua neolatina, slo eran
capaces de tener una comprensin superficial de conceptos filosficos que se
haban originado en una lengua que no era la suya original
69
. En los tiempos
de la mudanza, se haban esforzado por hacerse romanos todo lo posible, pues
haban empezado a considerar su propia forma de ser como brbara, en el sen-
tido de vulgar, plebeya y rstica. Lo romano, en cambio, empez a ser sin-
Jos Martnez Milln
214
64
F. J. Contreras Pelez, La filosofa de la Historia de Johann G. Herder, Sevilla 2004,
p. 61.
65
M. Heinz, Kulturtheorien der Aufkrung: Herder und Kant, en R. Otto (ed.),
Nationem und Kulturem, cit., p. 141.
66
J. G. Herder, Auch eine Philosophie der Geschichte zur Bildung der Menschheit
(1774), Stuttgart 1996, p. 32; Contreras Pelez, La filosofa de, cit., p. 66.
67
Mayos Solsona, Ilustracin y Romanticismo, cit., pp. 294 ss.
68
Sobre el papel de la lengua en la formacin alemana, J. G. Fichte, Discursos a la
nacin alemana, Madrid 1968, pp. 82-83.
69
Berlin, Las races, cit., pp. 129-140.
nimo de selecto. Tal proceso tuvo graves cosecuencias para la lengua, puesto
que empezaron a eliminar las races germnicas y a formar palabras de races
romanas, llegando as a crear el romance como lengua culta y cortesana
70
.
Esto a su vez, contagi a los alemanes, que siempre vivieron en los terri-
torios germanos, quienes tambin empezaron a considerar las costumbres
romanas como ms elegantes y, pensaron, ya que no fuimos tan afortunados
de recibir todo esto de primera mano, dejemos que nos venga incluso de
segunda y a travs de los neorromanos refirindose, segn la poca a los
espaoles o a los franceses. El influjo tambin se dio en el mbito religioso:
cuando en Italia, por el estudio de las lenguas clsicas, hasta los sacerdotes
haban comprendido que el cristianismo les haba llegado en una versin
corrompida, no reaccionaron, sino que se sintieron cmodos manteniendo a la
mayora en la ignorancia, lo que la converta en fcil de manejar. Ahora bien,
cuando Lutero, menos refinado y menos culto, pero con una profundidad espi-
ritual mayor, comprendi lo que muchos extranjeros ya saban, le sobrecogi
el temor por la salvacin eterna y se liber en l una fuerza que le hizo el ini-
ciador de la Reforma. Es decir, para Fichte, el refinamiento, surgido dentro de
este contexto cortesano, tambin era relacionado con la superficialidad y con
el afn de los estamentos elevados de imponerse sobre los dems
71
.
En la nacin alemana, sin embargo, la educacin siempre haba surgido
del pueblo
72
. Aunque semibrbaros, y menos cultos que los extranjeros, hab-
an fundado las ciudades. La historia de stas era -para Fichte- la que realmente
vala la pena. Fue este el nico perodo de la historia alemana cuando la
nacin consigui esplendor y fama al nivel que le corresponda como pueblo
originario
73
. Fueron las ciudades quienes tuvieron un influjo dominante en el
desarrollo de la constitucin imperial alemana, en la reforma de la Iglesia ale-
mana y en todo lo que caracterizaba a la nacin alemana. Por consiguiente,
para la regeneracin de Alemania, era preciso escribir una historia fascinante
215
70
Fichte, Discursos a la nacin, cit., pp. 90-96. Incluso a nuestros ojos parecen ms
nobles las costumbres romanas, en cambio, vulgar lo alemn (p. 103).
71
J. G. Fichte, Los caracteres de la Edad Contempornea, Madrid 1976, pp. 34-36.
72
Por consiguiente, no nosqueda otro remedio que llevar la nueva formacin a todo
lo que es germnico sin excepcin, de forma que se convierta no en formacin de una clase
especial, sino en formacin de la nacin a secas y sin excepcin de ninguna parte de ella
todos los progresos ulteriores de la humanidad en la nacin alemana hasta el presente,
partieron del pueblo y que precisamente a ste fueron llevados primeramente los grandes
asuntos nacionales, de los que se ocup y foment, Fichte, Discursos a la nacin, cit., pp.
45 y 47.
73
Ibid, pp. 109-123. Sexto discurso: exposicin de los rasgos fundamentales alema-
nes en la Historia.
de los alemanes de aquellos tiempos, que fuese libro nacional y popular como
la Biblia. La Historia, por tanto, no era, para Fichte, una narracin de un pro-
greso paulatino, sino que tena un fin didctico y ejemplar, al considerar que
las etapas del pasado, consideras ideales, deberan servir de ejemplo para los
contemporneos
74
. La educacin ideada por Fichte, estaba muy lejos del
modelo cortesano, basado en las buenas costumbres, el refinamiento, y la eru-
dicin, que slo haban conducido a una divisin en el pueblo. Para l la edu-
cacin tena como objetivo fomentar el amor patritico y el amor al Estado
como manifestacin de un orden moral, que necesariamente tendra que sur-
gir en Alemania
75
. Por ello, conclua Fichte, Si el Estado se hace cargo de la
tarea propuesta, declarar general esta educacin sobre toda la superficie del
territorio para cada uno de sus ciudadanos futuros, sin excepcin alguna
76
.
La nueva concepcin filosfica de la organizacin poltica basada en un
espritu comn, que fuera defendida por Herder y Fichte, fue aplicada por
Leopold von Ranke como criterio para escribir la historia. Igual que opinaba
Herder, Ranke defenda que cada poca se encuentra en una relacin inme-
diata con Dios: su valor reside en su propia experiencia
77
. Para Ranke no
existan modelos universales, es decir, no se poda trasplantar la constitucin
de un pas a otro, pues no se poda copiar el espritu que vincula el pasado al
presente y que tambin anima al futuro
78
. Al explicar el Imperio espaol,
Ranke afirmaba que distaba mucho de ser lo que hoy se entiende por un esta-
do; es decir, una unidad poltica rganica, presidida por un solo y fundamen-
tal inters
79
. Evidentemente, esto, en opinin de Ranke fue un grave obst-
culo para el mantenimiento de la Monarqua. A partir de aqu, Ranke contras-
Jos Martnez Milln
216
74
Fichte, Los caracteres, cit., pp. 21-25.
75
Esta educacin ya no aparece [] meramente como el arte de formar al educando
en tica pura, sino que se evidencia como el arte de formar al hombre completa y totalmen-
te (Ibid., p. 68). En el discurso noveno dice: En la nueva Europa, la educacin no ha par-
tido del Estado propiamente dicho, sino de aquel poder del cual su mayora recibieron ellos
tambin la suya, del reino celeste-espiritual de la Iglesia. Esta no se consideraba tanto como
un componente de la comunidad terrena, sino ms bien como semillero del cielo extrao a
aqulla su educacin no se diriga a ningn otro fin que al de evitar que los hombres no
fueran condenados, sino salvados en el otro mundo (Fichte, Discursos a la nacin, cit., p.
190). Lo mismo defenda Herder, Rodrguez Berraza, Identidad lingstica, cit., pp. 79-80.
76
Fichte, Discursos a la nacin, cit., p. 196.
77
L. von Ranke, Ideas de Historia Universal, ............., pp. 79-80.
78
G. Vertregeen, Corte y Estado en la obra histrica de Cnovas: la malograda incor-
poracin del reino ded Portugal a la Monarqua hispana, en F. Labrador Arroyo (ed.),
Evolucin de la Casa de Castilla, Madrid (en prensa).
79
L. von Ranke, Pueblos y Estados en la Historia Moderna, Mxico 1979, p. 275.
t la poltica de Estado de Carlos Vcon la poltica cortesana de su hijo Felipe II y
explic cmo en el reinado de ste ltimo los cortesanos no solo ocuparon los
puestos de la Casa Real, sino que tambin ocuparon los Consejos del Estado. Esto
tuvo como consecuencia una pugna entre partidos o facciones cortesanas en las
que primaron ms los intereses personales que los del Estado, lo que radicaliz la
poltica exterior de Felipe II y llev a la ruina a la Monarqua espaola.
Se comprende que Ranke identificara la corte con la superficialidad, la
apariencia y el inters personal, en contraposicin al Estado, que era la expre-
sin de un ideal espiritual, del inters general y de una moralidad superior que
haca posible la verdadera libertad. Este modelo fue el que emple en sus
magnficas obras y fue seguido por los historiadores europeos para escribir la
evolucin de sus respectivos Estados. Es decir, el paradigma estatal qued
fijado y, lo que es peor, las estructuras y caractersticas que haban articulado
el modelo cortesano quedaron borradas hasta el punto de que an hoy da
muchos historiadores siguen estudiando la corte como un elemento ms del
Estado, sin percatarse de que el modelo cortesano fue un paradigma de arti-
culacin poltica de la sociedad con principios y estructuras especficos.
2.3 El surgimiento del nacionalismo y la implantacin del paradigma estatal
El descubrimiento del espritu del pueblo dio lugar al proceso de cons-
truccin del discurso identitario, que se compone, en primer lugar, de la narra-
cin y entramado del sentido general de la historia, que es constitutiva de la
nacin y de su pueblo (considerado como instancia proyectada). El discurso
identitario selecciona los padres, los hroes, las vctimas y tambin los villa-
nos de la patria
80
. Las costumbres tradicionales, los valores constituidos en
nacionales, peculiares y distintos de la comunidad; es decir, la creacin de un
metapatrimonio, de una metapatria. Es as como surge la construccin de la
doctrina nacionalista
81
.
217
80
P. Ciruiano Marn, T. Elorriaga Planes, J. S. Prez Garzn, Historiografa y nacio-
nalismo espaol (1834-1868), Madrid 1985, pp. 80-83; J. S. Prez Garzn, Nacin espao-
la y revolucin liberal: la perspectiva historiogrfica de los coetneos, en C. Forcadell I.
Peir (eds.), Lecturas de la Historia, Zaragoza 2001, pp. 23-54; J. lvarez Junco, Historia
e identidades colectivas, en J. J. Carreras C. Forcadell lvarez (eds.), Usos pblicos de la
Historia, Madrid 2003, pp. 47-67. Sobre la interpretacin de la Historia de Espaa que hace
Modesto Lafuente, vase, R. Lpez Vela, De Numancia a Zaragoza. La construcin del
pasado nacional en las historias de Espaa del ochocientos, en R. Garca Crcel (ed.), La
construccin de las Historias de Espaa, Madrid 2004, pp. 195-298.
81
H. Kohn, Historia del nacionalismo, Mxico 1984, p. 17, afirma que el nacionalis-
mo no es anterior de la segunda mitad del siglo XVIII.
El nacionalismo no es un sentimiento, sino una doctrina. Una doctrina tan
compleja como el cosmopolitismo
82
. Una vez aceptada la identificacin del
nacionalismo con el amor patrio, se puede desligar el nacionalismo de su con-
texto histrico del siglo XIX y retrotraerlo anacrnicamente a la poca que se
desee. Se desemboca as en una reinterpretacin de la Historia en clave nacio-
nalista
83
. En el contexto histrico, el nacionalismo incluye, adems de la pre-
existencia al Estado, una serie de elementos que lo han propiciado. Kourie
resumi el contenido de los nacionalismos de la siguiente manera: la doctri-
na sostiene que la Humanidad se encuentra dividida naturalmente en nacio-
nes, que las naciones se distinguen por ciertas caractersticas que pueden ser
determinadas y que el nico tipo de gobierno legtimo es el autogobierno
nacional
84
. El nacionalismo, por tanto, no comprende la existencia de grupos
nacionales sin vocacin estatal; es decir, el nacionalismo cultural no es ver-
dadero nacionalismo, pues el nacionalismo es poltico por definicin
85
.
El nacionalismo construye la historia del mbito territorial de las entida-
des polticas soberanas, pues, los estados no tienen cualquier base territorial,
artificialmente construida, sino que sus fronteras se conciben como naturales,
de esta manera, las divisiones poltico-estatales deben ser congruentes con las
antropolgicas-culturales
86
. Es decir, como afirma Gellner, la nacin y el
Estado se nacesitan mutuamente
87
.
Esta forma de construir la evolucin histrica obstaculiza la interpreta-
cin de una historia de Europa compartida de la que todos pudieran participar.
Todas las naciones construyen su propia identidad como comunidad de des-
cendencia; la sangre de ella es el sacramento primero, sobre todo cuando se
ha derramado en sacrificio de s
88
. Existe una tipologa compartida en la
estructura de fondo nacionalista: una defensa e ilustracin de la propia lengua,
Jos Martnez Milln
218
82
Contreras Pelez, La filosofa de, cit., p. 128. No es el menor xito de esta doctrina
el que sus proposiciones hayan llegado a ser aceptadas y consideradas como evidentes por
s mismas, E. Keourie, Nacionalismo, Madrid 1988, p. 1.
83
Los nacionalistas creen que la Humanidad ha estado siempre compuesta por nacio-
nalistas, J. Jauristi, Introduccin, en J. A. Hall, Estado y Nacin: Ernest Gellner y la teora
del nacionalismo, Madrid 2000, pp. 11-12.
84
Keourie, Nacionalismo, cit., p. 1.
85
L. Rodrguez Abascal, Las fronteras del nacionalismo, Madrid 2000, p. 304; D.
Miller, Sobre la nacionalidad: autodeterminacin y pluralismo cultural, Barcelona 1995, p.
42.
86
P. S. Mancini, Sobre la nacionalidad, Madrid 1985, pp. 70-78.
87
E. Gellner, Naciones y nacionalismos, Madrid 1994, p. 17.
88
A. M. Banti, Lonore della nazione. Identit sessuali e violenza nel nazionalismo
europeo dal XVIII secolo alla Grande Guerra, Torino 2005, pp. 55 ss.
como primer y distintivo fundamento identitario de la comunidad; un recono-
cimiento de antepasado remotsimos y, por tanto, del todo extraos de todo
compromiso con el presunto corazn (o races) de Europa (el Mediterrneo
clsico, Grecia y Roma, y de la Iglesia de Roma)
89
, y un afn por diferenciar-
se y distinguirse de los otros, que se traduce en rivalidad.
La identidad nacional toma forma en el momento en que en toda Europa
los antiguos estados se redefinen en trminos de nacin, de estado-nacional, y
la idea de nacionalidad como medio de distincin entre nosotros y ellos es una
de las ms fuertes normativas de la cultura del siglo XIX. Cuando se consi-
gue el cambio de rgimen, es preciso hacer los nuevos espaoles que habitan
la nacin. Ello lleva a una posterior reflexin sobre la necesidad de un empe-
o civil por la modernizacin de los espaoles. As, la historia del compromi-
so civil llegaba a una cuestin crucial: interpretar todo desde su punto de vista
y de acuerdo con las estructuras del nuevo Estado. Lgicamente, esta inter-
pretacin particular llev consigo su implantacin en la sociedad a travs de
un vasto programa de educacin en la escuela pblica
90
. Este modelo es el que
aprendemos desde la infancia y el que inconscientemente aplicamos en nues-
tras investigaciones para articular la evolucin histrica de nuestras respecti-
vas naciones sin darnos cuenta de que estamos alterando la realidad histrica.
219
89
A. M. Thiesse, La creations des identites nationales. Europe XVIIe-XXe sicles,
Pars 1999.
90
A. Viao Frago, Poltica y educacin en los orgenes de la Espaa contempornea,
Madrid 1982; C. P. Boyd, Historia Patria. Poltica, historia e identidad nacional en Espaa:
1875-1975, Barcelona 2000, pp. 23-52; R. Cuesta Fernndez, Clo en las aulas. La ense-
anza de la Historia en Espaa. Entre reformas, ilusiones y rutinas, Madrid 1998, pp. 21-
30.
Flavio Rurale
COURT AND RELIGION IN EARLY MODERN CATHOLIC EUROPE
In this essay, I shall limit myself to suggesting some reflections on sev-
eral political questions under discussion in recent literature since it is practi-
cally impossible to make an exhaustive historiographic study of this subject.
I shall concentrate on the Roman Church: as is well known, many questions
related to it the role of the Holy Office, for instance
1
are typical of only
Italian history. Nevertheless I hope to raise more general issues. After all,
Rome was dened during the early modern era as the teatro del mondo (theatre
of the world) and patria commune (common homeland); these images expressed
the awareness of a universalism that was not only religious in nature, but also a
sign of cultural belonging and a recognition of an undisputed political centrality
[]. Rome was an open space, [] a nancial centre, [] a place of political
decisions that interacted with the other centres of European politics
2
.
Moreover, the treaties of Westphalia and the Pyrenees did not deprive
Rome of its central position [] it should be pointed out that the organisa-
tion of the global policies of the European powers, beginning exactly at the
end of the wars which characterized the first half of the seventeenth century,
221
1
This subject has been at the centre of many religious, cultural and political studies,
from different points of view: see for instance M. Firpo, Inquisizione romana e
Controriforma. Studi sul cardinal Giovanni Morane e il suo processo deresia, Bologna
1992; A. Prosperi, Tribunali della coscienza, Torino 1996; E. Brambilla, .. and G.
Fragnito, La Bibbia al rogo. La censura ecclesiastica e i volgarizzamenti della Scrittura
(1471-1605), Bologna 1997.
2
G. Signorotto M. A. Visceglia, Introduction, in Id. (eds.), Court and Politics in
Papal Rome 1492-1700, Cambridge 2002, p. 1-7.
reinstated the central role of Rome by other means, such as missions and
relations with the churches and societies of the colonies
3
.
Court historiography of the past thirty years has occupied a central posi-
tion in the investigation of Christian religion. Of course, this does not mean
that studies of courts have been the only cause of historical revisionism con-
cerning the role of Catholic institutions in early modern Europe: the papal
curia, cardinal congregations, secular and regular clergy, schools and univer-
sities of the religious Orders, and so on. In fact, this revisionism is also relat-
ed to other important historiographical and cultural developments: the col-
lapse of ideologies at the end of the last century, the renewal of some histori-
ographic traditions, like that of Spain the opening of the Roman Inquisition
archive, the marked increase in studies of religious missions in America and
Asia: all have contributed to a new and less partisan reading of Roman Church
history.
Nevertheless, my aim is to present some reflections regarding the court-
ly sphere a real political laboratory
4
and clarify how its internal dynam-
ics of kinship and patronage networks have become important in understand-
ing religion and its relationship to politics.
Rex-sacerdos and sacerdos-rex
But first, we must review some work of the early twentieth century.
Religion and its symbolic meanings in social and political life already figured
prominently in books by Marc Bloch, Lucien Febvre, Ernst Kantorowicz and
Gabriel Le Bras who, along with Norbert Elias, were pioneers of a series of
sociological and juridical approaches that distinguish the European historiog-
raphy of the past century, especially in English and French
5
.
Flavio Rurale
222
3
G. Signorotto, The Squadrone volante: independent cardinals and European politics
in the second half of the seventeenth century, in Id. and Visceglia (eds.), Court and Politics,
cit., p. 178. In the same volume see also M. A. Visceglia, Factions in the sacred college in
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, p. 102: Conclaves were battles which had conse-
quences for Rome, Italy, Catholic Europe and beyond.
4
B. G. Zenobi, Corti principesche e oligarchie formalizzate come Luoghi del politi-
co nellItalia dellet moderna, Urbino 1993; Also M. Rosa, The worlds Theatre: the
court of Rome and politics in the first half of the seventeenth century, in Signorotto
Visceglia (eds.), Court and Politics, cit., p. 87: on the court perceived no longer or not
only as the stage for individual and collective forms of behaviour or courtly rituals and
hierarchies, but also as a political motor or theatre.
5
J. Revel, La royaut sacre. lments pour un dbat, in La royaut sacre dans le
mond chrtien, Paris 1992, pp. . See also the considerations of M. A. Visceglia C. Brice,
Medieval and Early modern Christianity produced an original elaboration
of the theory and the practice of the religio regis: a king represented as a
priest-like figure, with attributes quasi-divine (the roi thaumaturge, the king
whose life was seen as a Christomimsis), centre of a system of power based
on the rulers divine right, living in the palace-monastery as concrete expres-
sion of the ideal court, as at the Escorial, where the king and queens minus-
cule apartments were located to either side of the high altar, where, from a
window, they could observe mass while remaining invisible
6
In some ways
the Roman court epitomized this fusion of sacred and secular attributes.
This convergence of the secular with the ecclesiastical imposed new priorities
on, and expectations of, the functions of the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century
courts. Of course, the piety of the prince and his household had long been
extolled as an ideal of virtuous kingship; but at the court of a monarch who was
simultaneously quasi-pope within his own realms, the sanctification of the
court acquired an altogether heightened urgency. [] It followed, therefore, that
a central aspect of the representative function of the court was a theatre of piety,
a place where the religious devotion of the prince and his entourage might be
publicly staged and edifyingly displayed
7
.
In this context, we could site the sante vive, the holy women living at
court studied by Gabriella Zarri; along with the authentic devotion that these
Court and Religion in Early Modern Catholic Europe
223
Introduction, in Id. (eds.), Crmonial et ritual Rome (XVIe-XIXe sicle), Rome 1997, pp.
1-26: they emphasize the opration rductionniste of the French historiography of the
Eighties: puisque lambiguit fconde de la thologie politique de Kantorowicz se simpli-
fiait dans laffirmation dune dimesion uniquement politique et laque de la souverainet
monarchique, pp. 4-5. Near these pioneers we do not forget Paul Hazard and his Crise of
European conscience. See also: J. Delumeau, Prescription and reality, in E. Leites (ed.),
Conscience and casuistry in early modern Europe, Cambridge 1988, pp. 134-158; M. A.
Visceglia, Riti di corte e simboli della regalit. I regni dEuropa e del Mediterraneo dal
medioevo allet moderna, Roma 2009, pp. 21 ss.; S. Bertelli, Il corpo del re. Sacralit del
potere nellEuropa medievale e moderna, Firenze 1990; see the methodological considera-
tions of D. Sabbatucci, La prospettiva storico-religiosa, Roma 2000, p. 263: La netta dis-
tinzione che nella nostra cultura si fa tra realt civiche [] e realt religiose, ha impedito di
studiare listituto regale in prospettiva storico-religiosa; for a general framework, in a his-
torical juridical perspective, P. Prodi, Il sacramento del potere, Bologna 1992.
6
G. Redworth F. Checa, in J. Adamson (ed.), The Princely Courts of Europe, 1500-
1700, London 1999, p. 60; see G. Sabatier, Le palais detat in Europe, in M. F. Auzpy J.
Cornette (eds.), Palai set pouvoir. De Constantinople Versailles, Saint-Denis 2003, pp. ;
Visceglia, Riti di corte, cit., esp. p. 137: the author emphasizes the austere and monastic
style of the Viennese court, at least until Joseph II. See also Ibid., p. 50.
7
Adamson, The Princely, cit., p. 9.
figures gifted with mystic graces inspired, it stands to reason that the princes
attention in promoting their cult was also a cultural operation intended to
strengthen his own political power
8
.
In a word, the early modern king was a rex-sacerdos. We shall also see
later how the rex-sacerdos had his mirror image in the sacerdos-rex. This
semantic shift allows us to understand the opposing phenomenon that con-
cerned the ecclesiastical world and its authorities (popes, cardinals, bishops,
regular clergy): I am referring to the pervasive connections between ecclesi-
astical and secular spheres; to the sacred reduced to its earthly components,
the ecclesiastics temporal power, their blood and flesh ties that is to say
the nepotism phenomenon along with their aristocratic and worldly lifestyle.
As the Jesuit general father Giovanni Paolo Oliva wrote in 1676 about the
papal nepotism, times in which we are living are too offended and scandal-
ized by a lot of pontiffs too immersed in their blood
9
.
The religio regis also provided elements of cohesion for the society of the
ancient regime: everybody desired paradise, and so looked for an assured way
to attain eternal life. The prince, clergy, but also the aristocrats, merchant
classes, and common people (urban artisans and workers who met in devo-
tional fraternities), all shared a system of values and spiritual needs a set of
strategies for seeking salvation that also found expression in courtly piety.
Religion was at the very centre of the aulic life.
From State to Court, from institutions to individuals
However, in the light of more recent historiographic interests I am
thinking about the general review of the objectives and methods of a politi-
cal history which favours centrifugal forces, tenacious particularisms and per-
sonal and informal ties as opposed to the formal use of the modern state par-
Flavio Rurale
224
8
G. Zarri, Le sante vive. Profezie di corte e devozione femminile tra 400 e 500, Torino
1990, p. 54.
9
G. B. Scapinelli, Il memoriale del p. Oliva S.I. al cardinal Cybo sul nepotismo (1976),
Rivista di storia della Chiesa in Italia, II (1948), pp. 262-273: Oliva speaks about tempi
troppo offesi e troppo scandalizzati da molti de sommi pontefici eccessivamente immersi
nel loro sangue. I think, there is still much to be done to clarify the ecclesiastics post-tri-
dentine behaviours, their festive-scene, their relationship with women and so on. See E.
Fasano Guarini, Rome, workshop of all the practices of the world: from the letters of car-
dinal Ferdinando de Medici to Cosimo I and Francesco I, in Court and Politics, pp. 53-77:
60: In Ferdinandos Eyes, the pontiff was the potential arbiter of international questions and
equilibria far more than the spiritual head of the church.
adigm
10
the knowledge of these subjects (religion, faith, sacred rituals) has
acquired a new significance. If historians can no longer shrug off the find-
ings of anthropology and sociology,
11
neither should we limit our framework
within sociological and psychological coordinates. Theoretical studies of reli-
gious culture and behaviour must be illuminated by more precise historical
knowledge. Religion is no longer only an anthropological matter, a question
of mentality: we must take over its political implications, that is to say, we
must re-read ancien rgime politics in this new religious and theological
light
12
. However in doing so, we must also be careful not to reduce faith and
religion to a mere political dimension of sovereignty or instrument of power.
Catholicism and the Roman Church of the early modern period are now
studied in terms of their connections with the political role of the prince, the
role of theological disputes in court factional conflicts, and the daily lives of
male and female courtiers, with their mental and moral attitudes, spiritual
experiences, temporal preoccupations, as well as literary, scientific, philo-
sophical and artistic interests.
In one sense, historians work has become more complex as attention has
shifted from institutions to individuals within institutional contexts
13
. New
interpretative concepts (the kings grace, courtesy, honour and profit,
patronage and favours, factions, family ties, network of clients, and so on)
have replaced the old ones (modern state, absolutism, bureaucracy), in recog-
nition that systems of power and institutions of civil and ecclesiastical gov-
ernment were both fragmented and plural (German and English-speaking his-
torians write of the stndestaat, the personenverbandstaat, or the composite
state). This has allowed historians to appreciate, as Simon Ditchfield argues,
225
10
Visceglia, Factions, cit., p. 99.
11
I. Fosi, Court and city in the ceremony of the possessio in the sixteenth century, in
Signorotto Visceglia (eds.), Court and Politics, cit., p. 31. For bibliography see also M.
Caffiero, La maest del papa. Trasformazioni dei rituali del potere a Roma tra XVIII e XIX
secolo, in Visceglia Brice (eds.), Crmonial et ritual, cit., pp. 281-283.
12
A very important example of this is perspective it is the comparative study of E.
Brambilla, Battesimo e diritti civili. Dalla riforma priotestante al giuseppinismo, Rivista
Storica Italiana, CIX (1997), pp. 602-627: dealing with the question of tolerance, she
emphasizes the differences among the different European (Catholic Mnster, Lutheran
Amburgh) and American (Boston) religious and political experiences.
13
On the religious orientations of leading representatives of the Habsburg court in
Italy during the 1540s and 1550s, their connections with roman cardinals linked to the
spirituali and Valdesianism, and the role of Holy Office cardinal congregation, esp. M. Firpo,
Reforms on the Church, in T. J. Dandelet J. A. Marino (eds.), Spain in Italy: Politics,
Society, and Religion 1500-1700, Leiden 2007, pp. ..
the existence of a geography of power that was founded on exchange and rec-
iprocity rather than conquest and submission. In the same way, the system
of patronage centred around the king and his court did not exhaust the other
court and local clientage networks; at every step of the hierarchy, in fact, it
was possible to reproduce a form of patronage with its bonds of loyalty
14
.
State vs. Church?
The interest in the courtly sphere and its internal dynamics of kinship and
patronage networks has changed our interpretation of the relationship between
religious and temporal powers, between the Church and the state. In his The
princely courts of Europe, John Adamson rightly states: To the two great
intellectual schools that have dominated the writing of history in the twenti-
eth century, Marxism and Liberalism, the court has been an obvious target for
censure
15
. This is true, I think, not only for Marxism and Liberalism, but also
for historiography with a strong ecclesiastical or confessional inspiration, so
often apologetic and edifying. In fact, all these schools have shared the same
project and, in a sense, the same error: that of reading early modern history in
terms of a fundamental opposition between the post-tridentine church, with its
new ecclesiastical culture and the laic way of life (the aristocratic forma
del vivere described by Amedeo Quondam).
Recent literature has finally overcome anachronistic ideas that supported
this picture of conflict. One is that the Council of Trent produced a modern
version of the priest, a new religious man, whose mentality and lifestyle dif-
fered profoundly from those of laymen. Therefore Simon Ditchfield has writ-
ten: a kind of Vatican II manqu (because of the same reason the history of
the Roman Church was characterized by repeated projects for curial reform in
customs and behaviours, until the struggle against nepotism of popes Innocent
XI e XII). The second is an image of a monolithic church competing over
power with the modern state. At least, we have overcome the pertinacious
opinion that the regular clergy was a clergy invariably obedient to Rome and
to the pontiff.
Flavio Rurale
226
14
A case study in E. Colombo, Un gesuita inquieto. Carlo Antonio Casnedi (1643-
1725) e il suo tempo, Catanzaro 2007, p. 72; see also O. Filippini, La coscienza del re. Juan
de santo Toms, confessore di Filippo IV di Spagna (1643-1644, Firenze 2006.
15
Adamson, The princely courts, cit., p. 9. except for its artistic dimension, the study
of the pre-French Revolution, court has been, until recently, virtually an academic taboo.
This revisionism derives, in large part, from the displacement of an older
emphasis on the state by a more recent interest in the court. Historians inter-
ested in the rise of the absolutist and eventually the modern state stressed
institutions, bureaucracy and jurisdictional controversies between the
Church and the state, viewed as two relatively monolithic systems.
Historians of courts have blurred this dichotomy by emphasizing the inter-
penetration of religious and secular elements: the presence of religious Orders
within princely households; the importance of religious ritual and beliefs to
the operation of princely power; and the ways in which the papacy exerted
authority through its own court, which possessed many analogous features to
those of secular rulers. This reorientation has also heightened awareness of
processes of cooperation and negotiation, along with the occasional conflicts
and competition that characterized relations between laymen and clergy.
I do not deny that the jurisdictional controversies were important ques-
tions in the ancien rgime, but I think they became ground for a real break
between Church and state only during and after the eighteenth century. If it
is undeniable Agostino Borromeo has written that the regalist policies of
the sovereigns of the House of Habsburg generated opposition, not to say
open conflict, from the local ecclesiastical authorities and even with the Holy
See, it is also undeniable that those moments of tension occurred in the more
general context of policies aimed at guaranteeing the Church and the papacy
the greatest possible support
16
.
Giovanni Botero vs Nicol Machiavelli: a catholic reason of State
Many historians have written about the Church of the early modern peri-
od, using concepts and interpretations of the eighteenth-nineteenth-century
church-state conflict. They have underlined the linear and gradual conquest of
secularisation and laicization by the state, in an open and continual opposition
against the Church and its representatives. In reality, they were forgetting the
central importance of faith in old regime society, the piety of secular authori-
ty, the true devotion of the prince, the convergence of the secular with the
227
16
A. Borromeo, The crown and the Church in Spanish Italy in the Reigns of Philip II
and Philip III, in Dandelet Marino (eds.), Spain in Italy, cit., pp. 522-523; see also C.
Mozzarelli, Nella Milano dei re cattolici, in Lombardia spagnola .; R. Bizzocchi,
.. in G. Chittolini, A. Molho, P. Schiera (eds.), Origini dello Stato, Bologna ., pp. .;
Visceglia, Riti di corte, cit., pp. 27, 31, 35; in contrast with this opinion, G. Fragnito, in the
same volume.
ecclesiastical in the princely courts. So, they have put aside religious ideolo-
gy, that is to say the ideological foundation of every secular power in
Christian Western Europe. Johan Huizinga wrote in his Autumn of the Middle
Ages:
Politics is not yet entirely closed within the limits of bureaucracy and protocol;
at every juncture the prince is able to escape and seek his directives elsewhere.
In the fifteenth century princes often asked ascetics, visionaries and ecstatic
preachers for advice on affairs of State. Many nobles, clergy and bourgeois
crowded in front of their cells to see them: they did nothing but solve problems,
doubts, and cases of conscience
17
.
I think this framework also characterized the following centuries. In
short, historians emphasized the importance of Machiavelli, forgetting
Giovanni Boteros lesson. An Italian historian, Corrado Vivanti, has recently
admitted:
I must own up that the older I become, the more I realize that the distinction
between politics and ethics does not hold in the light of what happens. Moreover,
Machiavelli uses this distinction only in the Prince, which I consider an excep-
tional work: in fact, Machiavelli wrote it in a particular moment of Italian polit-
ical life. Really, let us beware of some over-simplification of his thought
18
.
So, with Lucien Bely, we can say: si le dialogue nest pas toujours par-
fait entre le prince et les autorits religieuses du pays, il est toujours vital [].
Flavio Rurale
228
17
J. Huizinga, Lautunno del medioevo, .., p. : la politica non ancora interamente
chiusa entro i limiti della burocrazia e del protocollo, ad ogni momento il principe capace
di sottrarvisi e di cercare altrove le sue direttive. Cos spesso i principi del Quattrocento si
rivolgono, per avere consigli negli affari di stato, agli asceti visionari e ai predicatori esaltati
... Non soltanto i principi, ma anche numerosi nobili, chierici e borghesi fanno ressa davan-
ti alle loro celle per consultarli, essi non fanno altro che risolvere difficolt, dubbi, casi di
coscienza. See E. Leites (ed.), Conscience and Casuistry in Early Modern Europe,
Cambridge-Paris 1988; S. Burgio, Teologia barocca, ..
18
Devo confessare che pi vado avanti negli anni e pi mi rendo conto che la dis-
tinzione tra etica e politica non regge alla luce delle cose che accadono. Del resto
Machiavelli la usa quasi esclusivamente nel Principe, che io considero unopera dec-
cezione, scritta in un momento particolare della vita politica italiana. La verit che bisogna
guardarsi da certe banalizzazioni del suo pensiero, La Repubblica, 16 gennaio 2009.
Visceglia, Riti di corte, cit., p. 50: In ogni caso gli studi recenti mostrano come per tutta
lEuropa occidentale limmagine di una precoce laicizzazione della politica nella prima et
moderna si riveli fragile e levoluzione del rapporto regalit-sacralit non vada nel senso
della lineare e repentina affermazione di un nuovo assoluto: quello dello Stato.
Le clerg nhsite pas sriger en juge du prince quand il ne respect pas la
morale chrtienne et ses jugements ou encore plus de poids lorseque la mort
approche
19
. Jesuits, Dominicans, Capuchins, Augustinians, Barnabites
acquired an influence that was reputed to extend well beyond the pulpit or the
confessional: they were involved in politics, finance, and diplomacy. They
were truly occupied in every-day temporal government. In fact, Giovanni
Botero wrote in his Reason of State (1589):
It is necessary that the prince should not put anything in deliberation in the coun-
cil of state that is not first aired in a council of conscience, where excellent doc-
tors in theology and canon law can intervene; otherwise he will load his con-
science and do things that he will then have to undo if he will not damn his soul
and his successors
20
.
It was a form of political practice firmly grounded in the Holy Scriptures
the precept to deny all Machiavellianism and the need to project the image
as with the figure of the monarch of a Christian court
21
.
The quotation from Botero reminds us of King Henry Vs words to the
archbishop of Canterbury, written by William Shakespeare in the same peri-
od, at the end of the seventeenth century (act I, scene II):
My learned lord, we pray you to proceed
And justly and religiously unfold
Why the law Salique that they have in France
Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim:
And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,
That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading,
Or nicely charge your understanding soul
With opening titles miscreate, whose right
Suits not in native colours with the truth;
For God doth know how many now in health
Shall drop their blood in approbation
Of what your reverence shall incite us to.
229
19
L. Bely, La socit des princes (XVIe-XVIIIe sicle), Paris 1999, p. 538.
20
G. Botero, La Ragion di Stato, ed. by C. Continisio, Roma 1997, p. : sarebbe nec-
essario che il principe non mettesse cosa nessuna in deliberazione nel consiglio di stato, che
non fosse prima ventilata in un consiglio di coscienza, nel quale intervenissero dottori eccel-
lenti in teologia et in ragione canonica: perch altrimenti caricher la coscienza sua e far
delle cose che bisogner poi disfare, se non vorr dannare lanima sua e dei suoi successori
21
See Rosa, The worlds Theatre, cit., pp. 82-86, also about the academics debates on
politics and Christian prince in Rome in the first half of the seventeenth century.
Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,
How you awake our sleeping sword of war:
We charge you, in the name of God, take heed;
For never two such kingdoms did contend
Without much fall of blood; whose guiltless drops
Are every one a woe, a sore complaint
Gainst him whose wrong gives edge unto the swords
That make such waste in brief mortality.
Under this conjuration, speak it in your conscience washd
As pure as sin with baptism.
Religious Orders as political parties
By considering the dynamics of political faction and the complexity of
patronage relationships, we can better understand the party strife that charac-
terized the politics of Christian courts. Speaking of Catholicism, we can say
that its different moral and theological doctrines often embodied by the reli-
gious Orders represented, in the society of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, what political parties (with their different ideologies) represented in
the last century. As Marc Fumaroli states:
Each of these Orders constitutes [] a real church, in harmony with a particular
religious sensibility []. In reality such Orders were simply heresies exorcized
and transformed into vital forces []. Competition, polemics, rivalry, and emu-
lation thus turn Catholic unity into a conflicting variety that the magisterum and
the diplomacy of Rome did their best to maintain in a relative equilibrium and
keep from breaking apart
22
.
Princes, princesses, prime ministers and nobles expressed their different
political ideas, played out their battles in the kings court by their adhesion to
a particular theology, to a particular form of spirituality. This is what we have
learned about the Austrian court from the studies of some Spanish scholars,
such as Martinez Millan (but let us think also about Robert Birelys research-
es into emperors court and its Jesuit confessors). The court John Adamson
has written became the principal forum where rival confessional groups
contended for influence over the conscience of the king
23
.
Flavio Rurale
230
22
M. Fumaroli, Lcole du silence. Le sentiment des images au XVIIe sicle, Paris
1994, consulted in Italian translation (Milan 1995), p. 22.
23
Adamson, (ed.), The Princely Courts, cit., p. 24. H. Pizarro Llorente, El control de
la consciencia regia. El confessor real fray Bernardo de Fresneda, in J. Martnez Milln
In these last years we have overcome other tenacious historiographical
positions, such as the conviction that the religious Orders were subject to the
popes will: after studying more and more cases manifesting the loyalty of
religious men (confessors, theologians, preachers) to their princes, could we
still think they were the popes army? Now we know that the answer is: no,
they were not. It is emblematic, I think, that the French kings Henry IV and
Luis XIII intended to will their own hearts to the Jesuits
24
: cest le coeur de
ce grand prince, quil a ordonn en mourant vous estre mis entre les maines
pour attendre en ce lieu la Rsurrection gnralle et le Jugement dernier
25
.
Truly, the religious Orders cannot be said to have constituted an army in
the service of the pope, against the secular power or local ecclesiastical struc-
tures, represented by a shifting array of rulers, governors, viceroys, ministers,
bishops, magistrates, and feudal lords. The service that the regular clergy per-
formed for the papacy appears to have been in many ways similar to the serv-
ice they rendered to other Catholic rulers.
Church vs Church
As Sergio Bertelli Remarks:
The Counter-Reformation, aiming at reinforcing the central authority, had
strengthened and multiplied the religious Orders, thus limiting and gradually
diminishing the authority and the autonomy of the bishops []. Thus the
Counter-Reformation saw the shattering of ecumenical efforts, and the Church
was trapped within a series of Orders (which were called religions), positioned
one against the other in a competition for snatching souls and indulgences
26
.
In the last few years historians have moved beyond the anachronistic par-
adigm based on later political conflicts between state and church in the eigh-
teenth and nineteenth centuries, to investigate the specificity of ecclesiastical
history in the early modern period on its own terms. We have learned that
231
(ed.), La corte de Felipe II, Madrid 1994, pp. 149-188; see also P. Broggio, La teologia e la
politica. Controversie dottrinali, curia romana e monarchia spagnola tra Cinque e Seicento,
Firenze 2009, p. XX: the theological questions become object of political conflict.
24
Fouqueray, 459; Maison professe, 85.
25
Fouqueray, V, 459.
26
S. Bertelli, Ribelli, libertini e ortodossi nella storiografia barocca, Firenze 1973, p.
117. The paradigm of conflict is used by C. M. Giannini to speak about the differences
within the roman church, Cheiron, 43-44 (2006), Introduction.
strong rivalry and conflicts within the Catholic Church between the secular
and regular clergy, among the Orders themselves, between the Roman institu-
tions, notably Inquisition, Index, Propaganda Fide on one hand and the local
laic and regular clergy on the other were an every-day topic: in other words,
they were as important as the jurisdictional conflict between the Church and
the secular powers. We need to get beyond the image of a Counter-
Reformation Church monolithically based on limpid doctrinal certitudes, and
recover the ambiguities and the conflicts that affected it deeply and for a long
time
27
.
The relations between the regular clergy and the Catholic courts of Europe,
the Orders and the university centres, which represented the expression of origi-
nal theological currents, the individual fathers and the court factions thus explain
the complex network of loyalties within which even the regular clergy moved.
Some obvious signs of this are the theological, political, and jurisdictional treatis-
es which gave rise to polemics and conflict, leading to genuine pamphlet wars.
This is why post-Tridentine Catholic Europe saw the development of what we
might define as a market for intellectuals that is, theologians, experts in civil and
canon law who forced even Rome and the papacy to adopt a strategy of engag-
ing the regular clergy in their employ through grazie, favours, gifts, and client-
age exchanges
28
. It is interesting to note the extent to which Rome was aware of
the importance of the role of court theologians and confessors and of their work
at the side of the king, his favourites and his ministers. Many seventeenth-centu-
ry sources demonstrate the political significance of confession, showing as con-
fessors themselves often were at the head of the courtly factions
29
. The papal nun-
cios firmly stated that they held such men in high consideration.
Flavio Rurale
232
27
E. Bonora, I conflitti della controriforma. Santit e obbedienza nellesperienza reli-
giosa dei primi barnabiti, Firenze 1998, p. 14. An important example of these differences
and breaking within the Roman church is the volume of Fragnito, La bibbia al rogo, cit. For
a synthesis about the contrasts with the Jesuit Order between see now, M. Catto.
28
B. Clavero, Antidora, p. 100: Parece que estimo ante la clave de una mentalidad, la
sintesis de unas representaciones, el desenlace de una contradiccin. La antidora permite
que el beneficium sea obligatio, que el acto exento, caritativo y libre resulte, sin perder estas
virtudes, de una corresponencia debida. Es obligacin no obbligatoria. Entraa agredec-
imiento y supone amistad. Fomenta estos vnculos sociales que han de contar con la desvin-
culacin individual. Resulta una libertad que debe traducirse en liberalidad, en este medio
de creacin discrecional de unas relaciones colectivas La naturalezza humana ordina esta
conduca social Es gracia; es la clave de las claves, el vnculo no vinculante, la libertad
nada libre: la antidora ex liberalitate, la obligatio antidoralis.
29
Very interesting documents on this subject (Jesuit general father C. Acquavivas
admonition of 1602 about courtly confessors, his letter of april 1610 about prince of Cond,
and the letter of Farnese princes agent in Milan of December 1617 on gesuit Federico
It is even more interesting, however, to see Romes efforts to bring them
on its side, to acquire their works and their confidence, and to make sure of
their support during jurisdictional conflicts, almost as if they were foreign
and potential enemies. The question exploded during the course of the seven-
teenth century, after the case of Paolo Sarpi, to involve the entire regular cler-
gy. As we read in a memorandum that can be dated to 1641-1642:
The trouble derives from the regulars themselves, who, drawn by the enormous
stipends and favours that they receive from the secular princes, turned to the
defence of their appetites and seek in a thousand ways to bring down the eccle-
siastical jurisdiction. I might offer a thousand examples. One that will serve for
all is that of fra Paolo Sarpi. Thus, in my opinion, it is no longer appropriate to
leave the pursuit of such a serious matter so consistently to the regulars. But the
most learned of them must be enticed either with dignities or with large stipends
or by favouring their houses and their kin
30
.
The dynamics of these developments regarding the regular clergy were
difficult to control, as the papal curia was well aware; they were a reality that
the pope and his entourage were obliged to deal with constantly.
The protection that the cardinals have over them, the administration retained by
the generals, the visits that they and other visitors make to them, and above all
the superintendence over them that the popes have reserved directly to them-
selves have not, to date and as far as one can see, been sufficient [] to reduce
to some reasonable form and discipline many religious who otherwise with
divine aid would be highly useful
31
.
A religious elite
Really as I would like to prove princely and ecclesiastic authorities
met together at court and were linked together by a very close bond. Prelates,
Roman cardinals and members of religious Orders living at court continued to
233
Xedler, Lermas confessor and head faction in Spanish Court, in F. Rurale, in Lombardia
spagnola. See Adamson, (ed.), The Princely Courts, cit., p. 26.
30
F. Rurale, Moso suggerito al signor cardinale Barberino [] per rispondere alle
scritture [] contro lautorit del pontefice: note a margine, Cheiron, 14 (1997), pp.
251-252.
31
Apostolic Vatican Bibliotheca, Urbinati latini, 860, fols. 525-526, Modo di aiutar le
religioni cadute.
share with laics a kind of life characterized by worldly interests and attitudes.
And there was no contradiction in their behaviours, as effectually testified by
Cesare Mozzarelli in his Introduction to Cardinal Commendones Discorso
sopra la corte di Roma (Address concerning the Roman court)
32
.
An elite among the regular clergy lived in close proximity with the king, with
his prime minister and in some cases with his political enemies: it is very inter-
esting to note the case studied by Emanuele Colombo, of the Jesuit Casnedi, in the
years of the Spanish succession war
33
. Jesuits, Dominicans, Barnabites and so on
were involved in political and financial pursuits, and had enough spare time for
conversation. They had a contradictory relationship with women.
When we speak of theologians and court confessors, we refer to elite cler-
gy often beyond the control of their religious superiors and dependent upon
spiritual and temporal princes: popes, kings, cardinals, ministers, and their
wives. As an individual close to the person and conscience of the sovereign,
the confessor was among those dignitaries at court enjoying a preeminent
position [] in the formation of public decisions, influencing directly the
choice of the sovereign himself in regard to appointments to top positions in
legal, financial, and military matters, as well as arranging marital alliances
and dynastic marriages. It must be emphasized here that the individuals
assigned to these clerical offices had to be at ease with the values and lifestyle
of the lay elites. Jesuits in these positions, especially in comparison with
members of other religious Orders, enjoyed notable comforts and conven-
iences
34
. The authorities expected these figures to be intellectuals, to behave
with courtly manners, to converse on all subjects, to be well versed in rheto-
ric, and to be able to resolve all cases of conscience within social, economic,
and political spheres.
Here is the evidence given in 1596 by a Jesuit in the trial against father
Giulio Mazzarino, accused of sollicitatio ad turpia: in the morning he uses
comb and mirror, with toothpicks and a towel on his shoulder. Some woman
had made him six shirts, and his companion overheard the comment: this
preacher makes himself so smart hell make the ladies fall in love with him.
He has his carriage come for him at the college so he can go out for a ride.
The same description could apply to many other court confessors
35
. It is
Flavio Rurale
234
32
G. F. Commendane, Discorso sopra la corte di Roma, ed. by C. Mozzarelli, Roma
1996.
33
Cf. Colombo, Un gesuita inquieto, cit.
34
Cf. Zenobi, Corti principesche, cit., passim.
35
Casi Fresneda, Mendoza, Mazzarino, Casnedi: mio Cork p. 9, Pizarro Llorente, El
control de la consciencia, p. 171, Adamson, The Princely, cit., p. 26.
remarkable that at several decades distance, at the end of the seventeenth cen-
tury, Innocent XIIs complaint against misconduct in monasteries and reli-
gious houses still speaks of variety and singularity of clothing, expensive fur-
niture, immodest words, suspect or over free conversations with seculars,
wandering idly even for leisure
36
.
An interesting passage from Ignatius of Loyolas Jesuit Constitutions
confirms what we have been saying about the cultural background of many
elite clergy at courts: To wise men who have in hand a spiritual or temporal
government it seems more fitting to send persons eminent for their wisdom
and grace of conversation, such that their outward presence without preju-
dice to their inward gifts helps confer authority on them; for their advice
may have serious weight
37
.
In this light Ronnie Po-Chia Hsias comments about the connection
between conversation and conversion among catholic missionaries in
China, particularly the Jesuit Matteo Ricci, is very interesting: his [Riccis]
success the author writes came in the wake of numerous visits and con-
versations with mandarins and literati, as his network of friends and acquain-
tances spread ever wider. Not for nothing was his first published Chinese
work entitled on friendship; and his keen observations of social etiquette
and rituals among the literati were carefully recorded in this memoirs
38
. So,
conversation became a technique of conversion, an alternative way of pro-
ceeding, very different from the violence preached by other Orders.
Speaking about the Chinese imperial court and the idea of friendship
which animated the philosophical, scientific and political discourses between
intellectual mandarins and Jesuits, we cannot help emphasizing and here we
come back to Europe the importance of studying the so-called Republic of
letters: the free circulation of books and men through Europe, the centrality of
rhetoric in courtly preaching and talking; the strong relationships between the-
ology, literature and art. Bruno Neveu and Marc Fumaroli have enlightened us
concerning the Italian seventeenth century, a period which has been unknown
for a long time
39
.
The patronage networks show us another important fact: aristocratic
women played a very central role in the foundation of new religious Orders.
Recent studies have shown the importance of female patronage that often
235
36
Boaga, Lopera di Innocenzo XII, p. 297.
37
part 4, chap. 2, paragraph. 1F.
38
J. R. Dichtl, Frontiers of faith, Lexington 2008, p. 39. See also Ross, in essay edited
by OMalley; Revue de Synthese;
39
B. Neveu, Erudition et religion aux XVIIe et XVIIIe sicles, Paris 1994.
worked with the aid of confessors and theologians linked to court circles. So,
in the words of Olwen Hufton, women were pivotal in creating a communi-
ty of support for Jesuit initiatives that may have begun with women but had
the potential to pull in their husbands and relatives, thus enhancing the net-
works and linkages so important to spreading the influence of Society
40
.
Clergy and sexuality
Historical research into these last subjects has changed our interpretation of
the relationship between clergy and women. Recent studies especially the books
of Margherita Pelaja, Lucetta Scaraffia, and Giovanni Romeo underline howthe
Council of Trent did not cause a really radical break with certain behaviours that
were very common at the time
41
. The book of a Jesuit scholar Felice Grossi Gondi
about a Roman villa near Frascati has contributed to our understanding of this
relationship. The villa of Mondragone was acquired by Cardinal Marco Sittico
Altemps in 1567. The cardinal had a son, Roberto, legitimated by Gregory XIII.
In 1575 the same pontiff married Roberto to Cornelia Orsini. Cardinal Altemps
was thinking precisely of his son and his marriage when he embarked on the work
of restoring the villa, with new buildings, loggias, gardens and paintings. In par-
ticular he built for Roberto and Cornelia the Retirata, a country home for the
newly-weds, with paintings representing scenes of warfare and love. Conspicuous
on the walls is the highly erotic episode of Riciardetto and Fiordispina, from
Orlando Furioso: at the limit of decency, the Jesuit historian wrote in 1901
42
. It is
interesting to note that the villa of Mondragone was often host to popes and car-
dinals, with their attendant friends and familiars, ladies and noblemen, seeking
moments of relaxation: philosophical and literary discussions, festivals, and
games marked the days spent by the guests in that sumptuous mansion.
What I wish to emphasize here is, to sum up, a reality comprising cultur-
al behaviours and customs that even in the period from the sixteenth to the
eighteenth centuries impeded the decisive affirmation of the Tridentine model
of priesthood and of those characteristics of modernity that we usually attrib-
ute to it. Secular and regular clergy were caught up in the same way in the dif-
ficulties of this transition. We are moving in courtly circles, whose codes were
Flavio Rurale
236
40
For bibliography, Spain in Italy, p. 510; I gesuiti e la Ratio, p. 62.
41
G. Romeo, Amori proibiti. Trent and the clergy in late Eighteenth-century Malta,
Church History Studies in Christianity and culture, 78 (2009), pp. 1-25; M. Pelaya and L.
Scaraffia (eds.), Due in una carne. Chiesa e sessualit nella storia, Bari 2008.
42
Gondi Grossi, pp. 68-70, 82.
written in the early sixteenth century by Baldassare Castiglione, Stefano
Guazzo, and Giovanni della Casa. The modes of conduct considered so far
evidence a strong interest in women and in dealing with them. Feminine
courtly virtues rendered womens presence indispensable within the cultural
world of aristocracy, even in its ecclesiastical variant
43
.
Casuistry: Probabilism anti-probabilism
All these considerations bring up another complex question a very seri-
ous quarrel relating to modernity: casuistry and so-called probabilism.
Giovanni Romeo emphasizes how many confessors, sophisticated ascetics
and high-profile preachers made it difficult to attain the objectives of reorder-
ing sexuality that the Church set itself. Casuistry was the indispensable pro-
cedure for applying general moral principles to particular cases, each of them
somewhat different from the others and in a sense unique. Catholic moral
thinking yielded a lively variety of views with a surprising tendency to rela-
tivize dogmas and principles: probabilism ended by giving support to a cer-
tain looseness of conduct and this opened up wide spaces for individual free-
dom of conscience. As Leszek Kolakowsly writes, the confrontation of
divine grace with the human free will became the focus of a struggle between
modernity and reaction, embodied respectively in Jesuit and Jansenist doc-
trines in the seventeenth century
44
. Quoting Jean Rohou:
On sait quelle confiance le jsuite Molina fait nos capacities. On dnoncera
bientt ses drives laxistes; mais au depart il sagit bien dune emancipation.
la fin du sicle, le clebre thologien Surez renforce le probabilsme, apparu un
peu plus tt, qui permet de suivre en conscience lavis dune autorit reconnue,
mme quand un autre position passe pour plus orthodoxe. Il tend aussi
emanciper le droit de la thologie, et mme le faire voluer verse une concep-
tion subjectiveAvant de sindigner avec Pascal contra ses exces, il faut com-
prendre cet humanisme Chrtien et cette politique morale et religieuse comme
une form dentre dans la modernit.
237
43
About similar questions for the low clergy see, beside Romeo, Amori proibiti , cit.,
They were involved in agricultural pursuits and had enough spare time to go hunting and
fishing. They frequented low company in taverns and wine shops, to socialize and play
such card games as the reversino. They sought sexual relations with women, even seducing
them during confession, p. 25.
44
L. Kolakowski, God owes us nothing. A brief remark on Pascals religion and on the
spirit of Jansenism, Chicago and London 1993, p. 60; J. Rohou, pp. 112, 118; and obvious-
ly P. Hazard.
Matteo Casini
COURT RITUALS, CA. 1450-1650
[] greatest honor is to serve the prince
in the most intimate things
1
.
Since the publication of John Adamsons edited collection in 1999
2
, his-
torical discussion of the gestures of the prince and around the prince has
been quite extensive
3
. This essay will not be a historiographical survey prop-
er, but rather a presentation of some relevant themes that scholars have recent-
ly discussed concerning ceremony and ritual within the court. While Norbert
Elias will remain in the background, since his work has been discussed exten-
sively in the recent past (and in these proceedings as well)
4
, here the focus will
239
1
O. La Marche, in A. Brown G. Small, Court and Civic Society in the Burgundian
Low Countries c. 1420-1530, Manchester 2007, p. 102. I would like to thank Deb Walberg
and Pablo Gestal for suggestions.
2
J. Adamson (ed.), The Princely Courts of Europe, 1500-1750, London 1999.
3
Few examples: C. Grell B. Pellistrandi (eds.), Les cours dEspagne et de France au
XVIIe sicle, Madrid 2007; S. Gun A. Janse (eds.), The Court as a Stage: England and the Low
Countries in the Later Middle Ages, Woodbridge-NewYork 2006; P. M. Hahn U. Schtte (eds.),
Zeichen und Raum: Ausstattung und hfisches Zeremoniell in den deutschen Schlssern der
Frhen Neuzeit, Mnchen 2006; J. Duindam, Vienna e Versailles. Le corti di due grandi dinas-
tie rivali (1550-1780, Roma 2004; K. Malettke C. Grell (eds.), Hofgesellschaft und Hflinge
an europischen Frstenhfen in der Frhen Neuzeit (15.-18. Jahrhundert), Mnster 2002; G.
Sabatier S. Edouard, Les monarchies de France et dEspagne (1556-1715), Paris 2000.
4
See J. Duindam, Myths of Power. Norbert Elias and the Early European Court,
Amsterdam 1994. Interesting insights in E. Brambilla, Modle et mthode dans la socit
de cour de Norbert Elias, in D. Romagnoli (ed.), La ville et la cour: des bonnes et des mau-
vaises manires, Paris 1995, pp. 218-258.
be on main continental courts in the early modern times, roughly from the fif-
teenth to the seventeenth century.
From a general standpoint, historians have traced different outcomes of
court development giving rise to multiple models with distinctive features
the hidden monarchy of Spain, the open court of the king in France, the
hospitality of the king of England, and the peculiar situations of Imperial
Vienna and Papal Rome, where the central power had an elective character.
Many interesting insights have also emerged from researching the new and
minor but sometimes flamboyant -courts of Italy and Germany
5
.
Everywhere the court was a sort of society where the life of the ruler
unfolded, the only world of which he/she had direct experience
6
, and a
place that was required to be, as Louis XIV stated, a socit de plaisirs, giv-
ing to courtiers une honnte familiarit with the prince
7
. Pleasure and famil-
iarity could be obtained through etiquette and ceremonies, court and public
festivals, theatre, dance, games, hunting, chivalric orders objects of a flour-
ishing bibliography in the recent decades
8
. Those activities, however, were for
pleasure in appearance only. In fact, they opened crucial gateways to rule, to
exercise power, and this was particularly true for the rituals internal to the
court that will receive privileged attention here. Some historians in particu-
lar the producers of the historiographie crmonialiste in France have
even suggested that in some cases the early modern period experienced the
passage from state ceremonies to court rites
9
.
To convey the intensity of public life at court, I will use a sort of thick
description, constructing the narrative through short quotations from various
authors. Afew definitions might help as well. It can be difficult to capture the
Matteo Casini
240
5
J. Adamson, The Making of the Ancien-Rgime Court, 1500-1700, in Id. (ed.), The
Princely, cit., pp. 7-41.
6
R. Mettam, Power and Faction in Louis XIVs France, Oxford 1988, p. 50.
7
Quoted in Duindam, Vienna, cit., p. 226.
8
Amuch selected list: Europa Triumphans: Court and Civic Festivals in Early Modern
Europe, Aldershot 2004, 2 volls.; J. R. Mulryne E. Goldring (eds.), Court Festivals of the
European Renaissance: Art, Politics, and Performance, Aldershot 2002; H. Watanabe,
OKelly, S. Anne (eds.), Festivals and Ceremonies: a Bibliography of Works Relating to
Court, Civic, and Religious Festivals in Europe 1500-1800, London-New York 2000; P.
Behar, H. Watanabe, OKelly (eds.), Spectaculum Europaeum. Theatre and Spectacle in
Europe (1580-1750) / Histoire du spectacle en Europe, (1580-1750), Wiesbaden 1999.
9
R. Giesey, The King Imagined, in K. M. Baker (ed.), The French Revolution and the
Creation of Modern Political Culture, 1: The Political Culture of the Old Regime, Oxford
1987, p. 54; N. Le Roux, La faveur du roi. Mignons et courtisans au temps des derniers
Valois (vers 1547-vers 1589), Seyssel 2000, pp. 178-179; M. Casini, Corte, cerimoniali,
feste, in Storia della civilt di Firenze, III: Il Principato mediceo, Firenze 2003, pp. 461-484.
full meaning of a court ritual because ritual acts conjure emotional respons-
es that may not be apparent from a mere description of outward forms.
Rituals have the potential to modify reality, while simultaneously serving as
mirrors and models of social relationships and rules of conduct that help build
a community, while defining its relationship to the sacred
10
. Ritual can have
a foundational character, contributing to the creation of identity
11
.
Other terms such as customs, ceremony, etiquette, politesse, or
manners are equally problematic. Some historians conflate them, such as
Ralph Giesey, who refers to daily life at court as a system of etiquette-ritual-
manners
12
. While we agree with P. Vzquez-Gestal that ceremony and eti-
quette are a form of expression of the identity of the king
13
, in many places
such as Florence the term etichetta also referred to the protocol designed
to welcome foreigners into the city and at court, which expressed the quali-
ty of both the visitor and of the host
14
. The creation of identity and the con-
frontation with the other were basic aspects of etiquette, so a good defini-
tion might be a series of behavioral rules directed to distinguish and differ-
entiate from other groups the group that knows and uses those rules
15
.
Nevertheless, we must consider other elements beyond identity, such as
tradition and religious sensibility. Traditionalism, for instance, was essential
in giving a conventional and formalized nature to courts in the late-
medieval Iberian Peninsula. And the Baron of Pllnitz, visiting Vienna in the
early eighteenth century, described etiquette as the name given to ancient
customs that subjected the court to an air of constraint; despite constant
complaints, it was observed like a point of religion
16
.
1. Let us begin with some chronology. In the ritual sphere, as in others,
court models reached back to their sources in the late Middle Ages. A courtly
Court Rituals, ca. 1450-1650
241
10
E. Muir, Ritual in Early Modern Europe, Cambridge 1997, pp. 2-6.
11
M. Boiteaux, Parcours rituels romains lpoque moderne, in M. A. Visceglia C.
Brice (eds.), Crmonial et rituel Rome (XVIe-XIXe sicle), Rome 1997, p. 27.
12
Giesey, The King, cit., p. 41.
13
P. Vzquez-Gestal, El espacio del poder. La corte en la historiografa modernista
espaola y europea, Valladolid 2005, pp. 233 and 255.
14
Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Guardaroba Mediceo, Diari di Etichetta, reg. 1.
15
S. Bertelli G. Calvi, Rituale, cerimoniale, etichetta nelle corti italiane, in Id. -G.
Crif (eds.), Rituale, cerimoniale, etichetta, Milano 1985, p. 11.
16
R. Costa Gomes, The Making of a Court Society: Kings and Nobles in Late Medieval
Portugal, Cambridge 1995, p. 358; J. Duindam, Norbert Elias e la corte det moderna,
Storica, 16 (2000), p. 24.
ceremonial life of certain sophistication was already present in the ordinances
of Mallorca, Aragn and Dauphin in the fourteenth century, and the situation
improved consistently in the ordinances of Burgundy and Urbino in the fol-
lowing century
17
. Those sources regulated important rituals of the court, such
as the forms of access to the person of the prince, the hierarchization of spaces
and their attendant staffs within the palace, the different phases of meals, the
affirmation and use of the princely chapel (Olivier La Marche considered the
chapel an extremely important site, as we will see), and other matters.
According to Philip Buc, ritual is the multilayered product of a long-dure
diachronic stratification
18
, and in fact each court built its formal system of
interaction through long and complex processes, mixing local traditions with
external influences. Just to quote a few examples, the Burgundian model of
the court chapel influenced Milan, Ferrara, Spain and Austria, while the
Portuguese ceremonial of the late-fifteenth century was affected both by the
local collection of norms called the Livro Vermelho and the arrival of a nor-
mative text from England
19
.
The most famous and debated case of the birth of a new etiquette is in six-
teenth-century Castile, traditionally seen as heavily influenced by Burgundy.
The young Charles V began adopting Burgundian usages in festivals and pub-
lic dinners, and this affected the Castilian House consistently because
Burgundian ceremonials the princely supper in particular had more solem-
nity than those in Castile, even after Isabel and Ferdinand augmented the
courtly splendor in their last years. In the 1520s, Charles presence in Spain
also helped the diffusion of sophisticated Burgundian banqueting among the
aristocracy. Then, in 1548 Charles famously imposed the Burgundian eti-
Matteo Casini
242
17
Costa Gomes, The Making, cit., ch. 1; M. G. A. Vale, The Princely Court: Medieval
Courts and Culture in North-West Europe, 1270-1380, Oxford-NewYork 2001, pp. 200-205;
W. Paravicini (ed.), Zeremoniell und Raum, Sigmaringen 1997; W. Paravicini, The Court of
the Dukes of Burgundy. A Model for Europe?, in R.G. Asch A.M. Birke (eds.), Princes,
Patronage and the Nobility. The Court at the Beginning of the Early Modern Age, c. 1450-
1650, Oxford 1991, pp. 90 ff; See also Brown-Small, Court and Civic, cit.; P. Peruzzi,
Lavorare a Corte: ordine et officij. Domestici, familiari, cortigiani e funzionari al
servizio del Duca dUrbino, in Federico di Montefeltro. Lo Stato, le arti, la cultura, I, Lo
stato, Roma 1986, pp. 225-286. See also the interesting cases of Giangaleazzo Visconti and
Cangrande II Della Scala; T. Dean, Le corti. Un problema storiografico, in G. Chittolini, A.
Molho, P. Schiera (eds.), Origini dello stato: processi di formazione statale in Italia fra
medioevo ed et moderna, Bologna 1994, pp. 438-439.
18
The Dangers of Ritual. Between Early Medieval Texts and Social Scientific Theory,
Princeton 2001, p. 2.
19
Paravicini, The Court, cit., p. 89; Costa Gomes, The Making, cit., pp. 367-368.
quette upon the household of Prince Philip, to favor the integration of social
elites belonging to the different dynastic territories (as was already occurring
in his own Casa de Borgoa)
20
. Still, the Habsburgs proved to be flexible in
their ceremonial life sometimes improvising and recent research suggests
that between the end of the fifteenth and the seventeenth century the Spanish
House also saw the integration of Castilian elements into Spanish etiquette, as
well as German, Portuguese and French contaminations
21
. This eclectic eti-
quette confirmed the courts status as a place where diverse cultural traditions
could interweave and generate original solutions.
2. Coming now to the rituality of the monarchy during the Ancien
Rgime, the two most basic concepts were sacrality and intimacy, through
which the super-human allure of the ruler could be presented and
enhanced
22
. In some places religious rites organized in a complex liturgical
calendar became particularly prominent, such as in Florence and Spain,
where the court was affected by religious conflicts and featured personalities
with a deep devotional sensibility, such as that of Philip II
23
. France and
England also had rites capable of defining the almost sacerdotal character
of the king, for instance the extraordinary thaumaturgy of healing the scrofu-
lous by the royal touch
24
.
Very important to court religious practice was the princely chapel, the
starting point for everything according to La Marche
25
. The growth of the
243
20
M. Martnez Milln, La proyeccin del princpe Felipe. Viajes y regencias e la corte
hispana, in Id. (ed.), La corte de Carlos V, Madrid , vol. II/4, p. 210 ff.; A. lvarez-
Ossorio Alvario, Introduccin, in ivi, IV, p. 9ff; R. Domnguez Casas, Fiesta y ceremonial
borgon en la corte de Carlos V, in Carlos V y las artes: promocin artstica y familia impe-
rial, Valladolid 2000, pp. 13-44; H. Nader, Habsburg Ceremony in Castile: The Reality of the
Myth, Historical Reflections, 15/1 (1988), pp. 293-309; T. Ruiz, Une royaut sans sacre: la
monarchie castillane du Bas Moyen Age, Annales. SC, 39, 3 (1984), pp. 429-453.
21
C. C. Noel, Ltiquette bourguignonne la cour deEspagne, 1547-1800, in C.
Arminjon B. Saule (eds.), Tables Royales et Festins de Cour en Europe, 1661-1789,
Paris 2004, p. 177.
22
Adamson, The Making, cit., p. 24 ff.
23
Spain: Rodriguez-Salgado, The Court, cit., pp. 238-42. Florence: M. Casini, I gesti
del principe, Venezia 1996, pp. 215-220; M. Fantoni, The Courts of the Medici, 1532-1747,
in Adamson (ed.), The Princely, cit., pp. 269-271.
24
M. Bloch, I re taumaturghi (or. ed. 1961), Torino 1989, p. 270.
25
Quoted in Brown-Small, Court and Civic, cit., p. 95.
palace chapel as an independent entity occurred in the late Middle Ages
26
. In
time, throughout Europe the seclusion of the prince within it became a stan-
dard custom, utilizing various tools. In his oratory, Charles the Bold was sep-
arated from his companions by a black curtain, while in the Iberian Peninsula
and England a cortina or traverse was created for the same purpose
27
.
The religious power and rituality of princes were intense enough to be
transmitted to objects. The bed of Louis XIVwas saluted by those entering the
Chambre de parade, and a valet was required to prevent anyone from touch-
ing it. In England the Esquire of the Body would turn the throne to the wall in
the audience chamber at night, thus neutralizing it
28
.
Court and royal piety was designed to represent the sovereign as the
centre of a universe carefully designed to duplicate the harmonious ordering
of the heavens
29
. Moreover, the rites defining the sacrality of the ruler helped
the court to overpass a liminal situation in the terms of Arnold Van
Gennep and Victor Turner from belonging to the secular world to becoming
representatives of a sacred precinct in direct contact with God
30
.
As we can guess from the developments inside the princely chapel, con-
structing sacrality meant also building a sense of intimacy to protect and dis-
tance the ruler. Through etiquette and ritual the prince had the opportunity to
set a strategy of measured appearance and disappearance, of proximity or dis-
tance from his super-human body. The target was a system of formal behav-
ior to preserve the rulers two-fold situation as, on one side, a lonely figure
from the ceremonial point of view, and, on the other, the center of attention
for counselors and courtiers. The members of the Tudors Privy Council, for
instance, were true body servants, true members of the kings intimate
Matteo Casini
244
26
Vale, The Princely, cit., p. 220 ff; for Spain see J. M. Nieto Soria, La Realeza, in Id.
(ed.), Origenes de la Monarquia Hispanica. Propaganda y legitimacion (ca. 1400-1520),
Madrid 1999, p. 61.
27
Paravicini, The Court, cit., p. 88; Costa Gomes, The Making, cit., pp. 412-416; J.
Adamson, The Tudor and Stuart Courts, 1509-1714, in Id. (ed.), The Princely, cit., p. 104.
A recent survey is J. J. Carreras B. J. Garca Garca (eds.), The Royal Chapel in the Time
of the Habsburgs: Music and Ceremony in Early Modern European court, Woodbridge
2005.
28
H. M. Baillie, Etiquette and the Planning of State Apartments in Baroque
Palaces, Archaeologia, or, Miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity, CI/LI (1967), pp.
178 and 186.
29
J. Elliott, The Court of the Spanish Habsburgs: A Peculiar Institution?, in Spain and
its World, 1500-1700: Selected Essays, New Haven 1989, p. 143.
30
A. Van Gennep, Les rites de passage, Paris 1909; V. Turner, The Ritual Process:
Structure and Anti-Structure, Ithaca 1969.
entourage, enjoying rights of access comparable to those of his body servants
who participated in the highest representation of the monarchy
31
.
To form that system, the basic duty of the ruler was to impose order and
hierarchy on an environment that could reach notable dimensions, in which
people often competed fiercely for priority. The 1585 ordinances of Henri III
Valois, for instance, became le vritable superviseur et ordonnateur de le-
space public la cour, while the new Ceremonial of Savoy of 1680 was stim-
ulated by the order and good rule that was felt to be at the heart of a care-
ful and prudent Prince
32
. The goal was to display the court as a series of
concentric circles around the sovereign, from more intimate to more public
and ostentation
33
.
An excellent way to promote order and hierarchy was through regulating
the everyday activities of the house, as happened with the famous lever du Roi
in France. Performed in front of a rough crowd since the times of Christine de
Pisan, the lever was observed in two different bedrooms until the seventeenth
century, to show the double body of the monarchical sovereignty, natural
and mystical. Then Louis XIV transformed the lever in a perfect ceremo-
nialized time that could display one glorified body only
34
.
Another crucial moment was the supper both public and private
which engendered a strategy of ritual control of the environment around the
prince while preserving and enhancing his sacral aura. Byzantium had
allowed public access to the emperors table so that people might contemplate
his majesty, and in England the kings hospitality provided daily food for
over a thousand persons, at least until the 1660s
35
. But after the late Middle
245
31
D. Starkey, Representation Through Intimacy. A study in the Symbolism of Monarchy
and Court Office in Early-Modern England, in I. M. Lewis (ed.), Symbols and Sentiments.
Cross-cultural Studies in Symbolism, London 1977, pp. 207-211.
32
Le Roux, La faveur, cit., p. 185; D. Frigo, Laffermazione della sovranit: famiglia
e corte dei Savoia tra Cinque e Settecento, in C. Mozzarelli (ed.), Familia del Principe e
famiglia aristocratica, Roma 1988, p. 309; S. Bertelli, La corte come problema storiografi-
co. A proposito di alcuni libri (pi o meno) recenti, Archivio Storico Italiano, CLXIV
(2006), p. 142. On the importance of the etiquette to put order at court insists Noel,
Ltiquette, cit., passim.
33
Duindam, Vienna, cit., p. 224.
34
D. M. Gallo, Royal Bodies, Royal Bedrooms: The Lever du Roy and Louis XIVs
Versailles, Cahiers du dix-septime: An Interdisciplinary Journal, XII, 1 (2008), pp. 99-
118. For the long-term story of the lever see the classical study of E. H. Kantorowicz, Oriens
Augusti-Lever di roi, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, XVII (1963), pp. 119-177.
35
A. Gruber, Le ceremonial de table dans le cours europennes, in Versailles et les
tables royales en Europe, XVIIeme-XIXeme siecles, Paris 1993, p. 147; Adamson, The
Tudor, cit., p. 100. See also P. Glanville, Repas la court des Stuart, in Tables royales, cit.
Ages a strict etiquette was increasingly requested to rule those moments. Food
at the Aragonese court was served according to a strict hierarchical order,
which carefully distinguished between rations destined for the king, the high
nobility and courtiers of lesser rank. In the sixteenth century new tables and
rooms were set for gentlemen and officials at court meals in Urbino and
Mantua, to create a social order around the main table. Henri III Valois set bar-
riers around his table (and in his bedchamber), which the Venetian ambassa-
dor compared to those displayed in tribunals
36
.
Among the various ritual components of the banquet, the washing of a
rulers hands gave a sacral significance to the kings public dining, identical
to the significance of the same rite of purification performed by the Pope at
the Court of Rome
37
. Even the napkin used to dry the rulers hands had pos-
sessed a ritual significance since Burgundian times. It was first kissed by the
steward of the pantry, and then given to the duke by the highest dignitary pres-
ent in the room. The custom was later adopted by Charles V in 1548, while in
England the gentleman usher brought the kings towel draped over his head
like a relic, and in France it was presented to the sovereign between two gold-
en napkins
38
.
Other symbolic objects acquired a high value in these circumstances,
such as the baton held upright carried in Burgundy, Portugal and France by
the main servant of the prince grand chief steward, mordomo or matre dho-
tel before the food of the duke or king
39
. At the French court, the famous
tabouret (a short stool without a back or arms) was conceded to only a very
few persons particularly women in the kings presence. And the nef, the
container fashioned in the form of a ship that held the kings utensils, deriv-
ing from a medieval tradition and treated as a highly respected symbol of
sacred monarchical authority became the royal symbol par excellence in
Louis XIVs suppers
40
.
Matteo Casini
246
36
Costa Gomes, The Making, cit., pp. 391-8; I. Florescu, Gli spazi del quotidiano: la
reggia, in Bertelli Crif (eds.), Rituale, cerimoniale, cit., pp. 95-6; Le Roux, La faveur,
cit., pp. 178 and 184; J. F. Solnon, La Cour de France, Paris 1987, p. 141. For similar bar-
riers to protect the king of England see Glanville, Repas, cit., p. 166.
37
Bertelli Calvi, Rituale, cit., pp. 18-9.
38
La Marche, in Brown Small, Court and Civic, cit., pp. 96-7; Adamson, The Tudor,
cit., pp. 104-5; Z. Gourarier, Modles de cour et usages de table: les origines, in Versailles
et les tables, cit., p. 15; Id., Lablution des mains et le protocole des tables royales, in Tables
royales, cit., passim.
39
La Marche in Brown Small, Court and Civic, cit., pp. 95-6; Costa Gomes, The
Making, cit., p. 395; Solnon, La cour, cit., p. 142.
40
B. Saulle, Tentative de dfinition du grand couvert, in Tables royales, cit., p. 33;
Duindam, Vienna, cit., pp. 240-1: Sabatier Edouard, Les monarchies, cit., p. 169.
In the end, the visitor to the princely table could perceive as with
Charles the Bold tout le mystre et toute la grandeur qui sexaltent quand
il dine. Marcello Fantoni has correctly written that the princely banquet was
a political performance with sacred overtones
41
.
To conclude this section, even the most banal acts of the domestic life of
the prince required solemnity. In fact, in the universe of the court, the func-
tional always gave place to the symbolic
42
. Louis XIV had a perfect under-
standing of this when he wrote: cest dailleurs un des plus visibile effets de
notre puissance, que de donner quand il nous plait un prix infini ce qui soit-
mme nest rien
43
. In anthropological terms, as Muir has stated (following
Claude Lvi-Strauss), this reveals the procedure of parceling-out,
an essential procedure of ritual, a process that classifies objects and gestures
to make infinite distinctions and to give value to the slightest shade of difference.
The result is what Lvi-Strauss called bricolage, the amalgamation of pre-exist-
ing elements into new playful or ritual assemblies
44
.
3. If court was the theatre for the creation of the kings sacrality and inti-
macy, it could also distribute power and prestige to its members, in particular
through the distribution of favors or offices. Cardinal Commendone wrote in
sixteenth-century Rome: they are not courtiers, if they do not have offices to
enjoy or harm, and if they do not try to gain grace to advance in the
Republic
45
. A crucial consequence of that distribution was the definition of
the place and value of each participant in the circles around the prince, and the
construction of a hierarchical formalism that dominated the princely house
and limited the actions of the protagonists
46
. Typically it was the prince who
247
41
Fantoni, The Courts, cit., p. 269. Quotation in French from Noel, Ltiquette, cit., p.
183. On courtly banquets in general see Versailles et les tables royales, cit.; H. Ottomeyer
M. Vlkel (eds.), Die ffentliche Tafel. Tafelzeremoniell in Europa, 1300-1900,
Wolfratschausen 2002; Tables Royales et festins, cit.
42
A. M. Hespanha, Un autre paradigme dadministration: la cour en Europe du Sud
lpoque moderne, Jahrbuch fr europische Verwaltungsgeschichte, 4 (1992), p. 285;
Frigo, Laffermazione, cit., p. 311.
43
Quoted in Duindam, Vienna, cit., p. 295.
44
Muir, Ritual, cit., p. 4.
45
Quoted in M. Pellegrini, Corte di Roma e aristocrazie italiane in et moderna. Per
una lettura storico-sociale della Curia romana, Rivista di storia e letteratura religiosa,
XXX, 3 (1994), p. 564 (my translation).
46
Duindam, Norbert, cit., pp. 17 and 26.
assigned a rank to individuals and groups, a very ancient and basic custom
that in the baroque reached extreme heights in Cologne, the courtiers were
divided in four categories with dress of a different color according to the
antechamber into which each cohort was allowed to enter
47
. We know that dis-
tinctions between spaces played a role in displaying hierarchy. Gaining access
to the prince required passage through a series of different stairways and
chambers, with each boundary marking a point of separation between those of
higher and lower rank or privilege, so that status of each individual was meas-
ured according to how closely he or she might approach the ruler. A famous
example is the five Rooms of Planets at the Pitti Palace in Florence, deco-
rated by Pietro da Cortona. They constituted the path to the Granduke, and
only the most important visitors and courtiers were allowed to wait in the last
two rooms, the fourth and fifth, devoted to Jupiter and Saturn (and the Pitti
would provide the model for Louis XIVs state apartments in Versailles)
48
.
What follows from this hierarchical logic is that each single act at court
reflected the quality of each courtier, revealing his formal position within the
system
49
. Courtiers were obsessed by the hunt for favors, which in addition to
offices and material rewards might include the right to enter a privileged room
or perform a coveted ceremonial function within an often undisciplined envi-
ronment (the court of Valois France comes to mind)
50
. To obtain favors and posi-
tions each courtier had to assume and maintain an identity, and to form that
identity various elements could concur, such as honour, family, gender, nobili-
ty, quality of service and physical proximity to the ruler. Honour, for instance
if a political imperative for the sovereign, to distribute his favor equally was
fundamental to the ruling class as well, for the Royal Majesty requires offices
of honour, as the Barons of the Exchequer would say in 1573
51
. Historians
have noticed that in the course of the sixteenth century the nobility of Europe
adopted increasingly the culture of honour; honour becoming a high spiritual
value, as Billacois has remarked in specialized treatises on the courtier
52
.
Matteo Casini
248
47
J. Chrocicki, Ceremonial Space, in A. Ellenius (ed.), Iconography, Propaganda, and
Legitimation. The Origins of the Modern State in Europe, Thirteenth to Eighteenth
Centuries, New York 1998, p. 200.
48
Baillie, Etiquette, cit., p. 189. Se also M. Campbell, Pietro da Cortona at the Pitti
Palace. A Study of the Planetary Rooms and Related Projects, Princeton 1977.
49
Vale, The Princely, cit., pp. 203 and 205.
50
Bertelli, La corte come problema, cit., p. 141; Sabatier Edouard, Les monarchies,
cit., p. 167.
51
Adamson, The Making, cit., p. 19; Starkey, Representation, cit., p. 212.
52
F. Billacois, Le Duel dans la socit franaise des XVIe-XVIIe siecles: essay de psy-
chosociologie historique, Paris 1986, pp. 346-9: F. Espamer, La biblioteca di don Ferrante:
But after Castiglione, treaties also indicated other forms of behavior that
the courtier had to adopt to be successful, for instance pleasing the ruler atten-
tively but without servility, or respecting common rules Eleanor of Poitiers
states that it is not fitting for anyone to take such liberties and make free with
ceremonies other than those which suit his or her estate
53
. Another tradition-
al value, the family, remained relevant at court, where the interests of ones
own family had always to be pursued
54
. In fact some of the protagonists such
as Eleanor describe the court essentially as an important reunion of the
princely family, and court itself is at times identified as a family, a place of
piety, honour, solidarity, etc.
55
In fact, all throughout the Renaissance and
early-modernity the rituals celebrating certain family events the birth of the
heir to the throne is a classical example were crucial to shaping participa-
tion at court
56
.
Thanks to the importance of family, moreover, women acquired a new
role, and gender is another crucial issue. Gender could define the participation
in various rituals, as in the France of Francis I
57
. The preeminent role of
women at court is stressed by Castiglione and shown by special privileges
given to them, such as sitting in front of the French king on the tabouret
58
.
Recent, very rich historical literature on queens, queen-mothers, princesses,
courtesans, mistresses, noblewomen at court etc., has emphasized the peculiar
aspects of their intimacy with the rulers, their participation in courtly rites,
their capacity to behave and exercise patronage independently, sometimes to
the point of becoming the de facto leaders of the court
59
. Their role was fun-
249
duello e onore nella cultura del Cinquecento, Roma 1982, pp. 46-7; E. Muir, Mad Blood
Stirring: Vendetta in Renaissance Italy, Baltimore London 1998, p. 252 ff.
53
S. Anglo, The Courtier. The Renaissance and Changing Ideals, in A. G. Dickens
(ed.), The Courts of Europe, London 1977, p. 33; Eleanor in Brown Small, Court and
Civic, cit., p. 109.
54
Mettam, Power, cit., p. 51.
55
Hespanha, Un autre paradigme, cit., pp. 277-278; Frigo, Laffermazione, cit., p. 311.
56
See bibliography at note 8.
57
R. J. Knecht, The French Renaissance Court, 1483-1589, New Haven 2008, p. 71.
58
Anglo, The Courtier, cit., pp. 36-37; Solnon, La cour, cit., p. 328.
59
A. J. Cruz M. Suzuki (eds.), The Rule of Women in Early Modern Europe,
Urbana 2009; G. Calvi R. Spinelli (eds.), Le donne Medici nel sistema europeo delle corti
XVI-XVIII secolo, Firenze 2008, 2 vols.; A. Giallongo (ed.), Donne di palazzo nelle corti
europee. Tracce e forme di potere dallet moderna, Milano 2005; C. Campbell Orr (ed.),
Queenship in Europe 1660-1815: The Role of the Consort, Cambridge 2004; J. Hirschbiegel
W. Paravicini (eds.), Das Frauenzimmer: die Frau bei Hofe in Sptmittelalter und frher
Neuzeit, Stuttgart 2000.
damental in dynastic contacts and arranging marriages
60
, for instance, in
creating a specific etiquette inside their apartments; in giving a particularly
female orientation to power (well-known cases are the damas and don-
cellas of Isabel of Castile, the invasion of women at the court of France in
the sixteenth century, and Elizabeth of Englands Privy council)
61
; or in play-
ing a crucial role in feasts and patronage inside foreign courts (consider the
Medici women in France, or the Austrian or Spanish princesses around
Europe)
62
.
Furthermore, the action of powerful women emphasized the complex
polycentric nature of the court
63
, where alternative, different foyers of power
and influence might compete with the central one. Members of the royal fam-
ily had a ritual schedule that sometimes resembled and sometimes differed
from that of the ruler. In some cases a minor court ended up being more bril-
liant than the main one (this happened with Eleonora Gonzaga, wife of
Ferdinand III Habsburg)
64
. In some others such as the court of Madame
Real Maria Giovanna Battista in Turin, a medieval castle separated from the
ducal palace
65
alternative and competitive courts might exist in the neigh-
borhood of the central palace, where elaborate rituals and a rich pageantry
were displayed by members of the princely family, the aristocracy (at times
the magnates courts in Vienna transformed the Hofstaat into a pale center),
or institutional figures such as the cardinals in Rome
66
.
But if gender or control of certain spaces could give advantages to
courtiers, performance around the prince was crucial as well, and favor and
Matteo Casini
250
60
J. Duindam, Early Modern Court Studies: An Overview and a Proposal, in M. Vlkel
A. Strohmeyer (eds.), Historiographie an europischen Hfen (16.-18. Jahrhundert),
Berlin 2009, p. 44.
61
. Fernndez de Crdova Miralles, La Corte de Isabel I: ritos y ceremonias de una
reina, 1474-1504, Madrid 2002, pp. 160-167, 300-303; C. zum Kolk, The Household of the
Queen of France in the Sixteenth Century, The Court Historian, 14, 1 (June 2009), pp. 3-
22; P. Wright, A Change in Direction: The Ramifications of a Female Household, 1558-
1603, in D. Starkey (ed.), The English Court: from the Wars of the Roses to the Civil War,
New York 1987, pp. 147-172.
62
For the queens of the Spanish royal family see in particular J. Martnez Milln M.
A. Visceglia (eds.), La monarqua de Felipe III: la Casa del Rey, Madrid 2008, vol. I, ch. 6.
63
Vzquez-Gestal, El espacio, cit., pp. 70 and 77.
64
See note 58. For Austria see Duindam, The Courts, cit., p. 176.
65
R. Oresko, The Sabaudian Court, 1563-c. 1750, in Adamson (ed.), The princely, cit.,
p. 240.
66
Duindam, The Courts, cit., p. 181; J. D. Fernndez, The Papal Court at Rome, c.
1450-1700, in Adamson (ed.), The princely, cit., p. 160; G. Fragnito, Cardinals Courts in
Sixteenth-Century Rome, Journal of Modern History, 65 (1993), pp. 26-56.
grace could be conceded to people of non-noble origins, to foreigners, or to
figures such as favourites
67
. The court was open to persons of particular
skills. Antonio Conzato has demonstrated in a recent, remarkable monograph
how nobles from the northeastern Italian region of Friuli had success at the
international court of Vienna because of their military and financial capacity,
but also their understanding of feudal factional strife
68
.
Etiquette, honour, family, gender, tradition, social climbing, service: at
the end the court was mostly a place where is used good shouldering and lift-
ing at each other, as Nicholas Wotton wrote after visiting the House of
Francis I
69
. If rituals were the normal dimension of life for the king, this was
not the case for the other participants
70
. Identity meant instead a struggle for
defending ones personal position in a milieu where performance was fun-
damental for obtaining or retaining power, and competition was incessant
because of growing numbers
71
. The court remained a place where a complete
order, or a set of clear ranks and rules were rarely, if ever, achieved, a place
where the social interaction shifted continually from symbiosis to conflict
because of the confrontation between the needs of the ruler discipline, pol-
icy, stability in time and those of the courtiers: competition for excellence
and favors, mutation in hierarchy. Ritual could be a response with its flexibil-
ity, its capacity to create and conserve at the same time, to reflect and adopt
modifications, to try building a balance in a group or space, to provide a
powerful way in which peoples social dependence can be expressed
72
.
251
67
Solnon, La cour, cit., p. 326; M. Smuts, Introduction, in Id., The Stuart Court and
Europe. Essays in Politics and Political Culture, Cambridge 1996, p. 10; J. Brown J. H.
Elliot, A Palace for a King: The Buen Retiro and the Court of Philip IV, New Haven 2003,
p. 37-38; lvarez-Ossorio Alvario, Introduccin, cit., p. 34; J. H. Elliott L.W.B. Brockliss
(eds.), The World of the Favourite, New Haven 1999. In late Valois France noblemen at court
were even serving princes abroad, and Henri III had to forbid the custom: Le Roux, La
faveur, cit., p. 182.
68
Dai castelli alle corti. Castellani friulani tra gli Asburgo e Venezia 1545-1620,
Verona 2005.
69
Knecht, The French, cit., p. 57. On the tensions at the Spanish court see in particu-
lar Noel, Ltiquette, cit., pp. 179-180.
70
71
J. Snyder, Dissimulation and the Culture of Secrecy in Early Modern Europe,
Berkeley London 2009, p. 70; Mettam, Power, cit., p. 60; Smuts, Introduction cit., pp. 9-
13; M. Hengerer, Court and Communication: Integrating the Nobility at the Imperial Court,
The Court Historian, 5, III (December 2000), p. 227; Solnon, The cour, cit., p. 36.
72
D. Kertzer, Ritual, Politics, and Power, New Haven 1988, p. 9.
4. In conclusion, while there is a certain fragmentation in modern histo-
riography, still the cultural system of the court is now seen by historians as
the fundamental base of a proper cultural identity
73
. Inside that identity
court rituals could provide in conjunction with the bureaucratic forms of
government those alternative mechanisms of legitimation that, according
to Antonio Hespanha, were a fundamental contribution to the exercise of
power and the construction of sovereignty
74
. Not by chance one of the most
important validi, Olivares, understood the importance of ceremony at court to
discipline its members
75
.
However, the continual and almost obsessive need to solve conflicts at
court demonstrates that a quiet life around the ruler was very difficult to
achieve, and the control of ritual was highly problematic
76
. As we know, ritu-
al acts might generate opposition as much as consent [] [and] might even
require a certain amount of unpredictability for them to work
77
. The goal of
the prince was to understand the potential of etiquette and keep it under con-
trol by establishing a viable system of acts to protect his/her intimacy proper-
ly a fundamental rule of power that has survived today in countries where
government is still based on networks extending from the center to the periph-
ery under the personal control of the national leader
78
.
The full and regulated court society, however, did not originate from
the will of the king only, but by creating a space and constraining people and
their acts in that space: the court of the Sun King, for instance, was the result
of the successful combination of the physical environment at Versailles, the
etiquette, the presence of the highest nobility and the function of govern-
ment
79
. So etiquette could not be too rigid, repetitive or automatic to be effec-
tive, or too distant from a true interaction between the prince and courtiers.
This was the risk that Henri III Valois faced, for instance, provoking discon-
Matteo Casini
252
73
Vzquez-Gestal, El espacio, cit., p. 66.
74
Hespanha, Un autre paradigme, cit., p. 272; Duindam, Vienna, cit., p. 302.
75
Elliott, The Court, cit. and J. Elliott, Power and Propaganda in the Spain of Philip
IV, both in Spain and its world, cit., pp. 145, 149-150, 180.
76
Duindam, Vienna, cit., p. 422.
77
Brown Small, Court and Civic, cit., p. 31.
78
It is the case of Berlusconis Italy. In the TV program Annozero, Patrizia
dAddario and Michele Santoro have recently underlined the centrality of the concept of
intimacy in the strategy of approaching the national leader and forming a close relation
with him. The strategy can result in obtaining favors to be spent at the peripheral level
(RAI2, http://www.annozero.rai.it, October 1, 2009).
79
tent and resistance at court with his decisions
80
. Another famous example is
the Spanish court during the baroque. Here the obsession with canceling
time through etiquette, so to speak, brought about a series of unrealistic
automatisms in which the sovereign was a ceremony himself, to the point
of being seen without a proper court by foreigners
81
. Still in the early eigh-
teenth century Montesquieu stated that kings could be completely subordi-
nated to the clock and to etiquette, and historians have insisted on the risk
of an excessively heavy etiquette transforming the king into a prisoner
82
.
So, to give the prince a symbolic capital to be spent within the court and
outside it, court rituals had to allow a common language, a mutual and prof-
itable dependency among all actors, a flexibility to accommodate the mix
between codes of the ruler, tradition, personal performance and the evolution
of political circumstances. lvarez-Ossorio Alvario has underlined how eti-
quette required a certain degree of a dynamic character, of permanent adjust-
ment and mutation that necessitated going beyond written sources, in order
to adapt to events
83
. Perhaps this explains the wide success of the Burgundian
etiquette, containing high symbolism but also a great potential to adapt to dif-
ferent contexts in different times.
And maximum results arrived when, together with the dynamic and com-
pensatory aspects of the ritual, there was the intervention of the personal ele-
ment, the will, charisma and capacity of single, strong personalities such as
Charles V, Henry VIII Tudor, Philip II or Louis XIV
84
. Charles, for instance,
was fully aware of the potential of daily ceremonial practice when he declared
that he would not adopt Burgundian customs if they were not good for him
as the Dukes of Burgundy had felt free to conduct etiquette as they want-
ed. In fact the last great emperor of Europe was, according to one of his
courtiers, enemigo de hablar mucho
85
.
253
80
Chaline, The Valois, cit., p. 88; Le Roux, La faveur, cit., pp. 179 ff..
81
Elliott, The court, cit., p. 149 ff. According to the French Bertaut, La court du Roy
dEspagne ne se peut pas appeler proprement cour, Les monarchie de France, cit., pp. 147.
82
Quoted in Duindam, Myths, cit., p. 129n; Adamson, The Making, cit., p. 33.
83
lvarez-Ossorio Alvario, Introduccin, cit., p. 25.
84
For Louis see Solnon, La cour, cit., pp. 326, 335, 355. On the efforts of Philip II to
improve the ceremonial in the late 1580s see Rodriguez-Salgado, The Court, cit., pp. 242-4.
85
lvarez-Ossorio Alvario, Introduccin, cit., pp. 25-26. See also Nader, Reality, cit.,
pp. 302-303.
Philip Mansel
THE COURT IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY:
RETURN TO THE LIMELIGHT
The nineteenth century has been called the age of capital, the age of rev-
olutions, lveil des nationalits. It was also an age of monarchy. Napoleon,
often hailed as the enlightenment on horse-back, was in practice an ultra-
monarchist. Having seized power by a military coup on 9 and 10 November
1799, at the same time as governing through a constitution, with Senate,
Tribunate and Corps lgislatif, he established a court system. The crucial step
was the creation of a privileged guard in December 1799; next came the move
to the Tuileries palace in 1800; regular receptions and embroidered official
costumes in 1801; establishment of an Imperial dynasty and of households for
each of its members conforme la dignit du trone et la grandeur de la
nation by the constitution of AN XII in May 1804
1
; coronation as heredi-
tary Emperor in December 1804; last, because it was more controversial than
monarchy, foundation of a nobility in 1808. Former anti-nobles such as
Siys, author of Queest-ce que le Tiers Etat? of 1789, and Carnot, a regicide
and Minister of War during the Reign of Terror, became Comtes de
lEmpire.
Napoleon I not only appointed members of his dynasty rulers of Lucca
(1805), Holland (1806), Naples (1806), Westphalia (1807), Berg (1807) and
Spain (1808). He also abolished all remaining republics in Europe, both old
and new: Venice (1797), France (1804), Genoa (1805), Lucca (1805),
Dubrovnik (1806), and the Cisalpine (1805), Batavian (1806) and Septinsular
255
1
A la table dEugnie. Le service de la Bouche dans les palais impriaux, Paris 2009,
p. 21.
(1807) republics. He made the city of Frankfurt into a Grand Duchy (the heir
of which would have been his stepson Eugene-Napoleon) and allotted the 52
other former free cities of the Holy Roman Empire to different German
rulers. Thus he placed every city in Europe under monarchical authority; even
Swiss cities acknowledged him as mediator of the Helvetic Confederation.
Until the fall of the Second Empire in 1870, Europe was more monarchical
than at any time since the rise of the Italian city states in the early middle ages.
The French republic of 1792-1800 had been an interlude caused by the
failure of Louis XVI and the radicalism of the assemblies. Thereafter, under
three dynasties, Bonaparte, Bourbon and Orleans, France repeatedly tried dif-
ferent forms of monarchy. Each reign, even that of the ultra-reactionary
Charles X, began with a wave of popularity for the monarch, and the vote of
a generous Liste civile. Because they had to compete with possible alternative
regimes, each dynasty tried harder to make its court more splendid or appro-
priate more than Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette had done before 1792. In
order to make it more inclusive and appealing, the entire Maison du Roi was
reformed, for the only time in its history, in 1820.
Nineteenth-century Paris was a court city as well as a revolutionary cap-
ital, with functioning royal palaces such as the Tuileries, the Palais-Royal and,
in the Ile de France, Saint-Cloud, Fontainebleau and Compiegne. The last ill-
ness, lying-in-state and funeral procession of Louis XVIII in Paris in 1824
were watched by larger and more respectful crowds than those of Louis XIV
and Louis XV in Versailles in 1715 and 1774 and there were fewer mock-
ing chansons. According to Thiers La population entire de Paris a pris le
deuil []. Toute la semaine on a assig les Tuileries pour voir la salle du
Trone
2
. The court remained a vital test of allegiance, meeting-place, and
news centre for the elite. In 1827 the Comte de Castellane wrote as it was
Sunday, I went to the palace. By 1830 the state apartments of the Tuileries
were too small to contain all those wishing to attend or watch the Kings
reception after mass on Sunday
3
.
Under Napoleon I French politics was in part court politics, dominated by
the struggle between peace and war factions at court, headed by Talleyrand,
former Grand chambellan, and Maret duc de Bassano, the Emperors Ministre
secretaire detat, who ran his private government machine within the Maison
de lEmpereur. Court officials could have decisive influence. Anatole de
Philip Mansel
256
2
R. Marquant, Thiers et le Baron Cotta, Paris 1959, p. 177. Thiers to Cotta, 24
September 1824.
3
P. Mansel, The Court of France 1789-1830, Cambridge 1989, pp. 197, 203.
Montesquiou, according to his memoirs, physically dragged his undecided
master the Duc dOrleans back to Paris on 29 July 1830, thus setting the stage
for him to become King of the French
4
.
In 1830 Louis-Philippe decided to abolish the entire Maison du Roi, even
the royal chapel and royal hunt: he was a king without a household, with no
more than a fewADCs. Nevertheless, when he wished, the citizen king enter-
tained in a style which made all English court entertainments, according to the
diarist Charles Greville, appear mean in comparison
5
. Architecture shows
the continued vitality of court life. Acourt theatre was erected in the palace of
Compiegne, in 1832 for the celebrations of the marriage of Louis-Philippes
eldest daughter to Leopold I of the Belgians. He also built a new wing in his
chateau of Eu in Normandy, to accommodate the ministers who followed him
there.
Like Napoleon I, his nephew in 1852-1870 presided over a court society
centred on the Maison de lEmpereur. In 1851 the future Napoleon IIIs
courtiers Morny, Maupas and Persigny helped organise the coup detat which
kept him in power
6
. In 1852 Horace de Vielcastel, a curator in the Louvre,
wrote in his diary: la cour se forme, cest qui endossera lhabit brod. La
France na jamais t rpublicaine car cest le royaume de la vanit. The
court was one of the most entertaining in Europe: the Austrian court, the
Austrian ambassadress Princess Metternich remembered, could not compare.
1867, when the crowned heads of Europe visited the Exposition universelle,
was another apogee of Paris as court city
7
.
The courts autumn visits to Compigne were so popular that, Princess
Metternich wrote, when guests arrived, it seemed as if the city of Paris itself
was moving house
8
. Since Louis-Philippes theatre was not large enough to
contain all the guests of Napoleon III, a second court theatre was built, with a
corridor connecting it to the palace it was ready by the autumn of 1870, by
which time the regime had been overthrown
9
.
As in traditional court societies, power and biology were connected. The
Emperors illegitimate half-brother the Duc de Morny, and Napoleon Is ille-
The Court in the nineteenth century: return to the limelight
257
4
Comte Anatole de Montesquiou, Souvenirs sur la Rvolution, lEmpire, la
Restauration et le rgne de Louis-Philippe, Paris 1961, pp. 466-467.
5
C. Greville, Memoirs, London 1938, vol. III, p. 343, 2 February 1837.
6
P. Mansel, Paris capitale de lEurope, Paris 2003, pp. 464-466.
7
Princess Pauline de Metternich, Souvenirs, Paris n. d., p. 134.
8
Ibid, pp. 78-79.
9
Cf for an overview on the court and its visits to Compigne, A la table dEugnie.
passim.
gitimate son Count Walewski, were the last powerful dynastic bastards in
European history. In 1859, discussing the political influence in favour of a
united Italy of Madame de Walewska, wife of the Foreign Minister and one of
the Emperors mistresses, Vielcastel wrote: coucher avec lEmpereur mne
tout
10
.
The Empress Eugnie was more visibly powerful than any consort of
modern times. Her initial E can be seen on the facades of the Louvre and the
Paris opera, a distinction not accorded to other recent consorts. She was also
the first French consort to sit in the council of ministers at the same time as,
as well as in the absence of, her husband. When Regent in August 1870, she
dismissed her husbands ministers and nominated her own government under
the Comte de Palikao
11
.
The principal cause of the fall of French monarchs, in 1792, 1814, 1815,
1830, 1848 and 1870 was not political but military: defeat, or alleged lack of
nationalism. On 4 September 1870, for example, it was the news of Napoleon
IIIs surrender at Sedan seen as unforgivably cowardly that discouraged
his government and troops from defending his regime. They allowed a revo-
lutionary crowd to invade the Corps lgislatif and proclaim a republic
12
.
Another factor weaking French monarchies was dynastic chance: the
death in a riding accident of the Duc dOrlans, Louis-Philippes popular heir,
in 1842; the deaths without children of two pretenders, the Prince Imperial in
1879 and the Comte de Chambord in 1883. Monarchs errors also helped:
Louis XVIs and Louis-Philippe refusal to change unpopular ministers in
1792 and 1848 respectively; Charles Xs ill-prepared coup, while his best
troops were in Algiers, in 1830. After 1870 Chambords rejection of constitu-
tional monarchy, and the lack of charisma of the Orleanist candidate his
cousin the Comte de Paris, as much as popular republicanism, helped ensure
the survival of the Third Republic defined by one politician as the regime
which divides us the least.
Until 1870, however, France provided the principal model for European
monarchies, and European constitutions. From the point of view of courts,
there was no national history, only European history. The grandiose corona-
tion of Napoleon I in 1804, for example, inspired both the coronation of
Philip Mansel
258
10
Mmoires sur le rgne de Napolon III, ed. E. Anceau, Paris 2005, pp. 235, 804, 824,
2 December 1852, 15 August 1859, 6 September 1859.
11
L. Girard, Napolon III, ., p 375.
12
F. Cardoni, 1870: la rvolution de velours, LHistoire, 348 (December 2009), pp
83-85.
George IV in 1821 and of Pedro I as Emperor of Brazil in 1824. The Austrian
and British civil uniforms, created in 1814 and 1818 respectively, were based
on French uniforms. Paris was a model for other capitals
13
.
The challenge of nineteenth century monarchy was to have three ele-
ments working at the same time: dynasty; army; constitution. Dynasties with-
out effective constitutions usually failed, even when they had a loyal army, as
was the case with the Bourbons of Naples in 1860-1861. For many monarchs
constitutions could act as screens, protecting monarchical and aristocratic
power more effectively than the nakedness of absolutism as Leopold I of the
Belgians reminded Prince Metternich in 1848, when the latter took refuge in
constitutional Belgium from revolution in absolutist Austria
14
.
While the Bonapartes favoured plebiscites, the Bourbons and Orlans
helped to introduce parliamentary monarchy into Europe. The charte of Louis
XVIII in 1814 was the principal model for the constitutions of 1818 in
Bavaria, 1831 in Belgium, 1848 in Piedmont, 1850 in Prussia and 1876 in the
Ottoman Empire. Conversely revolutions in Paris in 1830 and 1848, far more
than those of 1789 and 1792, helped trigger revolutions in other countries. As
Metternich said: when Paris sneezes, Europe catches cold
15
.
Successful dynasties created nations as well as constitutions: after 1831
the Coburg kings strengthened Belgian identity; the Hohenzollern united
Germany, the Savoy Italy. German unity was achieved in the galerie des
glaces of Versailles on 18 January 1871 when Wilhelm I was acclaimed
German Emperor by his fellow monarchs. As the celebrated 1885 picture by
Anton von Werner confirmed, not one civilian or parliamentarian was present.
Despite his civilian office, Bismarck wore military uniform, as he generally
did in Berlin, even in the Reichstag thereby proclaiming the primacy of the
army and royal service in the public life of the new Germany
16
.
Material culture confirms the power of court society and its expansion into
new classes. There was an increase in the number of people wearing court dress
and uniforms, and court mourning, in the capitals of Europe before 1914. The
sight of a civilian on the street s of Berlin could become a subject of caricature
17
.
There was a similar expansion of honours systems Orders, medals, titles, audi-
ences signs of power linking subjects directly to their monarchs.
259
13
P. Mansel Dressed to Rule: Royal and Court Costume from Louis XIV to Elizabeth
II, London-New Haven 2005, pp. 98, 100.
14
C. Bronne Leopold Ier et son temps, Brussels 1942, p. 222.
15
Mansel, Paris, cit., p. 311.
16
Mansel, Dressed to Rule, cit., p. 123.
17
Ibid., pp. 111-141.
Capital also reflected the importance of courts. The Rothschilds rose to
be the worlds bankers through their role as court bankers to the Elector
of Hesse Cassel, the British and Austrian governments and successive French
monarchs. Rothschilds paid for Louis XVIIIs return to France in 1814 and
Charles Xs departure in 1830. As one Rothschild wrote to his brother in 1816:
A court is always a court and it always leads to something. James de
Rothschild was banker to Charles X, Louis Philippe and Napoleon III and a
frequent guest of all of them in the Tuileries. The Rothschilds themselves, as
the decoration of their hotel in Paris showed, saw themselves as new Medici
a family of bankers which became a sovereign dynasty
18
.
Courts remained centres of artistic inspiration as well as economic power.
Courtier writers who celebrated French monarchs and dynasties included
Stendhal under Napoleon I; Chateaubriand, Lamartine and Alfred de Vigny
under the Bourbons; Victor Hugo for Louis Philippe; and Mrime and
Thophile Gautier under Napoleon III. Liszt was a court musician in Weimar;
Wagners most useful patron was Ludwig II, King of Bavaria. The best-sell-
ing writer of his day, Sir Walter Scott was a friend of George IV, helped
arrange his historic visit to Scotland in 1821 and frequently wrote about courts
in his novels. Tennyson, the Poet Laureate, celebrated the court of King
Arthur in The Idylls of the King. The list is endless.
Architecture confirms the re-monarchisation of Europe. After a retreat in
the second half of the eighteenth century when monarchs had preferred the
relative privacy of Kew, Paretz, or the Hermitage they started to build or
expand palaces again. In Venice, Napoleon installed a royal palace (now the
Museo Correr) on the Piazza San Marco in 1805-1807- as, breaking with
dynastic traditions, did Carlo Felice King of Sardinia in the Palazzo Durazzo
in Genoa. It became his much-visited Palazzo Reale in 1823
19
.
In Amsterdam, a city with a tradition of municipal independence as great
as Venice or Genoa, King Louis Napoleon made his plechtige inkomst on
20 April 1808. At his request, against the citizens wishes, the town hall built
in 1648-1655, with friezes of oceans and continents paying homage to
Amsterdam, became a royal palace, as it still is. The town council was
expelled. The Citizens Hall became the grande salle de recption, with
magnificent Empire furniture; the High Court of Justice was turned into the
Philip Mansel
260
18
Mansel, Paris, cit., pp. 214, 302, 396.
19
Commemorated in the inscription on the staircase: Rex Carolus Felix Aug. Palatinam
hanc Domus sibi suisque Successoris Constituit A MDCCCXXIII.
Royal Chapel. The Dutch monarchy is a nineteenth century creation
20
.
Ignoring parliament and ministers, King William I of the Netherlands, known
as the decree king, was more autocratic than Charles X of France: the orb,
sceptre and mantle of the Dutch monarchy were created for his sons inaugu-
ration in the New Church in Amsterdam in 1840
21
.
Brussels, as well as Amsterdam, experienced a monarchisation process.
In 1790, after a successful revolution against Austrian rule, the Southern
Netherlands proclaimed the first modern republic in Europe. Its name the
Etats Belgiques Unis showed its American inspiration. After their next suc-
cessful revolution, however, against Dutch rule in 1830, the Southern
Netherlands, spurning a republic, turned to monarchy, finally accepting as
King the candidate of the Great Powers of Europe, Prince Leopold of Saxe-
Coburg. The Belgian monarchy, like the Royal Palace in Brussels, is a nine-
teenth-century creation
22
.
A similar process took place in Athens. In 1834 the first government
building erected in the new capital after the Greek war of independence,
before a parliament, ministries or university, was the massive royal palace,
designed by the Bavarian court architect Leo von Klenze for the new King
Otto, younger son of Ludwig I of Bavaria. New monarchies and palaces were
also installed, after 1850, in Belgrade, Bucharest, Sofia, Oslo, Cettinje and
Tirana
23
. Monarchy was an expanding, not a contracting system. One reason
for the choice of foreign, rather than native, monarchs by Greece, Romania,
Bulgaria and Norway was their desire to join the European family of kings
still a valid concept before 1914.
There were similar monarchical building programmes, supervised by
monarchs and court officials in Munich with the expansion of the Residenz by
von Klenze under Ludwig I in 1825-1835; in Paris with the completion of the
Louvre in 1852-7 under Napoleon III covered in crowns and Ns, and used
as a palace for banquets and the state opening of parliament, as well as a
museum; in Vienna with the construction of the Neue Hofburg and the great
261
20
H. J. Kraaij, The Royal Palace in Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1997, passim; Empire in
the Palace. The Decoration and Furnishing of the Royal Palace at the time of Louis-
Napoleon, Amsterdam 1983, passim.
21
H. van Bree P. Lekkekerk, The House of Orange, Amsterdam 2006, p. 41.
22
T. Verschaffel, The Embellishment of Brussels under Leopold I and Leopold II, The
Court Historian, 12 (December 2007), pp. 193-214.
23
G. Vassiades, Athens; the creation of a royal capital 1834-1914, ivi, 15, 1 (2010), pp.
and J. Hamilton, False Starts and Failed Hopes. The Rise and Fall of Royal Sofia, ivi,
13,1 (June 2008), pp. 61-73.
imperial museums opposite it in the 1880s; in Budapest with the expansion
of the Royal Palace in 1890-1905; in London with the expansion of
Buckingham palace in 1847 and 1911 and the creation, after the death of
Prince Albert in 1861, of the Albert Memorial, Albert Hall and Victoria and
Albert Museum. They were monuments to his love of the arts, as the Victor
Emanuel monument, inaugurated in Rome in 1911, was a monument to the
role of the House of Savoy, the only Italian dynasty with a constitution, in the
unification of Italy
24
.
In Constantinople the massive palaces of Dolmabahce, Ciragan and
Beylerbey, symbols of the Europeanisation of the later Ottoman Empire, were
built in 1849-1871 by sultans Abdulmecid and Abdulaziz. In addition an
entire city of kiosks, offices, schools and residences, was created after 1878
in the grounds of Yildiz palace, on a hill above the Bosphorus. In its turn
Yildiz was surrounded by the houses of ministers and sheikhs. There the
Sultan Abdulhamid II, having suspended the Ottoman constitution, ran the
Ottoman Empire; his court officials and secretaries became as influential as
government ministers. His civil list became a force in the economic life of the
empire, buying up oil-bearing lands in Mesopotamia ahead of western com-
panies
25
.
The dynamism of monarchy and court life in nineteenth century Europe
was not reflected in historiography until the 1980s. In France the strength of
the republican tradition in universities and the fear of appearing reactionary
have made it easy to forget that the revolution of 1789 was not at first repub-
lican. Revolutionaries wanted Louis XVI to lead them.
Asecond factor side-lining monarchy in nineteenth-century France is that
historians are usually civilians. If they go to archives, they have preferred the
Archives Nationales in Paris to the Archives Historiques du Ministre de la
Guerre in Vincennes. They have failed to research the role of armies in poli-
tics and to see the nineteenth century as the apogee of military monarchy. The
Garde imperiale or royale could control Paris, as the Imperial Guard con-
trolled Saint Petersburg.
All nineteenth century monarchs were also commanders in chief. They
knew that, as Voltaire had written, God is on the side of the big battalions.
Philip Mansel
262
24
See the articles on Munich by D. Watkin, Paris by P. Mansel, Vienna by A. Sked,
Buckingham Palace by S. Brindle and Rome by T. Kirk in Courts and Capitals 1815-1914,
The Court Historian, 11, 1 (July 2006) and 13 (June 2008).
25
P. Mansel, Constantinople City of the Worlds Desire, London 2006, pp. 272-273,
313-345; F. Georgeon, Abdulhamid II. Le sultan calife, Paris 2003, pp. 89, 127-146, 164-
169, 264.
Louis Philippe fell in part because he refused to launch wars and had lost
the support of his power-base, the Paris National Guard. Napoleon I and III
seized power through military coups and lost it after military defeats.
Architecture is a third factor marginalising the French monarchies of the
nineteenth century. The key documents were the palaces of the Tuileries and
Saint-Cloud. If they had not been burnt in 1870-1871, during the Commune
and the Franco-Prussian war respectively, then demolished by the Third
Republic in the 1880s as a conscious repudiation of monarchy, it would have
been more difficult to overlook the monarchs who inhabited them. Noone
sidelines Versailles.
In contrast the memoirs, diaries and letters of the nineteenth century, fre-
quently quoted by two post-dynastic court historians Frdric Masson on the
Bonapartes, and Ernest Daudet on the Bourbons show the importance of
dynasties and courts in nineteenth-century France. The court literature of the
period includes masterpieces such as the memoirs of Madame de Boigne, an
Orleanist; the diary of the Marchal de Castellane, who served every regime;
and the Journal of Pierre Fontaine, Premier architecte de lEmpereur (Paris
Ecole nationale des Beaux-Arts, 2 vols 1987), who also worked for subse-
quent monarchs. One of the most remarkable records of the relationship
between monarchy and architecture is a nineteenth century document.
Since 1980, with the decline of Marxism, studies on the French court in
the nineteenth century have become more frequent. I myself was drawn to the
court by the letters and diaries of the Restoration, above all by the letters pre-
served in the O3 (Maison du roi, 1814-1830) series in the Archives
Nationales. Applying for court offices to Louis XVIII and Charles X, nobles
revealed the power of monarchy and royalism in the nineteenth century.
Revolutionary losses had increased both monarchs and elites appetite and
need for court life. In The Court of France 1789-1830 I showed that the mai-
son du roi grew from 1,860 in 1789 to 2,921 in 1830. Louis XVI had four pre-
miers gentilshommes de la chambre; Napoleon I over 100 chamberlains;
Charles X 306 gentilshommes de la chambre
26
.
In biographies of Charles X by Jos Cabanis (Paris 1972); of Louis XVIII
by myself (Paris 1982); of Louis Philippe by Guy Antonetti (Paris 1994); of
Napoleon III by Louis Girard (Paris 1986); of Talleyrand by Emmanuel de
Waresquiel (Paris 2003) and the study The Perilous Crown: France between
Revolutions 1814-1848 (London 2007) by Munro Price making extensive use
263
26
Mansel, The Court of France, cit.
of the Orleans archives in the Archives Nationales, the persistence of royal
power and court life have been analysed at some length. Antonetti for exam-
ple shows that, far from being a constitutional monarch, Louis Philippe had
become almost all-powerful and hostile to reforms in the government by
1847. His sons predicted the revolution which overthrew him a few weeks
later
27
.
Louis Girard compared the court of Napoleon III to Versailles and
described the importance of the Emperor in replanning Paris as an imperial
capital, with his devoted Prefect Baron Haussmann. Much of the city became
court space
28
. Art historians show the central role of the monarchs civil list
in commissioning pictures, sculptures, churches and much else, and expand-
ing museums: for example Marie-Claude Chaudonneret in LEtat et les beaux-
arts; and Catherine Granger in Napolon III et les arts
29
. Every monarchy had
a key adviser determined to make the regime the centre of patronage: Denon
for Napoleon I; Forbin and Sosthenes de La Rochefoucauld for Louis XVIII
and Charles X; the Comte de Montalivet for Louis-Philippe; the Comte de
Nieuwerkerke, lover of Princess Mathilde, for Napoleon III. Painters serving
the court included David, Baron Grard, Isabey, Ingres and Winterhalter.
Still, however, there is no analysis of the monarchys use of the French
army in politics, and plans to subdue Paris. They culminated in Thiers ruthless
use of force the revenge of Versailles against Paris in 1871. There has been
no synthesis of the entire period, in France, to compare with Denis Mack-
Smiths Italy and its Monarchy, which stressed the power of the Kings of Italy
over the army, in the council of ministers, in matters of war and peace, and in
bringing Italy into the war in 1915 against the wishes of parliament and the peo-
ple
30
. A start has been made, however, with the publication of proceedings of a
conference on nineteenth century monarchies held at the Institut dHistoire de
la Rvolution franaise. It includes Nathalie Petiteau on Les Franais et lem-
pereur; Thibaut Tretour on Louis Philippe et la cour; Helene Becquet on
Princesses under the Restoration; and Munro Price on Madame Adelaide. All
articles show the political and artistic importance of the monarchy and the con-
tinued role of unofficial dynastic or courtier advisers in decision-making
31
.
Philip Mansel
264
27
G. Antonetti, Louis-Philippe, Paris 1998, pp. 902, 910.
28
Girard, Napoleon III, cit., pp. 190-216, 338-352.
29
Cf. M. C. Chaudonneret, LEtat et les beaux-arts. De la Restauration la monarchie
de Juillet, Paris 2000 and C. Granger, Napolon III et les arts, Paris 2005.
30
Girard, Napoleon III, cit., pp. 27, 66, 84, 94, 99, 214. Cf. also D. Mack-Smiths Italy
and its Monarchy, London-New Haven 1989.
31
H. Becquet B. Frederking (eds.), La dignit de roi. Regards sur la royaut au pre-
mier XIXe sicle, Rennes 2009.
England also lacks a systematic treatment of the monarchy and the court
in the nineteenth century, comparable to Hannah Smiths brilliant Georgian
Monarchy: Politics and Culture 1714-1760 on the period 1714-1760
32
. Yet
the composition of the royal household was a crucial political factor on at
least two occasions. In 1811 the Whigs insistence on changing the three sen-
ior officials of the royal household Lord Steward, Lord Chamberlain and
Master of the Horse helped persuade the Prince Regent, despite his Whig
antecedents, to keep his fathers Tory ministers. It was said they had lost three
kingdoms for the sake of three white wands.
On her accession in 1837 one of the first acts of the young queen Victoria
was to move to Buckingham Palace. There Lady Granville, wife of the British
ambassador to Paris, found the young Queen perfect in manner, dignity and
grace. It is so much more like a Court than any I have seen. The court was a
political issue. In the Bedchamber crisis in 1839 Queen Victorias refusal to
dismiss her Whig ladies led Robert Peel to refuse to become Prime Minister.
Control of the royal household was felt to be necessary for control of the
House of Commons.
Queen Victorias published letters, and those of their editor the key court
official and royal military adviser Lord Esher, allow some glimpse of the
power and hidden wirings of the British monarchy. A few days after her mar-
riage in 1840, Queen Victoria assured Prince Albert: I must always have my
court about me
33
.
Analysis is beginning with the work of Walter Arnstein on Queen
Victoria and of William Kuhn on her great Private Secretary Sir Henry
Ponsonby. In Power and Place Simon Heffer has shown the importance of
Edward VII in international affairs often working through favoured lesser
officials such as Charles Hardinge, in the Foreign Office, husband of one of
his wifes ladies in waiting, and Lord Esher
34
. He insisted on seeing despatch-
es and being consulted on appointments. Heffer also shows the desire of min-
isters, in particular A. J. Balfour, to diminish the Kings role in history books
and take credit for his policies
35
.
265
32
Cf. H. Smith, Georgian Monarchy: Politics and Culture 1714-1760, Cambridge
2006.
33
R. Rhodes James, Albert Prince Consort, London 1983, p. 76.
34
Cf. W. Arnstein, Queen Victoria, Basingstoke 2003; W. Kuhn, Henry and Mary
Ponsonby. Life at the Court of Queen Victoria, London 2002 and S. Heffer, Power and
Place: the Political consequences of King Edward VII, London 1998.
35
Heffer, Power and Place, cit., pp. 48, 102, 131, 156, 163, 212, 246-247, 302.
As Marxism and the history of the masses have lost their hold on hearts
and minds, the political role of monarchs and dynasties, elites and emotions,
has been reassessed. Arno Mayer in The Persistence of the Old Regime despite
many inaccuracies, described the persistence of aristocratic power in armies;
the expansion in numbers of imperial households; and the role of courts as
control centres of official culture of Europe
36
. The volumes edited by
Cesare Mozzarelli and Karl Mckl also showed the persistence of the court
system in Rome, Berlin and Vienna in the nineteenth century
37
.
In Russia the work of Dominic Lieven and Richard Wortman has led to a
reevaluation of the role of the monarchy and the court. In Russias Rulers
under the Old Regime, Dominic Lieven showed the importance of guards,
officers and nobles in the bureaucracy. There was no cooption of the bour-
geoisie as in Bavaria or Prussia. In his magnificent two volume Scenarios of
Power, Richard Wortman penetrated below official and administrative histo-
ry to show the emotions driving them. The number of chamberlains, and the
size of the Imperial Guard grew from the reign of Alexander I as did the num-
ber of ministers and officials given senior court posts. Court and government
became closely linked
38
.
In a highly original fashion, he uses ceremonies interior decoration
sculpture photographs to show how the Tsars saw themselves their court,
empire, and subjects. The Tsar used the court and the drill ground [often on
daily parades] to give constant revalidation to the mythic grounding of his
power. Other ceremonies like the coronation, icon kissing, the taking of the
oath of majority by the heir to the throne, frequently performed in tears,
affirmed the bond of love between Tsar and people
39
.
Parades were magnificent shows of mutual loyalty and recognition,
when the emperor used the second person singular, and embraced favoured
guards, calling them his children. On 1 March 1881 Alexander II was killed
by his insistence, despite warnings, on attending a guards review which
exposed him to a nihilists bomb
40
. Nicholas II was in love with army life:
Philip Mansel
266
36
See A. J. Mayer, The Persistence of the Old Regime Europe to the Great War,
London 1981, pp. 150-152, 185.
37
C. Mozzarelli, Antico Regime e modernit, Rome 2008 and K. Mckl (ed.), Hof und
Hofgesellschaft in der deutschen Staaten im 19 Janhruhundert, Bompard am Rhein 1990.
38
See D. Lieven, Russias Rulers under the Old Regime, New Haven-London 1989 and
R. Wortman Scenarios of Power: Myth and Ceremony in Russian Monarchy, Princeton
1995-2000, vol. I, pp. 203, 227-2299, 322, 540; vol. II, p. 51,
39
Wortman, Scenarios of Power, cit., vol. I, pp. 205, 220, 269, 285, 359; vol. II, pp. 37,
231, 338, 425.
40
Ibid., vol. II, pp. 132-133, 155.
there exists no better place on earth than Kranose Seloe. He believed that
the duma opened at a court ceremony in the Winter Palace in 1906 was the
expression of his will, and that he should run the army and the navy himself.
He also believed in the wonderful hymn of mutual love between Tsar and
people, expressed during the Romanov tercentenary of 1913 and the cere-
monies of the proclamation of war in 1914. Like Charles X in 1830, he
believed his own myth and in the sacred duty of the Russian Tsar to be
among his troops until, after the outbreak of revolution in February 1917,
reality broke through and he wrote in his diary: all around there is treason,
cowardice and deceit
41
.
Since they have so many palaces and palace objects to look after, muse-
um curators are often more interested in courts than historians. The splendour
and confidence of the Russian court, and its continued patronage of the arts,
was confirmed in 2009 by the popular exhibition, organised by the Hermitage
Palace Museum staff at the Amsterdam Hermitage: At the Russian court. It
gathered an army of pictures, menu cards, statues, uniforms, furniture draw-
ings, photographs, jewels, hunt cards, to show that the court was, in the words
of the Director of the Hermitage, an important symbol of Russias oneness
with Europe. Peasants and workers hardly appear. The bibliography at the
end of the catalogue shows the number of books about the Russian court and
monarchy published since the fall of communism in 1991 part of the desire
to reconnect with Russias imperial past also shown in the readoption, as
Russian national symbols, of the crowned double-headed eagle and the old
Russian flag; and the reburial in Saint Petersburg (as Leningrad was renamed
in 1991, in preference to its 1914-1924 name of Petrograd) of executed or
exiled Romanovs.
A similar exhibition ten years earlier in Copenhagen, about the last Tsars
mother Marie Feodorovna, was more realistic. It showed not only her dresses,
uniforms she was colonel of two regiments jewels, portraits and photo-
graphs; but also her active role in securing contracts for Danish companies and
encouraging the revival of Russian decorative arts; her charities; her relations
with Dostoyevsky; and her diary lamenting the madness and blindness of her
daughter-in-law the Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. Here we see how, through
the court system, one woman of limited intellect could have a central, multidi-
mensional and international impact. Two Russian ambassadors to her father the
King of Denmark became Foreign Ministers of her son Nicholas II
42
.
267
41
Ibid., vol. II, pp. 320, 412, 413, 421, 478-49l, 503, 516, 522.
42
Marie Feodorovna Empress of Russia, Copenhagen 1997, pp. 260-272.
In Austria William Godsey has described the continued power and grow-
ing exclusiveness of the court aristocracy before 1914
43
. Recent biographies
of the Empress Elizabeth by Brigitte Hamann and of Francis Joseph by Jean
Paul Bled have described the reinforcement of the court system during the
nineteenth century
44
. It helped the Emperor keep his prestige, despite his
many mistakes and defeats. For her part, using her Hungarian ladies in wait-
ing, the Empress Elizabeth played a key role in rallying to the Habsburg
monarchy Hungarian nationalism in general and Count Andrassy in particu-
lar
45
. The great Viennese historian Heinrich Friedjung told Chancellor Prince
Blow that the Empresss lady in waiting Marie Festetics knew more inter-
esting and important things about Austrian history in the second half of the
nineteenth century than the whole Imperial Academy of Sciences
46
. However
many papers have been destroyed.
Above all Germany has seen a revival of court history, launched by two
conferences in Corfu in 1979 and Darmstadt in 1982. Finally historians
realised, what should have been self evident: that the most advanced industri-
al country in Europe was also a fully functioning monarchy. Much work has
been done on the courts of Bavaria and Wrttemberg, which remained central
to the politics and culture of their countries
47
. In Pomp und Politik Johannes
Paulmann described ceremonial and ritual relations between monarchs, as
well as diplomacy and state militarisation
48
.
The greatest change, however, as been in treatment of the reign of
Wilhelm II. When working on the political history of the second Reich and
the correspondence of the Kaisers closest friend Prince Philipp zu Eulenburg
in the 1960s, at the height of left-wing fashions in history, John Rohl
realised that he was in reality dealing with a court society. As in nineteenth
century France, key decisions could be influenced by courtiers, favourites and
ADCs. Chancellor Prince Blow was a courtier who called the Kaiser the
Philip Mansel
268
43
See W. Godsey, Quarterings and Kinship: the Social Composition of the Habsburg
Aristocracy in the Dualist Era, Journal of Modern History, 71 (1999), pp. 56-104.
44
See B. Hamann, The Reluctant Empress, Berlin 2000 and J. P. Bled, Franz Joseph,
Paris 1987.
45
Bled Francois Joseph, cit., pp. 461-496; Hamann, The Reluctant, cit., pp. 147-153.
46
Prince von Bulow, Memoirs 1849-97, London-New York 1932, p. 407.
47
K. F. Werner (ed.), Hof, Kultur und Politik im 19 jahrhundert, Bonn 1985; J. Rohl
W. Sombart (eds.), Kaiser Wilhelm II. New Interpretations, Cambridge 1982, pp. 52, 234 and
cf. G. Herdt, Die Wurttembergische Hof im 19 Jahrhundert, Ph D thesis University of
Gttingen 1970.
48
See J. Paulmann, Pomp und Politik. Monarchenbegegnungen in Europa zwischen
Ancien Regime und Erstem Weltkrieg, Paderborn 2000.
most important Hohenzollern that ever lived and the bearer of the national
idea and the future of the German People
49
.
In The Kaiser and his Court, John Rohl described the massive civil lists,
which funded the monstrous flowering of court culture and the kingship
mechanism of flattery, intrigue and imperial control of appointments which
dominated Germany. Above the administrative bureaucracy with the Reich
chancellor and Prussian Minister President at its head, there existed a further
structure, namely court society without which the whole system cannot be
understood
50
.
Rohls pupil Isabel Hull in 1982 had already shown that the Kaisers
ADCs and military household generally good-looking noble guards officers
had helped make him more conservative and more isolated from modern
developments. Confident of German victory, the cerberuses at the gate
helped push or shame him into preventive war after 1912. The earlier the bet-
ter, the great liquidation must come sometime, as General von Plessen said
in November 1912 a month before the Kaiser said war, the sooner the bet-
ter. Gegen demokraten helfen nur soldaten was their belief
51
.
In his magisterial biography of the Kaiser (Frankfurt C.H.Beck 3 vols.
1993-2008), two volumes of which have appeared in English, Rohl confirms
the political importance of the Kaiser, the court and the minister of the royal
house. His speeches became major and disastrous political events. Rohl
quotes lucid letters from his liberal mother, lamenting his megalomania and
prophesying revolution, dictatorship and God knows what ravages
52
. Rohl
shows that in the military and naval spheres and in the making of foreign pol-
icy his decisions went virtually unchallenged. He was an originator of the
Schlieffen plan to knock out France and the Tirpitz plan to challenge British
naval supremacy; and between 1912 and 1914 encouraged plans to launch war
(revealed by threats made to the King of the Belgians in November 1913)
even before the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in July 1914.
Christopher Clark in Kaiser Wilhelm II has tried to minimise the Kaisers
desire for war in 1914. Yet he confirms the Kaisers continued control over
nominations. Even the chancellor was dependent on royal favour, not a par-
269
49
Interview with Philip Mansel, The Court Historian, 2 (1996), pp 1-2; Rohl
Sombart (eds.), Kaiser Wilhelm II, cit., pp. 27, 223.
50
J. Rohl, The Kaiser and his Court, Cambridge 1994, pp. 77, 103, 125, 159, 127.
51
I. V. Hull, The Entourage of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Cambridge 1982, pp. 6, 30-31, 156,
190, 223, 239, 261, 287, 304.
52
Wilhelm II. The Kaisers Personal Monarchy 1888-1900 Cambridge 2004, pp. 511
and preceding pages.
liamentary majority. Of Bethmann Hollweg a civilian chancellor who like
Bismarck frequently wore military uniform it was said: The root of his
strength was his relationship with the Emperor. Even in 1910, two years after
a public storm over the Daily Telegraph affair which had made him con-
template abdication, the Kaiser made a public speech in which he described
himself as the chosen instrument of heaven, holding the Prussian crown by
grace of god alone not through parliament
53
.
Another sign that Germany and Europe were still in part a court culture was
the role of pleasure in politics. Monarchs frequently took decisions while on
holiday, hunting, yachting or taking the waters at a spa: at Balmoral or
Osborne, Bad Ems or Bad Ischl, Biarritz or Kiel. The Kaiser spent under half
the year in Berlin and Potsdam: he often visited favourites in their castles, such
as Liebenberg (Prince Eulenberg) or Donaueschingen (Prince Frstenberg)
54
.
Before 1914 most countries experienced a growing number of strikes,
Socialist deputies and Socialist party and trade union members. In 1889 in Rio
de Janeiro and in 1910 in Lisbon monarchies had been overthrown and
republics proclaimed. At the same time, however, a series of national celebra-
tions of dynastic occasions, organised by court officials and politicians,
demonstrated the continued popularity of monarchies: the Diamond Jubilee of
Queen Victoria in 1897, the coronations of Edward VII in 1902 and George V
in 1911 and the Delhi Durbar acclaiming George V as Emperor of India later
that year; the 60th anniversary, in 1908, of the accession of Franz
Joseph when, as Stefan Zweig would remember in exile during the Second
World War, eighty thousand Viennese school children sang Gott erhalte
Franz dem Kaiser on the lawn of Schnbrunn palace, and there was a mas-
sive historical parade before the Emperor in front of the Hofburg
55
; the fifti-
eth anniversary of Italian unity and inauguration of the Victor Emanuel mon-
ument in 1911; the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Kaisers accession and his
daughters wedding to the Duke of Brunswick in 1913; and the tercentenary
of the House of Romanov in 1913. In 1914 Europe was still for some a
court society.
If Europe had not still appeared to be a court society, Nicholas II, Francis
Joseph and Wilhelm II, and their ministers and generals, would not have
Philip Mansel
270
53
C. Clark, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Harmondsworth 2009, pp. 29, 47,100, 113, 152-153,
247, 249.
54
Heffer, Edward VII, cit., pp. 212, 251; Hull, Entourage, cit., p. 3; Clark, Kaiser, cit.,
p. 177; Rohl, Kaiser and his Court, cit., p. 128.
55
S. Zweig, The World of Yesterday, London 1943, p. 217; cf B. Hamann, Hitlers
Vienna, London 2008, pp. 96-101.
risked revolution and gone to war in 1914. Making the same mistake as
Charles X in 1830 and Napoleon III in 1870, they put prestige and conquest
before self-preservation. The success of the court system led to its destruction.
Like the First and Second Empires in France, the Russian, Austrian, German
and Ottoman Empires fell as a result of military defeat. The end of court soci-
ety and royal households in Europe came not in 1789, nor in 1848, but in 1917
and 1918.
Even then, however, court society remained a political factor. Many
twentieth century national leaders had previously been monarchs ADCs or
guards officers. They included Mustafa Kemal Pasha, Marshal Mannerheim,
Marshal Hindenburg, Admiral Horthy and General Franco. They could not
continue to serve their monarchs; but they did try to preserve a social order.
In Spain Franco also arranged, what other leaders (except Mustafa Kemal)
may have hoped for in their countries: the restoration of the monarchy.
271
III. Court form and culture
Mathieu Da Vinha
STRUCTURES ET ORGANISATION DES CHARGES DE COUR
LPOQUE MODERNE
Cette tude, nous le dplorons, ne peut videmment et malheureuse-
ment englober toute la complexit des charges commensales de la cour de
France et a fortiori des autres cours europennes. Et sous ce titre quelque peu
ambitieux, elle se veut avant tout comme lesquisse dune synthse qui aurait
pour vocation de voir les concordances et les dissemblances des principales
charges auliques travers leur cration, leur volution et leur aboutissement
dans les diffrentes cours, et non pas la description prcise de leurs attribu-
tions. En dautres termes, notre propos nest pas de dcrire le prtendu paran-
gon versaillais des charges, mais plutt de voir comment depuis le Moyen
ge on en est arriv ce systme aux XVII
e
et XVIII
e
sicles. Par commo-
dit, je partirai en effet des charges franaises (que je connais mieux) et ten-
terai dans la mesure de mes comptences de voir sous quelles formes elles
pouvaient exister dans les autres pays, avec un regard plus spcifique sur la
Grande-Bretagne et lEspagne. Ce point de dpart rpond plus une mtho-
dologie qu une ralit historique : les fonctions curiales ntant videmment
pas nes ncessairement en France. Il conviendra cependant de voir en quel-
les manires les charges nes ou non en France faisaient cho celles de ses
voisins et vice-versa, ce qui ntait ni plus ni moins que la diffusion dun
modle. Cette tude se fondera essentiellement sur des textes juridiques, les-
quels pour aller au-del de leur simple aspect thorique devront, ou
devraient, tre ncessairement complts par des cas pratiques illustrs par les
mmoires-chroniques et les archives dtat signalant des ruptures ou des dis-
sensions.
275
1. Lorigine des charges et la formation de la Maison
en croire Jacques Levron (dans son petit livre sur les courtisans paru
en 1961), pour le rgne de Louis XIV,
appartiennent proprement la cour et en constituent la figuration quotidienne,
tout dabord lensemble des membres de la maison du roi, de la reine, des prin-
ces et des membres de la famille royale, tous les grands, ducs et marquis, qui esti-
ment ncessaires de rsider auprs du roi; tous ceux qui sont les favoris, les inti-
mes de ces personnages, enfin, peu peu, tous les grands noms de la noblesse de
France, quand on a compris que, de Versailles partent toutes les grces
1
.
Pourtant, la notion de cour malgr les nombreuses tudes qui lui ont t
consacres et la brillante introduction de Marcello Fantoni cet ouvrage, reste
encore difficile cerner. Au-del des richesses et des ors quelle doit nces-
sairement mettre en avant, son concept appelle aussi lide dune capacit
concevoir un foyer culturel dynamique mais aussi celle dune structuration
dans son ordonnancement. Au XVII
e
sicle, Antoine Furetire entend sous ce
terme le: Lieu o habite un Roy ou un Prince Souverain et signifie enco-
re tous les Officiers & la suite du Prince. Un tel rassemblement ne se retro-
uvait pas aux origines de la monarchie franaise. Cette dficience ne marque
pas pour autant labsence totale de serviteurs autour du souverain, lesquels
domestiques ne semblaient pourtant apparatre que lors des grandes crmo-
nies afin dexalter les fastes de la royaut.
Malgr lintroduction des femmes, des dames devrions-nous plutt dire,
la cour par Franois I
er
, ce qui ntait pas sen dplaire Brantme qui put
crire qune court sans dames est une court sans court
2
, lessence mme de
la cour semble bien la prsence de compagnons fidles autour du roi, lesquels
taient dits commensaux pour ce quils mangeaient la table mme du sou-
verain, mais aussi dofficiers plus indfinis. Ce dernier terme apparat lui
aussi problmatique. Le juriste Charles Loyseau rappelle en effet que
Veu quil nest pas presumer, quau commencement du monde les hommes
ayent long-temps subsist, sans quelque forme de gouvernement ou societ poli-
tique, & par consequent sans Officiers, sans lesquels aucune cit ou police ne se
peut imaginer, cest chose bien estrange, quen nulle des langues anciennes,
Mathieu Da Vinha
276
1
J. Levron, Les courtisans, Paris 1961, pp. 76-77.
2
P. de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantome, Grands capitaines franois, article Le grand
roy Franois, in uvres compltes, d. L. Lalanne, Paris 1864-1882, vol. 11, t. III, p. 130.
il ne se trouve point de terme particulier & univoque pour signifier lOffice &
lOfficier, au moins qui comprenne indefiniment toutes sortes dOffices
3
.
Bien que Charlemagne et soin ds lorigine de sentourer de commen-
saux pour le servir (larchevque de Reims Hincmar lexprimait dj parfai-
tement dans le petit livre quil a consacr au palais carolingien vers 870
4
), ces
hommes quvoque Loyseau apparaissaient bien plus comme des conseillers,
des personnes en charge de ladministration que comme de vritables domes-
tiques. Lorganisation palatiale suppose en effet la structuration de dparte-
ments et les cours europennes ont pris exemple, pour une large part, sur la
cour des ducs de Bourgogne. Charlemagne stait cependant dj essay une
rationalisation en ayant rgl les Offices de sa Maison sur le modle des
Empereurs Romains
5
, modle indfectible des socits curiales. Il fut suivi
par les captiens dont les premires ordonnances de lhtel du roi remontent
au XIII
e
sicle avec saint Louis
6
. On retrouve ainsi dans le trsor des Chartes
cette ordonance de lostel le saint roys Loys ou mois de aoust lan de grace
mil CC LXI, laquelle fut peut-tre mme prcde par une prcdente du
mme roi en 1241
7
.
Si le courtisan tel que nous le concevons aujourdhui, cest--dire vivant
dans la propre demeure du roi et en attendant les faveurs, ne fit son apparition
en Europe quau XVI
e
sicle, la formalisation des charges auliques se fit pro-
gressivement, le Haut Moyen ge confondant souvent le service priv et le
service public : cest parce quil soccupait des vtements prcieux, des meu-
bles et du trsor royal que le camrier lpoque franque se verra confier
ladministration des finances de la royaut, et ainsi de plusieurs autres char-
ges
8
. lpoque mrovingienne, le Palais, cest--dire non pas un btiment,
mais plutt lensemble roi et les serviteurs qui lui taient attachs , avait
Structures et organisation des charges de cour lpoque moderne
277
3
C. Loyseau, Les uvres de Maistre Charles Loyseau, advocat en Parlement.
Contenans les Cinq livres du droict des Offices [], Paris 1666, p. 4.
4
Voir Levron, Les Courtisans, cit., p. 5.
5
J. A. Piganiol de La Force, Introduction la Description de la France et au droit
public de ce royaume, Tome premier qui comprend tout ce qui sobserve auprs du Roi, l-
tat de sa Maison, ses Titres, ses Prrogatives, son Crmonial, ses Officiers, & ceux de la
Couronne, Paris 1752, 3
e
d, t. I, p. 270.
6
Voir E. Lalou, Les ordonnances de lhtel des derniers Captiens directs, dans H. Kruse
W. Paravicini (eds.), Hfe und Hofordnungen 1200-1600, Sigmaringen 1999, pp. 91-101. Je
remercie Caroline zum Kolk de mavoir communiqu la rfrence de cet ouvrage.
7
Arch. nat.: JJ 57, fol. 20 pour lordonnance de 1261 et J 1028 n28A et B pour celle
de 1241, ordonnances cites dans Lalou, Les ordonnances, cit., p. 92 et 95.
8
Levron, Les courtisans, cit., p. 7.
dj une organisation bien prcise. Il est donc possible de trouver des constantes
parmi les serviteurs royaux en charge du fonctionnement du Palais. Au sein des
auxiliaires du roi se trouvaient plusieurs officiers laques avec une vocation la
fois domestique et publique
9
. Mentionnons dores et dj les plus importants qui
trouveront une continuit dans toutes les charges de lpoque moderne. Le pre-
mier dentre eux tait le maire du palais (dit aussi major domus, majordome) qui
avait la prminence sur lensemble des officiers laques. Il tait second par dif-
frents officiers qui occupaient chacun des fonctions prcises; ainsi du camrier
dj cit, du marchal en charge des chevaux du roi et, par glissement, de toute la
cavalerie dans lost royal, du rfrendaire qui collationnait par crit les actes
royaux (les diplmes), du comte du palais (souvent confondu par la suite avec le
maire du palais) qui instruisait les procs venus au tribunal du palais, du chape-
lain qui dirigeait loratoire royal ou encore du bouteiller.
Selon le juriste Andr Favyn
10
au XVII
e
sicle, ces charges au temps des
rois de la premire race (les mrovingiens) ntaient pas toutes au mme
niveau. taient seuls considrs comme officiers de la Couronne le maire du
Palais, les ducs, les comtes, le comte du Palais, le comte de ltable (connta-
ble), le rfrendaire et le chambrier, lesquels, aprs la runion de la mairie
la couronne elle-mme et laccession au trne de Ppin le Bref, montrent
sous la deuxime race (les carolingiens) dix titulaires: larchichapelain, le
grand chancelier, le chambrier, le comte du palais, le snchal, le bouteiller, le
conntable, le mansionnaire [futur grand marchal des logis], quatre grands
veneurs et un fauconnier. Ce ne furent que les rois de la troisime race (les
captiens) qui prirent soin de supprimer dfinitivement la mairie du palais,
bien trop dangereuse pour leur propre pouvoir
11
. La disparition de ce puissant
office profita quatre autres qui prirent alors toute leur importance et furent
le fondement des charges de la monarchie franaise moderne et au-del.
2. Le perfectionnement des charges
De la disparition de la mairie du palais, quatre charges mergrent ou
virent leur pouvoir saccrotre:
Mathieu Da Vinha
278
9
Voir O. Guillot, A. Rigaudiere, Y. Sassier, Pouvoirs et institutions dans la France
mdivale. Des origines lpoque fodale, Paris 1995, t. I, p. 76 et suiv.
10
Voir notamment J. A. Piganiol de La Force, Introduction, cit., p. 222 et P. J. J. G.
Guyot P. A. Merlin, Trait des droits, fonctions, franchises, exemptions, prrogatives et
privilges annexs en France chaque Dignit, chaque Office & chaque Etat, soit Civil,
soit Militaire, soit Ecclsiastique, Paris 1786-1788, t. I, p. 377-379.
11
Voir Loyseau, Les uvres, cit., p. 316.
le Connestable qui nestoit de son origine que le grand Escuyer du Roy,
Regalium Praeposius equorum, dit Rhegino, eut la surintendance de la guerre: le
Chancelier, qui nestoit que le premier Secretaire du Roy, Primicerius
Notariorum, eut la superiorit de toute la Justice; le grand Tresorier de France eut
la sur-Intendance des finances: & finalement le grand Maistre de France, ancien-
nement appel Comte du Palais, eut le gouvernement de la Maison du Roy
12
.
Les juristes ne sont pas tous daccord tant sur le nombre que sur la gran-
deur de ces officiers. Pour Favyn, les cinq grands offices taient le chance-
lier, le snchal (quil appelle aussi le grand matre), le grand chanson (ou le
grand bouteiller), le chambrier (ou le chambellan) et le conntable, tandis que
Du Tillet y ajoute le grand panetier et le grand queux (surintendant des cuisi-
nes royales)
13
. Ces grandes charges volurent, se modifirent et, pour certai-
nes, disparurent au cours des sicles, mais on les retrouvent peu ou prou dans
leur entit dans les diffrentes cours europennes.
Tentons, et le risque est lev au milieu de si grands spcialistes du sujet,
de partir de la cour de Bourgogne pour mieux les dfinir
14
. Au temps de
Charles le Tmraire, en 1469, nous distinguons quatre grands services diri-
gs respectivement par un premier chapelain, le premier chambellan, un pre-
mier matre dhtel et un chancelier. Au contraire du systme hrit des cap-
tiens, le matre dhtel devait avoir largement la primaut puisque, sans certi-
tude toutefois, il semblait toutefois avoir sous son autorit la paneterie, l-
chansonnerie, lcuyer tranchant, la cuisine, la fruiterie, la fourrire, mais
aussi chose tonnante la chambre ducale (et ses cohortes de valets, arti-
sans, gens de mtiers et personnel de sant notamment) et lcurie. Plus pro-
blmatique, le service du grand chancelier (le grand conseil) duquel dpen-
daient matres des requtes, procureurs, conseillers, etc., dpendant sans doute
aussi du premier matre dhtel lequel, comme son nom lindique, linstar
de ce que fut en France le Grand matre de la Maison du Roi jusquau XVI
e
sicle, tait lhomme clef du systme et donc le surintendant de lensemble du
personnel de lhtel ducal. Cest ainsi que plusieurs charges, sans affectations
prcises pouvaient lui tre directement rattaches, tels les archers du corps ou
encore la chambre aux deniers.
279
12
Ivi.
13
Voir Guyot Merlin, Trait des droits, cit., t. I, p. 382.
14
Voir S. Marti, T. H. Borchert, G. Keck (eds.), Splendeurs de la cour de Bourgogne.
Charles le Tmraire (1433-1477), Bruxelles 2008 et plus particulirement les articles de T.
Hiltmann, Les fonctions de la cour ducale, p. 214-215 et Lhtel de Charles le Tmraire en
1469, pp. 216-217.
La composition des htels des ducs de Bourgogne saffina et des ordon-
nances vinrent prciser le rle de chacun des officiers, instaurant progressive-
ment un crmonial
15
. On trouve ainsi, outre ltat de la maison, un rglement
prcis sur le service de la table ou encore de ceux qui pouvaient entrer en la
chambre du duc Philippe le Beau en 1496. Le crmonial se prcisa encore en
octobre 1515 avec une ordonnance du duc Charles de Bourgogne pour sa mai-
son tablie Bruxelles. Bien quelle ft imparfaite en ce qui concernait len-
semble des membres qui la composait (cest--dire ltat de la maison), elle
tait complte par dautres ordonnances qui mentionnaient lensemble des
services de lhtel et qui elles taient trs dtailles dans la description des
prrogatives et rles jous par chacun des officiers. Cest notamment cette
occasion que lon voit sorganiser, travers les ordonnances lies aux cham-
bellans et la chambre, lespace palatial avec lapparition dune ou deux
chambres prcdant la chambre coucher du souverain, dite chambre de
retraite, rpondant au statut particulier des Habsbourg.
Toute cette mise en place du crmonial est trs importante car elle sera
reprise presque lidentique par la cour de Madrid. En effet, pour imposer son
fils aprs la victoire de Mhlberg en 1547 sur les princes rebelles allemands pro-
testants, Charles Quint cra le 15 aot 1548 la charge de mayordomo mayor
pour le duc dAlbe qui fut charg dintroduire la cour de linfant Philippe aux
Pays-Bas les pratiques crmonielles bourguignonnes
16
. Cette date marquait
donc vritablement lorganisation des maisons royales espagnoles avec lins-
tauration des trois grandes charges : le mayordomo mayor, le camarero mayor
et le cavallerizo mayor. Cependant, ltiquette subit quelques changements (sur-
tout sous le rgne de Philippe IV) et, comme le rappelle Jean Dumont, on a
toujours eu grand soin dter au Public la connoissance de cette Etiquette, dont
le registre est conserv dans la Bibliothque de lEscurial
17
. Lauteur put
cependant en donner une copie intgrale dans son ouvrage
18
.
Mathieu Da Vinha
280
15
Pour ce dveloppement, voir J. Paviot, Ordonnances de lhtel et le crmonial de
cour au XV
e
et XVI
e
sicles, daprs lexemple bourguignon, in Hfe und Hofordnungen, cit.,
pp. 167-174.
16
Voir G. Sabatier S. Edouard, Les monarchies de France et dEspagne (1556-1715),
Paris 2001, p. 133 et J. L. Sancho, Lespace du roi la cour dEspagne sous les Habsbourg,
dans G. Sabatier M. Torrione (eds.), Louis XIV espagnol?, Paris 2009, p. 123. Ctait le
15 aot 1547 pour C. C. Nol, Ltiquette bourguignonne la cour dEspagne, 1547-1800,
dans C. Arminjon B. Saule (eds.), Tables royales et festins de cours en Europe (1661-
1789), Paris 2004, p. 174.
17
Voir J. Dumont, Le crmonial de la cour dEspagne in Supplment au Corps uni-
versel diplomatique du droit des gens, Amsterdam 1739, t. V, p. 237.
18
Ibid., p. 237-327 ou encore A. Rodriguez Villa, Etiquetas de la Casa de Austria,
Madrid 1913.
Quelques annes plus tard, ce fut au tour de la France de codifier son
crmonial
19
. Avec la mort dHenri II en 1559, la structure de la maison du roi
stait dj profondment modifie au dtriment du conntable de
Montmorency avec la prise du pouvoir par le duc de Guise qui obtenait la
charge de Grand Matre, lequel avait pleine autorit sur lhtel du roi et le
droit de dresser ltat gnral de la Maison du roi, faisant de sa famille et de
sa clientle la plus grande faction de la cour
20
. Le service de la chapelle tait
confie au Grand Aumnier, celui de la Chambre au Grand Chambellan (char-
ge galement dtenue par le duc de Guise) et au Premier Gentilhomme de la
Chambre, depuis la disparition du Grand chambrier en 1545 avec la mort du
duc Charles dOrlans. Outre ces principaux dpartements, sajoutaient la
Grande et la Petite curies. Mais cest avec Henri III, qui dicta plusieurs
rglements en 1574, 1578 et 1585 dans lesquels il prcisait lordre quil vou-
lait tre tenu dans sa maison, que le fonctionnement de la cour de France
lpoque moderne se formalisa, faisant du souverain le centre du pouvoir poli-
tique. Le pouvoir du Grand matre avait ainsi t progressivement dmantel
au profit du Grand chambellan ou du Grand prvt de lhtel qui prirent cha-
cun leur indpendance et ce malgr une tentative dHenri de Guise (dit le
Balafr) en 1572 pour reprendre ses pleines autorit et juridiction. Il fallut
attendre le rglement du 25 septembre 1574, soit deux ans aprs les remon-
trances du duc de Guise, pour que les prrogatives du Grand matre soient
clairement tablies
21
. Cette perte tait si significative que plus dun sicle
aprs, le duc de Saint-Simon, dplorant la dprciation des charges de la
Maison du roi, crivait encore dans ses Mmoires:
Jusquau grand matre de France, qui depuis longtemps est un prince du sang, il
ne commande quaux matres dhtel, ne se mle que des tables, et encore,
depuis Henri III, cause du dernier Guise qui ltait, a-t-il perdu toute inspection
sur tout ce qui regarde la bouche du Roi, et cet gard le premier matre dhtel
est indpendant de lui
22
.
Cest en effet par un esprit de mfiance que le dernier Valois ta au Grand
Matre sa juridiction complte sur sa Maison. Mais pour ne pas effacer totale-
281
19
Voir M. Chatenet, La cour de France au XVI
e
sicle, Paris 2002.
20
Voir N. Le Roux, La faveur du roi. Mignons et courtisans au temps des derniers
Valois (vers 1547 vers 1589), Seyssel 2000, pp. 49 et suiv.
21
Voir Piganiol de La Force, Introduction, cit., t. I, pp. 261-264.
22
L. de Rouvroy, duc de Saint Simon, Mmoires, d. Yves Coirault, Paris 1983-1988,
vol. 8., t. III, p. 131.
ment son ancien prestige, le souverain lui conservait encore quelques marques
de confiance en lui communiquant ainsi le mot du guet, que seuls quelques
officiers taient habilits recevoir. De mme, toute autorit ntait pas com-
pltement perdue puisquil recevait encore le serment de fidlit de plusieurs
officiers du Roi, notamment ceux de la Chapelle, des Crmonies, de lintro-
ducteur ou conducteurs des ambassadeurs ou encore de diffrents cuyers et
gardes de la porte
23
.
Le cas anglais est lui aussi trs intressant dans la mesure o la structu-
ration de la Maison du roi semble avoir t trs prcoce car, comme lcrit
Jean Dumont, les rois dAngleterre ont toujours eu une Cour proportionne
leur grandeur & leur puissance
24
. Il est vrai que le monarque y tait plei-
nement souverain ( la fois chef de lexcutif, arbitre de la justice, crateur des
honneurs et des titres et, depuis les annes 1530, chef de lglise anglicane)
et, ce titre, plus que dans toutes les autres cours europennes, sa maison tait
sans conteste le centre politique du royaume
25
. La mise en place et la structu-
ration des charges est relativement ancienne suivant les historiens
26
. Ds le
XII
e
sicle a t compil dans la Constitutio domus regis une liste dofficiers
du roi, laquelle indiquait le montant de leurs gages, leur livre de pain, de vin
et de bougie. Cinq grands services se dtachaient: the chapel, the chamber, the
hall, the buttery et loffice the constable and marshal, lensemble des domes-
tiques reprsentant plus de 200 personnes. Mais on ne peut, avec ce document,
parler rellement dune organisation de la cour (ce nest pas une vritable
ordonnance royale consignant le rle jou par chacun au sein de la cour) et
certains doutent mme de sa fiabilit. Plusieurs points contredisent en effet
celle-ci. Il nest fait aucune mention de la maison militaire : seuls les offi-
ciers de la maison civile (domus) y sont recenss, et non de faon exhausti-
ve les livres fournies pouvaient nourrir, par estimation, jusqu 720 per-
sonnes. Par ailleurs la hirarchie nest pas mme respecte dans la mesure o
certaines charges arrivaient dans la liste aprs dautres bien infrieures. Autre
difficult : la date de rdaction du document comprise entre la fin du rgne
Mathieu Da Vinha
282
23
Voir M. Da Vinha, Le Versailles de Louis XIV, Paris 2009, p. 67.
24
Voir J. Dumont, Le crmonial de la cour de la Grande Bretagne, dans Supplment
au Corps, cit., t. V, 1739, p. 449.
25
Voir J. Adamson, The Kingdom of England and Great Britain. The Tudor and Stuart
Courts. 1509-1714, dans Id., The Princely Courts of Europe. 1500-1750, London 2000, pp.
95-117.
26
Pour ce dveloppement, voir F. Lachaud, Order and disorder at court: the ordinan-
ces for the royal household in England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, dans Hfe und
Hofordnungen, cit., pp. 103-116.
dHenri I
er
dAngleterre (1100-1135) et le dbut de celui dEtienne (Stephen)
dAngleterre (1135-1154).
Il fallut attendre le 13 novembre 1279, sous douard I
er
(1272-1307),
pour voir apparatre la premire ordonnance de la maison royale. Elle repre-
nait, linstar de la Constitutio domus regis, les listes et le nom des officiers
mais de faon plus prcise en largissant la familia de la maison. Mais ce
qui est le plus important et marque surtout la nouveaut de cette ordonnance,
cest lintroduction de rglements suivre dans la maison avec les sanctions
appliquer en cas de manquements, les procdures de paiements de gages, les
dpenses, etc. Cette ordonnance sinscrivait clairement comme une rforme
visant rprimer les abus, la tradition anglaise prfrant que la maison roya-
le (affaire prive) fut rgle oralement et par lintervention directe du roi lui-
mme et non par des ordonnances crites.
Autre tape significative dans la structuration des charges de la cour
anglaise lpoque moderne : le Liber Niger Domus en 1478, dont le but tait
de replacer et lgitimer le pouvoir de lAngleterre dans le glorieux pass de
ses anctres
27
. Il apparat aussi comme la premire compilation des textes sur
les codes de la maison royale anglaise. Les grands changements au sein du
crmonial anglais se firent surtout sous les rgnes dHenri VIII (1509-1547)
dlisabeth I
re
(1558-1603). Les transferts culturels ntaient pas absents et
des situations dlicates pouvaient mener des modifications parmi les mai-
sons royales. Lors de la rception Londres dune ambassade franaise
laquelle se prsentrent six gentilshommes de la Chambre, leurs homologues
britanniques ne disposaient daucune charge officielle dans la maison de leur
roi. Henri VIII leur donna alors immdiatement le titre franais, anglicis en
gentlemen of the privy chamber
28
.
3. Laboutissement et son dclin
la fin du XVI
e
sicle, chacune des grandes monarchies que furent la
France, lEspagne et la Grande Bretagne disposait donc dune organisation
283
27
Voir D. A. L. Morgan, The house of policy: the political role of the late Plantagenet
household, 1422-1485, dans D. Starkey (ed.), The English Court from the Wars of the Roses
to the Civil War, London 1987, pp. 25-34. Je remercie Cdric Michon de mavoir commu-
niqu cette rfrence.
28
Voir J. F. Solnon, La Cour de France, Paris 1987, pp. 46-47. Lauteur rappelle aussi
la cration par le ministre Thomas Cromwell en 1539 de 200 gentilshommes de lHtel ou
encore le titre de Greate Maister of his Household or Grand Maistre Dhostel du Roy.
prcise de leur maison, avec des charges principales bien identifies. Si les
noms de celles-ci taient identiques dune cour lautre, elles navaient pas
ncessairement les mmes fonctions. On retrouve en revanche les mmes acti-
vits avec une tripartition incontestable: la maison ecclsiastique, la maison
civile et la maison militaire. Originellement, la tte de ces trois dpartements
principaux se tenaient de grands officiers dont la rpartition du pouvoir n-
tait pas vidente. Ainsi, en France, existaient la fois les grands officiers de
la Couronne et les grands officiers de la Maison du Roi
29
. Parmi ces premiers,
mentionnons le Grand matre de la Maison du Roi qui, aprs avoir eu linten-
dance de toute la maison, ne se mlait plus pour aller vite que des sept offi-
ces de la Bouche et autres petites questions matrielles, tout en conservant
nanmoins des fonctions honorifiques de premier plan dans les grandes cr-
monies. Il en tait de mme pour le Grand chambellan, lequel avait lautorit
nominale sur la Chambre. Ces deux charges ne devaient la conservation de
leur titre quaux lettres-patentes de Henri III en 1582 qui choisit de les main-
tenir parmi les grands officiers de la Couronne
30
, lesquels comptait aussi
parmi eux depuis 1589 le grand cuyer de France. Moins prestigieux, mais
tout aussi importants, les grands officiers de la maison du Roi o figuraient,
entre autres, le grand aumnier de France ou encore le grand matre de la
garde-robe.
Toutes ces charges se retrouvaient la cour de Madrid et de Londres. Les
principaux officiers anglais
31
inscrits sur ltat civil (ou liste civile) taient,
daprs Jean Dumont, le Grand matre de la Maison du Roi/the lord steward
(en charge de tous les offices denbas/the Hall), le Grand chambellan/the
lord chamberlain of household (qui a la plus grande partie des Officiers &
Domestiques qui servent en haut/the Chamber), le Groom of the Stool (qui
a la charge des officiers qui appartiennent la Chambre du Roi/the Privy
Lodgings of the king, jouant le rle de premier gentilhomme de la chambre en
France et domestique le plus proche du roi) et le Grand cuyer/the master of
the horse commande en chef les Ecuries
32
. Sy ajoutait, tout comme en
France, un grand matre de la Garde-robe dpendant lui aussi directement du
roi. Ltat militaire
33
, quant lui, tait sous lautorit du roi et les gardes
Mathieu Da Vinha
284
29
Voir S. de Laverny, Les Domestiques commensaux du roi de France au XVII
e
sicle,
Paris 2002, pp. 24-26.
30
Voir M. Da Vinha, Les Valets de chambre de Louis XIV, Paris 2004, pp. 141-142.
31
Voir Adamson, The Kingdom, cit., p. 99.
32
Voir Dumont, Le crmonial, cit., p. 449, pour le dtail, voir pp. 450-451.
33
Ibid., pp. 452-453.
armes se structuraient en diffrents corps. Regardant ltat ecclsiastique
34
,
plus complexe, le palais royal de Saint James possdait sa propre chapelle
dont le doyen tait lunique chef: il rglait toute la maison religieuse du sou-
verain. ses cts officiait un grand aumnier qui lavait les pieds des pauv-
res le Jeudi saint en leur accordant des offrandes, distribuait les charits aux
pauvres et les pensions aux officiers qui ntaient plus en mesure de servir le
monarque. Outre les activits publiques, le roi anglais avait aussi un oratoire
pour ses dvotions en particulier, lequel tait confi au Clerk of the Closet.
tous ces officiers considrables sajoutaient les grands officiers de la
Couronne, assez proches du systme franais.
LEspagne, nous lavons vu, avait calqu, en ladaptant parfois, son sys-
tme curial sur le modle rigide bourguignon avec les trois [grandes] charges
35
qui interdisait toute spontanit. La diffrence majeure avec les cours de
France et de Grande Bretagne rsultait du statut particulier de roi cach
36
en
Espagne qui subdivisait ainsi les officiers royaux entre ceux ddis des
actions publiques et dautres des actions plus prives. Le mayordomo mayor
qui ressemblait fort au grand matre de la Maison du Roi, mais en ayant
conserv toutes les attributions avec plusieurs gentilshommes de la bouche,
mlait ses activits celles de notre grand chambellan puisquil disposait de
tout le gouvernement du palais avec le premier valet de chambre, le person-
nel mdical ou encore le premier tapissier. Mais le vritable rle de chambel-
lan tait assur par le camarero mayor aussi appel sumiller de corps. Daprs
Saint-Simon, il est en tout et partout la fois ce que sont ici [en France] le
grand chambellan, les quatre premiers gentilshommes de la chambre, le grand
matre et les deux matres de la garde-robe runis en une seule charge: les
mmes fonctions, le mme commandement, le mme dtail, et ordonnateur
des mmes dpenses
37
. Ayant un service assez proche de celui du mayordo-
mo major, le camarero mayor exerait spcifiquement dans lintimit royale.
Quant au cavallerizo mayor grand cuyer il tait en tout point quivalent
notre grand cuyer franais. Il se substituait au sommelier ds lors que le roi
quittait son palais et le servait directement, mme en prsence du premier. Il
disposait dun premier cuyer sans, comme en France, petite curie, et qui
faisait sous lui, et dans une dpendance entire et journalire, le dtail de l-
285
34
Ibid., p. 453-454.
35
Voir Saint Simon, Mmoires, cit., t. I, pp. 841-846.
36
Voir notamment B. Saule, Les usages de cour Madrid et Versailles, dans Louis
XIV espagnol?, cit., pp. 173-184.
37
Sain Simon, Mmoires, cit., t. I, pp. 843-844.
curie
38
. Les trois grands officiers disposaient dun personnel important soi-
gneusement slectionn parmi les plus grands seigneurs dEspagne, et jouis-
saient des entres particulires grce la clef dor de la chambre. Cette pos-
session est importante dans la mesure o elle signifiait la possibilit dentrer
tout moment dans lemplacement le plus intime et le plus retir de la vie
royale
39
.
Seuls quelques grands offices ont t voqus ici afin de dresser un por-
tait-robot de grandes cours europennes. Louis XIV a ainsi hrit de son
anctre Valois un systme curial dj trs labor, quelque peu dlaiss par
son grand-pre Henri IV et son pre Louis XIII, quil perfectionnera ou adap-
tera par ncessit dusage. Cest en raison de la longueur de son rgne et de
ses alas familiaux, jamais connue jusqu alors, quil modifia son tiquette.
La prsence darrire-petits-enfants de France obligea le souverain leur don-
ner un rang, et donc une Maison pour laquelle se pressait une foule de per-
sonnes. Il nest qu voir la cure qui se fit au moment de la mort des duches-
se et de Bourgogne en 1712; ainsi de cette rponse de Mme de Maintenon
M. de Mrinville, vque de Chartres, qui sollicitait quelques places pour les
La Vieuville dans la maison du duc de Berry:
Je connais depuis longtemps lamiti de feu Monsieur de Chartres et la vtre
pour Messieurs de La Vieuville, mais je puis vous assurer Monsieur que leur pro-
position est impraticable, ils sont au cas de mille autres, il sont moins connus du
Roi qui est charg dun nombre infini de domestiques de feu Monseigneur, de
feu Monseigneur le Dauphin et de feue Madame la Dauphine, on vend les char-
ges chez Monseigneur le duc de Berry et le Roi ne sen mme point
40
.
Il est vrai que le systme des charges stait avili depuis longtemps dj.
Linstauration de la paulette et la vente systmatique des offices, le besoin pres-
sant dargent pour la monarchie conduisit des expdients qui doublonnrent
voir quadruplrent certaines charges, y compris parmi les plus importantes.
Nous en avons pour preuve le passage de une quatre charges de premiers gen-
tilshommes de la chambre entre lavnement dHenri IV et 1618! Si lon peut
dire que Louis XIV porta son aboutissement un systme quil contrlait tota-
lement, en multipliant les charges (appliquant le principe bien connu de diviser
pour mieux rgner, mais aussi la surveillance entre commensaux) et en les scin-
Mathieu Da Vinha
286
38
Ibid., p. 844.
39
Voir Sabatier Edouard, Les monarchies, cit., p. 136.
40
Lettre de Madame de Maintenon Charles Franois des Monstiers de Mrinville le
8 mars 1712 (coll. part.).
dant au fur et mesure pour gagner de largent court terme, il laissa prise des
renversements hirarchiques prjudiciables. En effet, que dire de la prise du pou-
voir par des chefs doffices, voire mme par des officiers subalternes (les exem-
ples sont lgion), sur les grands officiers de la Couronne et de la Maison du Roi?
Ces dangereux quilibres instables ne pouvaient fonctionner quavec un pouvoir
fort, mais ils ont ncessairement dstabilis la hirarchie naturelle de la maison du
Roi et, par consquent, la monarchie elle-mme.
Les rois qui suivirent Louis XIV neurent pas autant dautorit pour main-
tenir un tel systme. Lpoque tait plutt au retrait dans lintimit : l o
lEspagne tait parvenue maintenir une tiquette trs stricte, malgr labsen-
ce du roi, la France stait engage dans un processus qui ne convenait pas
ses traditions. Par essence, la monarchie franaise se voulait accessible et Louis
XV puis Louis XVI choisirent le got de lintimit, ne se montrant plus que trs
rarement leur cour. Le modle mis en place par Henri III et repris habilement
par Louis XIV qui navait dautre objet que de maintenir le pouvoir souverain
avec, comme lcrivait Saint-Simon, lart de donner ltre des riens
41
ne
survcut pas au Grand Roi. Il se dlita progressivement et explosa totalement
avec les rformes qui se firent dans la Maison du Roi partir de 1780. Accul,
le rgime dut prendre des mesures drastiques en rduisant sensiblement les
domestiques royaux. Il est vrai que les dpenses avaient exploses et ntaient
plus contrles. Turgot sy tait essay sans succs. Necker sy attela son tour,
notamment avec ldit de janvier 1780 supprimant
des charges de contrleurs gnraux de la maison du roi et chambre aux deniers;
dintendant-contrleur gnral des meubles de la couronne; des offices dinten-
dants-contrleurs gnraux des curies; de ceux dintendants-contrleurs gn-
raux de largenterie, menus-plaisirs et affaires de la chambre du roi; et des deux
charges de contrleurs gnraux de la maison de la reine; avec tablissement
dun bureau gnral des dpenses de la maison du roi
42
.
Cette rforme fut peu suivie deffets. Il fallut attendre celle du 17 aot
1780
43
qui supprima pas moins de 406 charges dans le dpartement de la
287
41
Saint Simon, Mmoires, cit., t. II, p. 174.
42
Voir Recueil gnral des anciennes lois franaises, depuis lan 420 jusqu la
Rvolution de 1789: contenant la notice des principaux monumens des Mrovingiens, des
Carlovingiens et des Captiens, et le texte des ordonnances, dits, dclarations, lettres paten-
tes, rglemens, d. par Jourdan, Decrusy, Isambert, Paris 1821-1833, vol. 29, t. XXVI, p. 265.
43
Ibid., p. 370. Voir aussi M. Marion, Dictionnaire des institutions de la France au XVII
e
sicle et XVIII
e
sicle, Paris 1923, rd. 1993, article Maison domestique du roi, pp. 351-352.
Bouche du Roi, dont plusieurs furent rtablies sous Joly de Fleury aprs le
dpart de Necker en 1781. La plus importante reste sans doute le Rglement
du roi sur quelques dpenses de sa maison et de celle de la reine, en date du
9 aot 1787
44
sous limpulsion de Brienne, dont leffet immdiat tait de divi-
ser par deux le nombre dofficiers de la chambre et de la garde-robe ( lex-
ception des premiers gentilshommes et premiers valets de chambre) qui ser-
vaient par quartier, les plus anciens devant dsormais tre six mois auprs du
roi pour les mmes gages. Les retranchements devaient toucher tous les ser-
vices (y compris la maison militaire) et, bien que le dpartement de la Bouche
ait dj subi des suppressions doffices, les conomies devaient se poursuiv-
re. Dans le mme esprit, la petite curie fut rattache la grande, conduisant
ainsi la disparition de charges similaires. Mais cette rforme, malgr ses
bonnes intentions, neut pas le temps de crer de relles conomies car, afin
de ne pas lser les domestiques sortants, il fut convenu de les rembourser et le
prix fut fix lidentique suivant la charge de chacun
45
. Par ailleurs, les gages
des officiers restants augmentrent tout de mme. Ces rformes ne purent
empcher la chute de la monarchie, dont les causes taient videmment plus
profondes.
Et mme si Louis XVI, pour justifier ses rformes du 9 aot 1787, prci-
sait quil ne regrettera jamais ni la splendeur apparente du trne, ni le faste
de la cour, ni mme lespce daisance et de commodit quon suppose rsul-
ter du grand nombre dofficiers qui lenvironnent ou qui la servent, il tait
loin le temps o la France affichait orgueilleusement une importante domes-
ticit quenviait toute lEurope. Les trangers ny taient pas insensibles, tel
litalien Primi Visconti qui, alors quil voyait Louis XIV quitter son chteau
avec les gardes du corps, les carrosses, les chevaux, les courtisans, les valets
et une multitude de gens tous en confusion, courant avec bruit autour de lui,
voquait limage de la reine des abeilles, quand elle sort dans les champs
avec son essaim
46
.
laube de la rvolution franaise, le modle louis-quatorzien faisait
pourtant encore rver quelques monarques. la fin du sicle, Gustave III de
Sude fut celui qui, le plus minutieusement, copia la cour de France, bien quil
ft marqu par les Lumires. Il voyait dans la monarchie absolue le moyen de
dvelopper son pays politiquement, conomiquement et surtout culturelle-
Mathieu Da Vinha
288
44
Recueil gnral des anciennes, cit., t. XXVIII, pp. 416-419.
45
Voir lexemple pour la chambre et la garde-robe aux Archives nationales (cote O
1
820 o plusieurs dossiers concernent les rformes de 1787 et 1788).
46
J. B. Primi Visconti, Mmoires sur la cour de France, d. J. F. Solnon, Paris 1988,
p. 29.
ment. Ds son accession au trne en 1771 il introduisit Drottningholm le
crmonial versaillais, menant sa vie en public et distribuant toutes les grces
la manire de Louis XIV. De mme, pour domestiquer sa noblesse et lat-
tacher la cour, il lui offrit toute sortes de divertissements dispendieux (ftes
somptueuses, incitation aux jeux, etc.), et cra des ordres de chevaleries. Mais
la Sude ntait pas la France et ce modle, tout comme la France rvolution-
naire, ne convenait plus. Son assassinat en 1792 fait cruellement cho au ch-
teau franais dsert.
Au moment de conclure, que dire sinon que les systmes des cours euro-
pennes taient la fois identiques et diffrents? Semblables dans la mesure
o toutes les actions/activits domestiques se retrouvaient au sein de chacune
dentre elles, mais distincts en ce que les fonctions se rpartissaient diffrem-
ment suivant les officiers: le mayordomo major ntait pas le grand matre de
France, pas plus que the lord chamberlain ntait notre grand chambellan. La
question se complexifie encore avec les volutions naturelles des charges au
sein de chaque monarchie au cours des ges. Mais quel que soit le systme
aulique adopt, les transferts dune cour lautre ntant pas exclus voire
mme importants, il est clair que lambition premire (lexpression
devrions-nous dire selon les termes de Werner Paravicini), en usant dune
magnificence et dune tiquette rigoureuse, avait toujours pour but certain un
contrle politique du royaume. Cette tude ne se veut quune bauche qui
demande tre creuse, largie dautres pays europens grce un travail
systmatique sur les charges
47
(afin de saisir vritablement les similitudes et
les dissemblances) et que nous aurons grand plaisir reprendre.
289
47
Ainsi par exemple les travaux de Caroline zum Kolk sur les charges des maisons
royales franaises dans le cadre de son programme mens au sein du Centre de recherche du
chteau de Versailles (base de donnes Curia disponible ladresse suivante : http://cha-
teauversailles-recherche.fr/curia/curia.html, consulte le 23 fvrier 2010) doivent tre
confronts la liste systmatique des officiers des maisons royales de Grande-Bretagne sous
lgide de la Society for Court Studies.
Simon Thurley
THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE ARCHITECTURE
OF EUROPEAN COURTS
Court architecture has long been a subject of study, but only relatively
recently has the architecture of the court. This might sound like a word game,
but it is not. Court architecture can be defined as the stylistic study of build-
ings created by kings, queens and princes. The architecture of the court can be
defined as the inter-relations between court life and court space a subject of
much more recent interest.
This essay is an Anglo-centric view of the developing historiography of
the architecture of European courts over the last century. It is not necessary to
make too big an apology for this as some of the most interesting thinking in
architectural history and landscape studies originated with Anglo Saxon
scholars. However they have had no monopoly and though this essay attempts
to cover thinking across Europe it does not pretend to mention every impor-
tant European dimension.
Court architecture, particularly palaces, has long been the focus of his-
torical inquiry, indeed, since at least the renaissance. From the sixteenth cen-
tury, when palaces were still new, prints, engravings and descriptions were
made of them for circulation at home and abroad
1
. Later they became the
focus of antiquarian interest and in the late nineteenth and early twentieth cen-
tury studies of individual buildings or groups of buildings were published.
Classic works like Louis Hautcoeurs History of the Louvre published in 1927
291
1
So for instance, F. Boudon C. Mignot (ed.), Jacques Androuet Du Cerceau, Les
Dessins des Plus Excellents Btiments de France, Paris 2010.
or W. H. St. John Hopes Windsor Castle of 1913 are still valuable texts
2
.
Perhaps even more important for the continued study of royal palaces was the
publication of primary documents. In Great Britain this was led by the great
series of calendars covering material in the British Museum and the (then)
Public Record Office. In France and elsewhere similar enterprises included
the publication of royal building accounts
3
. The nineteenth century fashion for
categorising and indexing primary documents continued, less intensively,
through the twentieth century to the present day; the palace inventories of
King Henry VIII of England have, for instance, recently been published in
full
4
.
Developments in understanding royal palaces
From the 1970s the development of new historical disciplines and
approaches has made a huge impact on the study of court architecture. The
first of these was the fact that historians became increasingly interested in
function as well as form. The philosophy was, in its broadest sense, Marxist,
in that social and economic factors were understood to be as important as
patronage and taste. One of the earliest and most influential books to be pub-
lished using these ideas became an international best seller in 1978. Mark
Girouards Social Life in the English Country House regarded Country
Houses as social organisms and he proceeded to dissect them architecturally
according to the changing social conventions of the English aristocracy
5
.
Buildings previously regarded as late or early examples of a particular style
were now also interesting for the functional forms they displayed.
A similar development on the same timescale was the application of
archaeological techniques to standing buildings. During the 1970s the growth,
of archaeology particularly of urban archaeology, began to make closer con-
nections between standing and buried remains and started to contextualise
excavated sites in terms of surviving buildings and landscapes. Soon archae-
ologists were using analytical and recording techniques developed for deep
Simon Thurley
292
2
L. Hautecoeur, Lhistoire des Chateaux du Louvre et des Tuileries, Paris 1927; W. H.
J. Hope, Windsor Castle an Architectural History, London 1913, 2 vols. and plans.
3
L. Laborde (ed.), Les Comptes des Btiments du Roi (1528-1571) Suivis de
Documentes indits sur les Chteaux Royaux et les Beaux-Arts au XVI sicle (Socit de
Lhistoire de lart Francais, 1877-1880), 2 vols.
4
M. Hayward (trans. and ed.), The 1542 Inventory of Whitehall, London 2004, 2 vols.
5
M. Girouard, Social Life in the English Country House, New Haven 1978.
stratigraphy on standing masonry, changing our understanding of the physical
development of buildings and upsetting previously held chronologies
6
.
Furniture history was a third new discipline that grew up during the
1970s. In the same way as the study of architecture moved from narrow sty-
listic enquiry so did the study of furniture, plate, ceramics and, textiles.
Questions were asked about the function of objects, their symbolic value and,
most importantly, about the positioning of them in rooms. An early and influ-
ential book on the subject in English was Peter Thorntons Seventeenth
Century Interior Decoration in England France and Holland (1978)
7
. This
was amongst the first books to treat interior decoration as a legitimate area for
academic study combining the use of inventories, graphic sources and written
descriptions with the evidence of surviving artefacts and buildings. Thornton
was Keeper of Furniture at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and he
and his fellows at the V&Aepitomised the new approaches to furniture histo-
ry that grew up in museums and in the curatorial departments of royal palaces
across Europe, not universities. At Versailles, at the Riksmuseum,
Amsterdam, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, new work
introduced historians of the court to the practical everyday issues of the organ-
isation and use of court space.
This was, in effect, experimental archaeology. For after royal use had
ceased palaces, which retained their furnishings, had them dispersed round the
rooms in pragmatic and ad hoc arrangements, mainly to facilitate tourism.
The study of furniture history allowed curators at the great palaces to
rearrange rooms as they were when in use. One of the first, and most influen-
tial, attempts at trying to get this right was undertaken 1976-1982 at Het Loo
in the Netherlands, the palace of William of Orange
8
. This house was restored
to its seventeenth century form after a research programme led by Adriaan
Vliegenthart. The completed work, which opened in 1984, led to a series of
royal imitators. The most ambitious of these was undertaken in the late 1980s
The Historiography of the Architecture of European Courts
293
6
Examples of work on English royal buildings include D. Stocker, St. Marys
Guildhall, Lincoln. A Survey and excavation of a medieval building complex, Lincoln 1991;
S. Thurley, Hampton Court. A Social and Architectural History, New Haven 2003, pp. 376-
377; J. Ashbee, The royal apartments in the inner ward at Conway Castle, Archaeologia
Cambrensis, 153 (2004), pp. 51-72; R. Cowie J. Cloake, An Archaeological Survey of
Richmond Palace, Post medieval Archaeology, 35, (2001), pp. 3-52. Also see P. Beck
(ed.), Vie de Cour en Bourgogne La Fin du Moyen Age, Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire 2002.
7
P. Thornton, Seventeenth-Century Interior Decoration in England, France and
Holland, New Haven 1978.
8
A. W. Vliegenthart, Het Loo Palace, Journal of a Restoration, Het Loo 2002.
at Hampton Court in England. Here research into furnishing bills, inventories
and into court etiquette led to the reconstruction and rearrangement of the
rooms as they were used by William III of England in 1700
9
. In this way work
in museums and in palaces themselves has been very important in developing
our understanding of court history as, incidentally, have exhibitions
10
.
Changes in the way historians, curators and archaeologists understood
buildings coincided with an important shift in the understanding of courts.
Norbert Elias saw the creation of Courts from the bands of knights and war-
riors of the middle ages. By his definition courts did not exist before the early
modern period. However by the 1970s it was quite clear that medieval mon-
archs had their courts in very much the same way as, say, Louis XIV had. This
meant that the great medieval monuments castles and fortresses were now
seen as much as residences, as places of defence. This has transformed our
understanding of medieval castles stressing the role of power, representation
and residence, and highlighting the importance of lodgings, chapels and
halls
11
. Even the landscapes in which castles stand have been reinterpreted as
expressions of princely power rather than just defence
12
.
Historians interested in royal palaces first began to realise the possibili-
ties of these new approaches in the late 1960s. In a seminal article Hugh
Murray Baillie set out his views of the usage of rooms in the baroque palaces
of Europe. His approach drew from a wide spectrum of sources, furniture his-
tory, diaries and memoirs, buildings accounts, inventories and plans
13
. His
approach took nearly twenty years to find widespread favour but in 1988 the
Simon Thurley
294
9
Thurley, Hampton Court, cit., pp. 388-393
10
D. Starkey (ed.), Henry VIII. A European Court in England, London 1991; Un Temps
dExubrance Les Arts Dcoratifs Sous Louis XIII et Anne dAutrche, Paris 2002, G. Vie
(ed.), A la Table de Rois, Versailles 1993; C. Arminjon (ed.), Quand Versailles Etait Meuble
dArgent, Versailles 2007; S. Marti, T. H. Borchert, G. Keck, Charles the Bold. Splendour of
Burgundy, Ghent 2009.
11
For instance D. Carpenter, Henry III and the Tower of London, The London
Journal, 19 (1994), pp. 95-107; S. Dixon Smith, The Image and Reality of Alms-giving in
the Great Halls of Henry III, Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 152
(1999), pp. 79-96.
12
P. Everson, Bodiam Castle, East Sussex: Castle and its Designed landscape,
Chteau-Gaillard, 17 (1996), pp. 66-72; C. L. H. Coulson, Castles in Medieval Society,
Oxford 2003; R. Liddiard, Castles in Context, Power, Symbolism and Landscape, 1066 to
1500, Macclesfield 2005; Parallel studies of ecclesiastical buildings include M. Aston,
Monasteries in the Landscape, Stroud 2000 and R. Morris, Churches in the Landscape,
London 1989.
13
H. Murray Baillie, Etiquette and the Planning of the State Apartments in Baroque
Palaces, Archaeologia, CI (1967), pp. 169-199.
Centre Dtudes Suprieures de la Renaissance at Tours held a colloquium
Architecture et vie Sociale, gathering together historians working on royal
palaces across Europe
14
. This colloquium presented an understanding of royal
palaces as functional and social entities not just expressions of style. Within
a few years the participants were publishing major monographs on the func-
tioning of palaces: Patricia Waddy, Seventeenth Century Roman Palaces
(1990), the present writer, The Royal Palaces of Tudor England (1993),
Catherine Wilkinson-Zerner, Juan de Herrera: Architect to Philip II of Spain
(also 1993), and Monique Chatenet, The Court of France in the Sixteenth
Century (2002)
15
.
Over the last ten years our understanding has been further transformed by
the concept of court space. This has been hugely important as it has moved the
discussion wider still to look at all the places which courts used. These are no
longer confined to the palaces and hunting lodges of princes, nor even their
gardens, hunting parks and their burial and coronation churches; it has
expanded the discussion to whole cities and vast landscapes
16
.
The rise of interest landscape history is not new. W. G. Hoskins published
his book The Making of the English Landscape in 1955 opening the eyes of a
generation of British scholars to agrarian and peasant history and more impor-
tantly to the use of landscape as historical evidence. Its impact on court his-
tory had to wait until the more specific and narrowly based interest in garden
history had been born. The first major book to treat the gardens of royal
palaces seriously was Roy Strong The Renaissance Garden in England in
1979. Since then study of princely gardens has become an integral part of
understanding court life
17
. The same goes for adjacent rural landscapes, the
295
14
The transactions were published as Architecture et Vie Sociale. LOrganisation
Intrieure des Grandes Demeures a la fin du Moyen Age et a La Renaissance, Paris 1994.
15
P. Waddy, Seventeenth Century Roman Palaces. Use and Art of the Plan, New York
1990); Thurley, The Royal Palaces, cit.; C. Wilkinson-Zerner, Juan de Herrera: Architect to
Philip II of Spain, New Haven 1993; M. Chatenet, La Cour de France au XVI sicle. Vie
Sociale et Architecture, Paris 2002. Krista de Jonge also published a major book with
Konrad Ottenheym, Unity and Discontinuity: Architectural Relationships between Southern
and Northern Low Countries 1530-1700, Turnhout 2007.
16
AConference held in 2007 at the Huntingdon Library in San Marino California enti-
tled The Politics of Court Space: Courts in Europe and the Mediterranean c. 1500-1750 led
to a book editied by M. Fantoni, G. Gorse, M. Smuts entitled The Politics of Space:
European Courts c. 1500-1750, Rome 2009.
17
Sir Roys book was published at the same time as an exhibition at the Victoria and
Albert Museum London, its catalogue was The Garden: A Celebration of one Thousand
years of British Gardening, London 1979; K. Woodbridge, The Origins and Development of
the French Formal Style, London 1986; D. Jacques A. J. van der Horst, The Gardens of
setting for the theatre of the hunt; with its specialised buildings and structures
and the necessity to mould the countryside by planting and digging earth
works and watercourses. Two Medieval English palaces have been studied in
this context, Clarendon, Wiltshire and Woodstock, Oxfordshire
18
.
There are some cities that are obviously court cities, places where the
court dominated society and the economy like St. Petersburg, Paris or
Vienna
19
. Others are cities where the royal court was located but whose impor-
tance lay in other factors, such as their economic power. London falls into the
latter group. Though essentially not a court city Londons court spaces are
now much more widely defined. In the west there was, as today, Westminster
the principal residential quarter of the monarchy containing the main palace
and the royal coronation church and mausoleum, Westminster Abbey. In the
east there was the royal fortress, the Tower of London, between were the
palaces of the Prince of Wales, heir to the throne, St James Palace and of the
queen, Somerset House. But there was also St. Pauls Cathedral, itself virtu-
ally an eigencloster embellished by the crown for the great public ceremonies
of monarchy. In addition there was the royal exchange, built in the 1560s as
the bourse of London and decorated with a monarchical sculptural pro-
gramme. So in London, as in Madrid or Paris, court spaces are ranged across
the city like a string of pearls giving the monarch and his court the opportu-
nity to move between them displaying themselves to the populace
20
.
The course of current and future work
While in some European countries scholars have published the basic
identification, structural sequencing and development of court places in oth-
Simon Thurley
296
William and Mary, London 1988; C. Mukerji, Territorial Ambitions and the Gardens of
Versailles, Cambridge 1997. There is a useful historiographical essay covering the birth of
garden history by Roy Strong introducing vol. 27, 1 Garden History. The Journal of the
Garden History Society, (1999), pp. 2-9.
18
J. Bond K. Tiller, Blenheim. Landscape for a Palace, Oxford 1987; T. Beaumont James
C. Gerrard, Clarendon. Landscape of Kings, Macclesfield 2007. An interesting new work in
this area is R. Liddiard (ed.), The Medieval Park. New Perspectives, Macclesfield 2007.
19
For instance J. Duindam, Vienna and Versailles: The Courts of Europes Dynastic
Rivals, 1550-1780, Cambridge 2003 and see The Court Historian special numbers Courts
and Capitals, vol., 11.1 (July, 2006) and 13.1 (June, 2008).
20
R. M. Smuts, Public Ceremony and Royal Charisma: The English Royal Entry in
London, 1495-1642, in A. L. Beier, D. Cannadine, J. M. Rosenhiem (eds.), The First Modern
Society, Cambridge 1989, pp. .; S. Thurley, Architecture and Diplomacy; Greenwich
Palace under the Stuarts, The Court Historian, 11.2 (January 2007), pp. 21-29.
ers there is still much to do. In the UK a major enterprise, funded by the state,
was the History of the Kings Works published between 1963 and 1982 cover-
ing the structural history of each individual royal palace between the eleventh
and the eighteenth century
21
. In Germany is the Pfalzenforschung project
which will catalogue all the royal seats in the Teutonic Kingdom before the
mid 13
th
century. It not only looks at the palaces in immediate royal control,
but those in which the ruler was entitled to receive hospitality. To date three
of ten volumes have been published but, when completed, this magisterial
work with give a unique picture of the landscape of power on the Regnum
Teutonicum
22
.
In addition to these state sponsored compendia individual books covering
the architectural history of particular palaces have provided the building
blocks for more thematic and cross-cutting scholarship. There are too many to
list here but there has been huge progress in France, Spain and even as far
afield as Turkey
23
.
Above and beyond chronology and categorisation is more detailed work
on patterns of residence. Nineteenth century compilers published royal itiner-
aries, in England for instance, of Henry III and Edward I. Other antiquarians
published compilations of royal entertainments and progresses
24
but recently
this work has helped to differentiate between individual royal residences and
their environs. No longer do we merely dismiss subsidiary residences as hunt-
ing lodges, because by determining patterns of residence we can ascertain
what different places were used for by their builders and their successors
25
. In
England, for many years, there was a debate about the sixteenth century
297
21
H. M. Colvin (ed.), The History of the Kings Works, London 1963-1982, 6 vols.
22
C. Ehlers, L. Fenske, T. Zotz, Die Deutschen Knigspfalzen. Repertorium der
Pfalzen Knigshfe und brigen Aufenthaltsorte der Knige im deutschen Reich des
Mittelalters, Max-Planck-Institut fr Geschichte.
23
In France the Centre dtudes Suprieures de la Renaissance have published a series
of these including M. Chatenet, Le Chteau de Madrid au Bois de Boulogne, Paris 1987; E.
E. Rosenthal, The Palace of Charles V in Granada, Princeton 1985; G. Kubler, Building the
Escorial, Princeton 1982; G. Necipol, Architecture, Ceremonial and Power. The Topkapi
Palace in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, New York 1991.
24
For instance J. Nichols, The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth,
London 1823, 2 vols.; Id., The Progresses, Processions and Magnificent Festivities of King
James Ist, London 1828, 4 vols.
25
Elizabeth I of England has attracted much recent attention, for example Z. Dovey, An
Elizabethan Progress. The Queens Journey into East Anglia, 1578, Gloucester 1996; M.
Hill Cole, The Portable Queen. Elizabeth I and the Politics of Ceremony, Amhurst 1999; J.
E. Archer, E. Goldring, S. Knight, The Progresses, Pageants and Entertainments of Queen
Elizabeth I, Oxford 2007.
palace of Nonsuch. No one could agree what it was for or why it was built.
Successive studies focussed more and more closely inwards to find the
answer, studying iconography and structural archaeology. Yet now scholars
are concentrating on looking outwards, examining the wider topographical
context and looking at itineraries.
Taking this perspective it is possible to see that this building was part of
a tripartite arrangement linked by a series of hunting parks and a royal forest.
A study of the royal itinerary reveals that Henry VIII moved most of the
important court festivities to Hampton Court after 1540. It shows that he made
mini-progresses around his estates to the west of London. Exactly at that time
two new palaces were built Oatlands Palace for the queen and Nonsuch for the
Prince of Wales. So by studying the chronology of royal progresses the spe-
cific function of individual residences can be discerned
26
.
These approaches have led to a better understanding of how the wide spec-
trum of residences available to the court in Bavaria were used. In the eighteenth
century these ranged in scale from the vast Residenzschloss in Munich, a virtu-
al city within a city, to large country houses such as Nymphenburg suitable for
prolonged summer residence to the Parkburgen at Nymphenburg, a private
retreat of only one apartment. By linking the building histories of these
palaces with patterns of court usage it is possible to illuminate both architec-
ture and court life
27
.
Another approach that has yielded very interesting and important results
is the prosopographical approach. Vast parts of great palaces were devoted to
the lodgings of the court and courtiers. For a long time historians, especially
in France, have been interested in the people, who they were, what posts they
held and perhaps the relationships between them dynastic, economic and
social
28
. Where they lived in the palace was of lesser interest. But this too is a
growing area of enquiry. The location of various courtier lodgings within the
overall architectural framework of a palace can be vital for understanding
court spaces and the structures of power. William Newtons work on
Versailles has catalogued who lived in each room and this had been taken fur-
ther by Leonhard Horowski who has examined minutely the mechanisms and
Simon Thurley
298
26
Rob Poulton with major contributions by A. Cook S. Thurley, Excavations at
Oatlands Palace 1968-73 and 1983-4, Woking 2010, p. 9.
27
S. J. Klingensmith, The Utility of Splendor. Ceremony, Social Life, and Architecture
at the Court of Bavaria, 1600-1800, Chicago 1993.
28
See for example J. C. Sainty R. O. Bucholz, Officials of the Royal Household 1660-
1837, part of the Office-Holders in Modern Britain, Project for the University of London
Institute of Historical Research.
tenures of power revealed by this
29
. All this demonstrates that the location of
a courtiers lodging was vital in establishing his status and access to the
monarch.
Issues of gender are also beginning to illuminate both court structures and
court architecture. Palaces have been seen as male spaces and studied from
that point of view. However, much greater interest in the lodgings of queens
and consorts, in the wives of aristocrats and their ladies, has thrown new light
on the workings of palace complexes. Female courts not only have different
power structures but different architectural ones
30
.
Questions as to where courtiers stayed while the court was assembled
widen the focus of court space again. Towns, like Versailles, which were
entirely dependant on palaces need to be understood as extensions of court
space. Inns, taverns, hotels which were requisitioned by harbingers for the
great court events are essentially outlying parts of royal residences. The eco-
nomic and social impacts of this expanded understanding of court space are
most important. Not only did the lodgings of courtiers consuming food and
luxury goods determine the character of wide areas around court centres, but
so did the effects of building and construction workers, haulers, ostlers and the
household below stairs
31
.
Links between individual palaces and individual court cities and towns
are no less important the construction and maintenance of roads, bridges and
waterways and the stages along them are a fundamental court concern. These
courtly transport arteries also had the ability to affect the towns and country-
side through which they ran. In London Kings Road ran out through Chelsea
and what is now west London to the palaces in the west. It was maintained at
299
29
W. R. Newton, La Petite Cour: Services et Serviteurs a la Cour de Versailles au
XVIII Siecle, Paris 2006; Id., Derrire la faade: Vivre au Chteau de Versailles au XVIII
Siecle, Paris 2008; L. Horowski, Die Belagerung des Thrones. Machtstrukturen und
Karrieremechanismen am Hof von Frankreich 1661-1789, Beihefte der Francia 72,
Ostfildern 2010, 2 vols.
30
For instance, C. Wilkinson-Zernier, Womens Quarters in Spanish Royal Palaces,
Architecture et Vie Sociale. LOrganisation Intrieure des Grandes Demeures a la fin du
Moyen Age et a La Renaissance, Paris 1994, pp. 127-136; and essays in Fantoni, Gorse and
Smuts (eds.), The Politics of Space, cit.
31
Examples of this approach can be found in V. Maroteaux, Versailles. Le Roi et son
Domaine, Paris 2000; J. F. Merritt, The Social World of Early Modern Westminster. Abbey,
Court and Community, 1525-1640, Manchester 2005; S. Thurley, The Impact of Royal land-
holdings on the County of Surrey 1509-1649, in Aspects of Archaeology and History in
Surrey: Towards a Research Framework for the County, Surrey Archaeological Society,
2004, pp. 155-168.
the kings expense and fenced and railed to secure privileged use. Along it
grew up the houses and villas of courtiers and merchants supplying the court.
Towns through which it ran acquired a special character as they provided
board and lodging for travelling courtiers and household. Even the nature of
nearby churches and their incumbents were affected by royal and courtier
patronage. It became an extended linear shaped court space spreading the eco-
nomic, social, religious and political effects of the court in its path.
The unique social and economic structure of parts of the country round
royal residences are part of the effect of the court and affected the way the
court saw itself, insulated from the rest of the world inter-relating with its own
parts. This is often extended to the manorial role of palaces, the exercise of
directly managed and tenanted farms, manorial justice and administration. At
Hampton Court Palace, previously mentioned, Henry VIII assembled a great
landholding covering many parishes in several counties. A minority of the
estates in this honour (the sixteenth century term for such a landholding) were
under direct management, most were tenanted. This means that huge parts of
the counties of Surrey and Middlesex were tenanted to courtiers and clients
and their families with a considerable local impact. Who built houses close to
which residence, why and at which point in the reign become important issues
opening up new avenues of understanding as to the matrix of power and influ-
ence at court
32
.
Another area of current academic interest is the aspirational court space:
the spaces created in the great houses of the aristocracy for the entertainment
of the court. At Chatsworth House in Derbyshire is one of the most lavish and
important country houses built in the early eighteenth century by major court
figures, the Dukes of Devonshire. The principal block is three stories high, the
ground floor containing ancillary rooms, kitchens etc; the first floor contain-
ing a suite of rooms for the family and the second floor containing a royal
palace. This was literally a palace, with a full sequence of lavish state rooms,
never used by the Duke or his family and reserved for the reception of the
monarch and his court
33
.
But at dozens of country houses, mostly much nearer London, such suites
were regularly used. In 1621 at Apethorpe Hall in Northamptonshire King
James I sent down his royal workmen and instructed them to build a new wing
Simon Thurley
300
32
Thurley, Hampton Court, cit., pp. 70-71; Maroteaux, Versailles, cit.; S. Thurley,
Whitehall Palace and Westminster: a Royal Seat in Transition, in D. Gaimster P. Stamper
(eds.), The Age of Transition. The Archaeology of English Culture, Society for Medieval
Archaeology Monograph, 15 (1997), pp. 93-104.
33
F. Thompson, A History of Chatsworth, London 1949.
onto the house of Sir Francis Fane, a senior courier. This he proceeded to use
during four successive summers as a base for hunting in the nearby royal
forests. So private spaces could often be major communal court spaces with
all that entailed in terms of opportunities for influencing patronage and
power
34
.
Today approaches to architectural history are shifting once again.
Cultural concerns are coming back into the forefront of thinking and much
greater emphasis is being placed in perceptions of buildings and the mentali-
ty which produced them. Art historians, of course, have long asked what
buildings meant, in stylistic and iconographical terms
35
, but now questions are
being asked about how buildings were seen and appreciated at the time. The
questions now are not so much about how did these topographical systems
work, but who saw them and what did people actually get out of them? This
is a much harder question to answer. So Hans Holbein the youngers mural in
the Privy Chamber at Whitehall Palace, London has long been understood as
the defining image of the early Tudor period communicating issues about
Henry VIII conception of kingship and empire. But we now understand that it
was in a room to which access was highly restricted; few would have seen it,
and those who did would be essentially a hand picked audience
36
. This
changes the way we understand both the work of art, the court space and their
meanings.
Conclusion
The study of the architecture of the court is at an important moment. New
ways of looking at court space have expanded the horizons of understanding
and enquiry. As historians get to grips with the possibilities these approaches
offer our understanding of royal places will become richer and more nuanced
and will start to place court history more centrally in the sphere of historical
enquiry.
301
34
J. Catell (ed.), Apethorpe Hall, English Heritage Research Department Report no.
86/2006.
35
Loius XIV of France has been studied intently. For instance P. Burke, The
Fabrication of Louis XIV, New Haven 1992 and M. M. Stumberg Edmunds, Piety and
Politics. Imaging Louis XIVs Chapel at Versailles, Newark-London 2002.
36
For the historiography of this see R. Strong, Holbein and Henry VIII, London 1967;
Thurley, Whitehall Palace, cit., pp. 62-64.
Maurice Aymard Marzio Romani
LES COURS EN EUROPE:
BILAN HISTORIOGRAPHIQUE CONOMIE ET FINANCES
Le fait a t plusieurs fois not: jusqu une date relativement rcente, les
historiens de lconomie ne se sont gure intresss ces institutions parti-
culires que sont les cours, et au rle quelles ont jou dans la vie conomique
de lEurope de la fin du Moyen-ge et de lpoque Moderne. Quatre ou cinq
sicles de lhistoire europenne se sont trouvs ainsi mis entre parenthses,
comme si les cours navaient reprsent quune concession perverse, car
fondamentalement irrationnelle, des modes de comportement et de consom-
mation en contradiction totale avec les principes de rationalit qui devaient
caractriser le fonctionnement de lEtat moderne en gestation pendant cette
priode
1
.
303
1
J. Duidam, Vienna and Versailles: The Courts of Europes Dynastic Rivals, 1550-
1770, Cambridge 2003, p. 6 a crit: In the early modern age, household and governement
were equally public, and the household was by no means subservient. Thus, in a process
of many centuries, the priorities were inverted: the subservient administrative compartment
within the rulers household now reings supreme, whereas the modern equivalent of the hou-
sehold are either relegated to a constitutionally defined compartment within the state, or
have no formal significance. Non without reason, ninenteenh-century historians looked for
the origins of this development in medieval and early modern Europe one of the conten-
tion of this book in that in doing so, they seriously antedated the isolation and marginalisa-
tion of the hosehold. They judged dynastic Europe with the standard of the late nineteenth
century, and saw ministers, councils, and burocracies in isolation from their courtly envi-
ronment, treating the early modern household as the largely irrelevant environnemnet of the
modern-day institution. An obsession with the antecedents of the modern state prevented
them from grating the household its proper place, and from understanding the crucial unre-
corded and informal component of collegial decision-making.
Il y a quelques temps nous avons cherch dfinir, dune manire assez
simple. la fois une typologie et une volution de cette institution, en propo-
sant, sur la base des critres dominants chaque poque, trois stades: celui de
la cour consorziale, caractrise par la prsence dune structure sociale
extrmement cohrente la famille largie , clef de vote des comporte-
ments sociaux, conomiques et politiques; la cour seigneuriale, quand le pres-
tige du prince commence stendre bien au del de son Etat, et il se renfor-
ce dautant plus quil sait sentourer de personnages qui transmettent lext-
rieur une image de magnificence et de puissance; la cour bureaucratique et
rituelle, o laugmentation des fonctions lies lexercice du pouvoir et la
gestion de lEtat conduit une progressive division des tches, et enclenche
un processus de sparation de deux niveaux et de deux groupes dacteurs qui
taient au prcdemment troitement lis. Dun ct les officiers (secrtai-
res, intendants, comptables, podestats et commissaires), vritables profes-
sionnels, rgulirement rmunrs, qui administrent lEtat par dlgation du
Seigneur; de lautre les courtisans qui se voient obligs de participer la sim-
ple reprsentation du pouvoir en tranfigurant chacune de ses actions quoti-
diennes, en la chargeant de symboles et en lalourdissant dun crmonial
minutieux. Cest le point de dpart dune transformation profonde des finan-
ces publiques: le prince, de redistributeur gnreux de la richesse et des bn-
fices, devient lagent du prlvement de ressources normes. La puissance se
mesure dsormais sa capacit de collecter de largent et de lever des hom-
mes investir dans une comptition toujours plus exigeante avec ses rivaux
2
.
Aprs le temps, lespace. En Occident, la logique de concentration se
heurte une logique inverse de prolifration multipolaire: plus que de cour
(au singulier), il apparat souvent plus justifi de parler de cours (au pluriel).
304
Du mme avis J. Martnez Millan, La corte de la monarquia hispanica, Studia
Historica Historia Moderna, 28 (2006), pp. 17-51, selon lequel: Con todo, tales esque-
mas teoricos, costruido sobre el presupuesto de una racionalisation progresiva e ininterrum-
pida del poder estatal, se mostrarono in capaces de dar cuenta ordenadamente del intricado
desarrolo politico de las monarquias europeas de la Edad Moderna, porque, a las espaldas
de un poder unico y esclusivo se proyctaba rapidamente la imagen de un juego de poderes
diversos, de cuyo antagonismo viene continuamene revocada toda pretension de abstraccion
absoluta e impersonalidad del Estado. En este sentido ha resultado determinante las investi-
gaciones en torno a conceptos, que non encontraban una clara correspondencia en la cate-
gorias de la modernidad y que nos envian a una pluralidad de instituciones y de recorridos
teoricos y disciplinares, que non habian sido tenido en cuenta por los historiadores, pero que
caracterizaron la organizacion politica y cultural del Antiguo Rgimen.
2
M. Aymard M. A. Romani (eds.), La cour comme institution conomique, Paris
1998, pp. 1-16.
Le phnomne est li en partie, mais en partie seulement, au dveloppement
dmographique de la famille dominante, dont le cycle de vie dtermine
troitement ses choix, y compris au plan conomique. Dans le climat difficile
de la fin du XVe sicle, la vulnrabilit des principauts exige la mise en oeu-
vre dun systme qui tend assurer la primaut des intrts du lignage sur les
ambitions de ses diffrents membres
3
: do la concession aux princes du
sang de marges dautonomie financire, de nature assurer eux aussi leur
propre cour, comme un prix ncessaire garantir leur loyaut et leur obis-
sance. Dans une telle situation, la virginit dune reine peut avoir des effets
bienfaisants pour les finances de lEtat et il en est de mme du veuvage dun
roi
4
.
Les cours peuvent donc tre envisages comme lune des institutions
5
centrales dune phase de transition. Celle-ci a dur un bon demi-millnaire:
en fait cette phase a dur plus longtemps que celle qui la prcde et que celle
qui la suivie ce qui nous rappelle une fois de plus le caractre artificiel de
tels dcoupages temporels, qui reprsentent le pch mignon des historiens. Et
elle a fait de ces institutions des laboratoires o ont t labors (et tests) les
fictions, les folies et les rves qui ont aliment une trs large partie de la poli-
tique moderne
6
. Et dabord, prcisment, celle de lEtat, objet exemplaire
Les cours en Europe: bilan historiographique conomie et finances
305
3
G. Guerzoni, La colonia sotto casa, Turin-Londre 2008, p. 28 et suiv.
4
S. Adams, The court ad an economic institution. The court of Elisabeth I of England
(1558-1603), dans Aymard Romani (eds.), La cour comme, cit., pp. 127-136.
5
Il faut rappeler quune institution conomique peut tre dfinie comme un systme
codifi dans lequel les diffrents acteurs qui y participent en acceptent les rgles (tant for-
melles quinformelles) conomiques, sociales et culturelles, et quelle se trouve investie
dune dure souvent trs longue. On peut mme dire, suivant S. Bowles, que: Institutions
are the laws, informal rules, and conventions that give a durable structure to social interac-
tion among the members of a population. Conformity to the behaviors prescribed by insti-
tutions may be secured by a combination of centrally deployed coercition (laws), social sac-
tions (informal rules), and mutual expectation (conventions) that make conformity a best
reponse for virtually all members of the relevant group. Institutions influence who meets
whom, to do with tasks, with wath possible (Cfr. S. Bowles, Microeconomics. Behavior,
Institutions and Evolution, New York 2004, p. 47-48).
6
Selon M. Fantoni (La corte del granduca, Rome 1994, pp. 11 et suiv.): Lipotesi di
fondo che la corte sia il luogo per eccellenza in cui si esprime la pluralit di dimensioni
del potere principesco secondo registri peculiari di un ben determinato stadio dellevoluzio-
ne statale, o forse di un cosmo altro di quello statale [] [connotato] da un corpus di
fenomeni che caratterizzano un modo complesso di esercitare la [] sovranit. Dal cliente-
lismo alle naumachie, dalla foggia delle livree al protocollo delle udienze, dallassetto spa-
ziale al funzionameto degli uffici: il fattore unificante dellapparentemente ingovernabile
molteplicit cio la forma cortigiana del potere []. innegabile che, ad uno sguardo
comparativo di lungo periodo, levoluzione della corte provi come vada lentamente pren-
dun processus dabstraction et de personnification cest--dire, au fond,
dinvention de lEtat mme, au cours duquel le principal changement est li
la transfiguration de lintrt concret et particulier du prince en intrt
abstrait et gnral de la socit, mis en scne lui-mme travers une nouvel-
le reprsentation de lexercice quotidien du pouvoir
7
.
Cette structure qui a t lue, sur le plan conomique, comme la confu-
sion des confusions est en ralit la fois imposante et sophistique. Elle
organise la nourriture quotidienne et le logement de centaines de personnes,
laccs et le flux dune myriade de suppliants et de qumandeurs, le fonction-
nement et le contrle de toute une srie de bureaux chargs des tches les plus
diverses, la gestion de flux htrognes dentres et de sorties en monnaie et
en nature. Cest le lieu o de complexes systmes comptables sont mis en oeu-
vre diffrents niveaux pour effectuer un contrle
8
qui se veut efficace sans
toujours y parvenir de la gestion de la famille et de la maison du Roi, ainsi
que de toutes les fonctions qui sont intimement lies sa figure.
Ces activits conduisent une dfinition de plus en plus prcise des fonc-
tions, une laboration de plus en plus raffine dinstruments comptables et
budgtaires, et une organisation dune gale prcision des hommes, des
espaces, des flux de biens et de services. Elles produisent galement des
mtiers, des spcialisations professionnelles, des savoirs qui non seulement se
dveloppent dans lenceinte de la cour, mais gagnent aussi, souvent, la ville
capitale et une partie notable du royaume.
Lconomie et les finances occupent dont le coeur mme de la cour. Ces
princes qui semblent trs loin de la vile monnaie et de la non moins vile
marchandise, sont en ralit trs attentifs aux problmes conomiques et
financiers de leur domaine et beaucoup dentre eux y dploient une large acti-
306
dendo corpo una compagine di funzionari di governo, un embrione delle moderne burocra-
zie, che tende a staccarsi dalla familia propriamente detta. Nella Toscana granducale, ques-
ta progressiva divaricazione fra corte e stato (altrove gi avvertibile nel Trecento) ancora
in fieri, e lungi dallessere compiuta ben addentro al XVII secolo... [quando], pur in presen-
za di un impianto statuale assai articolato, persitono chiari indizi di contaminazione fra cir-
coli palatini ed apparati di governo, senza poi contare che a controbilanciare (ed in parte
a vanificare) le tendenze del processo in atto sopravvive una trama di rapporti privati che
continua a costituire unanima importante del potere.
7
L. Ornaghi, La bottega delle maschere e le origini della politica moderna, dans C.
Mozzarelli (ed.), Famiglia del principe e famiglia aristocratica, Rome 1988, vol. I, pp.
10 et suiv.
8
M. A. Romani, Poder y contabilidad: Guglielmo Gonzaga y Angelo Pietra (1586-87),
Obradoiro de Historia Moderna, 18 (2009), pp. 101-118.
vit, trs conscients que: le commerce est la source de la finance et la finan-
ce est le nerf de la guerre
9
.
A) Les recettes
Le XIXe sicle est le point darrive dun long parcours qui voit le pas-
sage de lEtat domanial lEtat fiscal
10
, travers la gnralisation du prl-
307
9
A. M. Colbert, Lettres, instructions, mmoires de Colbert, Paris 1864, vol. III, p. 37,
cit. dans C. Spector, Le concept de mercantilisme, Revue de Mtaphysique et de Morale,
39 (2003/3), pp. 289-309. Il faut mme souligner que: Ce pouvoir politique fonctionne []
lui mme au sein dun ensemble de pouvoirs qui, en le relayant, lui donnent son efficacit,
celle-ci tant relative aux moyens mis en oeuvre pour favoriser ces relais. Ces moyens, les
institutions principalement, ont une traduction conomique. Lexercice du pouvoir entraine
des frais, des dpnses quil faut couvrir. Les finances du pouvoir politique rendente comp-
te de manire mesurable et dans leur principe mme de lexercice de ce pouvoir. Dpenses
comme prlvements ne sont pas faits arbitrairement mais lis la conception du pouvoir
politique, sa circulation dans lensemlre de la socit. Cest pourquoi les finances du pou-
voir politique sont un lieu privilgi dtude des rapports entre cette forme mergente du
pouvoir et lensemble des pouvoirs qui nouent les relations sociales. Cfr. A. Gury, Le roi
dpensier. Le don, la contrainte, et lorigine du systme financier de la monarchie franai-
se dAncien Rgime, Annales ESC, 6 (1984), p. 1241.
10
Cfr. W. Schulze, mergence et consolidation de l tat fiscal. Le XVIe sicle et M.
Hart, mergence et consolidation de ltat fiscal. Le XVIIe sicle, dans R. Bonney (ed.),
Systmes conomiques et finances publiques, Paris 1996, pp. 257-292. Selon P. Bourdieu
(De la maison du roi la raison dtat. Un modle de gense du champ bureaucratique,
Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, I (1997), pp. 55-68): Spcificit de ltat
dynastique Laccumulation initiale de capital saccomplit selon la logique caractristique
de la maison, structure conomique et sociale tout fait originale, notamment pour le syst-
me de reproduction travers lequel elle assure sa perptuation. Le roi, agissant en chef de
maison, se sert des proprits de la maison [] pour construire un Etat, comme adminis-
tration et comme territoire, qui echappe peu peu la logique del la maison. [] On peut
ainsi poser que les traits les plus fondamentaux de lEtat dynastique peuvent en quelque
sorte se dduire du modle de la maison du roi, entendue comme un patrimoine englobant
une maisonne, cest--dire la famille royale elle-mme, quil faut grer en bon chef de
maison [] Englobant lensemble de la ligne et ses possessions, la maison trascende les
individus qui lincarnent, commencer par son chef lui-mme qui doit savoir sacrifier ses
intrts ou ses sentiments particuliers la perptuation de son patrimoine matriel et surtout
symbolique [] On peut appliquer la royaut franaise ou anglaise, et cela jusqu un ge
assez avanc, ce que Marc Bloch disait de la seigneurie mdivale, fonde sur la fusion du
groupe conomique et du groupe de souverainet. Cest la puissance paternelle qui consti-
tue le modle de la domination: le dominant accorde protection et entretien. Comme dans la
Kabylie ancienne, les rapports politiques ne sont pas autonomiss par rapport aux relations
de parent et sont toujours penss sur le modle de ces relations; il en va de mme des rela-
vement des ressources des sujets (transforms ainsi en contribuables) par
limpt tant direct quindirect, et la transformation du patrimoine royal en
domaine public: ce passage fait du monarque le bnficiaire dun prlvement
gnralis sur la socit toute entire. Mais les cinq ou six longs sicles de la
fin du Moyenge et de lpoque moderne soulignent la capacit des princes
dutiliser toute occasion de profit, en recourant une large gamme de sources
de financement. Ils jouent ainsi avec une grande dsinvolture sur diffrents
registres (patrimonial, fiscal, montaire) et grent avec une dsinvolture iden-
tique des activits conomiques capables de produire tour tour des flux de
revenus dorigine et de nature galement diffrentes: rentes (foncires, immo-
bilires et financires) surtout, mais aussi intrts, profits et, au sens large,
salaires ou, pour mieux dire, revenus rcompensant, de faon directe ou indi-
recte, la prestation de services (surtout militaires)
11
.
Richesse et pouvoir: le cas des Gonzaga
La source primordiale des revenus du souverain est reste longtemps
constitue par son patrimoine personnel, tant foncier quimmobilier. Celui-ci
constitue souvent la base des fortunes de la famille dominante, et les dpen-
ses ncessaires laffirmation de son pouvoir en imposent galement souvent
laccroissement continuel travers lutilisation sans scrupules de largent, des
armes et de la justice (qui est, rappelons-le, dans les socits dAncien
Rgime, une source de revenus plus que de dpenses, dans la mesure o elle
308
tions conomiques. Le pouvoir repose sur des relations personelles et des relations affecti-
ves socialement institues, comme la fidlit, lamour, la crance, et activement entre-
tenues, notamment par les largesses.
11
Tout ceci tait trs clair pour Jean Bodin qui, dans les Six livres de la Rpublique, ne
formula pas seulement un concept de la souverainet, dont linfluence allait tre trs grande
[] il nona aussi des principes en rapport la fois avec les recettes et avec les dpenses
de ltat []. Le trsor public, selon ses vues, pouvait tre bti sur sept fondations. En pre-
mier [] sur les revenus du royaume, lequel tait inalinable []. La conqute tait un
deuxime moyen daccrotre les revenus du roi []. Le don gratuit des sujets constituait une
troisime source de revenu []. Les pensions verses par des allis formaient une autre
source de revenu : le cas classique tait le revenu tir par la Confdration helvtique de son
alliance avec la France. La cinquime [] tait un empire colonial, comme lEmpire portu-
gais aprs la dcouverte de la Cte dOr puis des Indes orientales. La sixime [] tait cons-
titue par les droits limportation et lexportation []. La septime [] tait limposi-
tion des sujets du roi qui, daprs Bodin, ne devrait jamais tre utilise par les souvrains
avant que tout le reste ait chou. Cfr. R. Bonney, Les thories des finances publiques l-
poque moderne, dans Bonney (ed.), Systmes conomiques, cit., pp. 157-158.
offre au monarque la possibilit de sapproprier les biens confisqus aux
condamns pour des crimes dune certaine importance), mais aussi du maria-
ge et de la corruption.
Dans une littrature particulirement abondante ce sujet, le patrimoine
est sans doute le mieux document des revenus de la maison du prince.
Dans la seconde moiti du XVe s., les ducs dEste (Ferrare), par exemple, por-
tent leur patrimoine foncier de 12 (en 1448) 19 (en 1475) castalderie: un
terme qui dsigne de grandes proprits formes de diffrentes exploitations
autonomes, avec btiments, curies, fours, granges, puits, champs, pturages
et jardins. Ils acquirent en outre un important patrimoine constitu de prai-
ries, de bois et de marais, o sont levs des milliers de chevaux, de bovins et
dovins, et o lon pratique la pche industrielle des anguilles et la culture
du sel marin
12
.
Il en est de mme pour leurs voisins, les Gonzaga, Mantoue
13
. Pour eux,
lentretien dun nombre imposant de clients suppose la mobilisation dun flux
important et diversifi de richesses: ressources fiscales, rentes en nature et en
argent; revenus provenant dune gestion sans scrupule de la justice, des frap-
pes montaires et des armes; gains sur les changes; profits lis la participa-
tions des socits marchandes; gains retirs doprations sur les marchs
financiers, etc.
La terre reste cependant longtemps le coeur de leurs ressources.
Lutilisation savante et intensive du sol fertile du territoire de Mantoue cons-
titue la base des fortunes et du prestige de la famille. Do le recours tous
les moyens pour conserver et accrotre cette proprit foncire: investitures,
acquisitions, confiscations, etc.
Les possibilits offertes par les riches proprits de lEglise expliquent
ainsi les pressions exerces sur le Saint Sige pour voir nomms Mantoue
des vques et des abbs qui soient leurs amis et parfois leurs parents. Cette
politique donnera de bons rsultats en faisant entrer dans le patrimoine du
Seigneur plus de 10.000 bioche mantovane (3 b.m.= 1ha.) de terres fertiles
situes le long de la valle du P, auxquelles sajoute naturellement la jouis-
sance de bois, de pcheries, deaux et de moulins. La proprit allodiale
connat elle aussi une augmentation trs rapide. Les proprites foncires de
Luigi Gonzaga, qui se montaient en 1328 5.737 b.m., senrichissent ainsi en
25 ans de 14 888 b.m., et saccroissent encore, entre la fin du XIVe et le dbut
309
12
Guerzoni, La colonia, cit., pp. 21-33.
13
Cfr. M. A. Romani,Un morbido paese: leconomia della citt e del territorio, dans
M. A. Romani (ed.), Storia di Mantova, vol 1, Leredit gonzaghesca, Mantova 2005, pp.
253-349.
du sicle suivant, grce laction de Francesco I, dernier capitaine, et de son
fils Gianfrancesco.
Le grand domaine explique la position centrale occupe galement par
les seigneurs sur le plan conomique, et leur capacit agrger lensemble de
la socit de Mantoue, en dterminant le destin: la proprit foncire et immo-
bilire est le principal instrument de la politique des Gonzaga. Ce qui sorga-
nise en fait autour du prince, cest une aristocratie marchande qui simpose
comme le moteur dune croissance conomique sans prcdent, en associant
les offices, les proprits et les trafics, et en donnant naissance un systme
qui fonctionne remarquablement pendant les deux sicles suivants. En outre
le fait de disposer dimposants surplus de denres alimentaires devient une
source prcieuse de profits et un facteur nullement marginal de la politique
trangres des Seigneurs de Mantoue, surtout face une Venise qui, encore
toute entire tourne vers la mer, porte un regard dtach sur la verdoyante
plaine du P, quelle considre comme un beau jardin [...] qui ne lui cote
rien
14
, et leur donne le titre de patriciens vnitiens en change de leur allian-
ce et de leurs bls.
Les Gonzaga ne commettront jamais lerreur de sous-valuer les avan-
tages non seulement conomiques quils retirent dune relation amicale avec
la Srnissime. Ils apprendront utiliser les revenus drivant de la vente de
leurs denres sur le march de Venise comme les premiers anneaux dune
chane qui, du dpt auprs de la Camera delle Biade lutilisation ultrieu-
re des sommes ainsi perues dans lacquisition de titres de la dette publique,
leur permettra de multiplier dmesurment le montant de leur rente financi-
re en spculant sur les diffrences entre valeur nominale et valeur effective
des titres ainsi acquis
15
.
310
14
Pour reprendre lexpression utilise par le doge Tommaso Mocenigo dans ses inter-
ventions devant le Snat qui visaient bloqier en 1421 lalliance de Venise avec Florence
contre Milan et, en 1423, la candidature de Francesco Foscari, reprsentant du parti qui vou-
lait largir la Lombardi la conqute de la Terre ferme. Sur ce thme, cfr. M. Aymard, La
fragilit di una economia avanzata: lItalia e le trasformazioni delleconomia europea, in
Storia delleconomia italiana, Turin 1991, p. 22 e M. A. Romani, Regions in Italian History
(XVth-XVIIIth Centuries), The Journal of European Economic History, 23, I (1994), pp.
...
15
I principi di Mantova colgono immediatamente le possibilit di lucro offerte dai
prestiti obbligazionari che la Repubblica di S. Marco impone ai suoi cittadini pi abbienti.
Prestiti che fruttano un interesse sul capitale nominale pari al 5% (che in seguito sar ridot-
to al 3%); ma che, se acquistati in momenti di particolari difficolt finanziarie della
Serenissima [], consentono rendimenti effettivi molto elevati []. Alla met degli anni
ottanta gli interessi prodotti dagli investimenti gonzagheschi a Venezia costituiscono uno dei
Act de ces revenus, il faut enfin rappeler ceux qui drivent des contrats
militaires, les condotte. Tout comme les Visconti, les Sforza, les Este et les
Della Rovere, les Gonzaga se transforment en entrepreneurs militaires, en
soffrant avec leurs armes au plus offrant, comme continueront le faire plus
longtemps encore les Suisses et les princes allemands qui, pendant plusieurs
sicles, louent leurs rgiments permanents de grands Etats comme la
France ou dautres en temps de guerre
16
.
Frdric II, le premier porter le titre de duc, nomm en 1520 capitaine
des troupes pontificales, est le dernier des Gonzaga jouir des fructueux reve-
nus des condotte militaires
17
. Labandon du mtier des armes, qui drive des
changements intervenus dans les techniques militaires et dans la stabilisation
du cadre politique italien, le pousse sintresser davantage lintrieur de
son Etat, pour y chercher de nouvelles sources de revenu: la terre et la fisca-
lit deviendront les piliers des finances princires. Avec elles, le Monferrat
constitue la plus importante source de revenus du duc de Mantoue. Malgr les
difficults et les dpenses quil lui faut affronter pour le dfendre contre les
ambitions des Savoie, les belles terres dAlba, Acqui, Nizza et Casale fruit
de son mariage avec Marguerite, la dernire des Palologues jouent, pendant
environ un sicle et demi, le rle des Indes des Gonzaga, et permettent la
311
principali cespiti di entrata dello Stato. Lintroitus de denarijs habitis de utile denariorum in
Venecijs raggiunge le 18.621.6 lire. Esso superato solo dallentrata sul sale (lire
58.355.17.10), dal dacium vini ad minutum (lire 23.000) ed pari allintroitus tabula gros-
sa cum tracta vini (lire 18.972.8). Cfr. M. A. Romani, Il credito nella formazione dello
Stato Gonzaghesco, dans La documentacion notarial y la historia, Santiago de Compostela,
1984, vol. II, pp. 235 et suiv.
16
Le contrat conclu avec le duc de Milan en 1480 stipulait que: Quando epso signo-
re marchese havesse da dubitare verisimilmente et probabilmente del stato suo [] non seria
honesto si partesse ni mandasse la gente sue fora del suo dominio, havendo bisogno de esse-
re diffeso. Cit. in M. Belfanti, I Gonzaga signori della guerra, en La corte di Mantova nel-
let di Andrea Mantegna, Rome 1997, p. 63.
17
Pour la fiscalit, le nouveau cours est scell en 1530 par la publication des Ordini
sopra le fattioni, qui, rpts tout au long du XVIe et du XVIIe sicles, tenteront de redfi-
nir le systme des contributions relles et personnelles des rustici et cives rustici et dimpo-
ser un ordre et des limites la prolifration des privilges et des exemptions, attestant du
mme coup limpossibilit pour le rgime de la seigneurie urbaine de modifier les quilib-
res sociaux sur lesquels il reposait. Le rsultat des ngociations qui ont t la base de cette
rforme, constitue le prlude la mise en place, Mantoue comme dans presque tout le reste
de lItalie, dun systme centr sur des mcanismes de taxation indirecte, complt, de
manire subsidiaire, par un impt direct qui, en rgle gnrale, pesait sur les habitants du
contado. Ce sont en effet les populations rurales qui doivent supporter le poids des pressions
visant augmenter la fois la rente foncire et le prlvement fiscal sans lser les privil-
ges des habitants de la ville.
famille dominante daccrotre fortement son prestige, son pouvoir et sa riches-
se
18
. De la mme faon un mariage (celui dOttavio avec Marguerite
dAutriche) sera lune des clefs de vote de la fortune de la famille Farnse,
dont le patrimoine et le titre passeront, deux sicles plus tard, entre les mains
des Bourbon dEspagne grce un autre mariage: celui dElisabeth, la der-
nire des Farnse, avec le petit-fils de Louis XIV, Philippe V.
Naturellement, plus lon passe de la cour appele par nous consortile la
cour bureaucratique et rituelle, plus la rente foncire cde le pas dautres
catgories de revenu, et surtout au prlvement fiscal
19
. Mais, comme le rap-
pelle Wolfgang Reinhardt
20
, cette rente foncire continuera longtemps repr-
senter pour les souverains suropens un revenu dune grande importance: 78%
du total dans la Hesse entre 1560 et 1568, respectivement 36,9 et 44,8% au
Danemark et en Sude. La mme situation se retrouve en Prusse o, en 1740,
une administration rigoureuse des ses domaines, assure Frdric Guillaume
Ier pas moins de 46% des revenus dont il peut disposer la tte de lEtat.
Quant aux souverains autrichiens, les confiscations qui ont suivi la vic-
toire de la Montagne Blanche leur assurent une augmentation sensible de leurs
proprits foncires de Basse Autriche (das Kaiserliche waldamt et la sei-
gneurie dEberfdorff) et de Bohme; o, la fin du XVIe sicle, le fisc imp-
rial apparat comme le principal propritaire foncier du royaume, avec envi-
ron 8% du total
21
. Les terres confisques aux magnats hongrois sont elles aussi
importantes, et les Habsbourg les utilisent pour financer les dpenses de leurs
cours, pour rcompenser les serviteurs nobles de leur Maison et pour financer
la dotation destine au souverain et la famille impriale
22
.
312
18
Une richesse, dont limportance conomique pour les finances des Gonzaga tait
estime par les ambassadeurs vnitiens 15.000 ducats par an au moment de lacquisition,
20 000 pendant le gouvernement dErcole Gonzaga et de Margherita Paleologa, 120.000
lpoque de Guglielmo. Lexactitude de fond de ces estimations est confirme par les regis-
tres de la trsorerie ducale. Selon cette source, entre 1577 et 1587, les entres du troisi-
me duc en provenance de Casale se seraient leves 2.619.078 lire. Il sagit, comme le sou-
ligne Aldo De Maddalena (Le finanze del ducato di Mantova allepoca di Guglielmo
Gonzaga, Milano-Varese 1961), de soldes positifs de bilans, qui quivalent en moyenne
50% des revenus ducaux.
19
Cfr. R. Bonney, Les revenus, dans Id. (ed.), Systmes conomiques, cit., pp. 429-514.
20
W. Reinhardt, Geschichte des Staatgewalt, Mnchen 1999, p. 371-372.
21
Cfr. J. Brenger, Finance et Absolutisme autrichien dans la seconde moiti du XVII
sicle, Lille 1975, pp. 393 et suiv.
22
Cfr. H. Ch. Ehalt, Ausdrucksformen absolutistischer Herrschaft. Der wiener Hof im
17. und 18. Jahrhundert, Mnchen 1980, pp. 69 et suiv.: Nel 1537 le uscite per lo stato di
corte di re Ferdinando, composto di circa 280 persone, corrispondevano ad una somma di
71.440 fiorini; ma a questo importo andavano aggiunti 16.526 fiorini che coprivano i costi
En France et en Espagne, en revanche, lalination prcoce des domaines
royaux a rduit trs peu de chose la part de la rente foncire dans les reve-
nus de lEtat. De son ct, la modernit galement prcoce de
lAngleterre semblerait troitement lie au fait que, ds le XIVe sicle, celle-
ci ntait plus un Etat domanial, et probablement ne lavait jamais t.
Parmi les revenus lis par certains aspects directement au prince, on trou-
ve enfin ce que nous pourrons appeler les droits rgaliens (regalie). Ils dri-
vent de lutilisation par des tiers ou de lalination des tiers de prrogatives
dont jouit le prince en vertu de son pouvoir souverain, comme le droit de batt-
re monnaie, les prlvements sur les revenus provenant des ressouces minires,
les droits de douane, les droits de traite sur lexportation des bls, ainsi que
les recettes assures par la concession de privilges, tels que lexercice exclusif
de certaines activits conomiques dans des zones particulires, ou drivant du
monopole de moulins foulon, de moulins, dauberges et de tavernes, etc.
La frappe des monnaies assure, en particulier, outre les droits de sei-
gneuriage de lordre de 3 4%, des recettes importantes, notamment du fait
de la frappe de petite monnaie dont le contenu mtallique intrinsque tend
baisser de plus en plus. Dans ce cas aussi, les exemples sont nombreux: ils
vont des dvaluations dcides en France par Philippe IV (le Bel), la dpr-
ciation du maravedi en Espagne ou au great debasement anglais de 1541-
1545. Ces manipulations sont rendues de plus en plus difficiles, dans la secon-
de moiti du XVIIe sicle, par la limitation des marges de manoeuvre des dif-
frents Etats, du fait de la circulation internationale des monnaies et de la
ncessit de maintenir leur accs au crdit. Surtout en France elles ne dispa-
ratront pas pour autant au sicle suivant, comme le montrent lexprience rui-
neuse de John Law pendant la Rgence, ou lmission des assignats pendant
la priode rvolutionnaire
23
.
313
della corte della consorte e quelli per il corpo delle guardie personali e dei trabani. Ma
Massimiliano II spendeva per il suo stato di corte gi 224.277 fiorini []. Fu lassunzione
al trono di Leopoldo I a segnare la cesura decisiva in questo processo di crescita. Da quel
momento in poi i costi per il lustro di corte crebbero di anno in anno []. Cos se alla fine
degli anni 60 linsieme delle spese di corte corrispondeva mediamente ad un importo di
500.000 fiorini, dieci anni pi tardi questi valori risultavano raddoppiati (risultando nel
1670 pari a 1.034.000, di cui 630.000 per la corte dellimperatore, 250.000 come assegno
complessivo di corte, 137.000 per lassegno dellimperatrice vedova e 14.000 per falconie-
re e caccia) e nel 1672 essi erano pari a fiorini 1.215.865 Dopo una breve fase di stagna-
zione, durata fino agli anni dieci del Settecento, le spese tornarono ad impennarsi brusca-
mente: nel 1724 ammontarono a 4.285.328 fiorini, nel 1729 a 4.745.441 fiorini, ed alla fine
degli anni 30 giunsero a sfiorare i 5 milioni (p. 73).
23
Reinhardt, Geschichte, cit., pp. 373-374.
Les princes comme entrepreneurs conomie et finances: le cas des Este
(Ferrare)
Lexercice de diffrentes activits conomiques, en association avec des
hommes daffaires, est lui aussi souvent une source de revenus, nullement
marginaux, pour le prince. Encore une fois, nous nous arrterons sur un cas
qui a valeur dexemple, dans la mesure o il nous semble reflter une large
partie de lunivers envisag ici. Les ducs dEste, pour faire face aux difficul-
ts de la conjoncture des premires annes du XVIe sicle, sengagent dans
toute une srie dactivits productives. Celles-ci vont de la commercialisation
des denres alimentaires la construction dune petite flotte commerciale, qui
va naviguer pendant prs dun demi-sicle sur les routes de la Mditerrane et
de lAtlantique; ou encore de la constitution de compagnies secrtes avec
des Juifs de Ferrare et dAncne la ralisation, toujours en association avec
des oprateurs privs, de grandes installations manufacturires capables
demployer des centaines douvriers et de produire des quantits importantes
de draps de laine et de soie, ou des milliers de livres de savon mettre sur le
march. Mais elles peuvent aussi aller jusquau lancement dactivits produc-
tives visant permettre aux cours du duc de vivre de leurs propres produits,
tant alimentaires que manufacturs, stratgiques, ou mme de luxe: nourritu-
res et vins, vaisselle de verre et de cramique, bois et vtements, briques et
tuiles, canons et poudre, savons et parfums, armes et bateaux, carosses et che-
vaux, etc.
Les ducs de Ferrare explorent donc toutes les voies possibles de dve-
loppement, en construisant patiemment de vritables circuits conomiques
de nature exploiter au maximum les possibilits, encore rduites lpoque,
dinstituer des connexions vertueuses lintrieur dun rapport complexe
entre Etat et march. Ils mettent cette fin en oeuvre une forme alternative,
agressive, de gouvernement de lconomie et de la socit, qui nest plus fo-
dale sans tre encore capitaliste, tout en prservant les traits communs aux
deux. Tous ceux qui sassocient ces circuits ne sont certainement pas des
figures assimilables celles des marchands sortis de la tradition de lhistoire
conomique, pionniers romantiques et indomptables prts se lancer dans
les aventures les plus risques, afin de faire triompher la bonne cause du capi-
talisme et du march; mais des lites absolument organiques, vivant en
symbiose parfaite avec des princes despotiques souvent dsigns comme les
principaux responsables du dclin de la socit italienne
24
.
314
24
Cfr. Guerzoni, La colonia, cit., pp. 28-46.
Ces observations sont totalement confirmes dans le cas de Florence, o
on a pu noter, en se rfrant au rapport complexe qui stablit entre la cour et
la ville capitale, que la mtaphore clbre de la grosse tte sur un corps frle
rsiste mal une confrontation un peu serre avec les documents
25
. Le tissu
des liens entre la cour et la ville apparat nettement plus complexe et structu-
r quon ne lavait pens jusquici. Il concerne non seulement les salaris,
au sens troit du terme, mais aussi tous ceux qui, sans vivre pour autant la
cour, jouissent divers titres de privilges particuliers, comme tous ceux qui,
nombreux, travaillent lAtelier des pierres dures, ou les dizaines de
joailliers et orfvres, enlumineurs et argentiers, tailleurs de pierre et tapissiers,
fabricants de meubles et fondeurs, tailleurs et graveurs: sous Cme III, leur
nombre dpasse la centaine. Si lon y ajoute les prestataires de travail et les
fournisseurs de biens et services, on peut accepter comme raisonnable lhy-
pothse que la demande de la cour des Mdicis faisait travailler au moins 15%
de la population de Florence et 10% de la totalit du Grand-Duch
26
.
Encore une fois, les exemples des Este et des Mdicis constituent des tmoins
de laptitude plus gnrale laventure commerciale et/ou manufacturire
laquelle les princes (au moins cette poque de lhistoire longue des cours) pren-
nent une part beaucoup plus active que nous navons lhabitude de le penser (
partir de situations postrieures, datant du XVIIe ou du XVIIIe sicle). Les initia-
tives dHenri II le Navigateur et de ses successeurs, soutenues et subventionnes
par les souverains portugais en association avec les grandes familles de mar-
chands-banquiers europens nentrent-elles pas dans la mme logique? Et la
mme rserve, mutatis mutandis, ne vaut-elle pas pour les entreprises de
Christophe Colomb, de Vasco De Gama, de Cabral ou de Miguel De Legaspi?
B) Les dpenses
Les dveloppements prcdents ouvrent la voie une analyse des dpen-
ses ncessaires la vie et la survie des Cours ce stade de leur histoire. Mais
jusqu quel point peut-on distinguer les dpenses du prince de celles du
Royaume. Il y a trente ans, la rponse de Jacqueline Boucher tait problma-
tique, car elle ne pouvait que hasarder des hypothses trs larges, vu que le
problme de la confusion entre Cour et Etat...reste actuel jusqu la fin du rgne
personnel de Louis XIV, et que, en labsence de recherches prcises ce sujet,
315
25
F. Braudel, Civilisation matrielle, conomie et capitalisme, Paris 1979, t. I, pp. 457-458.
26
M. Fantoni, Leconomia dello splendore. La corte medicea fra Cinque e Seicento,
dans Aymard Romani (eds.), La cour comme institution, cit., p. 115.
la seule voie est celle de comparer les revenus royaux et les dpenses de la cour
de France, en sappuyant sur les rapports des ambassadeurs vnitiens auprs du
Trs-Chrtien
27
. Celles-ci font apparatre des dpenses de la Cour oscillant entre
15 et 40% des revenus royaux. Ces pourcentages ont t confirms rcemment
par des tudes qui ont montr, chiffres lappui, que, pour les XIVe et XVIe si-
cles, elles sinscrivaient dans la mme fourchette
28
.
Le rcente tude, trs dtaille, de Jeroen Duidam confirme la validit de
fond des hypothses proposes par les ambassadeurs vnitiens pour la Cour
de France, tout en soulignant que durant le rgne dHenri IV, lensemble des
cots lis la Cour slevait en rgle gnrale 25% du total des dpenses
ordinaires et extraodinaires, et quil avait atteint son niveau maximal en 1618,
avec 38%. Pendant la guerre de Trente Ans, les mmes cots tombrent au-
dessous de 10% et, dans les annes difficiles qui suivirent 1648, se maintin-
rent entre 5 et 8%. En 1662, la Cour mobilisa nouveau 38% du total des
dpenses, pour se stabiliser ensuite autour de 25% pendant une dcennie. La
guerre contribua faire baisser ce pourcentage, mais cest seulement vers
1690 quil atteignent nouveau le seuil des 5%. Pendant le XVIIe sicle,
donc, les cots totaux de la Cour ont reprsent en moyenne 18% des dpen-
ses totales, ordinaires et extraordinaires
29
.
316
27
Selon ces derniers, les dpenses de la Cour, compares aux revenus du souverain,
auraient connu les volutions suivantes:
Dates Revenus royaux Dpenses pour le Cour %
1546 4.000.000 cus 1.500.000 cus 38,45
1554 4.000 000 cus 800.000 cus 16,00
1559 13.000 000 livres 2.500.000 livres 19,20
1572 13. 000.000 livres 5.690.000 livres 38,10
1576 16. 000.000 livres 5.690.000 livres 35,50
1588 9 000 000 livres 2.500.000 livres 33,30
Cfr. J. Boucher, La commistione tra corte e stato in Francia sotto gli ultimi Valois, in
La corte in Europa. Fedelt, favori, pratiche di governo, Cheiron, II (1982), p. 107.
28
Cfr. M. Krner, Les dpenses, dans Bonney (ed.), Systmes conomiques, cit., pp.
399-428.
29
Cfr. Duidam, The Courts, cit., p. 66. Selon cet auteur, les dpenses de la Cour de
France se seraient rparties de la faon suivante: Compte-rendu analytique des dpenses
pour la Cour de France (en livres tournois)
1. 1600-56
Dpenses Moyenne Pourcentage Dpense annuelle Dpense
annuelle annuelle la plus leve La plus basse
Cour du Roi 2.996.780 36% 4.600.057 (1619) 1.677.082 (1604)
Pensions 3.044.255 36% 5.452.586 (1620) 1.443.062 (1625)
Cours secondaires 1.605.361 19% 3.353.982 (1644) 105.400 (1611)
Btiments 451.551 5% 1.358.137 (1634) 10.435 (1649)
Dpenses militaires 256.018 3% 375.253 (1619) 201.871 (1604)
Totaux 8.353.965 100% 11.959.290 (1620) 4.959.899 (1605)
Ces tudes ont aussi permis de dfinir de faon plus prcise le poids de
la Cour sur le budget de lEtat. Pour ne prendre quun autre exemple, en sap-
puyant sur la source trs riche que constituent les bilans prvisionnels du
duch de Ferrare, Guido Guerzoni
30
a labor le tableau suivant:
Structure de la dpense des ducs de Ferrare
Dpenses 1500 1503 1517 1521 1523 1527 1529 1541 1543
Administration
et diplomatie 12,08 11,53 17,77 11,31 12,80 10,94 12,81 9,35 6,91
Dfense 6,73 5,92 14,02 48,14 58,56 39,62 38,43 3,78 4,97
18,81 17,45 31,79 59,45 71,36 50,56 51,24 13,13 11,88
Sommes
verses
la famille
ducale et aux
salaris de
la Cour 31,19 35,47 20,72 7,17 8,40 11,20 21,00 18,61 12,24
Nourriture,
boisson,
chauffage 24,76 25,10 15,90 6,47 6,79 10,30 11,17 11,57 10,85
Vtements et
ornements 7,89 7,74 11,89 9,54 5,05 0,67 1,55 3,19 3,17
Trasports et
levage 2,24 3,29 4,40 0,37 0,24 0,34 0,42 1,80 1,55
Btiments 2,97 4,35 11,22 12,40 7,05 5,16 5,59 7,49 3,77
Joyaux et
dons 3,21 3,38 1,89 0,00 0,26 0,17 0,11 0,86 6,75
72,26 79,33 66,02 35,95 27,79 27,84 39,84 43,52 38,33
Investissements
productifs 5,60 0,64 1,23 0,77 0,15 0,41 1,73 17,06 9,16
Dpenses
extraordinaires 3,32 2,57 0,95 3,82 0,69 21,19 7,18 26,53 40,63
317
2. 1662-95
Dpenses Moyenne Pourcentage Dpense annuelle Dpense
annuelle annuelle la plus leve la plus basse
Cour du Roi 5.103.035 27% 7.370.968 (1622) 3.733.643 (1666)
Pensions 4.796.122 25% 7.416.186 (1694) 2.578.049 (1670)
Cours secondaires 2.782.308 15% 5.401.069 (1662) 1.662.810 (1669)
Btiments 4.704.464 25% 15.340.901 (1685) 1.456.438 (1693)
Dpenses militaires 1.533.814 8% 5.352.481 (1662) 418.675 (1677)
Totaux 18.808.038 100% 30.364.627 (1685) 13.604.106 (1673)
30
Guerzoni, La colonia, cit., p. 107.
Le tableau fait apparatre clairement quen anne normale les dpenses
pour la gestion ordinaire de lEtat tournent autour de 20%, tandis que celles
qui lemportent concernent la Maison et la famille du Duc (60 80% du total
du budget). Ce pourcentage devait tomber au-dessous de 30% dans les prio-
des o la guerre venait troubler le dlicat quilibre financier. Si lon envisage
la rpartition des mmes dpenses, la part prpondrante est reprsente par
les sommes attribues au duc, son pouse, aux princes du sang (20 35%)
qui, comme nous lavons indiqu prcdemment, sont troitement lies au
cycle de vie de la famille dominante. Viennent ensuite celles relatives la vie
quotidienne de la Cour (alimentation et chauffage); tandis que lon trouve
loin derrire celles qui concernent les vtements, les dons, les transports aut-
res.
Dans le cas de lEspagne, au contraire, la Cour ne reprsente quune par-
tie marginale de la dpense globale la diffrence de ce que lon constate
en France, mais aussi dans les capitales des duchs italiens: comme lcrit un
observateur de lpoque, qui connaissait bien cette ralit, le duc de Ferrare,
si on le mesure selon sa puissance et son Etat nest quun prince mdiocre,
et pourtant, grce aux dimensions que lui confrait sa Cour, il apparat si
grand, et sa rputation et lestime dont il jouit sont telles quil est toujours
class parmi les plus grands
31
. Une faon de dire que, la longue, la force
des armes a pu tre en partie compense par la splendeur de la Cour, en per-
mettant donc aux petits princes italiens de ne pas faire mauvaise figure face
aux grands monarques europens, et en leur permettant ainsi les alliances
matrimoniales qui auraient li troitement les Farnse aux Rois catholiques (et
de faon plus passagre aux rois de France: mariage dOrazio avec Diane de
France), les Mdicis et les Este au Trs-Chrtien, et les Gonzaga
lEmpereur
32
.
En Espagne au contraire, durant le rgne de Philippe II, la Cour ne repr-
sente que 3% des recettes drivant des impts et des asientos, le pourcentage
destin la Maison du Roi variant entre 9 et 46% de ce chiffre, la Maison
de Castille entre 5 et 16%, et restant, pour celles de tous les membres de la
famille, toujours au-dessous des 5%. La guerre et la gestion complexes de
lEmpire absorbent en revanche la majorit des recettes de lEtat. La rparti-
318
31
G. Agnelli, Relazione dello stato di Ferrara di Orazio della Rena 1589, Atti e
Memorie della Deputazione Ferrarese di Storia Patria, VIII (1896), p. 305.
32
M. Cattini M. A. Romani, Legami di sangue: relazioni politiche, matrimoni e cir-
colazione della ricchezza nelle casate sovrane dellItalia centro settentrionale nei secoli XV-
XVIII (ricerche in corso), dans La famiglia nelleconomia europea. Secc. XIII-XVIII. The
economic role of the family from the 13th to the 18
th
, Firenze 2009, pp. 43-64.
tion des dpenses est au contraire presque identique: 33% pour lalimentation,
25% pour les rtributions, 20% pour le personnel et 8% pour les dpenses
extraordinaires (surtout les voyages)
33
.
Versailles:
Ce rappel des origines chronologiques (XIVe-XVIe s.) et gographiques
(la pninsule italienne, avec ses multiples petits Etats princiers, quil convien-
drait de comparer avec ceux, contemporains, de la cour de Bourgogne
34
, dont
319
33
On retrouve galement des pourcentages peu diffrents pour les consommations de la
Cour espagnole durant le sicle suivant: Es posible hacer clculos aproximados de la estructura
del gasto por funciones para determinados aos. En el quinquenio 1650-1654, gran parte de los
casi 40 millones de reales a precios corrientes que se abonaron en las casas del rey y de la reina
se la llevaron los gastos ordinarios y las retribuciones del personal. Estas suponan, en el servicio
del monarca, algo ms de la cuarta parte de dicha suma, y aqullos absorban ms del 60 por 100
y se repartan de la siguiente forma. Casi dos tercios se consuman en tareas encomendadas a los
oficios de boca el abasto, almacenamiento, preparacin y consumo de alimentos , destacando
el guardamanjier y la cava y, a mucha distancia de stos, la panetera, frutera, potajera, sause-
ra, busera...327. Por su parte, el consumo de cera se llevaba una quinta parte de los gastos ordi-
narios, porcentaje que refleja la importancia que aqulla tena en la iluminacin de interiores y
exteriores. El funcionamiento de las otras dependencias supona una parte no muy grande del
gasto. La ms costosa era la acemilera, que se llevaba casi el 7 por 100 de los ordinarios; la fur-
riera gastaba cuatro puntos menos; y la tapicera y el guardajoyas no llegaban ni al 1 por cien.
Por ltimo, los gastos extraordinarios, cuyo componente ms importante eran las jornadas reales,
se acercaban mucho al 8 por 100, y la compra de paja y cebada para el ganado de las caballeri-
zas importaba casi el 6 por 100.328. Por tanto, la Casa del Rey gastaba la mayor parte de su dine-
ro a mediados del siglo XVII en el consumo de alimentos (en torno a un tercio del total) y las
retribuciones del personal (aproximadamente, la cuarta parte). Una quinta parte, ms o menos, se
llevaran la cerera y las dems dependencias, y la quinta parte restante se iran en las jornadas
reales y otros gastos extraordinarios y en la compra de paja y cebada. Una distribucin del dine-
ro semejante se observa, en cuanto a las partidas principales, en la Casa de la Reina. En 1620, las
tareas relacionadas con el consumo de alimentos supusieron ms del 40 por ciento; los pagos al
personal, entre una cuarta y una quinta parte; el resto se lo llevaban la compra de cera y, sin que
sepamos en que proporcin, el funcionamiento de las dependencias, las jornadas y otros gastos
extraordinarios. Estos porcentajes son muy reveladores de la dieta regia durante la poca moder-
na. La clara supremaca del guardamanjier est indicando la omnipresencia de la carne en la mesa
de los reyes, mientras el notable tanto por ciento consumido en la cava habla por s solo de la
importancia que en ella tenan el vino, los refrescos y la nieve. Por ltimo, el escaso dinero que
se gastaba en oficios como la frutera, potajera, etc. refleja la irrelevancia de frutas, verduras y
pescado. Manca la segnatura del testo citato
34
W. Pallavicini, The Court of the Dukes of Burgundy: A model for Europe?, dans R.
Asch A. M. Birke (eds.), Princes, Patronage and the Nobility. The Court at the Beginning
of the Modern Age c. 1450-1650, London 1991, pp. 69-101.
le coeur est constitu par le second ple fortement urbanis de lEurope de l-
poque) du phnomne des cours nous permet daborder le moment dcisif
qua pu reprsenter Versailles dans une volution de longue dure (un demi-
millnaire) et dans la diffusion de cette institution lchelle de lEurope
entire et de lAmrique espagnole et portugaise.
Dans cette perspective, Versailles reprsente la fois un point darrive,
une rupture et un modle qui va marquer les esprits et tre largement imit
dans le reste de lEurope. Tel que la voulue et dveloppe Louis XIV, la cour
de Versailles sinscrit dans la continuit dune mise en scne sacralise et
ritualise de la personne du souverain
35
et de lexercice du pouvoir monar-
chique marqu par laffirmation et la pratique de labsolutisme. Mais cet abso-
lutisme royal ne se limite plus dsormais la simple signature dont avait pu
se contenter Philippe II: Yo el Rey. Il appelle un autre dcor, entrane de
nouvelles dpenses, et mobilise de nouvelles recettes. Donc une vritable
mutation, dont les aspects conomiques doivent tre rappels ici:
1. La Cour quitte la capitale, Paris, pour une nouvelle localisation, une
distance suffisante, ni trop prs ni trop loin de cette dernire: le cha-
teau, dabord agrandi et adapt, ne sera pas un second Escorial, mais
le dcor de la scne face laquelle est construite une ville nouvelle, en
fonction de ses besoins et de ses rles. Lensemble reprsente un inves-
tissement particulirement lourd
36
, chelonn dans le temps, dont les
finances royales ont sans aucun doute support la plus large part, mais
dont une part, qui reste chiffrer, a t prise en charge par des parti-
culiers, et pas seulement par des membres de laristocratie, attirs par
les privilges accords ceux qui feraient construire (statut insaisissa-
ble des immeubles entre 1672 et 1713, cens modique sur les terrains,
320
35
The ceremonial of Louis XIV was a continual confirmation of the Kings gloire et
grandeur. The attributes of the ceremonial contributed to this. First there was a palace of
striking allure, then an ecceptionally large number of courtiers, and finally a monarch with
a well-rounded upbringing and unbridled energy. Versailles provided the stage, the dcor,
and the wings. The courtiers were simultaneously performers, extras, and the first row of the
audience. Louis was the star of the show. Nor only was he the serene center of te court, but
also used the possibilities ceremonial offered him as monarch to their fullest potential. His
first and foremost skill was that of impression management, of his own movement, facial
expression, and words, ever conscius of the fact that these were critical for the impression
one made on others. J. Duidam, Miths of power. Norbert Elias and the Early Modern Court,
Amsterdam 1990, pp. 112-113.
36
Cfr. R. Bonney, Vindication of the Fronde? The cost of Louis XIVs Versailles buil-
ding programme, France History, .. (2007), pp. 205-225.
etc.). Le modle sera ultrieurement repris tant par des monarques
(Pierre le Grand) que par des Rpubliques nouvelles (Washington,
Canberra). Mais, lchelle du rgne de Louis XIV, le cot pourrait
tre compar celui des autres villes nouvelles construites la mme
poque, et notamment les ports militaires systmatiquement tudis
par Joseph Konvitz
37
(Cherbourg, Brest, Lorient, Rochefort...).
2. Lobjectif est de concentrer dans un mme lieu, sous le regard direct
du Roi, la fois laristocratie des courtisans et les ministres avec leur
services. Cest--dire les deux groupes sociaux qui rivalisent au som-
met de lEtat. La premire ne se voit laisser dautre choix que lobis-
sance et la prsence, tandis que les seconds retirent tous les avantages
non seulement des responsabilits qui leur sont confies et de la marge
dautonomie quelles leur laissent, mais aussi du service direct du Roi,
auquel ils nont pas besoin de mendier laccs. Cette coexistence des
deux groupes rivaux met chaque jour en vidence tout lcart de puis-
sance qui spare un ministre (dont lautorit rsulte dune dcision
royale) dun duc et pair (qui doit son rang sa naissance), mais elle
cre aussi entre eux de multiples occasions de contact et de mdiation,
de relations daffaires, de rapports damiti (Saint-Simon ami de
Pontchartrain et plus tard de Torcy) et dalliance (mariage de deux
filles de Colbert avec des ducs et pairs, Chevreuse et Beauvillier)
38
.
321
37
J. Konvitz, Cities and the Sea. Port City Planning in Early Modern Europe,
Baltimore London 1978.
38
In 1709, the factions at the court were first and foremost centered around the three
generation of the royal family: Louis XIV the reigning ruler, his son the Dauphin or crown
prince, and his grandson the Duc de Bourgogne []. How were the factions composed? Was
one of the cristal nuclei surrounded by parvenus bourgeois and another by high nobles? The
royal mechanism postulates that Louis XIV supported the vile bourgeoisie,: was his faction
populates by recently-ennobled favorites? The mandarin-burocrates, or great ministerial
dynasties, were certainly represented in the faction: the ministre dEtat Voysin, the chance-
lier Pontchartrain, and his son. Moreover, the Duc de la Rocheguyon and the Duc de
Villeroy, both members of this faction, were sons-in-law to Louvois (1639-1691), Louis XIV
famous minister of war. Nevertheless, in addition to the two dukes mentioned, the faction
could pride itself on the membership of the Marchal dHarcourtand the Marchal de
Villeroy [] Saint Simon therefore calls the faction the Cabale des Seigneurs []. The
second faction [] was that of Monseigneur, the Dauphin. This group had three overlapping
segments: the princes of sang, the btards du roi, and the princes trangers. Louis XIVs
illegitimate children were well represented. The most successfull btards, the Duc du Maine
and the Comte de Toulouse, stood just outside the faction; they focus primarily on their
governess and advocate in dominant faction: Madame de Maintenon. The members were
high nobles. The three segments were interwoven: ties by blood, marriage, and amorous
Sil est vrai que le souvenir de la Fronde a pes sur le choix de Louis
XIV de stablir Versailles, il faudrait pouvoir comparer le cot co-
nomique et financier de la Cour celui, pour le Royaume, de cinq
annes de guerres civiles.
3. La vie quotidienne de la Cour sorganise du lever au coucher du Roi
autour de la personne mme du souverain
39
. La cour simpose comme
322
adventures gave the faction the outward appearence of an octopus with twisting tentacles.
Louis XIVs policy of having his btards and btardes marry Charles de Bourbons descen-
dants (the Cond and the Conti) was one cause of the entanglement; amourous liaisons were
responsible for the rest. [] The third faction along the generational axis gathered around
the Duc de Bourgogne. Like the first, the third faction consisted of high nobles and manda-
rin-bureaucrates. The Duc de Bourgogne was joined not only by the Duc de Beauviliers and
the Duc de Chevreuse, but also by the scrtaire dEtat Torcy and the directeur des finan-
ces Desmaretz. Because Beauviliers was ministre dEtat and Chevreuse unofficially served
as ministre in partibus, Saint-Simon called the group the Cabale des Ministres. [] The
Colbert clan was well-represented in the faction. Beauvillier et Chevreuse were married to
Jean-Baptiste Colberts daughters. Torcy and Desmaretz were also members of the family
(Cfr Duidam, Miths of power, cit., pp. 138-144). Sur ce thme voir galement E. Le Roy
Ladurie, Systme de la cour (Versailles vers 1709), LArc 65, (1973), pp. 21-35., et Id.,
Saint-Simon ou le systme de la Cour, Paris 1997. Inscrites dans la dure, parfaitement
connues du Roi qui joue sur leurs divisions, ces factions sont aussi soumises limpact des
vnements, qui changent la donne et les contraignent modifier leurs stratgies: ainsi la
mort de lhritier prsum (le Grand Dauphin puis le duc de Bourgogne) dans les dernires
annes du rgne de Louis XIV. Mais elles ne reprsentent quun niveau dagrgation poli-
tique: on retrouve en leur sein, ou leurs frontires, des groupes plus petits, de nature reli-
gieuse (autour de Fnelon) ou familiale (les Noailles), pour lesquels Saint-Simon utilise le
terme de tribu.
39
The structure of the household with its noble connection needs to be placed in the
context of the daily life and ceremonies at court: for each setting, the court showed a diffe-
rent composition, and expected different audiences. Nor only have historians have tended to
equate the court with the noble sphere of honorary office, thus leaving aside the ordinary
household staffs; they have likewise presented court life as an ongoing feast, an everlasting
ceremony forgetting the daily routines of the ruler, servants, and administrators. Life at
these courts followed a pattern roughly similar: it was dominaed by the routines of rising,
eating, sleeping, as well as by the alternation of devotions, deliberation with ministers,
audience, and hunting. [] The French court watraditionally more open [than the Habsburg
court], allowing courtiers as well as visitors to approach the kimg upon rising, while he ate,
and before he went to sleep. Christine de Pisan reported a disorderly lever in the early fif-
teenth century; in an oft-cited 1530 edict against theft, Francis I noted the daily bustle of
visitors in his apartment. Henry III sought to restrict acces, in an effort to underline his sup-
reme status [] Most characteristic attributed to the innovations and ruses of Louis XIV
were present in Henrys texts, yet the Sun King seemed far distressed by the multitudes at
court. He prided himself on the honnte familiarit of French kings with their nobles,
contrasting it with the more aloof style of the Spanish Habsbourgs. Nor does the court seem
lieu de clbration dun culte, qui ne connat que trois moments din-
terruption ou de vacance: les sjours Marly, rservs un tout petit
cercle dlus, tris sur le volet; les dplacements Rambouillet ou
Fontainebleau; et enfin la guerre quand le Roi dcide daller suivre en
personne les oprations. Elle est aussi le lieu de rception des ambas-
sadeurs trangers et des personnages de marque de toute lEurope, que
laccueil qui leur est fait vise impressionner, quil sagisse de les
humilier, comme le doge de Gnes aprs le bombardement de sa ville,
ou de les flatter, comme Samuel Bernard en pleine guerre de
Succession dEspagne.
4. Dans la mesure mme o tout sy dcide, dans le secret de lieux rser-
vs o le Roi peut couter sil le souhaite lavis de ses ministres ou de
conseillers et informateurs choisis par lui, Versailles devient rapide-
ment le lieu o tout le monde cherche accder linformation sur ces
dcisions, et, dans la mesure du possible, peser sur elles ou en pr-
venir les effets par ses rseaux de relations. Et la Cour en constitue la
caisse de rsonance. Tous les acteurs sont conduits y faire des paris
sur lavenir, en fonction des diffrents scnarios possibles, toujours
susceptibles dtre dmentis par des vnements imprvus (la mort du
duc de Bourgogne par exemple). La description par Saint-Simon de la
nuit de la mort du Grand Dauphin, o il observe et dchiffre, en per-
sonne informe qui connat le dessous des cartes, ou, comme il dit, la
cour et les gens, les attitudes et les ractions de tous les prsents,
reste, de ce point de vue, une rfrence exemplaire.
5. La construction et la croissance de Versailles est lie celle des dpen-
ses de lEtat, lie elle-mme aux guerres qui entranent laugmentation
rapide du prlvement fiscal, et la multiplication des affaires financi-
res (partis conclus avec des hommes daffaires, comparer aux
asientos espagnols) visant mobiliser les sommes ncessaires sans
attendre leur rentre effective dans les caisses: la monarchie a appris
de longue date vivre crdit, quand lurgence limpose.
6. La Cour reste le lieu central dune redistribution rige en systme: les
courtisans regardent le roi manger mais ne mangent pas sa table et,
pour la plupart dentre eux, ne sont pas nourris. Ils payent eux-mmes
leurs dpenses de vtement, de nourriture, de domesticit, quil leur
323
to have become a more closed environment at Versailles, where the king repeated Francis Is
decree, once more citing the afluence de gens de toutes sortes, faineants & sans aveau qui
abordent de toutes parts notre Cour. Visitors could habituallly be found wandering
through the garden and at the palace. (Duidam, Vienna and Versailles, cit., p. 309).
faut maintenir un niveau qui leur permette de paratre. Tout au plus
ne payent-ils pas le loyer de leurs appartements fort modestes, quand
ils sen sont vu attribuer un
40
. Tout au plus aussi peuvent-ils tre
ddommags de leurs pertes au jeu, condition quelles aient t
contractes au jeu du roi. Venir la cour et y vivre devient donc, de
la part de laristocratie, un investissement, et un investissement
coteux. Mais ils attendent, comme autant de faveurs du roi, quatre
grandes sries de dcisions indispensables leurs familles comme
eux-mmes: des commandements militaires, des bnfices ecclsias-
tiques, des charges dans ladministration, des pensions et gratifications
diverses, gages ou non sur des rentres fiscales. Plus une cinquime:
la participation aux oprations financires. Sur celles-ci, il suffit de se
reporter aux travaux de Daniel Dessert
41
sur laccumulation par
Colbert, en moins dune dcennie, de la fortune de Mazarin et de la
sienne propre, et sur les capitaux discrtement confis par laristocra-
tie aux traitants pour tre prts leur tour au Roi. Ou encore au le dis-
cours tenu par Saint-Simon au Rgent sur les participations des
Noailles, conformment aux ordres exprs du Roi, tous les partis
conclus au nom de la monarchie
42
: au-del des dpenses directes de la
324
40
Sur les espaces de la vie la cour de Versailles cfr. W. Ritchey Newton, L espace du
roi: la Cour de France au chteau de Versailles, 1682-1789, Paris 2000; Id., La Petite Cour:
services et serviteurs la Cour de Versailles au XVIIIe, Paris 2006; Id., Derrire La Faade
Vivre Au Chteau de Versailles au XVIIIe Sicle, Paris 2008.
41
D. Dessert, Argent, pouvoir et socit au Grand Sicle, Paris 1984.
42
En 1715, au lendemain de la mort du Roi, Saint-Simon, qui avait refus (par cons-
cience, dit-il, de son incomptence) de prendre la direction du Conseil des Finances, que lui
proposait le Rgent, suggre ce dernier le nom du duc de Noailles, form lcole de
Desmarets, neveu de Colbert par sa mre. Au refus du Rgent, qui rpond que cela serait
bon pour remplir les poches de la marchale de Noailles, de la duchesse de Guiche (respec-
tivement la mre et la sur du duc), qui de profession publique vivaient des affaires quel-
les faisaient toutes mains, et enrichir une famille la plus ardente et la plus nombreuse la
cour, et qui se pouvait appeler une tribu, Saint-Simon, sans contester laccusation, oppose
largument de lvidence: la Marchale charge de ce grand nombre de filles et de dots pour
les marier toutes, et le duc de Guiche, qui navait rien et qui son pre ne donnait rien...,
avaient lune et lautre obtenu un ordre du Roi au contrleur gnral... de faire pour la mre
et pour la fille toutes les affaires quelles protgeraient, et de chercher leur donner part dans
le plus quil pourrait; le mme ordre, donn Pontchartrain, avait t ensuite donn ses
successeurs [...] de cette sorte ce ntait plus avidit ni tnbreux mange redouter delles
auprs du duc de Noailles, mais des grces pcuniaires que le Roi voulait et comptait leur
faire sans bourse dlier, et quil ne dpendait plus des contrleurs gnraux de refuser. Le
trafic dinfluence relve bien de la dcision royale: les profits privs, dans des affaires finan-
cour, ces participations constituent un vritable cot de transaction sur
les principales ressources financires du royaume, sur leur perception
et sur leur anticipation. Cette pratique sera pratiquement institutionna-
lise au XVIIIe sicle avec les participations de membres de la plus
haute noblesse et de lentourage direct du Roi dans la Ferme
Gnrale).
Lintensit de la concurrence interne la Cour implique, de la part de
ceux qui y vivent ou gravitent autour delle, un norme investissement
de temps, dargent et dingniosit, pour un rsultat qui reste toujours
trs alatoire, car la faveur comme la dfaveur reste du domaine de
lincertitude. Les retours ventuels de ces investissements ne profitent
pas aux seuls membres de la Cour, mais aussi, plus ou moins directe-
ment tous leurs protgs, dpendants ou clients: un exemple, entre
beaucoup dautres, en serait fourni par le conflit sur les gardes-cte de
Blaye qui a oppos avec tant de violence Saint-Simon Jrme
Phlypeaux, secrtaire dEtat la marine, pourtant fils de son ami le
chancelier Pontchartrain, et qui se conclut, ds les premiers jours de la
Rgence, par une vengeance clatante et longuement mrie.
7. La cour fonctionne enfin comme le plus grand march matrimonial du
Royaume: les ngociations entre les familles sy droulent sous les
yeux mmes du roi, qui intervient, pilote, oriente, interdit ou approu-
ve, et parfois prend linitiative. Le Roi peut ainsi avoir la haute main
par ce biais sur tout le jeu des alliances et la circulation des hritages,
ainsi que sur lorganisation de la reproduction dun groupe social dont
les diffrentes composantes (noblesse dpe et noblesse de robe) sont
appeles nouer entre elles des liens.
Chiffrer les cots rels de Versailles, et leur impact direct ou indirect sur
lconomie impliquerait donc un effort systmatique pour intgrer dans nos
calculs toutes ces attentes dues ou satisfaites, tous ces investissements de
temps et dargent, tous ces gains et toutes ces pertes des diffrents acteurs,
sans oublier le Roi, bien sr, mais sans se limiter lui. Un effort difficile sans
aucun doute, mais nullement impossible mener bien, au moins jusqu la
dtermination des grandes masses, des ordres de grandeur et des principaux
circuits. Mais un effort en tout cas indispensable pour comprendre le compor-
tement des acteurs, leurs choix et leurs dcisions, mme quand ils sinscrivent
325
cires lies lEtat, peuvent ainsi largir le champ et le volume des sommes redistribues
par le Roi.
dans une culture de cour elle-mme peu peu intriorise. Ce qui nexclut pas
de chercher cerner de faon plus prcise les dpenses dinvestissement et de
fonctionnement de la Cour, les mcanismes institutionnels et conomiques
mis au point pour y faire face, les grands et les petits profits quils entranent
pour certains des oprateurs, ou encore les cots de transaction. Mais trs vite
les effets indirects tout aussi rels, risquent de nous chapper. Pensons la
mode, celle du vtement comme des meubles et de lquipement des int-
rieurs. Nul doute que la Cour nait contribu pendant une priode plus ou
moins longue fixer un modle que dautres groupes sociaux, Paris comme
en province ou ltranger pouvaient vouloir ou croire devoir imiter, et quel-
le nait ainsi inflchi la production et la demande. Mais la circulation de ces
rfrences a bien vite emprunt la forme de ces poupes de mode, qui se sont
diffuses dans toute lEurope, sans que les artisans lis la Cour en retirent
un bnfice direct ou indirect calculable.
Si Versailles marque une tape dcisive dans lhistoire de la monarchie
franaise, il amorce aussi un tournant dans le rle et le fonctionnement de la
Cour dont on enregistre les premiers signes ds le rgne de Louis XIV, et que
les rgnes de ses deux successeurs confirmeront. La logique mme qui prsi-
de aux progrs de labsolutisme suit au minimum trois voies parallles.
La premire est la croissance continue des dpenses, surtout militaires, en
temps de guerre mais aussi en temps de paix (arme permanente, fortifica-
tions, arsenaux, flotte de guerre)
43
: si chaque guerre entrane laccumulation
dune norme dette flottante, que, la paix revenue, il va falloir redfinir (pour
sen tenir aux seules sommes effectivement verses) et consolider par lmis-
sion de nouveaux titres de rente garantis par de nouveaux impts, ces pous-
ses dendettement et ces moments de retour lordre sont de plus en plus
troitement contrls par ladministration royale. Si la Rgence se laisse ten-
ter par les propositions de Law, la monarchie franaise ne rptera plus cette
326
43
Les dbats dhistoriens voquent une rvolution militaire avant 1660; pourtant, les
armes de terre excdaient rarement 25 30.000 hommes. En revanche, au cours des deux
dernires guerres de Louis XIV, les armes de route de 50 100.000 hommes, et davantage
encore dans le cas de la France, devinrent la norme. La taille des armes franaises stait
remarquablement acccrue dans les dernires dcennies du rgne de Louis XIV: elles comp-
taient 158.000 hommes en 1689, 273.000 en 1691, et culminrent prs de 400.000 hom-
mes en 1693. [] Linflation des armes rejaillit tout naturellemente sur les dpenses:
Malet, lun des principaux commis du ministre des Finances, dmontra que leur cot s-
leva entre 1708 et 1714 218 millions de livres en moyenne, alors que cette meme moyen-
ne navait pas excd 99 millions au cours de la guerre de Hollande del 1672-1678. [] A
la mort de Louis XIV en 1715 la dette publique avoisinait 1.730 million de livres. Bonney,
Le XVIIIe sicle, cit., pp. 319-326.
exprience, et les trois premires guerres du XVIIIe seront suivies dun
redressement financier relativement rapide: il faudra attendre la quatrime,
celle de lIndpendance, pour que la monarchie soit contrainte, les autres solu-
tions ayant chou, de convoquer les Etats Gnraux, avec les suites que lon
sait
44
.
La seconde est la mise en place dune bureaucratie de plus en plus effi-
cace et ramifie, couvrant lensemble du territoire et disposant la fois de ser-
vices techniques (comme les Ponts et Chausses) et de systmes dinforma-
tion (Contrle Gnral): acheter le consensus de laristocratie par des faveurs
apparat alors une concession inutile et coteuse, et la Cour comme une char-
ge pour la Nation. Larme elle-mme, ds Louvois, et de faon de plus en
plus systmatique au XVIIIe, normalise et rationalise ses procdures de recru-
tement, de formation et davancement de ses cadres, ainsi que ses quipe-
ments (artillerie, flotte, etc.).
La troisime est lunification religieuse, acquise avec la rvocation de
lEdit de Nantes, qui apparat comme la garantie et le symbole de lautorit du
souverain sur lensemble de ses sujets, mais qui lui sert aussi renforcer, face
Rome, son contrle sur lEglise de France, et, l encore, sur les nominations
aux principales responsabilits dans le clerg tant sculier que rgulier. Ce qui
lui permet de faire reculer, sans pour autant chercher lliminer totalement,
la pratique du npotisme, cest--dire des successions doncle neveu ou de
tante nice dont les familles Gondi (pour larchevch de Paris) et Arnaud
(pour labbaye de Port-Royal) constituent des exemples de rfrence.
Le changement de la perception de la Cour ds les dcennies centrales du
XVIIIe sicle se situe dans le droit fil de ces volutions: le retour Paris des
principales familles de laristocratie illustre la prise de conscience par les
acteurs eux-mmes dune situation nouvelle: la Cour cesse peu peu dtre le
centre o il faut tre prsent et se faire voir pour exister. La monarchie a tout
fait pour la vider de son rle de centre dinformation, de redistribution et de
dcision, et pour la rduire sa dimension rituelle.
Mais Versailles reste un exemple parmi dautres, dont lessor et le dclin
noccupe quun sicle et demi dans lhistoire longue des cours. Celle-ci exige
dautres formes de classement et danalyse. En croisant par exemple la taille
et la priodisation de ces cours: on notera ainsi quaprs une priode o ce
sont les grands Etats qui ont imit les plus petits (XIVe-XVIe), les petits et les
moyens ont imit les plus grands, et les nouveaux Etats qui cherchaient
327
44
M. Morineau, Budget de lEtat et gestion des finances royales au XVIIIe sicle,
Revue Historique, 104 (1980), pp. 288-336.
simposer sur la scne europenne (Prusse, Russie) les plus anciens. Ou enco-
re en analysant les diffrences de situation conomique: arrives dor et dar-
gent pour lEspagne et le Portugal; forte intgration commerciale et producti-
ve entre une agriculture dj intensive et lconomie urbaine pour les petites
Etats princiers dItalie; fiscalit pesant en priorit sur la majorit rurale de la
population comme en France; envois dargent en provenance de tout le monde
catholique pour Rome, qui drane aussi de nombreux legs et dons privs, sans
parler des investissements immobiliers des principaux ordres religieux,
anciens et nouveaux, dont les glises et les tablissements visent affirmer le
prestige et le rayonnement.
Mais lon peut penser aussi llaboration de fonctions mathmatiques
intgrant les dimensions quantitative et qualitative des ressources mobilises
et des dpenses de la cour, ainsi que leur origine, de faon mettre en vi-
dence la croissance globale, lorigine et la diversification des ressources,
dautant plus pousse que le volume global tend augmenter.
On notera galement que le crmonial de la Cour valorise et met en vi-
dence la dpense: palais, vtements, banquets, ftes, modes, jeux de hasard,
tandis quil laisse au second plan, souvent cachs et laisss dans lombre, les
revenus et leur redistribution, qui constituent la partie que lon cherche dau-
tant plus cacher que leur volume tend augmenter, et que le prince ne vit
plus de ses propres revenus.
La nature mme de la dpense nous invite enfin souligner la centralit
de lassociation entre la culture (celle des classes dominantes et privil-
gies, bien sr) et le luxe des consommations, du vtement, de lenvironne-
ment palatial, des activits de loisir. En stimulant laugmentation des consom-
mations des catgories les plus riches de la population, ltude des cours invi-
te reconsidrer les rles conjoints et complmentaires du luxe comme fac-
teur dinnovation et de la culture comme facteur de lgitimation.
Dun bout lautre de la priode envisage ici (XIIIe-XVIIIe sicles), les
modifications successives de cette institution particulire quest la cour clai-
rent en fait un ensemble de changements plus profonds, politiques autant
quconomiques, sociaux et culturels. Avec le passage de la cour consortile
la cour bureaucratique et rituelle, et de lEtat domanial lEtat fiscal, le
changement des sources du pouvoir et de la richesse du prince et de lEtat pro-
voque vient transformer la figure du souverain et de sa cour, et les modes
dexercice de son pouvoir.
Les souverains mdivaux jouissaient dun pouvoir relativement modes-
te. Celui-ci se limitait la tutelle partiale quil exerait sur la paix et sur la jus-
tice laide dun personnel trs rduit qui utilisait les ressources du prince,
suppos vivre du sien. Et ce pouvoir tait presque toujours partag avec
328
dautres corps sociaux, tout en reposant sur une lgitimation sacrale extrieu-
re. Soit une situation trs diffrente de celle de leurs successeurs modernes,
auxquels lautolgitimation quils ont acquise du pouvoir dEtat permet de
dcider leur gr de leurs comptences. Au XIIIe ou au XIVe sicle, le sujet
navait que bien peu attendre de son seigneur. Aujourdhui, le citoyen peut
recevoir beaucoup de lEtat (transferts sociaux et services publics), mais il
peut aussi tre rduit rien par ladministration dun Etat devenu totalitaire
45
.
A lpoque moderne, la socit tait moins compose dindividus auto-
nomes que de groupes, souds par des solidarits et des alliances: la famille
(biologique et acquise) constituait lunit sociale de base. Linstrument du
patronage permettant aux familles princires de runir des groupes familiaux
diffrents, celles-ci bnficirent de plus grandes capacits de croissance, qui
vinrent asseoir le rle des dynasties.
Les souverains ntaient pas lorigine les seuls dtenteurs dun pouvoir
quils partageaient en fait avec dautres (lEglise, la noblesse, les villes, les
corporations). Pour pouvoir sopposer ces concurrents, il leur fallut
accrotre les moyens dont ils disposaient et acqurir le monopole de lexerci-
ce de la force. Et, pour cela, se procurer des aides non seulement financires
et physiques, mais aussi intellectuelles. Do la recherche dalliances et la
promotion de nouvelles lites, nappartenant pas aux groupes rivaux, mais
devant la faveur du prince leur status, leur prestige et leur richesse. Celles-
ci participrent au pouvoir et en permirent le renforcement: ct des l-
ments issus de la noblesse et du clerg, la premire place y revint des bour-
geois (marchands, banquiers, comptables, juristes, etc.), dont les services
conomiques, financiers, administratifs et juridiques les rendirent indispensa-
bles mais crrent aussi un nouvel esprit de corps: celui-ci, fond sur la com-
ptence professionnelle est lorigine de la domination actuelle des spcialis-
tes de la politique et de ladministration.
Mais la guerre a jou aussi un rle fondamental dans la naissance de
lEtat moderne et dans la formation et la circulation des lites. Dsir de scu-
rit et volont de puissance font sans aucun doute de la guerre une constante
dans lhistoire des hommes, mais aussi lune des sources centrales de linno-
vation technologique
46
. De son ct la guerre induit des phnomnes origi-
naux de spcialisation professionnelle: production darmes, dfinition de stra-
tgies et de tactiques militaires, conduite des batailles.
A lchelle du second millnaire de notre re, la guerre met tout particu-
lirement en vidence un certain nombre de ces constantes. On voit ainsi
329
45
W. Reinhardt.
46
Mc Neill.
merger un groupe restreint de spcialistes qui atteignent souvent des posi-
tions minentes dans la socit; se diffuser des techniques de destruction et de
dfense de plus en plus raffines; simposer un processus de commercialisa-
tion de la violence organise qui atteint lpoque contemporaine une dimen-
sion industrielle. Do le renforcement des liens, antrieurs et observables ds
lorigine, entre guerre et conomie, dont la formule de Colbert, cite plus
haut, soulignait parfaitement le caractre central: le commerce est le nerf de
la finance, et la finance le nerf de la guerre. Cest donc aux richesses des
nations que les souverains furent rapidement conduits recourir, tout en per-
cevant la ncessit de les protger, pour faire face aux exigences de leurs
cours et de leurs Etats.
Dans lEurope moderne, la formation de lEtat, en dehors de quelques
exceptions durables, comme Venise, Gnes ou Lucques, ou limites dans le
temps, comme les Provinces-Unies, se fait dans le cadre monarchique. Il pou-
vait difficilement en tre autrement: dans un monde organis sur une base
familiale la volont dunit et de continuit dune dynastie avaient des proba-
bilits plus grandes de simposer, dans la mesure mme o la base en tait des
organisations particulires de caractre personnel, centres sur un prince ou
un seigneur, et lies troitement la structure sociale dominante.
Ceci explique pourquoi la nomenclature dtaille des dpenses gnrales
de la monarchie donne lillusion davoir affaire en majorit aux dpenses dun
roi: Maison du roi, des princes, chambre au dernier, argenterie, menus, cu-
ries, offrandes et aumnes, prvtes de Htel, Cent-suisses, vnerie, fauconne-
rie, louveterie, rcompenses, btiments, gardes du corps, gardes diverses occu-
pent la plus grande place de la nomenclature des dpenses de la monarchie,
avant mme les dpenses de type militaire (ordinaires et extraordinaires des
guerres, fortifications, artillerie, marine, galres, tapes). De la mme faon que
le personnel politique vit la cour et participe au systme de la cour, il merge
dans ces catgories de dpenses qui nimpliquent pas leur simple nonc
quon se trouve en prsence dun budget dEtat. LEtat moderne se construit sur
ce terreau, il merge de ce discours monarchique, de ce systme financier, et de
nomenclatures qui sont celles dune monarchie qui na pas toujours t accom-
pagne par cet Etat moderne. Les dons du roi sont devenus trs naturellement
pensions, gratifications, rcompenses dans la tradition de lchange dons-
cadeaux contre dons-talents aussi trs naturellement
47
.
Linstitution monarchique contient dont en elle les germes de son propre
dpassement, et trs vite si le prince prlve un impt sur la richesse de ses
330
47
Gury, Le roy dpensier, cit., p. 1255.
sujets, il ne peut plus raisonner comme Franois Ier qui rpondait la ques-
tion de lambassadeur de Venise sur ce quil pouvait retirer de ses finances:
Tout ce dont jai besoin selon ma volont. La volont du roi est lie en ce
domaine par la richesse plus ou moins grande de ses sujets. Il ne doit pas l-
puiser, sil veut conserver la possibilit de sa richesse indispensable un bon
exercice de son pouvoir. Ce qui explique aussi pourquoi, dans une certaine
mesure, et en particulier partir de Versailles, et toujours davantage au cours
du XVIIIe sicle, les fondateurs de lconomie comme discipline autonome,
de Montchrestien jusqu Adam Smith, la veulent politique. LEtat, sa
richesse, sont au coeur de la problmatique des conomistes [] Dans la lib-
ralit du prince, les humanistes nont fait que retrouver les problmes de la
circulation des richesses telle que lenvisage Aristote. Mais il ont largi la pro-
position antique: la puissance du matre correspond la richesse de la mai-
son, de son domaine (de son okos), en suivant le mme raisonnement, ils sont
passs la puissance du roi correspondant la richesse du royaume. Ce chan-
gement dchelle rend possibile une conomie politique. Mais il ne rend plus
possible le gouvernement dun seul [] Trs vite [] le roi est devenu un
chef dEtat. Les monarchies qui ont subsist sont celles o les rois ont accep-
t de distinguer en eux ce rle de celui du big man des anthropologues, libre,
lui, des problmes de continuit dynastique. Les autres rois ont disparu, reje-
ts par la croissance de lEtat moderne, quil ont contribu fortement
crer
48
.
Nous retrouvons ici les conclusions qui avaient t les ntres en 1998. La
rapprciation positive de la cour, considre comme solution dquilibre
temporaire -ou, plus prcisment, comme squence de solutions dquilibre
successives- entre des tensions sociales et politiques contradictoires, et entre
les modalits diffrentes, marchandes et non-marchandes, de lchange (do
la place quy prennent le don et la redistribution) invite ne pas se contenter
de lexplication commode qui voit dans llimination brutale (dans le cas de
la France) ou le dclin progressif de la cour comme centre du systme poli-
tique et, par bien des aspects, conomique, la victoire invitable de la raison
incarne dans lEtat moderne: une victoire prpare, toujours en France, par
la revanche, acquise bien avant la Rvolution, de Paris sur Versailles, la capi-
tale redevenant la rsidence permanente de laristocratie et de ladministra-
tion, et le lieu o slaborent et do se diffusent les modes et les modles.
Si la cour cde ainsi la place dautres agencements institutionnels, cest
dabord parce que lquilibre quelle avait pu reprsenter pendant plusieurs
331
48
Ibid., p. 1263.
sicles se trouve concurrenc par dautres, dont elle a contribu elle-mme
crer les conditions. Les principaux circuits conomiques qui concentraient
entre les mains des souverains des flux de richesses redistribuer font en effet
lobjet, tout au long du 18e sicle, dune rorganisation progressive. Larme,
pour laquelle lEtat semploie cherche grer directement non seulement le
recrutement, lquipement, lentranement et lentretien des troupes, mais
aussi la formation et les carrires des officiers: lentreprise militaire survit
prcisment, lchelle de rgiments entiers, dans les principauts alleman-
des, qui trouvent dans la location aux plus grands Etats de leurs troupes rgu-
lires un moyen pour entretenir celles-ci. Limpt, pour lequel la rdaction des
cadastres, les recensements et la mise en place dun tat-civil prparent la fin
de la pratique de laffermage et le passage de lassiette et de la perception
entre les mains dadministrations publiques. Le crdit public, que les gouver-
nements ont besoin de mobiliser pour stabiliser, sous la forme dune dette
consolide dont les intrts doivent tre rgulirement verss, un dficit dont
le financement des guerres reste la source principale. Ladministration dun
territoire o les privilges, les frontires intrieures, les particularismes sont
dsormais perues comme autant dobstacles alors quils avaient longtemps
servi de base la cration et la reproduction des chanes de fidlits.
LEglise elle-mme enfin, dont les rformes des Lumires, avant mme les
grandes confiscations rvolutionnaires, tendent redfinir la place et justi-
fier les biens et les privilges en termes dutilit sociale. Un nouveau cadre
institutionnel se met ainsi en place, que ses promoteurs cherchent identifier
avec la raison alors quil est, plus simplement, porteur dune rationalit dif-
frente: cest lui qui apparat prcisment, partir des dernires dcennies du
18e sicle, comme ncessaire au fonctionnement dune conomie de march.
Reste alors rgler le problme de lallocation du pouvoir politique, pour
lequel les solutions parlementaires, associant dans la majorit des cas llec-
tion de reprsentants avec lhrdit de la fonction monarchique, vont mettre
deux bons sicles simposer et se gnraliser.
Dans ce contexte nouveau, la cour, mme si elle survit dans la majorit
de lEurope du 19e sicle, tend sidentifier avec un club, daccs trs slec-
tif, qui permet aux hritiers de laristocratie de continuer sinon monopoliser,
du moins dominer un certain nombre de carrires: ce qui suffit lui main-
tenir un rle politique et social bien plus quconomique. Cette survie tmoi-
gne sa faon de lexceptionnelle capacit des institutions se perptuer alors
mme que les conditions qui ont prsid leur naissance ont cess dexister.
Mais lexemple des cours qui ont subsist jusqu la fin du 20e sicle vient le
rappeler: la survie se paye dune perte de contenu et de substance, et dun
cart croissant entre limage et la ralit. La cour a cess en fait dtre une
332
institution pour devenir une reprsentation, dans le sens o, voquant le
sacre de Charles X Reims, Chateaubriand avait not, dans les Mmoires
dOutre Tombe, que ce ntait pas un sacre, mais la reprsentation dun
sacre
49
.
333
49
Aymard-Romani (eds.), La cour comme, cit., pp. 12-13.
Manfred Hinz
LA CULTURA DEL CORTIGIANO.
OSSERVAZIONI SU UN MODO DI PRODUZIONE,
A PROPOSITO DEI MANUALI DI JUAN LORENZO PALMIRENO
I. Parlare di cultura cortigiana , ovviamente, un anacronismo perch il
concetto di cultura di invenzione borghese a cavallo fra il 700 e l800; basta
paragonare il discorso De ltat des lettres en Europe tenuto da Jean-Franois
de la Harpe nel 1796
1
con De la littrature considre dans ses rapports avec
les institutions sociales di Mme de Stal del 1802 per rendersi conto della
misura in cui il concetto di cultura dipende da una netta delimitazione di
culture nazionali
2
. Uso in seguito, quindi, la parola cultura come sempli-
ce e difficilmente evitabile abbreviazione per riferirmi allinsieme di tutti quei
fenomeni che non sono n naturali n direttamente strumentali per la produ-
zione o la riproduzione della vita. Meno problematico ci appare il singolare
il cortigiano. Gi Baldassare Castiglione poteva sostenere che il suo libro
valesse per tutte le corti della Cristianit
3
, scansando le segmentazioni
nazionali. La societ di corte non aveva certo bisogno di studi intercultu-
rali; solo nel regno del califfo valevano, forse, altre regole. Le ricerche
bibliografiche, ancora assai lacunose, di Peter Burke hanno confermato pie-
335
1
J. F. de La Harpe, De ltat des lettres en Europe depuis la fin du sicle qui a suivi
celui dAuguste jusquau regne de Louis XIV. Discours prononc louverture du Lyce
Republicain, le 1 dcembre 1796, Parigi 1797.
2
In genere, ci pare, il mondo dAntico regime mette in crisi tutte le distinzioni con cui
siamo soliti analizzare le societ moderne, come, per es. la distinzione fondamentale pub-
blico/privato
3
Citiamo Castiglione sempre dalledizione: B. Castiglione, Il Libro del Cortegiano, a
cura di B. Maier, Torino 1955, qui I.1, p. 82.
namente questa presunzione del Castiglione: il suo libro fu tradotto, riscritto,
ri-elaborato, plagiato in tutte le lingue europee fino al polacco, ma non giun-
se pi a est
4
. Il libro di Castiglione, possiamo aggiungere, fu anche adattato
alle pi diverse societ alte, fino allalta borghesia commerciale olandese,
senza per discendere verso pi bassi strati sociali
5
.
Leggendo il Libro del Cortegiano o qualsiasi altro libro di corte, ci
moviamo in un universo dominato dalla retorica: qui gli enunciati non mira-
no ad esprimere semplicemente e disinteressatamente come stanno le cose,
ma hanno un secondo scopo, un obiettivo preciso di persuasione. Tale sospen-
sione della questione sulla verit effettuale delle cose, per riprendere la
famosa formula del Machiavelli, si ritrova in tutte le argomentazioni del Libro
del Cortegiano. Aggiungo qualche esempio. La prima professione del cor-
tigiano, cos il Castiglione, devono essere le armi (cfr. I.17, p. 112 e I.20, p.
118). Ben presto per il testo rivela che questaffermazione serve solo a dar
maggior lustro al cortigiano letterato, cio dilettante eccellente nelle lettere e
professionista forse mediocre nelle armi (cfr. I.44, p. 168). Il cortigiano, leg-
giamo allinizio del libro, devessere nato nobile e di generosa famiglia
(I.14, p. 106). Certo, ci informa gi il paragrafo seguente, ma questo non per
una connaturata superiorit dellaristocrazia, ma solo perch i nobili hanno
dalla loro parte i pregiudizi sociali dominanti e possono quindi risparmiarsi
quella fatica che tanto nuoce allelegante rilassatezza (cfr. I.16, p. 110).
Luniverso discorsivo della societ di corte, articolato e dispiegato per la
prima volta dal Castiglione, priva ogni argomento di qualsiasi verit essen-
ziale, integrandolo come mossa strategica, cio mai desinteressata, nel sot-
tilissimo gioco di uno scambio sociale senza referente esterno. La conversa-
zione di corte del Castiglione fornisce nel suo complesso limmagine di un
discorso autoreferenziale e senza fondamento. Questa impressione viene
confortata da due ordini di osservazioni:
1) Castiglione non indica mai le sue fonti, nella prefazione si limita ad
indicare sommariamente tre grandi esempi classici: Platone, Senofonte
e Cicerone
6
. Nel corso della discussione vengono citati naturalmente
anche nomi di altri autori, fra i moderni spiccano quelli di Petrarca e
Boccaccio; tuttavia questi costituiscono oggetto di discussione, ma
non sono fonti.
Manfred Hinz
336
4
Cfr. P. Burke, The Fortune of the Courtier, Cambridge 1995, p. 156.
5
Ibid., p. 129.
6
Lettera dedicatoria III, p. 78s.
2) Quella che abbiamo provvisoriamente chiamato la cultura cortigiana
non mai la cultura di un cortigiano singolo, ma viene presentata sem-
pre come prodotto, come manifestazione di un ceto cortigiano. Il sape-
re cortigiano si costituisce soltanto in societ, attraverso linterazione.
Se Heinrich von Kleist, allinzio dell800, intitolava un suo saggio
famoso Sulla fabbricazione delle idee nellatto dello scrivere, vuol
dire: dello scrivere in privato, Castiglione ci mostra la fabbricazione
delle idee nellatto del parlare, cio in pubblico. Nella societ di corte,
il sapere ammissibile solo in quanto viene immediatamente destina-
to alla societ ed al contempo in quanto da essa scaturisce. La conver-
sazione sociale non soltanto destinataire (destinatario) del sapere, ma
anche il suo destinateur (destinatore), per usare la terminologia di
Greimas. Chi sfoggia un sapere o anche una facolt marcatamente
individuale, viene immediatamente escluso. Questo capita, per esem-
pio, allinizio del Libro del Cortegiano allunico Aretino, poeta di
corte a Urbino quando recita un sonetto arguto in omaggio a Elisabetta
Gonzaga. Il sonetto, cos il commento della societ di corte, s spiri-
toso, ma fu evidentemente elaborato a freddo, alla scrivania, e non
sgorga spontaneamente dal contesto dialogico (cfr. I.9, pp. 95-98).
Ma il funzionamento del discorso cortigiano ancora pi complesso.
Castiglione non solo articola un discorso senza referente esterno stabile, non
solo occulta le sue fonti ed esclude ogni sapere individuale, ma eleva proprio
questa strategia, com noto, ad oggetto della discussione di corte. qui che
si colloca la celebre antinomia fra affettazione e sprezzatura. Laffettazio-
ne lostentazione della propria individualit ed il conseguente disprezzo
degli altri, la sprezzatura inversamente lauto-ironia, loccultamento (strate-
gico) di s. Il complesso statuto teorico della sprezzatura si pu forse illustra-
re paragonadola al segno zero introdotto in Europa durante il 300, poco
prima del codice cortigiano. Lo zero, di provenienza araba e quindi indiana,
comunque non romana, un segno ambiguo. Da una parte un segno come
qualsiasi altro nella sequenza dei numeri, daltra, per, quel segno che scan-
disce e struttura le sequenza dei numeri come tale. Nella stessa maniera fun-
ziona il sistema della prospettiva centrale, anchessa introdotta in Europa in
quel periodo. Il punto in cui converge la prospettiva un punto come qualsia-
si altro sulla superficie di un quadro, ma esso anche quel punto che struttu-
ra tutto il quadro ed a partire dal quale il quadro devessere letto
7
. Cos anche
La cultura del cortigiano
337
7
Cfr. in questo contesto B. Rotman, Signifying nothing. The Semiotics of Zero,
Stanford 1993.
la sprezzatura non consiste in un atto o detto particolare, distinguibile da qual-
siasi altro, ma come condimento dogni cosa (I.24, p. 124), nelle parole del
Castiglione, essa il fulcro strutturante di tutta linterazione cortigiana.
Qualsiasi sapere, avevamo detto, deve perlomeno sembrar scaturire diret-
tamente e spontaneamente dalla situazione sociale contingente e questo
richiede un distanziamento dal proprio ego. Nella societ di corte non conta-
no tanto detti e fatti eccellenti, eccezionali, cio individuali. La sprezzatu-
ra richiede anche di non spingersi mai fino ai limiti delle proprie capacit:
solo procedendo con una certa mediocrit (lespressione di Castiglione) si
pu innescare quel gioco illusionistico che alimenta limmagine di un corti-
giano dalle abilit sconfinate, almeno in potenza:
Questa virt adunque contraria alla affettazione, la qual noi per ora chiamamo
sprezzatura, oltre che ella sia il vero fonte donde deriva la grazia, porta ancor
seco un altro ornamento, il quale accompagnando qualsivoglia azione umana,
per minima che ella sia, non solamente sbito scopre il saper di chi la fa, ma
spesso lo fa estimar molto maggior di quello che in effetto; perch negli animi
delli circunstanti imprime opinione, che chi cos facilmente fa bene sappia molto
pi di quello che fa, e se in quello che fa ponesse studio e fatica potesse farlo
molto meglio (I.28, p. 132).
Qui non si tratta, naturalmente, di mentire, ma di esercitare una sottile
seduzione, di giocare sulla propensione del pubblico allautoinganno; detti o
fatti eccezionali interromperebbero il gioco. Essi possono entrare nella con-
versazione di corte solo in maniera riflessa, codificata in apoftemmi, adagia,
aforismi, narrazioni, memorabilia di vario genere, solo in questa forma, essi
diventano patrimonio comune, utilizzabili, negoziabili.
In che misura questo approccio alla cultura sia un presupposto comune
di tutti gli autori di corte lo pu illustrare un breve riferimento al gesuita
Baltasar Gracin, vissuto pi di un secolo dopo Castiglione. Per Gracin come
per Castiglione la conversazione un delicioso banquete de los entendidos
(El Discreto V, p. 94b) che non semplicemente richiede erudizione, bens una
particolare sabidura cortesana detta anche conversable erudicin, regola-
ta da una capacit che Castiglione e Gracin denominano unanimemente
discrezione (o discrecin). Senza questo modo di socializzazione della
cultura, tutta leducazione, tutta lerudizione privata dellindividuo non sono
che dimpiccio. Gracin scrive sopra la discrecin:
El sermn ms grave y docto fue desazonado sin tu gracia; [...] la inventiva ms
rara, la eleccin ms acertada, la erudicin ms profunda, la ms dulce elocuen-
cia, sin el realce de tu cultura, fueron acusadas de una indigna vulgar barbaridad.
Manfred Hinz
338
[...] Venci la fealdad a la bellaza muchas veces, socorrida del alio. [...]
Contigo, al fin, lo pco parece mucho e sin t, lo mucho pareci nada (El Discreto
XVIII, p. 126a).
Alla fine della longue dure della cultura cortigiana, il personaggio
emblematico dei tempi nuovi che stanno per arrivare, Napoleone, minaccia di
spezzare i cardini di questo sistema di continue citazioni. Al Prince de Ligne,
appartenente allalta nobilt belga, quindi asburgica, la figura di Napoleone
ispirava nel 1802 laforisma seguente:
Bonaparte est la fois Csar, Alexandre, Annibal, Pyrrhus et Scipion. Cest un
tre prodigieux, mais il ny pas un mot citer de lui en sensibilit ni lvation.
Quand je le vois aimer autant les crmonies et un peu lambition, il me fait pen-
ser Paul I
er 8
.
Il Prince de Ligne, dal punto di vista austriaco, si rende ben conto del
genio militare di Napoleone, ma lo trova non citabile, non assimilabile in
quella cultura di citazioni dirette o indirette, di allusioni, del parlare per bocca
altrui che la cultura di corte. Di Napoleone si possono ammirare le azioni,
ma non si possono tramandare le parole. La societ di corte richiede la distan-
za della citazione, non limmediatezza dellammirazione e questosservazio-
ne, sia detto per inciso, mi fa anche dubitare della teoria di Norbert Elias,
secondo cui proprio lintroduzione della distanza sociale sarebbe il tratto
distintivo delle civilt moderne.
Il Libro del Cortegiano mette in scena un dialogo fra cortigiani sulla cor-
tigiania; nessuna voce intra-testuale pu rappresentare quindi la cortigiania in
quanto tale. Ma anche il Libro del Cortegiano nel suo complesso un enun-
ciato del cortigiano Baldassarre Castiglione sulla arte e disciplina
9
della cor-
tigiania che deve quindi obbedire alle sue regole, di cui fa parte, come abbia-
339
8
Charles-Joseph, prince de Ligne, Mmoires, prefazione di C. Thomas, Parigi 2004, p.
186. Napoleone, il Prince de Ligne se ne rende ben conto, un personnaggio eccezionale,
ma non citabile, non assimilabile in conversazione. I detti spiritosi con cui il Prince de
Ligne riempie le sue Memorie consistono invece di inezie come la seguente: Combien de
fois il arrive de dire haut ce quon croit penser trs bas. On sait che le marquis dAlbertas
trouvant sa femme dans les bras dun jeune homme sduit apparemment par son esprit, car
elle est affreuse, lui dit: Quoi, monsieur, sans y tre oblig! Je partais de chez elle ... pour
Vienne. Comment, me dit-elle, par un hiver affreux, un temps dtestable et cinq cents
lieues! Hlas, oui, madame, lui dis-je, et sans y tre oblig! (op. cit., p. 258s).
9
B. Castiglione, Il Cortegiano, per cura del Conte C. Baudi di Vesme, Firenze 1854,
pp. 315 sgg.
mo visto, loccultamento sistematico delle fonti del proprio sapere (privato).
Come tutti gli editori del testo hanno dovuto sperimentare, quella sprezzatura
per artificiosa ed il testo consiste in verit in unintricata tassellatura di
citazioni nascoste, di allusioni, di confutazioni indirette, ecc.
Se facciamo un salto cronologico verso la fine dellepoca cortigiana, negli
scritti di Baltasar Gracin, che hanno largamente sostituito il Libro del Cortegiano
sul mercato librario europeo, il quadro cambia solo fino ad un certo punto. Anche
il libro pi celebre di Gracin, lOrculo manual y arte de prudencia (1647) si
presenta a prima vista come risultato diretto della pratica di corte. Ma
questOrculo esplicitamente, fin dalla copertina, il compendio, il riassunto di
altri libri (o libriccini) di Gracin: El Hroe, El Poltico ed El Discreto, a loro volta
densissimi di giudizi letterari e riferimenti bibliografici. Cito come illustrazione
soltanto il primo elenco delle fonti di Gracin, tratto dalla prefazione al suo primo
libro, El Hroe: Formronle prudente, Seneca; sagaz, Esopo; belicoso, Homero;
Aristtele, filsofo, Tcito, poltico, y cortesano el Conde (5b).
Gi questo elenco, per quanto succinto, comunque pi esteso e varie-
gato di quello che troviamo nella prefazione di Castiglione. Esso mette lac-
cento su autori latini del periodo imperiale e non pi repubblicano, ma, sopra-
tutto, non si limita pi a citare modelli antichi. Gracin include a conclusione
del suo elenco almeno un modello moderno, Il Libro del Cortegiano del
conte per antonomasia, Baldassarre Castiglione. Questa modernizzazione
delle fonti viene poi proseguita da Gracin nella sua Agudeza (1648) ed innan-
zitutto negli ultimi capitoli del suo romanzo El Criticn (1657). Nellepitome
del suo lavoro di intellettuale di corte, tuttavia, nellOraculo manual, non
rimane traccia del dettagliatissimo lavoro letterario dispiegato negli altri
scritti. La pratica di corte anche per Gracin opaca e non deve lasciar tra-
sparire il bagaglio di letture dal quale attinge.
N Castiglione n Gracin lasciano quindi intravedere il cantiere della pro-
duzione culturale di corte. N loro n altri autori del loro calibro chiariscono che
cosa debba imparare un apprendista cortigiano per partecipare a quella cultura.
In un certo senso, Gracin ci fornisce troppi dati, Castiglione troppo pochi. Il
funzionamento del meccanismo culturale cortigiano si pu solo comprendere
partendo dal punto di vista di un apprendista, non da quello del maestro com-
piuto. Un manualetto di un cortigiano alle prime armi pu forse illustrarci
meglio, quali materiali culturali siano veramente indispensabili e, soprattutto,
come vadano impiegati nel contesto della conversazione di corte.
II. Manualetti per principianti cortigiani non mancano di certo nel perio-
do che ci riguarda. Tra di essi ho scelto lopera di un umanista relativamente
Manfred Hinz
340
poco noto, anche se non del tutto oscuro, quello di Juan Lorenzo Palmireno,
autore vissuto fra il 1524 e il 1579, che rivest principalmente il ruolo di pro-
fessore di retorica allUniversit di Valencia. LUniversit di Valencia, sia
detto per inciso, era ununiversit di fondazione recente su iniziativa della
famiglia dei Borgia, quindi poco prestigiosa e con gli stessi problemi delle
universit giovani di oggi: prediligeva cio lofferta di curricula innovativi e
sperimentali che allapparenza offrivano migliori chance di carriera profes-
sionale. Palmireno un autore poco studiato, ma esistono due monografie sul
suo conto, oltre a un paio di articoli. Palmireno noto sopratutto perch
Baltasar Gracin a distanza di pi di due generazioni cita ed elogia due suoi
libri, El estudioso de la aldea (1568) e El estudioso cortesano (1573), trovan-
doli dignos de la librera del varn discreto
10
. Altrimenti abbiamo di
Palmireno una trentina di libri stampati
11
sia in spagnolo che in latino; spesso
i suoi testi oscillano fra le due lingue allinterno dello stesso capitolo.
Occasionalmente per fare sfoggio di erudizione, Palmireno inserisce qualche
vocabolo o espressione in greco e persino in ebraico senza traduzione alcu-
na
12
. Non elencher qui i titoli di quei libri, ma vorrei soltanto sottolineare una
tendenza generale: tutti i testi mirano a fornire al lettore una cultura istanta-
neamente solubile in societ, di pronto uso in conversazione, subito impiega-
bile senza bisogno di trascorrere anni di studio in biblioteca. Inoltre, la variet
dei titoli dei libri del Palmireno non ci deve ingannare sul contenuto, si tratta
quasi sempre di collages
13
in cui lautore riassembla testi, capitoli, raccolte
gi pubblicate altrove (talvolta plagiati da altri autori). In questo filone di cul-
tura preconfezionata sinserisce per esempio ledizione degli esercizi retorici,
Progymnasmata (1552), nella traduzione latina del protestante Johannes
Maria Catanaeus
14
, poi inclusa nei numerosi trattati di retorica del
341
10
B. Gracin, Agudeza y Arte de Inegnio, in Obras completas, cit., p. 435b. Palmireno
viene elogiato anche nel romanzo El Criticn, parte II, crisi IV, facendo parte del Museo
del Discreto (p. 722a).
11
Una bibliografia affidabile si trova in A. Gallego Barnes, Juan Lorenzo Palmireno
(1524-1579). Un humanista aragons en el Studi General de Valencia, Zaragoza 1982, pp.
279-287.
12
Ibid., p. 89.
13
Questo vocabolo molto appropriato per la scrittura del Palmireno fu coniato da H.
Mrime, Lart dramatique Valencia depuis les origines jusquau commencement du XVII
me sicle, Toulouse-Paris 1913, p. 283, e ripreso da A. Gallego, Les refraneros de Juan
Lorenzo Palmireno, Thse de Doctorat du 3me Cycle, Facult des Lettres et Science
Humaines de Toulouse, 1969, p. 43.
14
Per lenorme successo dei Progymnasmata nelle scuole di retorica protestanti come
gesuitiche a partire dalla met del 500 cfr. M. Hinz, Agudeza e Progymnasmata, in Id., I
Palmireno
15
. A questo filone appartengono anche il De vera & innanzitutto
facili imitatione Ciceronis (1560), il Vocabulario del Humanista, consisten-
te semplicemente in una disordinatissima raccolta di varie curiosit
16
in appe-
na 170 pagine nella versione ultima, e soprattutto Il latino de repente gi il
titolo un programma che nel 500 ebbe 12 ristampe
17
, pur dipendendo
pesantemente dalle Elegantiae di Paolo Manuzio
18
. Insieme a tanti altri uma-
nisti, specialmente accademici del secondo 500, Palmireno appartiene quin-
di a quella vasta schiera di divulgatori della tradizione culturale europea clas-
sica, ma anche moderna ingiustamente (in un certo senso) condannata dalle-
rudito Gregorio Mayans y Siscar
19
alla fine del 700 e poi da Marcelino
Menndez y Pelayo
20
(una specie di Bendetto Croce spagnolo) allinizio del
900.
Limpresa semplificatrice di Palmireno sinserisce fino a un certo punto
in quella grande riforma delle discipline umanistiche rilanciata nella seconda
met del 500 da Petrus Ramus (Pierre de la Rame). Palmireno parla infatti
spesso e volentieri di orden y metodo
21
, i due concetti chiave del ramismo,
ma nei suoi trattati di retorica queste qualit sono praticamente assenti
22
. Ci
Manfred Hinz
342
mezzi umani e i mezzi dicini. Cinque commenti a Baltasar Gracin, Roma, 2005, pp. 119-
206.
15
Cfr. Gallego Barnes, Juan Lorenzo Palmireno, cit., pp. 49 sgg, 120 sgg, 145.
16
Ibid., pp. 209 sgg, paragona il Latino de repente giustamente con las innumerables
Silvas de varias lecciones dellepoca.
17
Cfr. C. Lynn, Juan Lorenzo Palmireno, Spanish Humanist. His Correlation of
Courses in a Sixteenth-Century University, Hispania, XII (1929), p. 251.
18
Quelle Elegantiae del Palmireno, poco pi di una lista di vocaboli, vengono indica-
te come traducidas de lengua toscana sulle copertine delle edizioni dopo il 1595.
19
G. Mayans y Siscar, Specimen bibliothecae, .. p. 103, dice del Palmireno: homo
fuit multae ac variae lectionis, sed neque praeclari ingenii, neque magni iudicii.
20
M. Mnendez y Pelayo, Historia de las ideas estticas en Espaa, Madrid 1947, t.
II, p. 176. Sembra, infatti, del tutto fuori luogo laffermazione di A. E. Schafer, Two Early
Spanish Students Guidebooks: J. L. Palmirenos El estudioso de la aldea and El estudio-
so cortesano, Iberoromania, XXIX (1989), pp. 15-42: Palmireno is a deep thinker (p.
21). Ap. 41, lautrice, che ignora persino i lavori di Gallego Barnes, si sente obbligata a sal-
vare Palmireno dal sospetto di essere nothing more than a shrewd materialist with a pen-
chant towards opportunism. Per Schafer, Palmireno is a visonary pedagogue (p. 38) che
avrebbe persino anticipato le teorie pedagogiche del 900 (ibid.), un osservazione che so
potrebbe, in un certo senso, persino trovare nel giusto.
21
Cfr. Gallego, Les refraneros, p. 16; Schafer, Two Early Spanish, cit., p. 17.
22
Ho potuto consultare: Laurentij Palmyreni DE ARTE DICENDI LIbri quinque. Ad
Clariimum adolscentem Petrum Peraltam Patritium Valentinum, editio tertia locupletata,
senza luogo, senza anno, presumibilmente 1573 (esemplare della BN Madrid). In questo
trattato, Palmireno limita la retorica alla sola elocutio (lib. II) e sappoggia esplicitamente su
pare, piuttosto, che Palmireno sia stato attratto soprattutto dalla semplifica-
zione ramista del trivio o poco pi
23
.
Palmireno fissa nella prefazione a El Estudioso cortesano, il libro per noi
pi importante, i quattro obiettivi del suo insegnamento: deuocin, buena
criana, pulido latin, y lo que llaman agibilia
24
. In questa lista, devocin e
latino pulido per il momento non necessitano di un commento
25
. Pi inte-
ressanti sono gli agibilia, le cose trattabili, connesse strettamente, come
vedremo, alle buone maniere
26
. Mentre gli scopi educativi di devozione,
conoscenza del latino e pratica delle buone maniere vengono trattati in El
Estudioso de la aldea, il manuale seguente, El estudioso cortesano destinato
a ragazzi fra 18 e 20 anni, si concentra in agibilibus. Gi la definizione di
agibilia mostra chiarissime tracce dellarte cortigiana, per, per cos dire, a un
livello pi basso:
343
Vives, Ramus e Talaeus (p. 32). Dalla bibliografia di Andrs Gallego Barnes vedo, tuttavia,
che in altri trattati di retorica, precedenti ma anche del medesimo anno della sua summa in
materia retorica citata sopra, Palmireno aveva anche incluso linventio nella retorica (op. cit.,
pp. 281s).
23
La reale ricezione del ramismo da parte di Palmireno questione aperta al dibattito.
Lynn, Juan Lorenzo Palmireno, cit., p. 256, sostiene la dipendenza di Palmireno da Ramo.
Mette pi laccento sullapporto di Vives invece Gallego Barnes, Juan Lorenzo Palmireno,
cit., pp. 114 sgg, 119. L. Lpez Grigera, La retrica en la Espaa del Siglo de Oro,
Salamanca 1994, pp. 52 e 91, non si pronuncia sul suo ramismo. Fuori dubbio invece
linfluenza del De inventione dialectica di Rudolf Agricola su Palmireno, cfr. Gallego
Barnes, Juan Lorenzo Palmireno, cit., pp. 117 sgg. Per il ruolo di Agricola nella preparazio-
ne della riforma ramista cfr. Hinz, I mezzi umani, cit., pp. 128 sgg.
24
EL Estudioso Cortesano, de Loreno Palmyreno. Agora en esta vltima impression
aadido el Prouerbiador, o Cartapacio. CONTIENENSE, El estudioso Pobre por bouedad, o
grosseria. En conuersacion. Combidado. Enfermo. Caminante. Discreto en sus persecucio-
nes. CON PRIVILEGIO. En Alcala de Henares, en casa de Juan Iiguez de Lequerica, Ao
1587, s. p.
25
Palmireno assume in genere posizioni ciceroniane, ma si mantiene, in fin dei conti,
molto flessibile: Seguirs al que quisieres, o a Erasmo, o a Politiano, o a Cicern,
Laurentij Palmyreni de vera & facili imitatione Ciceronis cui aliquot opuscula studiosis
adolescentibus vtilissima adiuncta sunt, Ad Illustrissimum virum Honoratum Ioannium
Caroli Hispaniarum Principis praeceptorem dignissimum. Caesaraugustae 1560. colophon:
Fue impresso el presente libro en la muy noble ciudad de Caragoa, en casa de Pedro
Bernz, p. viii.
26
Il Tratado de buena criana, incluso dal Palmireno nel suo Estudioso de la aldea,
chiaramente una traduzione abbreviata del De civilitate di Erasmo. Palmireno omette gli
avvisi erasmiani sul vomito, le flatulenze, la defecazione, i rutti ed altri argomenti trattabili
evidentemente solo in latino, cfr. Gallego Barnes, Juan Lorenzo Palmireno, cit., pp. 238-
242.
Agibilia llama el vulgo la desemboltura que el hombre tiene en ganar vn real, en
saberlo conseruar, y multiplicar, en saberse bien assentar su cuerpo, tratarse lim-
pio, buscar su descanso, ganar las voluntades y fauores, conseruar su salud, no
dexarse engaar quando algo compra, y regirse de modo que no puedan dezir:
Este hombre sacade del libro, es un gran asno
27
.
Un altro brano presenta luomo agile come versione modernizzata del
perfetto oratore ciceroniano:
Este (agibilia/M.H.) es un vocablo que es vulgo tiene a la mano con que echa
fuera a los letrados, diciendo: fulano, docto es pero in Agibilibus fltale mucho.
Al que el brbaro llama homo agibilis, llama Cicern in rebus gerendis vir acer
et industrius
28
.
Le due citazione possono bastare, crediamo, a comprendere a cosa miri
linsegnamento del Palmireno. Gli agibilia sono una nuova versione della
disinvoltura cortigiana, una disinvoltura al ribasso, si capisce, vicina da una
parte alla cultura del corpo e alle buone maniere pi spicciole, dallaltra
allabilit affaristica
29
. Rimane ben riconoscibile, per, la traccia della retori-
ca cortigiana indirizzata a ganar las voluntades y fauores. Palmireno pre-
senta infatti il suo Estudioso cortesano esplicitamente come versione sempli-
ficata e pi facilmente applicabile del Cortegiano di Castiglione:
Yo imagino mi aldeano, que es venido a ciudad, y por haber mudado de asiento
le llamo Cortesano, y no por pretender que tiene todo lo que el Conde don
Baltasar de Castellon en su Cortesano ensea. [...] Cuanto mas que yo no ense-
o Teologa, ni Medicina, sino vna cierta facilidad de tratar con la gente: en la
cual por los aos que tengo, o por los libros que he leydo, se me debe algun cre-
dito
30
.
Manfred Hinz
344
27
L. Palmireno, El estudioso cortesano, Al benigno Lector, s. p.
28
Ibid., s. p.
29
In El estudioso de la aldea, Valencia, en casa de Joan Mey, 1568, il Palmireno for-
nisce una bella collezione di esempi del tipo dal lavapiatti al milionario: Saul apascentaua
las asnas, Dauid las ouejas; y por su gran virtud merescieron y llegaron a ser reyes. [...]
Tamorlan guardaua puercos, y fue rey de Tataria (p. 24).
30
Palmireno, El estudioso cortesano, cit., Al benigno Lector s.p. Gi nel suo El estu-
dioso de la aldea Palmireno si distanzia da Castiglione: El Cortesano que yo busco, no es
el galn que sirve a vna dama, come el Conde Balthasar Castelln lo retrata, sino vn docto
moo, contrario a grossero y suzio (ibid., p. 86).
Come vedremo, a questa specifica facilidad de tratar con la gente viene
subordinato ogni sapere: essa la competenza specificamente cortigiana.
Sia il manualetto El estudioso en la aldea che la sua continuazione, El
estudioso cortesano, mirano a fornire al giovane rampante un sapere imme-
diatamente applicabile nella conversazione sociale, perch creo ciertamente,
que el ser un hombre de letras bouo, grossero, [...] frio en la conuersacion, [...]
le causa probreza
31
. A questo scopo lecito persino fingere unerudizione
umanistica in verit inesistente, come stanno a dimostrare le Paradoxa
Grammatica
32
incluse in El estudioso en la aldea, oppure tutto il volume di
El latino de repente. Ci limitiamo a poche esemplificazioni: El estudioso cor-
tesano contiene un capitolo su El estudioso en conversacion che si apre con
un elogio della conversazione chiaramente ispirato dallAd Petrum Pauluim
Histrum Dialogus di Leonardo Bruni
33
. Subito dopo, tuttavia, lautore forni-
sce una Sylva de puntos de conuersacion
34
che contiene veramente le curio-
sit pi peregrine per intrattenere argutamente, come sottolinea Palmireno
la societ: perch un corpo annegato riemerge dallacqua dopo tre giorni,
perch un cadavere ucciso da un fulmine non va mai in putrefazione; perch
un fulmine, che colpisce una donna incinta, uccide il feto senza ferire la
donna; chi sono gli zingari, ecc. Altre proposte spaziano dalla filosofia natu-
rale, a curiosit su varie citt, alle doti soprannaturali o per lo meno straordi-
narie di vari personaggi storici, alle guerre suscitate da donne, al numero degli
angeli, agli effetti del vino, agli stemmi delle casate nobiliari, agli emblemi e
geroglifici
35
e, naturalmente, alla letteratura, specialmente contemporanea, di
cui vengono raccomandati lOrlando furioso e la Diana di Jorge de Montema-
yor come particolarmente adatti a iniziare e sostenere una conversazione ani-
mata. Segue il capitolo Del estudioso conbidado, corredato subito da una
lunga lista di Refranes de mesa
36
, di detti pi o meno arguti cio ordinati
alfabeticamente e utilizzabili per intrattenere la compagnia. Poi arriva El
estudioso enfermo con tutta laneddotica sulle malattie pi varie il mal
gallico incluso, naturalmente
37
e le relative cure
38
e cos via. Per tutte que-
345
31
Ibid., p. 3v.
32
Ibid., pp. 205-240.
33
Ibid., p. 29r.
34
Ibid., pp. 33v-39v.
35
A tale proposito cfr. in particolare L. Palmireno, Oroy Apollonos Neilou ieroglyphi-
ca. Valentiae. Excudebat Antonius Sanahuja, 1556.
36
Cfr. Palmireno, El estudioso cortesano, cit., pp. 42r-51r
37
Cfr. anche Id., El estudioso en la aldea, cit., p. 50.
38
Per ulteriori dettagli cfr. Schafer, Two Early Spanish, cit., pp. 15-18.
ste proposte, Palmireno si vanta di aver spogliato 240 autori classici e moder-
ni
39
, fra cui anche il Castiglione quale autore di facezie
40
, e senza nessuna
remora di tipo confessionale. Palmireno cita tranquillamente Luis Vives, sicu-
ramente la sua fonte pi importante, ma anche Erasmo e persino la
Cosmographia di Sebastian Mnster, al primo posto tra i libri proibiti.
Per il cortigiano apprendista di Palmireno, la conversazione costituisce
un campo particolarmente arduo e pericoloso, erudizione umanistica e cono-
scenze letterarie, quindi, devono servire innanzitutto a districarsi evitando
passi falsi:
En fin, o no aceptes convite, o si vas: imagina que sales a batalla: porque tendrs
muchos ojos sobre ti. Si no comes, dirn para qu vino el hipocrita? Si comes
muchos dicen: Mirad como camina a buen paso. [...] Aprovchete tus letras de
modo, che les tengas tal conuersacin que no solamente se olviden de ver cmo
comes ms an se huelguen mucho haberte llamado
41
.
Ulteriori spunti per far bella figura di erudito e faceto in societ forni-
scono le Hypotyposes clarissimorum virorum ad extemporalem dicendi facul-
tatem vtilissimae pubblicate da Palmireno nel 1572 in appendice al suo
Phrases Ciceronis Obscvriores in Hispanicam Linguae conversae. Tali Hypo-
typoses sono descrizioni standardizzate, adottabili a qualsiasi circostanza;
Palmireno sceglie per la prima esercitazione un argomento piuttosto salace:
Finge que oyes este thema: En todas partes es conocida esta puta vieja. Bien
entiendes, lo que conviene: pero no te mueve mucho el entendimiento, a abo-
rrescer la. Mira la hypotyposis de excellte Ioan de Mena, o del Bachiller Rojas
de Montalua
42
.
Aseguire vengono naturalmente stampati i relativi brani letterari che pos-
sono servire al caso
43
. A un predicatore in chiesa e anche a un cortigiano di
Manfred Hinz
346
39
Elenco in Gallego Barnes, Juan Lorenzo Palmireno, cit., pp. 267 sgg.
40
Cfr. Palmireno, El estudioso en la aldea, cit., p. 199, dove viene anche citato il De ser-
mone di Giovanni Pontano. Cfr. anche Palmireno, El estudioso cortesano, cit., pp. 37r e 149r.
41
Palmireno, El estudioso cortesano, cit., p. 40r.
42
PHRASES CICERONIS OBSCVRIORES IN HISPANICAM LINGVAM CONVERSAE
A LAVRENTIO PALMYRENO. ITEM EIVSDEM Hypotyposes clarissimorum virorum ad
extemporalem dicendi facultatem vtilissimae. EIVSDEM ORATIO POST reditum in
Academia Valentina Mense Augusto 1572. VALENTIAE. Ex Typographia Petri Huete, in
platea Herbaria, s. a., p. 25r.
43
Interessante, a questo riguardo anche la le regole di Palmireno per la epistola ama-
toria. Nella sua ars epistolandi il Palmireno si limita alla frase seguente: Non est nostri
buona societ occorrono, normalmente, altri temi ed altri semiprodotti discor-
sivi:
Si has de ser predicador [...] veras muy gran prouecho para retratar vna Ester,
Iudith, Assuero, Salomon. [...] Estas y otras muchas historias la gente comun ya
de tanto oyr, las sabe de coro, contando las tu, ellos duermen, para mouerlos,
haras hypotyposes en cada vna dellas. Mouerles has mas deuocion, y quitarles
has el sueo. [...] Tratando entre Cortesanos mucho tipo, aun que seas vn gros-
sero, sales tal como ellos. Tambien tratando con estas hypotyposes de los mas
doctores que hoy se hallan, vernas tener la misma gracia de ellos. No te de pena
que el vno es Ciceroniano, el otro affectado, el otro duro, porque no has de mirar
aqui sino la buena inuenci, y orden, c que dizen, todo lo que quieren, tu te lo
puedes acomodar. [...] Si quieres hablar de repente ten las (le Hypotyposes/M.H.)
en la mano, que por esso van impressas en libro pequeo
44
.
Come argomenti specificamente cortigiani per i quali offrire una serie di
descrizioni standard riutilizzabili in ogni evenienza, il Palmireno sceglie lin-
gresso di un principe in citt o il caso di una citt conquistata. I testi modello
cominciano con la conquista di Cremona tratta dalle Historiae di Tacito e pro-
seguono con brani di Plinio, Paolo Giovio, ecc. Nel bel mezzo di questa
Urbis captae imago ex variis autoris troviamo per anche una Imago
amantis ex Theocrito
45
in lingua greca, una Hypotyposis qua nauis
Cleopatrae Plutarco depingitur
46
, una Tempestati descriptio ex Pauli
Iouij
47
e altri materiali di varia erudizione. Nella scelta dei suoi testi model-
lo da copiare, Palmireno si disinteressa del tutto dellacceso dibattito contem-
poraneo intorno al ciceronianismo
48
; i testi possono essere ciceroniani o no,
347
muneris ostendere nostris discipulis, quoniam modo puellas solicitare possint, habent
Ouidium, Boscanum, & Monte Maior praeceptoris (Dilucida conscribendi epistolas ratio,
qvondam Laurentio Palmyreno [...] aucta & emendata, Valentiae, apud Petri Huete, 1585, p.
47).
44
Palmireno, Phrases Ciceronis, cit., pp. 25v-26r.
45
Ibid., pp. 28r sgg.
46
Ibid., p. 28v.
47
Ibid., p. 35v.
48
Elencare il Palmireno fra i ciceroniani rigidi (cfr. Lpez Grigera, La retrica, cit.,
p. 91) quindi significa gi di prenderlo troppo sul serio. Il luogo deputato per decidere sul
ciceronianismo sempre la ars epistolandi, esercizio obbligatorio per ogni umanista cin-
quecentesco. Come modelli stilistici il Palmireno raccomanda infatti autori ciceroniani (in
prevalenza italiani): Longolius, Sadoletus, Petrus Bembus, Lodovicus Regius, Caelius
Calcagninus, poco dopo, tuttavia, ammette anche Erasmo, Poliziano ed il Pico; Palmireno,
Dilucida conscribendi epistolas, cit., p. 15.
qui importa solo che siano efficaci e facilmente copiabili. Tutti questi mate-
riali sono preparati per un uso istantaneo; essi sono, come reca il titolo, ad
extemporalem dicendi facultatem utilissimae: si cambiano nomi e date, e gli
esempi offerti sono prontamente replicabili per produrre quella spontaneit
colta ed elegante nella conversazione unanimemente richiesta dalla trattatisti-
ca di corte. Si tratta, quindi, di una spontaneit della citazione (occulta). Per
questo motivo Palmireno, come dichiara egli stesso con apprezzabile fran-
chezza, ha fatto stampare il suo libro in formato cos piccolo da poter entrare
agevolmente in ogni manica. I consumati umanisti che Castiglione mette in
scena nel suo Cortegiano forse non avevano bisogno di trattatelli simili, ma
proprio libri come quelli di Palmireno rivelano nella loro rudimentale inge-
nuit il segreto di gran parte dellerudizione e delleleganza cortigiane.
Ricorrendo ai libri di Palmireno (o ad altri simili) il cortigiano princi-
piante corre naturalmente il rischio che il cortigiano concorrente si aiuti con
lo stesso manualetto. Perci, col passare del tempo ogni aspirante cortigiano
dovrebbe organizzarsi un quadernetto proprio con gli estratti delle proprie let-
ture. Palmireno definisce un tale florilegio di pronto uso cartapacio, pro-
verbiador, refranero o codex excerptorius. I suoi libri non sono, in fin dei
conti, che tali collages di citazioni. Lo stesso vale, su tuttaltro livello natu-
ralmente, per un libro come lAgudeza y arte de ingenio di Baltasar Gracin
specializzato sui detti arguti
49
. El estudioso cortesano termina con un capi-
tolo su El Proverbiador
50
come llave de doctrina, ayuda de memoria che
contiene regole molto dettagliate su come stendere un tale scartafaccio.
Queste regole, naturalmente, non sono di invenzione del Palmireno, bens
derivano da Erasmo, De duplici copia verborum ac rerum, oppure da Luis
Vives, De tradendis disciplinis
51
. Le entrate sono da organizzare in colonne
oppure in quadernetti separati nel modo seguente:
1) in vno eorum annotabis vocabula usu quotidiani,
2) in altero vocabula rara, & exquisita,
3) in alio idiomata, & formulas loquendi,
4) in alio sententias,
5) in alio festiv dicta, aut facta,
Manfred Hinz
348
49
Sullordine interno dellAgudeza di Baltasar Gracin, cfr. autore, I mezzi umani, cit.,
p. 194.
50
Palmireno, El estudioso cortesano, cit., 139r-151v. Lo stesso testo si trova pure in El
estudioso en la aldea, cit., pp. 132-202.
51
Cfr. A. Quondam, Forma del vivere. Letica del gentiluomo e i moralisti italiani,
Bologna 2010, pp. 176 sgg.
6) in alio argut dicta,
7) in alio proverbia, vel adagia,
8) in alio scriptorum difficiles locos explicatos,
9) in alia parte historias,
10) in alia fabulas,
11) in alia viros famosos ac nobiles,
12) in alia urbes insignes,
13) in alia animantes, stirpes, gemmas peregrinas,
14) in alio dubia nondum soluta.
Palmireno aggiunge un commento con esempi pi o meno numerosi alle
prime dodici voci di questo elenco tralasciando, non si sa perch, le ultime
due. Quel che oggi stupisce nellordine di Vives, Erasmo, o rispettivamente di
Palmireno, , paradossalmente, il disordine dei piani del discorso, dove curio-
sit linguistiche riguardanti il latino, si affiancano indistintamente a curiosit
del mondo reale. Perch un brandello di sapere possa accedere a un tale qua-
dernetto comunque decisivo che sia di facile impiego e che possa stuzzica-
re la curiosit del pubblico. Solo questo, forse, distingue lo scartafaccio uma-
nistico dallodierno quaderno di scuola.
La conversazione di corte si svolge per lo meno in apparenza sponta-
neamente, con sprezzatura e ngligeance, senza studio e fatica (Castiglione)
ed esclusivamente in maniera orale, con una spontaneit che necessita per,
perlomeno nei principianti, di un supporto scritto e preparato con grande cura.
In sostanza, la conversazione di corte traduce piccole porzioni di cultura scrit-
ta adeguatamente preconfezionate in una nuova oralit spontanea. Lo scarta-
faccio del Palmireno, stampato o no, costituisce larsenale del cortigiano e,
naturalmente, anche della donna di corte. Lo scartafaccio stesso, tuttavia, non
deve apparire direttamente nella societ di corte, ma deve rimanere nascosto,
casomai nelle maniche del cortigiano.
La sprezzatura di corte quindi, e non credo di dire cose nuove, un pro-
dotto almeno in parte prefabbricato, un bricolage che riusa (un termine di
Paolo Cherchi) materiali culturali provenienti da altri contesti. Tali materiali,
inoltre, non provengono mai direttamente dalle fonti originali, bens da altre
raccolte erudite di seconda o di terza mano. Autori come Palmireno sono rile-
vanti, magari a loro malgrado, proprio perch documentano una decisa
modernizzazione delle fonti del sapere. Miscellanee antiche come quelle di
Valerio Massimo o Diogene Lartio erano diventate, nella seconda met del
500, del tutto secondarie, sostituite innanzitutto da Erasmo e Vives, ma poi
anche da autori strettamente contemporanei come Henri Estienne, Lazare
Baf, Morisot fra i francesi, come Platina fra gli italiani e innanzitutto da auto-
349
ri spagnoli in lingua volgare come Pero Mexa, Antonio de Guevara, Pedro
Valls, Andrs Rodrguez, Blasco y Garay, Antonio Prez de Moya e tanti
altri
52
. Solo piccola parte di questi repertori era gi disponibile ai cortigiani del
tempo di Castiglione. Ma sar proprio la disponibilit di questo sapere prt-
porter, cresciuto a dismisura nel corso di due generazioni fra Castiglione e
Palmireno, ad acuire la sindrome di emulazione dei concorrenti cortigiani e a
generare le poetiche dellacutezza, arguzia, agudeza, pointe, wit, o come dir
si voglia, le poetiche, in breve, dellet barocca.
III. Una breve aggiunta di storia terminologica infine simpone. Le ricer-
che sullorgine dellaforisma moderno hanno generalmente indicato come
primo esempio il Tcito espaol (1602) di Baltasar Alamos de Barrientos, cor-
redato a margine di aforismi poi stampati anche separatamente
53
. Ora dob-
biamo retrodatare lemergere di questo termine e genere letterario di almeno
due generazioni fino a un autore certamente di minor calibro rispetto al cele-
bre traduttore spagnolo di Tacito. Palmireno inserisce infatti regolarmente fra
i suoi capitoli liste di Aphorismi che riassumono le pagine precedenti in
frasi pi facilmente memorizzabili
54
. Non sempre questi aforismi provengono
dalla penna di Palmireno; il primo capitolo del Estudioso cortesano, per esem-
pio, si conclude con Consuelos de Luis Vives para todo lo dicho muy proue-
choso e poi ancora Aphorismi del Petrarca, tratti dal De remediis e cos
via
55
.
La parola aforisma, praticamente intercambiabile con consuelo,
sententia, proverbio, ecc., indica quindi nel contesto contemporaneo sem-
plicemente una frase riassuntiva e memorizzabile. Solo in questo senso, e non
come genere letterario autonomo, il termine viene utilizzato da Alamos de
Barrientos e ancora da Baltasar Gracin nel suo Orculo manual. La
Rochefoucauld ancora lontano.
Manfred Hinz
350
52
Una lista perlomeno quasi completa delle fonti del Palmireno si trova in Gallego
Barnes, Juan Lorenzo Palmireno, cit., pp. 249 sgg.
53
Per tutto il dibattito intorno a Baltasar Alamos de Barrientos ed il suo maestro
Antonio Prez, cfr. G. Neumann (ed.), Der Aphorismus. Zur Geschichte, zu den Formen und
Mglichkeiten einer literarischen Gattung, Darmstadt 1976, pp. 210 sgg.; cfr. anche H.
Fricke, Aphorismus, Stuttgart 1984, pp. 47 sgg.
54
Cfr. per es. Palmireno, El estudioso cortesano, cit., pp. 21r
55
Il modello di tutte queste raccolte di aforismi del Palmireno sono, ovviamente, le
Adagia erasmiani; paragoni testuali in Gallego, Les refraneros, cit., p. 33.
IV. Methodological approaches
Dennis Smith
NORBERT ELIAS AND THE COURT SOCIETY
Norbert Elias and Darwins finches
Norbert Eliass The Court Society gave a strong impulse to the historical
study of royal courts. But there is a mystery about the book. Elias found the
original typescript, written in 1933, hidden amongst his papers during the mid
1960s. Having secured a German publisher, he found the time to write a new
introductory chapter on history and sociology, an additional chapter on aris-
tocratic romanticism, and two appendices, one on the economic ethos of the
court aristocracy, the other on structural conflicts within the Nazi state
1
. But
why did Elias not also find the time to bring its historical sources more up to
date
2
?
The answer implicitly suggested by the text of 1969 is that Elias, who
was then seventy-two, was primarily concerned with providing future schol-
ars with methodological guidelines and theoretical insights that would show
them how to look at historical materials. That took priority over the task of
checking whether the empirical generalisations at which he had arrived over
three decades previously could withstand the challenge of subsequent
353
1
There are also occasional cross references in the text to Eliass work since 1933 eg N.
Elias, The Court Society, Oxford 1983, pp. 92, 96, 116, 139.
2
Elias relies on French texts of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
including some twenty citations of Saint-Simons memoirs; classic French historians from
the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries including Taine, Lavisse, and Lemonnier sup-
plemented by Ranke; and near-contemporary sociologists such as Weber, Sombart and
Veblen. See R. Chartier, Social figuration and habitus, in Id., Cultural History. Between
practices and representations, Cambridge 1988, pp. 71-94.
research. It would have been amazing if new empirical evidence had not
emerged over that period, and obviously it had. However, Eliass method of
analysis is sufficiently robust to absorb and digest new evidence. It retains its
usefulness as a powerful way of looking at history, although obviously not the
only valid approach.
Some background is needed. During the 1920s and 1930s Elias became
disillusioned, first with philosophy and later with sociology and history as
practised by his contemporaries
3
. By the time he passed retirement age three
decades later, Elias had finally committed himself to a professional identity as
a sociologist, having spent the 1940s and 1950s in recovery from the trauma
produced by his intense personal involvement in the maelstrom caused by the
upheavals in Germany between the wars
4
. In those decades he had published
very little although he continued to write and teach.
In The Court Society
5
Elias announced his entry as an active and assertive
player in the international academic arena. He presented himself as one whose
task was to reform sociology, enabling it to overcome outmoded ways of
thinking
6
. In section nine of the introductory chapter Elias makes a distinction
between three related layers in the processes of changes that affect
humankind. These are: biological evolution, where change is slowest: social
development, the intermediate layer, where change occurs more quickly but is
Dennis Smith
354
3
N. Elias, Reflections on a Life, Cambridge 1994, pp. 88-89; Id., The Civilizing
Process (originally in two volumes: vol 1, The History of Manners; vol 2, State Formation
and Civilization), Cambridge 1994; published in 1939 as ber den Prozess der Zivilisation,
Basel.
4
See Eliass use of the Edgar Allen Poes story of the two sailors whose boat was
trapped in a maelstrom and being sucked underneath the surface of the water. One sailor pan-
icked and drowned. The other kept his head, remained detached, and survived. N. Elias,
Involvement and Detchment [part III originally published in 1983, Oxford 1987]; D. Smith,
The Civilizing Process and The History of Sexuality: Comparing Norbert Elias and Michel
Foucault, Theory and Society, 28, 1 (1999), pp. 79-100.
5
Note that The Civilizing Process was republished in the same year, also in German.
6
As well as the chapter in The Court Society entitled sociology and history, added in
1969, see also N. Elias, Sociology and psychiatry, in S. H. Foulkes S. G. Prince (eds.),
Psychiatry in a Changing Society, London 1969, pp. 117-144; Id., Processes of state forma-
tion and nation building, Transactions of 7
th
World Congress of Sociology, 3 (1970), pp.
274-284; Id., The sociology of knowledge: new perspectives, Sociology, 5, 2 (1971), pp.
149-168 and 355-370; Id., Towards a theory of communities, in C. Bell H. Newby (eds.),
The Sociology of Community. A Selection of Readings, London 1974, pp. ix-xi; Id., What is
Sociology?, London 1978; Id., On human beings and their emotions: a process-sociological
essay, Theory, Culture and Society, 4, 2-3 (1987), pp. 339-361; Id., The retreat of sociol-
ogists into the present, ivi, pp. 223-247.
still so slow that it may be imperceptible in a single human lifetime; and the
much faster moving layer of historical events, which Elias defines as the
individual works and deeds of people
7
.
Elias takes on the mission of laying bare the structures, processers, mech-
anisms and dynamics of the intermediate layer, the layer of social develop-
ment: of figurations slowly undergoing transformation, of long-term social
processes, and of habituses transmitted down the generations. The Civilizing
Process was republished in German in the same year that The Court Society
saw the light of day (see table 1). These two works, one looking at a particu-
lar figuration (as he came to call it), the other examining social development
processes, were his first major attempt in this direction. He spent the rest of
his life seeking to build upon that work.
Norbert Elias was as intellectually ambitious in the arena of social devel-
opment as was Charles Darwin in the sphere of biological evolution
8
. In fact,
Eliass life during and after the First World War were his equivalent of
Norbert Elias and The Court Society
355
7
Elias, The Court Society, cit., p. 15. Compare Fernand Braudels distinction between
historical events, conjunctures and structures. The difference is that Elias makes biological
evolution rather than the geographical environment his deepest layer. See F. Braudel, The
Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, London 1972, 2 vols.,
pp. 20-23; D. Smith, The Rise of Historical Sociology, Cambridge 1991, pp. 109-110.
8
In the late 1930s, in The Civilizing Process, Elias discusses the way figurations and
habituses (as he later called them) undergo change and comments on the compelling force
with which a particular social structure, a particular form of social intertwining, veers
through its tensions to a specific change, and so through to other forms of intertwining, a
process which, along with the accompanying changes in human mentality [...] can be
observed again and again in human history from earliest times to the present. In an accom-
panying note he refers to Darwin and notes that attempts to identify recurrent processes of
social, as opposed to biological, evolution have been undermined by a concern for what
should be rather than what is (Elias, The Civilizing Process, cit., pp. 445, 537). Elias admired
Darwins rigorous concentration on fact not value. Half a century later we find him writing:
One might think of Darwins approach to the problem of biological evolution. He was not
concerned with the problem as to whether amphibians were better than fish, mammals bet-
ter than reptiles or humans happier than apes.; he was simply concerned with the problem as
to how and why species had become what they were and with explaining why species which
appeared later in the evolutionary process had functional advantages over earlier types. The
problem of the development of societies in general....requires a similar approach (N. Elias,
Time. An Essay, Oxford 1992, p. 93). According to one adherent of Eliass approach,
Norbert Elias may be seen to have delivered the fourth blow to human narcissism, beyond
Copernicus, Darwin and Freud (R. Kilminster, Norbert Elias. Post-philosophical
Sociology, London 2007, p. 154). See also S. Freud, The resistances to psychoanalysis, in
A. Dickson (ed.), Pelican Freud Library, vol 15, Historical and Expository Works on
Psychoanalysis, Harmondsworth 1986, p. 273.
Darwins journey on the Beagle: often dangerous but also exhilarating, pro-
ducing a rapid inrush of new experiences and perceptions that would take
decades to sort out and put in order.
Seen in this way, the French court is Eliass Galapagos Islands. It is where
he gathers data which start the trains of thought that will eventually lead him
to give the world his theory of social development, or civilizing processes.
Like Darwin, Elias was working in a difficult environment towards the end of
a challenging and exhausting period. Errors crept in. Darwin, we know, neg-
lected to label his bird specimens from the Galapagos accurately. Earlier in the
expedition he had mistaken one of his most precious finds, a Patagonian rhea,
for a small ostrich and allowed it to be cooked for his supper. Fortunately, a
large part of the outer carcase remained and the rhea was later reconstructed
and put on show in the museum of the Zoological Society
9
. Like Darwin, Elias
made some mistakes when initially gathering his data. It is possible, for exam-
ple, that he relied a little too much on the testimony of Saint-Simon
10
. Or that
like Darwins finches, Eliass bourgeois specimens were not always classified
with sufficient clarity at first
11
.
Table One: Key Works by Norbert Elias
Title Date of First Publication First Publication First Publication
Composition in German in French in English
The Court 1933 1969 1974 1983
Society
The Civilizing Mid/late 1930s 1936-9, 1969 1973/1975 1978/82
Process (2 vols)
The Society of 1939, 1940s/50s, 1987 1987 1991
Individuals 1987
(3 essays)
The Germans 1960s-1980s 1989 1996
(5 essays)
Mozart 1970s, 1980s 1991 1991 1993
Dennis Smith
356
9
J. Browne, Charles Darwin. Voyaging, Volume I of a Biography, London 1995, pp.
269, 359.
10
See E. Le Roy Ladurie, Saint-Simon and the Court of Louis XIV, Chicago 2001.
11
For a critique, see J. Duindam, Myths of Power. Norbert Elias and the early modern
European court, Amsterdam, 1994.
Like Darwin, Elias worked for decades while withholding many of his
conclusions from publication: Darwin was not sure the public was ready for
his thoughts; Elias was not sure his thoughts were ready for the public. When
Elias overcame his reservations and recovered his confidence in the late 1960s
he was a man in his early seventies, not sure how much time he had left. He
evidently decided to concentrate his energies on presenting new arguments
that explained his own maturing approach rather than going over old ground
in Versailles.
Not Darwin but Maigret
Elias should be neither deified nor dismissed. He should be read because
the best history needs the best sociology, and vice versa
12
. One of Eliass
strengths is his ability to analyse the connections between the inner work-
ings of human beings, their drives, inhibitions and perceptions; and the
dynamics of the social bonds in which they are embedded. Another is his
insight into the relationships between changing patterns of interdependence
and shifting power balances between individuals and groups. Eliass under-
standing of these connections is the basis of his concept of figurations, includ-
ing court society, for his visualisation of relations between established groups
and outsiders, for his characterisation of the balance between involvement and
detachment, and also for the distinction between subject-adequate and
object-adequate knowledge
13
.
Elias, whose first degree was in both medicine and philosophy, had great
respect for the hard sciences. To oversimplify, he believed that the harder,
longer, more carefully and more dispassionately you look at something, gath-
ering evidence about it, the more likely are you to be able to describe it accu-
rately and to understand it more fully. For Elias, looking hard at individuals
and their social bonds meant looking intelligently and imaginatively, like a
detective. It meant trying to see the figurations in which they were embed-
ded. It meant looking for the mechanisms and processes sustaining and
reshaping those figurations. Elias was not like his one-time teacher Edward
357
12
For my own approach see Smith, The Rise of Historical, cit. It is hardly necessary to
add that Elias is obviously not the only guide in such matters. For example, Marc Bloch and
Barrington Moore spring immediately to mind.
13
See Elias, The sociology of knowledge, cit. Freuds book Civilization and its
Discontents was published in 1930 (London). See D. Smith, Norbert Elias and Modern
Social Theory, London 2001, pp. 93-113.
Husserl, who tried to strip away and bracket out the social context on the
grounds that they obscured pure perception of say, a person or a group. Elias
did the opposite and deliberately put back into the picture the dynamic social
bonds that, in fact, constituted that person or group as it enacted its existence
through time and space.
There is even more to it than that because that Elias also ooked
insidepeople in the spirit of a Sigmund Freud. Like Freud, Elias adopted a his-
torical approach to the internal dynamics of people but he operated on a much
bigger scale, looking at changes in the forms of behaviour and types of person-
ality regarded as normal in successive historical periods from the medieval peri-
od to the present. In The Civilizing Process Elias came to the conclusion that as
the bonds of interdependence tighten within social groups, their susceptibility to
feelings of repugnance and shame increases, and the rules that constrain and
guide their behaviour become more strict and specific
14
.
Using this apparatus of concepts and propositions, Elias explored what was
distinctive about the way his own society, Germany, had developed historically.
He began by looking at Germanys European neighbours, especially France but
also Britain and, to a lesser extent Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. Only when
he had done this did he return to his home base. Like Michel Foucault, who
spent much of his final decade working on the history of sexuality, Elias saved
his most precious subject of study, The Germans, till the end of his career.
Elias was a brilliant detective, one with stamina, prepared to keep his
most elusive case open and on the files for over seventy years. He wanted to
Dennis Smith
358
14
See J. Hackeschmidt, Norbert Elias Zionist and Bndisch activist, Figurations,
3 (June 1995), pp. 4-5; Id., Von Kurt Blumenfeld zu Norbert Elias oder Die Erfindung einer
jdischen Nation, Hamburg 1997; Kilminster, Norbert Elias, cit., pp. 11-13; G. Mosse, The
Influence of the Vlkish Idea on German Jewry, in M. Kreutzberger (ed.), Studies of the Leo
Baeck Institute, New York 1967, pp. 81-114; D. Gordon, The Canonization of Norbert Elias
in France: A Critical Perspective, French Politics, Culture and Society, 20, 1 (2002), pp.
68-94. It is worth noting that Richard Hnigswald, Eliass doctoral supervisor in philosophy
at Breslau after the war, was a Protestant of Jewish descent [...] and, despite his apostasy,
the spiritual leader behind the young Breslau Zionists in the early 1920s (T. van Rahden,
Jews and Other Germans. Civil society, religious diversity, and urban politics in Breslau,
1860-1925, Madison 2008, p. 69 citing Hackeschmidt, Von Kurt, cit., pp. 138-148). Elias has
not emphasised this aspect of his youth. Arguably, his Germanness meant at least as much
to him as his Jewishness. It is interesting that in The Germans, he mentions the Jews,
National Socialism and Hitler on fewer than fifty pages in a book nearly five hundred pages
long. The tragic hero of this text is the Germans, not the Jews. Elias wants to understand
how the Germans, as distinct from other nations, could have been brought to the condition
of de-civilization that made the Holocaust possible. See Smith, Norbert Elias and, cit., p. 70.
On Ferdinand Cohn see van Rahden, Jews and Other, cit., p. 225.
know why his own life as a German Jew had been so profoundly disrupted
between 1914 and 1940. Whether or not he turns out to be sociologys equiv-
alent of Darwin, he is certainly sociologys Inspector Maigret.
A life in four acts
To understand why Elias found court society interesting and how the
French court related to he strange case of Germany we have to know some-
thing of Eliass life.
Figure One: The four phases of Eliass life
359
I 1897-1914
In Breslau: strong bourgeoisie, well-estab-
lished Jewish community, an industrial
city with a courtly society sustained by the
neighbouring Silesian aristocracy.
Elias in Breslau is the only child at cen-
tre of a supportive family: Bourgeois
(educated in Kultur), German (enthusi-
astic for duelling), Jewish (member of
Blau Weiss)
III 1940-65
In UK, initially in London (Group
Analysis) and then (from 1954) at
Leicester University Sociology
Department: a kind of court society
with a salon sub-culture.
Elias in Leicester is the father/godfa-
ther of a small supportive disciplinary
sub-group. He is teaching and writing
but rarely publishing.
II 1914-40
First World War, defeat of Germany,
weakening of German courtly establish-
ment.
Inflation undermines the bourgeoisie.
Political violence and repression.
Elias leaves his safe Breslau base, experi-
ences increasing displacement; loses con-
fidence in Kultur, searches for an alterna-
tive, discovers ourt societyand the civ-
ilizing process as intellectual themes.
IV 1965-90
Vietnam War, defeat of United States,
weakening of American hegemony,
political reawakening of Western
Europe. Recognition of Elias is part of
this restoration of European confidence.
Elias leaves his safe Leicester base, pub-
lishes prolifically, and experiences
increasing acceptance within the canon.
Develops his theory/model/approach as a
sociologist of processes, figurations
and habitus.
I. Elias was born in 1897 in Breslau, the son of prosperous textile manu-
facturer (see figure 1). The German Empire was dominated politically by the
aristocracy but the growth of industrial cities was gradually transforming
power balances. Elias was in an excellent position to observe this since
Breslau was not only a thriving manufacturing city but also housed a provin-
cial royal palace and was surrounded by aristocratic estates. Elias himself was
secure in a warmly supportive household, and absorbed his parents pride in
being both German and bourgeois (see figure 1). Later, as an undergraduate
student at Breslau University immediately after the war, he became an officer
within a student duelling society for Jews. Before the war he had been active
in the Zionist association Blau Weiss.
In these early years Elias found it relatively easy to combine being
German, bourgeois and Jewish. His familys prosperity helped, as did the
strength of the local Jewish community, not least on the Breslau town coun-
cil. Elias readily absorbed the ideals of the German academic tradition of
Kultur with its emphasis on deep learning rather than the supposedly inferior
virtues of civilization, that shallow mix of superficial etiquette and low
worldly aspirations exhibited by politicos and business folk. He wanted to be
a German university professor and must have been encouraged by the fact that
in 1897, the year of his birth, Breslau had given the freedom of the city to
Ferdinand Cohn, a Jewish oil dealers son who had specialised in the study of
botany and become a full professor at Breslau university in 1872.
II. After 1914, the horror of the First World War and the violent politics
of the Weimar Republic meant that Elias lost his faith in German Kultur. It
was the ideology of a bourgeois class that failed to protect the Jews and
allowed them to be turned into complete outsiders. However, Elias did not
stop thinking of himself as German or caring about the fate of Germany. On
the contrary he wanted to understand why his nation had taken its disastrous
path and what alternative routes were available. This problem took shape in
his mind as he began his career as a student of philosophy (in Breslau), then
rejected philosophy, along with Kantianism, and turned towards sociology (in
Heidelberg and Frankfurt) between the two world wars
15
.
Elias must at this point have been aware of an ironical fact. The poets he
had admired as a youth such as Goethe and Schiller thought that the soulful
Dennis Smith
360
15
The influence of Karl Mannheim on Elias (and vice versa?) and his association with
Alfred Weber are discussed in Kilminster, Norbert Elias, cit. See also Elias, Reflections on,
cit.
values underlying German Kultur would be weakened if they did not resist the
materialistic spirit and superficial worldliness of urban-industrial civiliza-
tion
16
. Where was this pernicious civilization most strongly developed?
Apparently it was amongst the Jews and also in France, the United States, and
Britain. However, these societies had been strong enough to defeat Germany
in the First World War. Also, they remained much more peaceful and orderly
than Germany after 1918.
It seemed that France, for example, had indeed developed in a different
way from Germany, but the differences were not the ones that the German
critics of civilization had predicted. Those critics seemed to be wrong. So
what was the true situation? In these circumstances, a comparison between
Germany and France made perfect sense to Elias, even if it took a lifetime to
carry out, as it did.
He turned to the French case in his two books The Court Society and The
Civilizing Process. The first book was produced as Eliass habilitationss-
chrift
17
but since Elias was a Jew it could not be published in 1933, the year
of Hitler election as German Chancellor. A few years later, The Civilizing
Process was published in great haste in Switzerland, with the help of his father
who got permissions from the German authorities at the cost of great anxiety
and some personal risk. By that time, Elias was outside Germany, although his
parents did not consider leaving. Within a few months his father had died at
Breslau. Elias heard of this in a letter from his mother en route to Auschwitz.
III. Ironically and tragically, in the late 1930s and early 1940s Elias found
his intellectual path at the same time as he lost both his country and his par-
ents. It took Elias at least a decade and a half to recover, during which time he
hardly published a word
18
.
By the late 1930s neither sociology nor indeed history as then practised
satisfied his standards and demands. In the later pages of The Civilizing
Process Elias was identifying himself with a science that does not yet exist,
361
16
See Smith, Norbert Elias, cit., pp. 28-31.
17
A second doctorate making it possible to obtain employment as a university teacher.
18
Although in 1950 he published a paper comparing the English and Spanish navies in
the sixteenth century. This appeared in the British Journal of Sociology and explored dif-
ferences between aristocratic/courtly and bourgeois/professional approaches to naval war-
fare. See N. Elias, Studies in the genesis of the naval profession, British Journal of
Sociology, 7, 3 (1950), pp. 291-310 and also Id., The Genesis of the Naval Profession,
Dublin 2007, based on the 1950 paper and a number of unpublished manuscripts.
[...] a historical social psychology. Indeed, in 1952 he was a founding mem-
ber of the Group Analytic Society based at the Tavistock Institute in London.
In 1954 Elias acquired a new secure base and became, once more, a soci-
ologist, this time with the prospect of constructing a sociology that suited him.
His new home was at Leicester University where the recently-established
Sociology Department was run as a kind of duchy by Professor Ilya Neustadt,
the departmental head. Neustadt shaped the academic culture, along with
Elias, emphasising long-term patterns of social change or development.
There was little internal democracy. Neustadts approach was to keep his lines
of communication as open as he could with each member of the department
while neglecting to call departmental business meetings.
In the midst of this academic court there was the salon. Not just the
departments weekly seminar but also the informal gatherings around a coffee
table usually the same coffee table in the staff common room that occurred
at mid-morning at least one or two days every week. This was at its best when
Neustadt and Elias were there together, playing intellectual table tennis with
each days political news or the latest scandal
19
.
The Leicester department provided Elias with another warm cocoon,
something he had lacked since his childhood in Breslau. Within this cocoon
he had the chance to restore himself. It was a kind of second beginning, this
time not as a child but filling a quasi-parental or avuncular role in relation to
at least some of his colleagues
20
.
IV. Elias returned to the arena of book publication in 1965 with The
Established and the Outsiders (co-authored with John Scotson) the study of a
community on the outskirts of Leicester. By 1969 Elias was making regular
visits to the University of Amsterdam. The Court Society and The Civilizing
Process were both published in that year, initially in German (see table 1).
Their author soon acquired a large international audience. By the early 1970s
Elias was ready to leave his Leicester nest for good. The dam had broken and
a flood of books followed
21
.
Dennis Smith
362
19
The present writer joined the Department in 1969 and remained until 1980. Eliass refer-
ence to historical social psychology can be found in Elias, The Civilizing Process, cit., p. 484.
20
During his time in Leicester, Elias worked closely with Eric Dunning, one of his
most committed adherents in Leicester, to develop a processual approach to the sociology
of sport. This has made a major impact in this field. See, for example, N. Elias E. Dunning
(eds.), Quest for Excitement: Sport and Leisure in the Civilizing Process, Oxford 1986.
21
They included Elias, What is Sociology?, cit.; Id., The Loneliness of the Dying,
Oxford 1985; Id., Involvement and Detachment, cit.; Id., The Society of Individuals, Oxford
By the time he was in his thirties, Elias had experienced illusory securi-
ty, deceptive idealism, unsettling violence, painful exclusion and brutal
repression. Elias spent the rest of his life puzzling over three issues: how did
societies hold together and become transformed over time
22
? How had this
happened historically, over several centuries, in the countries about which he
cared most, including France and Germany? And how had these processes
affected his own life, the life of Norbert Elias?
German, bourgeois, intellectual, Jew
More specifically, Elias wanted to know what part feudal and, later, royal
courts had played in the process by which societies progressed towards a more
pacified existence, moving beyond a condition of violent struggles between
people for survival or local supremacy, driven by aggression and fear, with
only intermittent and unstable controls. He asked himself: what were the pat-
terns of development of court society both in the sense of social life within the
court and the ways the court was articulated with the rest of society? How did
the interplay between the ruler, the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie develop in
these societies? What was the part played by culture in these relationships?
How had these developments affected the capacity of people to see them-
selves and the world clearly, think rationally about their behaviour, and con-
trol themselves and their societies in a peaceful and humane manner? And not
least, what was the legacy of the court figurations particular pattern of rise
and decline for the subsequent development of the modern urban-industrial
society?
All these issues led back to Eliass own troubled situation between the
two world wars. Two questions in particular presented themselves:
Why did it become impossible for him to live peacefully in the coun-
try he loved, Germany, following the vocation he enjoyed, as a uni-
versity-based intellectual?
What factors explained the lack of protection and support given by the
class to which he belonged, the bourgeoisie, to the group of which he
was a member, the Jews?
363
1991; Id., The Symbol Theory, London 1991; Id., Time, cit.; Id., Mozart. Portrait of a
Genius, Cambridge 1993 and Id., The Germans. Power struggles and the development of
habitus in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Cambridge 1996.
22
On this see, for example P. Bourdieu, The State Nobility. Elite schools in the field of
power, Cambridge 1996, pp. 111-112, 129.
In the eyes of Elias, French society had developed during the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries in a way that was much more rational, peaceful
and humane than German society. Looked at in this way, it begins to be under-
standable why Elias, a member of one of Europes classic outsider groups
entering its period of utmost peril thought that the most important way to
spend his time and energy at that dangerous time was to analyse Europes
classic insider group, its most renowned historical establishment, the French
royal court at Versailles.
The impact of The Court Society
One reason The Court Society made such a tremendous impact, especial-
ly in France
23
, is that it is a very good read and can be absorbed at many dif-
ferent levels. Eliass vignettes of court life give us vivid access to specific
people, places and situations. For example, early on we are taken on a guided
tour of a typical early eighteenth-century noble residence, walking through
the bustling basse-cours, passing through the kitchen, meeting the matre
dhotel, noticing the Swiss Guards (some of them royal spies), then on to the
antechamber where liveried servants stand ready, into the appartements
privs, then finally to the reception rooms, including the large circular salon.
Later, we arrive at Versailles itself with its grand Marble Court and mas-
sive wings and, on the first floor of the main building, the Kings bedroom.
We are transported into the middle of the leve, observing the different
entres, by the kings family, his servants and officers, the bodyguard, the
favoured friends of the Gentleman of the Bedchamber; watching the king
arise, take off his nightshirt with the help of the matre de la garderobe and
his leading assistant, one on each sleeve, and so on, all with the most precise
ceremonial, till fully dressed when, after a brief prayer, the king leaves the
bedroom to be greeted by the whole court.
Every few pages we encounter some intriguing contemporary comment
or detail: the story of the French prince who insists on serving the English
king in person to cast shame on his negligent Spanish companions; Madame
de Staal being snooty about Voltaire; Louis XIV insisting on the importance
of etiquette, expressing his love of gloire, and joining in a colourful tourna-
Dennis Smith
364
23
Daniel Gordon provided many examples of the warm approval given to Elias and his
books, See Gordon, The Canonization, cit. During the subsequent two decades the interest
grew still further.
ment as the leaders of the Romans but then slipping away when he got the chance
to his country chteau at Marly for peace and quiet; the great Prince de Cond
clashing with Richelieu; Henry IVstruggling between his wish to be a feudal liege
lord and his need to be a sovereign monarch; Frederick II of Prussia saying that if
he were the French king he would immediately appoint a substitute to spend all
day saluting the idle courtiers; Montmorency being beheaded in the courtyard of
the town hall at Toulouse; minor nobles lamenting their lost rural happiness while
writing pastoral novels and composing songs for shepherdesses
24
; and everywhere
extracts from the memoirs of the perpetually discontented Duc de Saint-Simon,
telling his story of how Le Roi Soleil ensured that all his courtiers were under
minute observation, keeping everyone guessing about his own intentions, setting
rivals against each other, raising up one individual or faction, pushing down
another, sometimes just by the twitch of an eyebrow.
There is a touch of the young Orson Welles in the way Elias produces this
text. We get long, wide panning shots then we zoom in on particular charac-
ters. We move forward and backward in time, from Henry IV to Louis XIV
then back to Francis I and so on, sometimes tracing in detail incidents that
lasted half an hour, sometimes sketching three centuries in a paragraph. These
authorial devices are interspersed with monologues by the narrator about the
nature of history, sociology, charisma, social bonding and so forth.
The Court Society and The Civilizing Process were part of a wave of
agenda-setting big books during the 1960s in the field of history and histor-
ical sociology, books such as Edward Thompsons Making of the English
Working Class (1963), Le Roy Laduries The Peasants of Languedoc (1966),
and Barrington Moores Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy
(1966) with its opening chapters on England and France
25
.
These books rescued from the enormous condescension of posterity (to
quote Edward Thompson)
26
, not just artisans and peasants but also their aris-
365
24
Elias, The Court Society, cit., pp. 101-102, 106, 117-118, 135, 138, 140, 173-175,
182-183, 188, 195, 229.
25
E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class, Harmondsworth 1969;
E. Le Roy Ladurie, Peasants of the Languedoc, Urbana 1977; B. Moore, Social Origins of
Dictatorship and Democracy. Lord and peasant in the making of the modern world,
Harmondsworth 1969. For commentary, see also D. Smith, Barrington Moore. Violence,
morality and political change, London 1983 (on Moore); Id., Norbert Elias established or
outsider?, Sociological Review, 32, 2 (1984), pp. 367-389 (on Elias); Id., History, geog-
raphy and sociology. Lessons from the Annales school, Theory, Culture and Society, 5
(1988), pp. 137-148 (on the Annales school), and Id., The Rise of, cit., pp. 41-68 (on Elias,
Moore and Thompson and 104-120 on Braudel).
26
Thompson, The Making of, cit., p. 12.
tocratic and wealthy masters. They showed how from 1500 onwards, the rich
as well as the poor had interpreted and confronted the challenges presented to
them by growing towns, increasing trade, bigger populations, new technolo-
gies, more assertive and organised monarchies, and the intense passions
roused by religion.
It was intellectually satisfying and psychologically uplifting for
Europeans to be reminded how their early modern predecessors had helped to
shape our contemporary world. In the 1960s Europe was constructing what
would become the European Union with its own court society in Brussels
27
.
In that same decade, Europes historical past was being put back onto our
agenda in a way Europeans could be proud of: its rich and complex deep
past of the preceding half-millennium not just the miserable and disreputable
story of the preceding half-century
28
.
Another reason for the books impact is its bold thesis. Elias told his read-
ers: that the apparently useless idleness of the royal court was in fact a ration-
al power game played by deadly serious players; that the arrogant lords who
paraded at Versailles sometimes felt like virtual prisoners, unable to escape
their constraining situation without paying a heavy price; that these exotic and
apparently alien creatures, the bewigged courtiers, were in fact human beings
who bonded together and competed in ways similar to ourselves
29
; that the
Dennis Smith
366
27
See D. Smith S. Wright (eds.), Whose Europe? The turn towards democracy,
Oxford 1999.
28
For more recent depictions of barbarism and war on Europes dark continent, see
M. Mazower, Dark Continent. Europes Twentieth Century, London 1998; B. Wasserstein,
Barbarism and Civilization. A history of Europe in our time, Oxford 2007; N. Ferguson, The
War of the World, London 2007.
29
Elias, The court society, cit., pp. 39-40, 75-77, 92-93, 110-114, 146-152, 186-188,
194-201, 203-213, 210-211, 262-267, 268-275. Elias writes that Despite their formal orga-
nizational framework based on written contracts and documents, which was developed only
in rudimentary form in the state of Louis XIV, there are in many organizations of our time,
even industrial and commercial ones, rivalries for status, fluctuations in the balance between
groups, exploitation of internal rivalries by superiors, and other phenomena that have
emerged in the study of court society. But in the main regulation of human relationships in
large organizations is formalized in a highly impersonal manner, such phenomena usually
have a more or less unofficial and informal character today. In court society we therefore
find quite openly and on a large scale many phenomena that exist below the surface of high-
ly bureaucratized organizations (Elias, The Court Society, cit., p. 140. See also W.
Mastenbroek, Norbert Elias as organizational sociologist, in A. van Iterson, W.
Mastenbroek, T. Newton, D. Smith (eds.), The Civilized Organization: Norbert Elias and the
Future of Organization Studies, Amsterdam 2002, pp. 173-188 and Id., Management and
organization. Does Elias give us something to hold on to?, ivi, pp. 205-218; also T. Newton
D. Smith, Introduction. Norbert Elias and the civilized organization, ivi, pp. vii-xxvii; J.
constraining pressures upon courtiers from all sides, and from above and
below, shaped their personalities and their approach to others and themselves,
inculcating strict self-control, an ingrained habit of detailed observation, and
a disposition to deceive where necessary (eg 107-10; 239-41); and that this
courtly figuration was a vital link in the historical chain stretching from the
feudal age to modern society.
Culture, cabals and contestation
More specifically, Elias argued that the royal victory over the aristocrat-
ic rebellion during the Fronde was reinforced by the effects of commercial-
ization which increased the relative power of the royal tax collector and the
urban rentier, and by changes in military technology that made traditional
forms of feudal warfare obsolete. Against this background, attendance at court
was a necessary exercise for those who wanted to be somebody in the world.
By the late seventeenth century, wrote Elias, aristocratic culture [...]
became centred in one place, Paris, and on one social organ, the royal court.
This aristocratic culture encompassed the monarchy, the courtiers of
Versailles, and many socially aspiring bourgeois families some of whom par-
ticipated in, and indeed hosted, salons in Paris. Court society includes the
dynamics of social life within the royal court and its hinterland, not least high
society in Paris
30
.
367
Soeters A. van Iterson, Blame and praise gossip in organizations: Established, outsiders
and the civilizing process, ivi, pp. 25-40; D. Smith, The humiliating power of organizations:
a typology and a case study, ivi, pp. 41-60 and N. Srinivas, Cultivating Indian management:
institutions, subjectivity, and the nature of knowledge, ivi, pp. 151-169; and D. Smith,
Organizations and humiliation: looking beyond Elias, Organization, 8, 3 (2001), pp. 537-
560. For sharp insights into modern courtly behaviour see L. Lapham, The Wish for Kings.
Democracy at bay, New York 1993, and Id., Laphams Rules of Influence, New York 1999.
I am grateful to Nidhi Srinivas for mentioning these to me. There are some parallels between
the early modern court and the contemporary diplomatic game at Brussels which induces a
process of socialization, habituating players to each other, forcing them to think through
other points of view and subsequently live with them. Indeed, argues Keith Middlemas,
this Euro-civilizing aspect may come to be seen, looking back from early in the next [ie
twenty-first DS] century, as informal politics largest contribution to the European Union
(K. Middlemas, Orchestrating Europe. The informal politics of the European Union 1973-
95, London 1995, p. 684).
30
Elias, The court society, cit., p. 148. A significant part of [the courtiers] [...] had
lodgings in the kings house, in the Chteau of Versailles, and a residence, ie an htel, in the
city of Paris...Certainly the court people are town dwellers, and to a certain extent town life
This picture is reinforced by recent research which shows, for example,
that in the early eighteenth century the court cabal of Madame de Maintenon,
the cabal des seigneurs not only had great influence within the Parlement of
Paris but also ran a spy network that received reports not only from the Swiss
guards at Versailles, through the governor Blouin, one of Maintenons allies,
but also from the Paris police which fell within the government department
headed by another of her allies, the younger Pontchartrain
31
.
The cultural lives of Versailles and Paris were closely intertwined, with
influences flowing in both directions: for example, Elias writes that the
nobles and financiers salon of the eighteenth century is a descendant of the
royal salon of the second half of the seventeenth. A more recent scholar notes
that Paris was a necessary complement to the entertainment offered even in
Versailles glorious first decades. Daniel Gordon has explored the salon cul-
ture of Paris haunted by savants who increasingly found fault with the excess-
es of the court at Versailless and lauded instead the virtues of free exchange
in an amicable spirit among high-minded people
32
. This was part of a gradual
transmutation of taste and ethos described by Elias who argued that
shift of the centre of gravity of good society from the royal palace to those of the
princes, and from them to the hotels of the high nobility and and at some dis-
tance- the rich bourgeoisie of the estates, [...] found expression in the style of
good society. The transitions from Classicism to Rococo, from Rococo to the
Louis XV style, correspond fairly exactly to the shift in the centre of gravity of
court society.
Over time, argues Elias, bourgeois elements gradually discarded aristo-
cratic culture as its model until during the French Revolution the bourgeoisie
overran the nobility from outside as the bearer of its own non-aristocratic
convictions
33
. This sentence goes to the heart of Eliass concerns. He had
Dennis Smith
368
sets its stamp on them. But their bond to the town is less strong than that of the profession-
al citizens. Their society is always the same, but the locality changes. Now they live in Paris,
now they move with the king to Versailles, to Marly, now they make their home at one of
their own country houses or live as guests at the estate of one of their friends (Elias, The
Court Society, cit., pp. 43, 45).
31
See Le Roy Ladurie, Saint-Simon, cit., pp. 134, 142-143.
32
D. Gordon, Citizens Without Sovereignty: Equality and Sociability in French
Thought, 1670-1789, Princeton 1994. The other quotations in this paragraph are from Elias,
The Court Society, cit., p. 73 and J. Duindam, Vienna and Versailles. The courts of Europes
dynastic rivals, 1550-1780, Cambridge 2003, p. 156.
33
Elias, The court society, cit., p. 148.
been brought up in a German city where businessmen and professionals with-
out a noble lineage were completely excluded from good society. The
Silesian aristocracy on their estates and their relations in town treated bour-
geois outsiders with enormous contempt
34
. In response, creative and liberal
elements within the German bourgeoisie developed a dislike of high society
and high politics and turned inward, cultivating both their domestic comforts
and their aesthetic sensitivities
35
.
In France there was certainly much contempt for Versailles among bour-
geois circles in Paris by the early eighteenth century, as Bellegardes popular
tract on ridicule shows
36
. But the difference was this. The lower reaches of
court society in Paris were less tightly policed by the aristocracy and good
society than were the little local courts of provincial Germany. What excited
Elias about French court society was not just that it overcame political frag-
mentation and chronic violence and developed pacified and restrained forms
of conduct. It was also the fact that it was possible for people with non-noble
backgrounds to infiltrate the court. In turn, it became possible for the preju-
dices, styles and habitus of the court to infiltrate Parisian society where they
were not only assimilated but also (and this is crucial) challenged.
The main point, as far as Elias is concerned, is that in the French case,
unlike Germany, contempt between aristocrats and bourgeois did not lead to
political disengagement by the latter. On the contrary, it was often difficult to
369
34
Elias reminds us in his book on Mozart that, historically, Particularly at the smaller
and poorer courts of the German empire it was customary to make social inferiors emphati-
cally aware of their subordinate position, and something of this attitude has perhaps passed
into the German tradition (Elias 1993, 95). In The Germans he quotes a novel by Walter
Bloem set in Marburg in the late nineteenth century where citizens were divided into two
castes: society, and those who did not belong to society. Some wealthy merchants might
scramble upwards into society but once inside they immediately encountered further rungs
that were very wide apart. The most successful bourgeois families could achieve some
recognition but they would be constantly made to feel their inferiority in relation to the mil-
itaristic aristocracy whose traditions were perpetuated through student duelling societies.
Indeed, nouveaux riches merchants and industrialists who had not undergone the bloody
rites of passage demanded of students and the military were looked down upon by the good
society of the Kaiserzeit as bearing the indelible stigma of lowly origins, of being social
climbers and parvenus (Elias, Mozart: Portrait, cit., pp. 46-47; W. Bloem, The Crass Fox
[Der krasse Fuchs], Berlin 1906, pp. 73f.
35
See Elias, The Civilizing Process, cit., pp. 3-41.
36
J. B. Morvan, Abb de Bellegarde, Reflections upon Ridicule, or What it is that
makes a man ridiculous and the means to avoid it, London 1707. This work was, for exam-
ple, cited by Henry Fielding in his preface to Joseph Andrews, Middletown 1967 (original-
ly published in 1742).
disentangle the two, so intertwined were trade, finance, the law, government
office and nobility. Through regular involvement with court society the
French bourgeoisie gained the confidence and experience needed to push
court society aside and take its place.
However, at the height of Louis XIVs power and influence the court at
Versailles was the centre of both government and fashionable society. The
monarch exploited the intersection between the spheres of power and display.
He played a leading part in the elaboration of etiquette, ceremony and ritual
at Versailles, monitoring the rivalry between courtiers.
Monarchy and nobility supported and needed each other. The relationship
was ambivalent and power balances were constantly shifting within court
society. According to Elias, this happened along at least three axes of contes-
tation. One axis was between different individuals within the court nobility,
competing for royal favour. Another was between the monarch and the most
important noble families who built up their own networks of influence and did
their best to put their own stamp on court society
37
. Elias notes that by the time
of Louis XVI court etiquette had become a set of rigid rituals, controlled by
court factions, not just the king.
The third axis of contestation was a conflict between the nobility of the
sword and the nobility of the robe, the latter identified with professional (or
in Eliass terminology, bourgeois) arenas such as the law
38
. Elias states that
by the time of Louis XVI competition between these two privileged hierar-
chies (as he put it) had resulted in a stalemate. These rivals for power and
privilege within the ancien regime were like boxers in a clinch
39
, unwilling
to consider any reform that might threaten their relative position. Such a
phrase might, of course, describe many a long-lasting marriage. Perhaps there
is not so much difference between a boxers clinch and a lovers clinch, espe-
cially after the years and long familiarity have taken their toll. Seen from this
perspective, there is much merit in Jeroen Duindams nuanced account which
reminds us: that the distinction between the noblesse depee and the noblesse
de robe was not clear cut or absolute; that the two forms of nobility tended to
merge into a unified elite during the eighteenth century; and that over time the
Dennis Smith
370
37
For a detailed recent analysis, see Le Roy Ladurie, Saint-Simon, cit., pp. 121-159.
38
Elias does not make a strong distinction between the terms bourgeois and profes-
sional. In his eyes, both imply disciplined work in a skilled and/or specialised occupation
combined with prudent economic management balancing expenditure with income. See his
appendix in The Court Society on the intendant in the estate management of the court aris-
tocracy (Elias, The Court Society, cit., p. 94).
39
Elias, The court society, cit., p. 274.
power and exclusiveness of the court nobility were enhanced at the expense
of both the monarchy and would-be bourgeois entrants to its ranks
40
.
Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie illustrates the tensions within this more con-
solidated and exclusive establishment in his account of the Affaire du Bonnet
in the early eighteenth century which set the dukes against the president of the
Parlement of Paris who refused to remove his hat when addressing them
41
.
These recent detailed analyses strengthen one of Eliass main arguments
which is that court society was both increasingly preoccupied with irresolv-
able internal tensions and increasingly insulated from external political voic-
es. It paid the price in 1789 but the medium-term result was a stable, relative-
ly orderly society in which the bourgeoisie has a secure and honoured place.
Concluding case notes
To complete our portrayal of Elias as a kind of Maigret investigating the
strange case of Germany, we need to turn briefly from Versailles to Vienna
and Berlin.
Elias argued that Mozart was caught between the standards of the bour-
geois strata to which he belonged as a professional musician and the dominant
values of the court society which provided him with an income. In response,
he tried to build an independent career as a freelance artist but the influence
371
40
Duindam also adds the following points: that the royal monopoly over the develop-
ing apparatus of government turned into a monarchic-aristocratic oligopoly; that court atten-
dance, and the expense that went with it, was for the most part a voluntary exercise, a means
to advance ones career, and that only for the monarch himself was display absolutely
mandatory; that even if the feudal warrior elite had passed away, individual nobles were not
defunctionalised since they had many potential posts to fill and tasks to perform, not least in
the royal service, which included commanding military forces; that government and admin-
istration in France were complex and multilayered, both centrally and locally, growing by
accretion while letting older forms vegetate quietly; and that inculcation of self-control and
rational behaviour at court had to be considered alongside similar processes occurring both
in the city (not least in the salon and counting house) and in the religious sphere. See
Duindam, Myths of Power, cit. Elias, who had studied in Heidelberg, participated in
Marianne Webers salon and been taught by Max Webers brother clearly realised that reli-
gion and urban life were also important contexts in which rationalization developed. In The
Court Society, he also recognises that the monarch was constrained in many ways and, dur-
ing the eighteenth century, increasingly so. The points listed here seem to be perfectly com-
patible with Eliass model of a tension-ridden court figuration in which power balances were
gradually shifting.
41
Le Roy Ladurie, Saint-Simon, cit., pp. 274-275.
of court society pursued him into the open market, guiding the taste and pref-
erences of his potential audience. Mozart was not able to survive as an inde-
pendent professional under these conditions. A few decades later, when the
ruling figurations had begun to change, Beethoven could make his own way
in the world. However, to paraphrase Elias, Mozart was a genius before the
age of geniuses had truly arrived. When he died he thought he was a failure
42
.
The second case is found in The Germans
43
. In this case the failure relates
not an individual but to a class: the German bourgeoisie, excluded from court
society in the early nineteenth century but dreaming of a noble future within
a united nation. Ironically, national unity was brought about at the hands of
the very aristocracy that despised them. When this happened, the bourgeoisie
split. The liberal minority retained their loyalty to Kant and Goethe. The
majority aped the aristocracy, from whose social circles they were largely
excluded. Student duelling societies cultivated a social code that stressed
toughness, discipline and cruelty. Everyone looked upwards for guidance,
ultimately to the Kaiser and the aristocratic establishment.
The German personality structure required direction from an external
authority, concluded Elias. When the German empire was defeated and the
Kaiser abdicated, life became meaningless for that part of the bourgeoisie
whose life had been defined by the values of their duelling societies. Some
took refuge in street violence which became endemic. More generally, the
German people felt humiliated and dwelt in sorrow. Hitler arrived on the
scene in the guise of a saviour. He was able to manipulate the Germans need
for leadership and domination, their desire for restoration to greatness, for
relief from the sorrow brought by national decline and defeat.
The figure of Hitler is, indeed, the direct link between The Court Society
and The Germans. Who else was Elias thinking of in 1933 when he contrast-
ed the dull steadiness of a Louis XIV with the daring deeds of the charismat-
ic leader
44
? The charismatic leaders initial task was that of holding together
a limited number of people within a generally disintegrating and unbalanced
society in such a way that their combined pressure acts outwards on the wider
dominion. He does not get locked into the daily grind of court etiquette but
is ready to leap in the dark, ride on thin ice, and operate without the secu-
Dennis Smith
372
42
Elias Mozart. Portrait, cit.
43
For a longer discussion comparing Eliass analysis in The Germans with Hanna
Arendts approach in The Origins of Totalitarianism (New York 1973) see Smith, Norbert
Elias, cit., pp. 43-70.
44
This paragraph draws upon Elias, The Court Society, cit., pp. 121-126. The quota-
tions are from pages 122 and 125.
rity of stabilized groups that can hold each other in equilibrium over long
periods. Those leaps in the dark and perilous rides across thin ice ruined the
careers and lives of many people in a similar position to Norbert Elias.
Hitler had been an anonymous figure in Eliass text of 1933. Six decades
later he emerges into full light. It would be too easy to say that Maigret final-
ly got his man. More accurate to say that, like a sociological Maigret, Elias
wanted to know why and how the crime became possible. That meant under-
standing the dynamics of the figuration that produced the criminal and his
accomplices. French court society provided vital evidence in the case.
373
Jeroen Duindam
LE CENTRE DYNASTIQUE EN EUROPE ET EN ASIE:
UN FOYER IDEAL DE COMPARAISON
1
Introdution
La majeure partie de la recherche comparant lEurope et lAsie pr-
moderne a t organise, de manire implicite ou explicite, autour de la notion
dascension de lOccident. Les tudiants en histoire compare de la cons-
truction de ltat ont oppos les empires dficients et despotiques de lAsie
aux royaumes plus petits de lEurope, soulignant lenvironnement multipolai-
re comptitif et le rle des corps intermdiaires dans les politiques europen-
nes. Alors que les points de vue intressants bien que manichens de
Wittfogel et dautres classiques sont dsormais dpasss par des interprta-
tions plus nuances, la perspective dune ascension de lOccident implique,
en elle-mme, un rtrcissement inutile de notre horizon scientifique. Elle
conduit invitablement la dominance conomique et militaire de lEurope
sur les empires asiatiques les plus puissants au cours des XVIIIme et
XIXme sicles. Selon quels procds les empires asiatiques sont-ils sortis de
la course? Quand, o et comment lEurope a-t-elle gagn sa supriorit? Des
interprtations soulignant linnovation militaire, la comptition politique
ayant entrain lexploitation de plus en plus efficace de ressources, des initia-
tives prives et une comptitivit conomique ainsi que les dcouvertes scien-
tifiques se disputent la priorit.
375
1
Je souhaite addresser mes remerciements Marcello Fantoni, pour avoir arrange une
premiere traduction de cet article, et je remercie trs chaleureusement Fanny Cosandey pour
les corrections quelle a introduites dans ce texte.
De telles questions sont sans aucun doute importantes, mais elles ont ten-
dance privilgier la modernit et le progrs dans lhistoire de lEurope des
XVIe-XVIIIe sicles au lieu de chercher des signes de dcadence ou de limi-
tation structurale aussi bien en Asie quen Europe du moyen ge et avant. La
perspective de la modernisation a depuis longtemps conduit les chercheurs
mettre laccent sur la modernit de lEtat europen du XVIe au XIXe sicle:
ils se sont concentrs sur les bureaucraties, les ministres et les assembles
reprsentatives mais ont srieusement sous-estime la dominance persistante
de la famille au coeur de lEtat dynastique. Une nouvelle histoire de la cour,
ne ces deux dernires dcennies, a fourni de nombreuses tudes qui souli-
gnent le rle de la famille dans la composition politique des Etats dynastiques,
tout en mettant laccent sur la pertinence politique des rituels. Diffrents sys-
tmes asiatiques pr-modernes ont, de leur ct, dvelopp des systmes de
contrles et dquilibres bureaucratiques dpassant de loin les pratiques en
oeuvre dans les Etats dynastiques europens au mme moment. De toute vi-
dence, il ne suffit plus de qualifier les monarchies europennes de lAncien
Rgime en insistant sur des systmes dcisionnels et dextraction de ressour-
ces efficaces dun ct, en cartant les Etats dynastiques contemporains
dAsie en tant qu Etats palais inappropris de lautre. De plus, ds que nous
laissons de ct les axiomes de la perspective traditionnelle de la modernisa-
tion, il merge une convergence de thmes et dinterprtations sur la cour et
le gouvernement dynastique qui invite, de manire positive, un travail com-
paratif
2
. Dans cet essai, jaccepte ce dfi en identifiant les structures et les for-
mes rcurrentes de lautorit base sur la famille dynastique pr-moderne, en
les reformulant sous une disposition raisonnable pour une comparaison th-
matique. Au pralable, je parlerai de certains problmes et choix relatifs la
comparaison des centres dynastiques.
Les formes de parent et dalliances ont normment chang dans lhis-
toire des hommes. Act dautres variantes de vie commune, le foyer bas sur
un noyau familial ou une famille largie a t une forme rpandue dorgani-
sation de la vie quotidienne et de reproduction. Dans les socits hirar-
chiques, le foyer dun dirigeant tend servir de centre manifeste de toute lu-
nit sociale, une vaste maison qui renforce la suprmatie du clan du dirigeant
de mme quil symbolise la cohsion du groupe dans son ensemble. On peut
Jeroen Duindam
376
2
Voir diffrents travaux rcents: A.J.S. Spawforth, The Court and Court Society in
Ancient Monarchies, Cambridge 2007; A. Walthall (ed.), Servants of the Dynasty. Palace
Women in World History, Berkeley-Los Angeles 2008; J. Duindam, T. Artan, M. Kunt (eds.),
Royal Courts in Dynastic States and Empires, prochainement Brill 2011.
dire que le foyer mis en valeur autour du souverain reprsente la forme de
pouvoir qui a domin dans lhistoire. Nous pouvons produire des donnes
archologiques aussi bien que des documents crits ou des reprsentations
artistiques ad libitum pour appuyer cette assertion. Toutefois, le style, la forme
et lampleur varient normment, de modestes habitations accessibles peine
distinctes de leur environnement dimposants complexes grandioses et iso-
ls.
Les commensaux de la maison rpondent aux besoins quotidiens des sou-
verains, administrent leurs domaines, et, ordinairement, effectuent galement
des services que nous dfinirons comme relatifs au gouvernement du royau-
me. Les services lis aux personnes, la maison, au domaine et au gouverne-
ment se recoupent. Des termes tels que oikos, domus, Haus ou maison ne sont
pas utiliss seulement dans lespace domestique, mais peuvent aussi se rf-
rer au lignage, au domaine, et mme lconomie de lEtat. Les Europens
du XVIe et XVIIe sicles utilisent habituellement le mot tat quand ils se
rfrent la liste de personnes prsentes la cour (Hofstaat) ou aux budgets,
plutt quau concept abstrait dEtat. Une sparation croissante entre maison et
gouvernement, dun point de vue conceptuel de mme quen termes de per-
sonnel, sest progressivement dveloppe en Europe. Dans lhistoire, les deux
semblent avoir t troitement lis bien que les structures diffrencies de
la cour et de ladministration dans lhistoire chinoise et le dveloppement aty-
pique de la maison impriale romaine ct des institutions politiques rpu-
blicaines montrent que ceci nest pas une rgle gnrale. En utilisant le terme
de cour, je me rfre lamalgame de la maison et du gouvernement dont
les services sont regroups autour de la personne du souverain. On ne peut
rpondre la question de savoir si ces services taient ou non rellement spa-
rs, quen examinant ces deux lments replacs dans leurs diffrents contex-
tes. Jutilise le terme centre dynastique car il largit lhorizon en situant expli-
citement la cour dans son environnement politique, social et culturel. De plus,
il carte les connotations littraires et artistiques des termes de cour et cour-
tisan si prsents dans lespace europen.
Ds que des souverains et des lignages dominants mergent, naissent cer-
taines questions concernant 1) le souverain lui-mme (ou plus rarement la sou-
veraine); 2) la dynastie et sa perptuation (qui inclut bien videmment les fem-
mes et leurs parents); 3) le statut, la composition et les fonctions des groupes
servant le souverain; et enfin 4) les rapports de ce groupe avec lensemble de la
socit. Dans chacun de ces quatre cercles concentriques suivants ( savoir sou-
verain-dynastie-cour-relations), nous pouvons dfinir une srie de questions
valables pour tous les centres dynastiques, en dpit des considrables diffren-
ces culturelles qui sparent les civilisations, les rgions et les priodes.
Le centre dynastique en Europe et en Asie: un foyer ideal de comparaison
377
Ces quatre dimensions, identifies dans la seconde partie de cet essai,
sont tayes par deux perspectives essentielles pour lhistoire des structures
du pouvoir et de la construction de ltat. La premire concerne la ncessit
de dlguer le pouvoir, un procd travers lequel, avec le temps, des agents
loyaux deviennent, de manire presque invitable, des groupes dintrts. Ce
dilemme rsonne dans lhistoire politique aussi bien dynastique que contem-
poraine. Des souverains particulirement forts peuvent se confronter des li-
tes qui menacent dbranler leur pouvoir. Toutefois, tous les souverains ont
besoin de crer un groupe dagents de confiance qui les soutiennent et mettent
en oeuvre leurs mesures. Or de tels groupes dveloppent ncessairement,
terme, des alliances patrimoniales et se redfinissent alors comme des lites
du pouvoir: lhistoire recommence encore et encore. Le mme schma appa-
rat au niveau institutionnel. Il est intressant de constater que les souverains
et leurs conseillers ont dvelopp des prceptes et des pratiques visant pr-
venir et rsoudre cette situation. On peut parfois trouver de telles dcisions
dans les legs crits des centres dynastiques. Nous pouvons, autrement, les
dduire partir des changements dans lorganisation des institutions centrales
la suite de lavnement dun nouveau souverain ou dune nouvelle dynastie,
et visant apparemment corriger les dfauts les plus vidents de la priode
prcdente. Les interprtations classiques du pouvoir dynastique, comme le
Muqaddimah dIbn Khaldun ou le cycle dynastique chinois, procurent une
vue gnrationnelle du pouvoir dynastique avec des connotations morales, qui
conviennent toutefois bien aux modles tracs ici
3
.
Ma seconde perspective gnrale porte sur la capacit du centre dynas-
tique intgrer des lites de diffrents milieux en crant un centre rituel appa-
rent qui organisait la redistribution des ressources et servait de modle cultu-
rel. Le pouvoir dynastique dans le monde pr-moderne est rest limit en pra-
tique, mme sil tait habituellement lev au sommet par les rituels et la
reprsentation. Alors que le pouvoir dynastique provenait souvent de conqu-
tes, la violence ou les menaces de violence ne suffisaient jamais maintenir
un royaume sur le temps long. La cour pouvait structurer deux autres prre-
quis essentiels lharmonie socio-politique : elle faisait appel des intrts
matriels travers ses fonctions de redistribution; elle renforait la cohsion
en intgrant les diffrentes audiences dans ses rituels publics, ses hirarchies
manifestes et sa culture raffine. Les lites et la population au sens large pou-
Jeroen Duindam
378
3
I. Khaldun, The Muqaddimah. An Introduction to History, Franz Rosenthal (ed.),
Princeton 1967, notamment de nombreux passages sur le sentiment de groupe tribal
(Asabiyya) branl par la vie sdentaire et le luxe.
vaient tre convaincues dadhrer travers les activits du centre dynas-
tique
4
. La rputation morale ambivalente du centre dynastique un modle de
sophistication facilement transform en une image ngative associe au luxe,
la luxure, lambition et la vanit indique que lidentification pouvait faci-
lement tre inverse, lorsque les conditions materielles de la population ou le
comportement du souverain ou de ses partisans alinaient la population. Les
effervescences collectives de la vie de cour, crmonielle ou ordinaire, peu-
vent fdrer les groupes, mais peuvent, de mme, provoquer de vhmentes
critiques. Le luxe et les excs de dpenses sont des composantes classiques
des modles traditionnels expliquant le dclin des dynasties rgnantes, du
cycle dynastique chinois Ibn Khaldun.
1. Strategies de recherche comparative
La recherche comparative et interculturelle peut suivre de nombreux
modles. On peut trouver des centres dynastiques diffrentes priodes et
dans diffrentes rgions, et donc suivre des stratgies de recherche aussi bien
diachroniques que synchroniques. La comparaison diachronique dans une
rgion rend possible lanalyse de la continuit et des changements dans le
temps, tandis que la comparaison synchronique dans plusieurs rgions permet
ltude de linteraction entre centres dynastiques une poque prcise. Il y a
actuellement une forte tendance privilgier les transferts culturels, en sui-
vant les dplacements synchroniques dides, de peuples et dobjets. Mes pr-
cdentes tudes sur les centres dynastiques en Europe, couvrant les cours de
Vienne et Paris/Versailles du XVIme au XVIIIme sicle, mont laiss la
nette impression que les perspectives diachroniques et synchroniques doivent
tre combines pour aborder diffrentes questions pineuses
5
.
Une de ces questions est certainement lopposition classique entre le dif-
fusionisme et la notion de dveloppement indpendant dans des zones physi-
quement spares. Les traditions du pouvoir peuvent tre suivies en termes
379
4
D. Cannadine, Introduction, in Id., Rituals of Royalty. Power and Ceremonial in
Traditional Societies, Cambridge 1987, pp. 1-19, p. 19: Yet for any society, in any age, the
study of politics ultimately comes down to one elemental question: how are people persua-
ded to acquiesce in a polity where the distribution of power is manifestly unequal and unjust,
as it invariably is.
5
J. Duindam, Myths of Power. Norbert Elias and the early modern European Court,
Amsterdam 1995; Id., Vienna and Versailles. The Courts of Europes Dynastic Rivals, 1550-
1780, Cambridge 2003.
dobjets et de dcoration de palais ainsi que de structures de la maison. Ainsi,
par exemple, jusqu la fin du Saint Empire Romain Germanique en 1806, les
empereurs lus taient couronns selon un rituel et avec des attributs que lon
pensait hrits de lpoque carolingienne
6
. Napolon tenta en vain de sappro-
prier cette couronne aux connotations impriales ancestrales. Les reliques
lies au prophte et aux califes furent adoptes par une srie de dynasties
avant datteindre le palais de Topkap. Aun autre niveau, nous pouvons tenter
didentifier certaines pratiques persistantes depuis les Abbassides jusquaux
Mamalouks, Ottomans et Safavides, avec la prsence de soldats esclaves au
palais, deunuques et de concubines elles aussi esclaves
7
. Lemploi dhommes
masculs comme gardiens de harem, agents intermdiaires ou conseillers,
existaient, entre autres, en Assyrie, en Chine et en Inde
8
. Pouvons-nous tablir
un lien entre les eunuques dAsie de lEst, dAsie du Sud et dAsie de
lOuest? Le phnomne avait-il une origine particulire? Lusage consistant
recourir des personnes non autorises ou incapables de procrer dans le ser-
vice du souverain fut gnralement adopt pour viter lmergence de rseaux
hrditaires puissants parmi les lites. Les religieux jouent en ce sens un rle
majeur en tant quagents du pouvoir dans lhistoire europenne. De mme, en
de nombreuses cours, les trangers en termes de statut, dorigine sociale ou
de religion se retrouvaient dans le cercle restreint des serviteurs et des confi-
dents. Ces trangers ont-ils servi de contrepoids aux lites en leur fermant
laccs lentourage du roi? Les eunuques chinois protgrent lempereur
contre des administrateurs lettrs ambitieux, le pouvoir des premiers lint-
Jeroen Duindam
380
6
Sur les Kleinodien, voir H. Fillitz, Die Insignien und Kleinodien des heiligen
Rmischen Reiches, Vienna-Munich 1954; sur les fonctions de la cour carolingienne et leur
impact sur les cours de la fin du Moyen-Age, voir W. Rsener, Hofmter an mittelalterli-
chen Frstenhfen, Deutsches Archiv fr Erforschung des Mittelalters, 45 (1989), pp.
485-550.
7
P. Crone, Slaves on Horses: the Evolution of the Islamic Polity, Cambridge 1980; D.
Ayalon, Eunuchs, Caliphs and Sultans: A Study in Power Relationships, Jerusalem 1999;
rcemment galement S. Babaie, K. Babayan, e.a., Slaves of the Shah. New elites of Safavid
Iran London-New York 2004.
8
Sur les eunuques voir p. ex. J. Hathaway, Beshir Agha. Chief Eunuch of the Ottoman
Imperial Harem, Oxford 2006; S. Tougher (ed.), Eunuchs in Antiquity and Beyond, London
2002; sur Assyria voir G. Barjamovic, Pride, pomp and circumstance. Palace, court and
household in Assyria, 879-612 BCE, in Duindam, Artan, Kunt (eds.), Royal Courts, cit.; sur
les eunuques de la cour indienne K. Hall, Go suck your husbands sugarcane. Hijras and the
use of sexual insult, in A. Livia K. Hall (eds.), Queerly phrased: language, gender, and
sexuality, Oxford 1997, pp. 432-436.
rieur de la cour agissant comme un frein la puissance bureaucratique des
seconds dans la cour extrieure. On ne peut pas tout expliquer par le contact,
limitation et la tradition. Les diffrents modes daccs la cour montrent une
similitude frappante dun pays lautre; ils constituent toutefois une constan-
te des pratiques de la maison dans tout environnement hirarchique, et ne
devraient pas ncessairement tre interprts comme un emprunt dautres
mondes. Des formes dextrme dfrence, notamment en touchant le sol avec
son front comme cela tait pratiqu (proskynesis ou prosternation) peuvent
galement se retrouver dans de nombreuses cultures. Le schma semble gn-
ral, jusquau clich socio-biologique, et seules des caractristiques beaucoup
plus spcifiques peuvent indiquer une relle imitation.
Des traditions de longue date existent, sans aucun doute, dans la vie de la
cour, offrant un hritage de pratiques et dimages pour les gnrations sui-
vantes. Il faut nanmoins diffrencier les faons dont ces traditions pouvaient
oprer. Quelle tait la pertinence de la tradition perse de la royaut, des
Achmnides Nadir Shah? Cette culture, en soi composite, se mlangea aux
formes arabes, islamiques et turques, chacune ajoutant son propre rpertoire
dides et de pratiques
9
. Dans lrudition, la posie et larchitecture, de mme
que dans la pratique politique (prise de dcision et administration), la tradition
perse exera une influence durable, mais les souverains la rinventrent et la
rformrent en permanence, mme lorsquils cherchrent rtablir la tradi-
tion. La rputation du crmonial hispano-bourguignon en Europe montre
avec quelle force une tradition pouvait tre prise au srieux, alors quen mme
temps sa substance demeurait totalement obscure. Des gnrations aprs la fin
de lactuelle cour de Bourgogne, Charles Quint rtablit ce quil pensait tre
ces pratiques en Espagne. Bientt, les Habsbourgs dEspagne et dAutriche se
vantrent de leur hritage bourguignon. A Vienne, les courtisans se rf-
raient la tradition bourguignonne quand ils avaient besoin dun argument
rhtorique puissant pour dfendre des droits ancestraux menacs.
Bourguignon reprsentait lapoge de la tradition et de la distinction en
confrant un caractre sacr et donc une immunit contre le changement.
Cependant, la cour des Habsbourg de Vienne, part lordre de la Toison dor
et quelques autres pratiques isoles, ressemblait peu au modle bourguignon.
381
9
M. G. Hodgson. The Venture of Islam. I. The Classical Age of Islam, Chicago 1975;
R. L. Canfield (ed.), Turko-Persia in historical perspective, Cambridge 1991; M. Alam, The
Pursuit of Persian: Language in Mughal Politics, Modern Asian Studies, 32, 2 (1998), pp.
317-349; L. Balabanlilar, Lords of the Auspicious Conjunction: Turco-Mongol Imperial
Identity on the Subcontinent, Journal of World History, 18, 1 (2007), pp. 1-39.
Les courtisans habsbourgeois rvraient une tradition bien loin de leur rali-
t, et extrmement flexible dans sa dfinition. En France, au contraire, on na-
vait pas pour habitude de faire rfrence la Bourgogne laquelle ntait
jamais quun apanage cr pour un cadet de sang royal, et qui sest progressi-
vement mue en une cour somptueuse dont le faste, en son temps, surpass
la cour de France. La cour bourguignonne avait ses racines dans la cour de
France et les deux cours offraient par consquent une grande ressemblance
10
.
La discussion sur les traditions amne considrer la distinction
etic/emic. Drivant de lanalyse linguistique de phontique et phonmique,
les termes ont gnralement t utiliss pour distinguer dun ct les perspec-
tives des initis et de lautre celles des gens de lextrieur, ou, dit autrement,
de dmarquer la position des observateurs de celle des participants
11
.
Lexemple bourguignon montre que les traditions rvres par les acteurs du
pass ne concident pas ncessairement avec les influences et les connections
que nous pouvons dceler dans les sources. Au contraire, les chercheurs peu-
vent tablir des rapports qui ntaient pas pertinents pour les hommes du
temps. La culture dAsie centrale partage, par exemple, par les dynasties des
Qing et des Ottomans travers leurs traditions questres et de tir larc, ne
pourrait pas tre perue ou value par ces dynasties trs loignes lune de
lautre. Le fort potentiel identitaire et de lgitimation des traditions ne cor-
respond pas ncessairement leur rel impact. Labsence dune tradition sui-
vie nexclut pas non plus des racines partages ou des influences antrieures.
Ceci renvoie au problme de la diffusion et/ou du dveloppement spar en le
compliquant.
Les premiers paragraphes de cet essai mentionnent implicitement un
argument qui rend ncessaire la combinaison de comparaisons synchroniques
et diachroniques. Si on tudie tous les phnomnes en Europe et en Asie uni-
quement la priode moderne, merge immdiatement la question dune asy-
mtrie de pouvoir au bnfice de lEurope. Les questions concernant les tra-
jectoires diffrencies de modernisation, longtemps prdominantes dans les
tudes conomiques et politiques, se prtent difficilement ltude compara-
tive dune institution semi-universelle dans lhistoire pr-moderne. Le chan-
gement relativement rcent dquilibres mondiaux occulte dautres questions.
Jeroen Duindam
382
10
J. Duindam, The Burgundian-Spanish legacy in European court life: a brief reas-
sessment and the example of the Austrian Habsburgs, Publication du Centre Europen d-
tudes Bourguignonnes (XIVe-XVIe s.), Rencontre dInnsbruck, 46 (2006), pp. 203-220.
11
Voir les discussions et les applications in T. N. Headland, K. L. Pike, M. Harris (eds.),
Emics and Etics: the insider/ outsider debate, Newbury Park (CA) 1990.
Une perspective diachronique longitudinale est indispensable pour vrifier si
certains phnomnes sont typiquement pr-modernes, ou typiquement euro-
pens plutt quasiatiques, dans une analyse sur le long terme. Seule une posi-
tion diachronique nous permet de reprer les clichs de lhistoire de la cour,
montrant que ses aspects de longue dure ne peuvent pas tre vus comme des
dveloppements de lhistoire moderne. Comment pouvons-nous accepter sans
rserve, par exemple, linterprtation spcifique de Norbert Elias du crmo-
nial de cour comme indicateur de changements dans la civilisation europen-
ne (Affektbeherrschung) des XVIIe et XVIIIe sicles lorsque des parallles
trs similaires dans les cours, travers lhistoire mondiale, apparaissent vi-
dents
12
?
Dautres stratgies comparatives ont t utilises pour dpasser les
dichotomies Est-Ouest
13
. Le modle braudlien de la Mditerrane a t uti-
lis pour tudier les Ocans Indien et Atlantique
14
. En Mditerrane, il existe
de nombreuses ressources pour tudier les rapports entre les hritages dynas-
tiques byzantin, franc, mamelouk, de lAfrique du Nord-Ouest et ottoman
du Moyen-Age tardif lpoque moderne. Les perspectives historiques l-
chelle mondiale aident souligner le mouvement global de largent, des
grains, des pierres prcieuses, des armes, des personnes et de nombreux aut-
res lments. Parmi ces perspectives, un point de vue interne lAsie, fond
sur limpact des peuples migrant du fond des steppes vers des cultures dans
383
12
N. Elias, Die hfische Gesellschaft. Untersuchungen zur Soziologie des Knigtums und
der hfischen Aristokratie. Mit einer Einleitung: Soziologie und Geschichtswissenschaft,
Darmstadt 1969; Id., ber den Proze der Zivilisation. Soziogenetische und
Psychogenetische Untersuchungen, Bern 1969; voir la discussion in Duindam, Myths of
Power, cit.
13
Cette terminologie vient de V. Lieberman, Transcending East-West Dichotomies:
State and Culture Formation in Six Ostensibly Disparate Areas, Modern Asian Studies,
31, 3 (1997), pp. 463-546, voir galement Lieberman, Strange Parallels: Southeast Asia in
Global Context, c. 800-1830, Cambridge 2003-2009, 2 vols.
14
Voir les classiques F. Braudel, La Mditerrane et le Monde Mditerranen l-
poque de Philippe II, Paris 1949; K. N. Chaudhuri, Asia before Europe: economy and civi-
lisation of the Indian Ocean from the rise of Islam to 1750, Cambridge 1990; une perspec-
tive moderne in S. Subrahmanyam, Connected Histories: Notes towards a Reconfiguration
of Early Modern Eurasia, Modern Asian Studies, 31, 3 (1997), pp. 735-762, et
Subrahmanyam, Explorations in Connected History, Delhi 2005, 2 vols. Dautres valua-
tions rcentes: B. Bhattacharya, G. Dharampal-Frick, J. Gommans, Spatial and temporal
continuities of merchant networks in South Asia and the Indian Ocean (1500-2000), Journal
of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 50, 2-3 (2007), pp. 91-105; J. D. Greene,
J. P. G15eene, P. D. Morgan (eds.), Atlantic History: A Critical Appraisal, Oxford 2008.
toutes les directions, est particulirement oprant pour la comparaison de lEst
et lOuest de lAsie
15
. Alors quil est important de reconnatre de tels rapports
et de telles influences, un examen conjoint des schmas de structures et dac-
tivits peut favoriser ltude comparative des centres dynastiques.
La recherche comparative qui traite des grandes questions repose habi-
tuellement sur la documentation secondaire
16
. Rcemment, diffrents travaux
importants ont t publis sur lhistoire de la cour et fournissent ensemble une
large couverture en termes de rgions et priodes
17
. Cependant, mme cette
littrature acadmique spcialise noffre pas de base vraiment suffisante pour
la comparaison. En tudiant simultanment les archives des cours de Vienne
et de Paris-Versailles, jai remarqu qu bien des gards la comparaison na
rellement de sens qu un niveau dtaill. Les effectifs et les dpenses, par
exemple, pourraient tre transforms en ensembles comparables condition
de vrifier dabord les catgories utilises dans les listes darchives, en dis-
tinguant parmi les domestiques de la cour les diffrents personnels et services
auxiliaires, les salaires et dpenses. Les chiffres suggrs dans la littrature
apparaissent souvent faux, gnralement fonds sur de vagues ides circulant
lpoque, et mme des relevs corrects noffrent aucune base pour la com-
paraison, vu que la logique des calculs qui tayent les totaux diffre. La pr-
sence ou labsence darchives relatives ces deux cours, tout comme la natu-
re de ces documents, mont aid reformuler et amliorer les questions de
recherche. A la fin, diffrents rsultats, qui taient totalement inattendus, ont
merg, corrigeant certaines de mes hypothses initiales, contredisant gale-
ment lhistoriographie traditionnelle relative aux cours des Bourbon et des
Habsbourg. Jen ai conclu que lhistoire comparative devrait systmatique-
ment inclure des documents aussi bien publis que manuscrits dans la recher-
che. Cest plus facile dire qu faire: la recherche comparative base sur des
sources primaires et donc idalement sur des documents indits prsente un
Jeroen Duindam
384
15
Voir rcemment p. ex. C. E. Beckwith, Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central
Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present, Princeton 2009; A. Thomas, Culture and
conquest in Mongol Eurasia, Cambridge 2001.
16
Voir une affirmation classique et une explication mthodique de cette approche in C.
Tilly, Big structures, large processes, huge comparisons, New York 1983.
17
E. Rawski, The Last Emperors. A Social History of Qing Imperial Institutions,
Berkeley-Los Angeles 1998; D. M. Robinson, Culture, Courtiers, and Competition: The
Ming Court (1368-1644), Harvard 2008; Babaie Babayan, Slaves of the Shah, cit.; R.
Murphey, Exploring Ottoman Sovereignty. Tradition, Image and Practice in the Ottoman
Imperial Household 1400-1800, London-New York 2008; galement les volumes dits par
Walthall et Spawforth.
dfi majeur en Europe, et atteint des proportions vraiment considrables ds
que nous franchissons les frontires de la culture et de la langue.
Il nest possible de faire ce travail quen organisant une dmarche cooprati-
ve, afin de rduire les carts de langue et de culture en unissant un ensemble de
spcialistes. Ces dernires annes, jai coopr avec des experts de lempire otto-
man et des sinologues qui, dans de nombreux cas, ont corrig mes rflexes intel-
lectuels provenant dun contexte europen renforc par un souci dhistoire princi-
palement europenne. Avec un tel groupe, en encadrant des jeunes chercheurs tra-
vaillant sur lAsie aussi bien que sur lEurope, et en laborant ensemble un cadre
pour lanalyse et la comparaison de leurs propres sources, dimportants rsultats
peuvent tre obtenus. La coopration cette chelle peut dpasser la premire
impression de contrastes et de similitudes. La comptence linguistique et la fami-
liarit avec les milieux culturels sont ncessaires pour articuler la perspective la
plus vaste avec la comprhension dans le dtail de sources significatives. Cela est
tout aussi indispensable pour la traduction culturelle de termes et de concepts
quels sont les quivalents de cour, courtisan, dames de cour, eunuques, nobles,
souverain, famille, gouvernement ou Etat? Quelles sont les connotations et les
apprciations inhrentes ces termes? Une intense coopration avant et durant la
phase de recherche peut mener un glossaire multiculturel de termes incluant des
explications o des parallles nexistent pas clairement. Une comparaison cons-
tante permet de dvelopper le catalogue de questions et de mises au point pour les-
quelles cet essai fournit un point de dpart.
Ltendue dune dmarche de recherche comparative sur la cour dynas-
tique na, en principe, aucune limite, sauf en pratique, au niveau des finances
et de lorganisation. Une couverture minimale est toutefois ncessaire pour
garantir 1) la correction dune perspective moderne en incluant des priodes
antrieures, de mme que 2) une diffusion suffisante dexemples en Europe,
en Asie de lOuest et en Asie de lEst, sans doute trois sphres culturelles dif-
frencies mais interagissantes. LAfrique et lAmrique pr-colombienne
peuvent offrir de prcieux complments lhritage pr-colombien a une per-
tinence spciale en tant quunique exemple de dveloppement isol, sans rap-
port avec les cultures eurasiennes et africaines.
La Chine des Ming et des Qing, lempire ottoman et la plupart des autres
complexes dynastiques taient organiss autour dune dynastie unique et de
son centre politique. Au Japon des Tokugawa, avec sa forme exceptionelle de
deux dirigeants, le shogun Edo et lempereur Kyoto, le shogun Edo ser-
vait de principal point dencrage politique et militaire pour lensemble du
royaume. LEurope mdivale et pr-moderne pouvait se considrer comme
une Res Publica Christiana. Le pape et lempereur avaient lun et lautre une
lgitimit et pouvaient apparatre comme des souverains doubles dau moins
385
une partie de leur monde. Toutefois, aucun moment de son histoire, lEurope
na fonctionn comme un empire unitaire cohrent, orient vers un unique sou-
verain et centre (ou mme deux souverains et deux centres). Comment pouvons-
nous comparer la multiplicit de familles, de styles et de traditions, lunit
apparente dune seule famille dynastique majeure dans les empires? Le contras-
te est significatif mais doit tre relativis. La souverainet existait diffrents
niveaux, dans lensemble des monarchies europennes comme dans les empi-
res. Tous les empires de longue dure ont connu des phases de dcentralisation
caractrises par lmergence de plusieurs dynasties en concurrence dans le
sous-continent indien comme en Europe, cela semble avoir t la rgle plus que
lexception
18
. Dans chaque empire, des familles princires simposaient diff-
rents niveaux. Le degr dautonomie et de pouvoir des rois, des ducs et des com-
tes, des beys, des vice-rois et des gouverneurs variait normment. La famille
dynastique peut tre lunit de base de la comparaison, mais pas ncessairement
la famille dynastique dun vaste empire, et encore moins celle dune civilisa-
tion. La diffrence de taille entre, par exemple, la France de Louis XIV avec
ses 20 millions dhabitants, et la Chine des Qing sous Kangxi avec ses 150
millions dhabitants, ne doit pas empcher la comparaison.
Deux qualifications fondamentales concernant les questions spcifiques
de dlgation et dintgration dlimitent la nature des centres dynastiques
comparer. Avant tout, seules peuvent tre considres les dynasties ayant
lambition et les moyens dtendre leur autorit sur plusieurs gnrations. Les
dignitaires agissant en tant que reprsentants temporaires dune dynastie cen-
trale, qui ne peuvent transmettre leur pouvoir la gnration suivante que par
subterfuge et sans revendiquer ouvertement une lgitimit dynastique, nent-
rent pas dans la comparaison mme sils rsident dans des palais et quils sont
servis par des centaines de personnes (ou seulement comme problme pour les
souverains dynastiques qui traitent avec eux). Ceci nexclut pas les cours o
la succession tait arrange par des lections ou par acclamations, comme la
cour du Pape, la cour mamelouk et celle du Saint Empire Romain
Germanique. Une deuxime rserve concerne le conglomrat de territoires et
de peuples sous lautorit dune dynastie. Je me concentre sur les dynasties
qui rgnent sur diffrentes rgions ou diffrents peuples, non pas cause
Jeroen Duindam
386
18
Noter la comparaison de lInde et du Saint Empire romain in E. Burke, Select Works
of Edmund Burke, Indianapolis 1999, 4. Chapter: Speech on Foxs East India Bill. Consult
sur http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/659/20402 le 19/03/2009. Discussion de la perception
europenne de lInde pr-moderne: G. Dharampal-Frick, Indien im Spiegel deutscher
Quellen der Frhen Neuzeit (1500-1750) Studien zu einer interkulturellen Konstellation,
Tbingen 1994, en particulier le chapitre 4.
dune comparaison dchelles, mais parce que je veux valuer la capacit de
la famille intgrer des populations mlanges comprenant des ethnies et des
groupes religieux diffrents
19
. Cette qualification laisse une marge ncessaire
pour comparer les Etats dynastiques europens et les empires asiatiques. Les
empires, presque par dfinition, incluent une multiplicit de peuples. Mais, en
fait, la plupart des Etats dynastiques europens taient des monarchies com-
posites. La dynastie pr-moderne autrichienne des Habsbourg unissait les cou-
ronnes royales de Bohme et de Hongrie, les chapeaux archiducaux des diff-
rents duchs autrichiens, et la couronne impriale du Saint Empire Romain
Germanique. Dautres souverains ont toujours enregistr une collection de tit-
res soulignant la varit de territoires qui composent leur domaine, et le plus
souvent avaient affaire des identits et des privilges locaux.
Il pourrait sembler insatisfaisant de terminer cette introduction sans ta-
blir une gnalogie des travaux universitaires servant de base pour cet essai,
ou sans souligner les concepts et les ides innovants utiliss. Jhsite le faire
ici car la premire donnerait lieu des noms vidents allant de Max Weber,
Norbert Elias, Pierre Bourdieu, Michael Mann, de Jack Goody Clifford
Geertz, de mme qu une longue liste dtudes anthropologiques et de mono-
graphies historiques
20
. La seconde serait plutt modeste: limpulsion innovan-
te ne peut pas tre situe dans une liste dauteurs et de leurs concepts, ou dans
un exercice virtuose de jonglage intellectuel de concepts mais dans la combi-
naison dobservations prcdentes avec les domaines profils ci-dessous,
mettre en oeuvre dans une recherche cooprative.
II. Quatre cercles concentriques: souverain, dynastie, cour, relations
1. Le souverain: cycle de vie, personne et position, catalogue des vertus
Un souverain doit tre prsent comme le fils du Ciel, lombre de Dieu
sur terre, lagent du pouvoir divin en ce monde: il demeure un tre humain
387
19
J. Beattie, Understanding an African kingdom: Bunyoro, New York 1960, p. 32, sou-
ligne la reprsentation de clans et de mtiers la cour, leur contact avec le centre dynastique
a servi intgrer le peuple de Bunyoro. Le mcanisme choisi pour la recherche est ici ga-
lement important pour des territoires plus petits.
20
Notamment M. Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Grundriss der verstehenden
Soziologie, Tbingen 1922; M. Mann, Sources of Social Power. Ahistory of power fromthe begin-
ning to AD 1760, Cambridge 1986; J. Goody, p. ex. Succession to high office, Cambridge 1966
ou ses Comparative Studies in Kinship, Stanford 1969; Geertz, Negara; Local Knowledge, cit.
ordinaire suivant la trajectoire inflexible de la naissance, de la croissance et de
la mort. Alors que les coups dEtat ou les lections placent habituellement les
personnes au sommet de leurs forces physique et intellectuelle, la succession
hrditaire peut amener au pouvoir des personnes de tous ges: de jeunes
enfants encore levs par leurs ans, des adolescents inexpriments, des
adultes au maximum de leurs capacits, des personnes ges. Les deux sou-
verains les plus remarquables de la fin du XVIIme sicle, Louis XIV et lem-
pereur Qing Kangxi, ont travers tous ces stades. Le cycle de vie exerce une
influence puissante: les jeunes approchant lge adulte cherchent rompre
avec la tutelle de leurs mentors, les souverains seniors glissent facilement
dans les vulnrabilits de la vieillesse, sous la pression de successeurs impa-
tients et dune cour attendant leur mort. Un cycle de vie miniature de faibles-
se-force-faiblesse se cache dans de nombreux rgnes. Les favoris semparent
plus facilement du pouvoir en prsence soit de trs jeunes soit de trs vieux
souverains. Cela vaut galement pour de grandes figures. Lempereur Qing
Qianlong, dans la seconde partie de son rgne, a permis laccumulation de
pouvoirs entre les mains de son garde imprial mandchou Heshen. Cest seu-
lement aprs la mort de son mentor Mazarin que Louis XIV a proclam son
indpendance. Plus tard, dans sa vie, il sest de plus en plus repos sur son
pouse morganatique Mme de Maintenon un fait habituellement pass sous
silence
21
. Pour les femmes la cour pouses, concubines, rgentes et souve-
raines la reproduction et les grossesses ont reprsent un facteur majeur
dans le cycle de vie. Statut post-sexuel, maternit et veuvage ont consolid
leur position. Inversement, un rle actif en tant que reine ou rgente pouvait
tre considr comme inconciliable avec la reproduction et la sexualit
22
.
Les souverains intelligents peuvent engendrer des faibles desprit. Tous
les souverains, forts ou faibles, brillants ou sots, devaient faire face des
attentes, des obligations, et des tentations. Celles-ci se sont rvles trop lour-
des pour nombre dentre eux. Plus la position rituelle attribue au souverain
tait leve, plus cela pouvait tre pesant en pratique pour le titulaire. Le spec-
tacle de la toute-puissance limitait srieusement la libert de mouvement du
Jeroen Duindam
388
21
Voir p. ex. M. Bryant, Partner, Matriarch and Minister: The Unofficial Consort,
Mme de Maintenon of France, 1669-1715, in C. Campbell-Orr (ed.), European Queenship:
The Role of The Consort 1660-1815, Cambridge 2004; sur lducation des princes, P.
Mormiche, Devenir prince. Lecole du pouvoir en France, Paris 2009.
22
Voir p. ex. J. M. Richards, To promote a Woman to Beare Rule: Talking of Queens
in Mid-Tudor England, Sixteenth Century Journal, 28, 1 (1997), pp. 101-121; L. Peirce,
The Imperial Harem. Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire, Oxford 1993 souli-
gnant le lien entre statut post-sexuel et pouvoir politique.
souverain. Cest une des conclusions qui ressort de linterprtation de Clifford
Geertz de ltat-thtre balinais. Le roi tait alors comme le roi des checs:
central mais vulnrable et statique
23
. Dans toutes les formes ritualises de sou-
verainet, nous devons nettement faire la diffrence entre le statut hypertro-
phi et le rle rel de la personne: ces rois ont rgn mais nont souvent pas
pu vraiment gouverner. En mme temps, les serviteurs se prosternant en pr-
sence du souverain pouvaient se rvler plus puissants en ralit que la per-
sonne en qui ils reconnaissaient un pouvoir hors du commun. Le titre supr-
me et la lgitimation cleste impliquaient de lourdes responsabilits. Une
clipse inattendue, des dsastres naturels, des scheresses, des inondations,
indiquant le mcontentement du Ciel, pouvaient obliger lempereur chinois
purer les bureaucrates corrompus et introduire des rformes, mais in fine,
il devait lui-mme rtablir lharmonie par des sacrifices et des rituels
24
. Des
lments de cette grande responsabilit se retrouvent dans les attitudes des
souverains europens, centres sur la justice et laccessibilit. La lgitimation
religieuse a cr des attentes qui ont t prises trs au srieux par la plupart
des souverains, mme sils nont pas toujours t en mesure dy rpondre.
En plus de tels fardeaux, les souverains devaient faire face aux dcisions
et la paperasse. Les trois grands empereurs Qing ont, de toute vidence,
travaill trs dur, et tenaient donner cette image. Louis XIV, peut tre moins
fix sur le travail administratif que les empereurs Qing, insista nanmoins sur
la ncessit dun laborieux travail dans les mmoires quil crivit son fils.
LEmpereur habsbourgeois Leopold Ier sest plaint, dans des lettres un
confident, des interminables heures de lecture et de commentaires de docu-
ments dEtat. Un empereur romain du cinquime sicle aurait invent une
lampe huile se rechargeant automatiquement ce que lui permettait de conti-
nuer travailler la nuit. Dautres inventions pour viter de dormir figurent
dans la littrature qui idalise les souverains travailleurs
25
. La plupart des sou-
389
23
C. Geertz, Negara. The theatre-state in nineteenth-century Bali, Princeton 1980, p.
130; voir galement Geertz, Centers, kings, and charisma: reflections on the symbolics of
power, in Id., Local knowledge. Further essays in interpretive anthropology, New York
1983, pp. 121-146.
24
Rawski, The Last Emperors, cit., pp. 197-294, voir p. ex. les rituels suivant les sche-
resses pp. 225-227; pour une plus ample discussion sur les rites de royaut et la notion fra-
zerienne de sacrifice du rituel du roi, voir D. Quigley, Scapegoats: The Killing of Kings and
Ordinary People, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 6, 2 (2000), pp. 237-254.
25
La lampe fut mentionne dans un article de Jill Harries (St Andrews) durant une
confrence sur les Empires et la Loi en Novembre 2009: principes, pratiques du Droit:
Going outside the order: Roman law from city state to world empire. Voir de nombreux
verains taient confronts des pressions continues de la part de serviteurs qui
dfendaient leurs propres intrts. Le Roi Soleil mit son fils en garde, indi-
quant que les serviteurs qui: taient les premiers voir ses faiblesses, taient
aussi les premiers chercher les utiliser leur avantage
26
. Le silence et li-
solement ont rendu certains souverains, en particulier en Asie, moins vulnra-
bles aux pressions extrieures. Toutefois, ces mesures dfensives ont aug-
ment le pouvoir des serviteurs lintrieur de la cour. La chasse, probable-
ment la distraction la plus importante des souverains travers lhistoire,
alliant leffort physique au compagnonnage, permettait dchapper pour un
temps au travail quotidien et aux pressions sociales
27
.
Les miroirs princiers rdigs dans des univers culturels diffrents refl-
tent-ils un catalogue de vertus qui soient comparables, alliant des attitudes
religieuses ou un rapport harmonieux avec la population aux qualits dynas-
tiques telles que la vaillance et la libralit? Les strotypes des bons et des
mauvais souverains invitent un examen comparatif, comme le fait la tension
entre la position ritualise et la vulnrabilit des souverains en place ou lim-
pact fondamental du cycle de vie.
1. Dynasties: reproduction, succession, parent
Le pouvoir dynastique est fond sur lhritage dun statut lev, une
situation lie la procration. Les eunuques ainsi que les ecclsiastiques
condamns au clibat ont souvent russi transmettre leur richesse et leur sta-
tut des membres de leurs familles largies ou ont eu recours ladoption de
favoris
28
. Les souverains pouvaient parfois choisir de crer des successeurs
Jeroen Duindam
390
exemples de la rhtorique et de la pratique du dur labeur in Louis XIV, Mmoires de Louis
XIV pour linstruction du Dauphin, C. Dreyss, ed., Paris 1860, deux volumes, p. ex. II, pp.
99, 119-120; Spence, Emperor of China, cit., pp. 46, 110-111.
26
Dreyss, Mmoires de Louis XIV, cit., I, pp. 196-197; II, pp. 64-65.
27
Voir Rawski, Last Emperors, cit., pp. 20-22; Murphey, Ottoman Sovereignty, cit., pp.
152-153; en gnral T. T. Allsen, The Royal Hunt in Eurasian History, Philadelphia 2006.
Le personnel pour diffrentes formes de chasse a exist toutes les cours ma connaissan-
ce. Chasser tait habituellement li un calendrier saisonnier et des changements de sites.
28
J. W. Jay, Another side of Chinese eunuch history: Castration, marriage, adoption,
and burial, Canadian Journal of History, 28, 3 (1993), pp. 459-478; voir J. YI, Mmoires
dune dame de cour dans la cit interdite, Arles 1993 et D. Shi, Mmoires dun eunuque
dans la cit interdite, Arles 1991 pour de nombreux dtails des eunuques vers la fin de la
dynastie Qing.
par adoption plutt que par reproduction. Cependant, dans lensemble, ils
espraient voir leurs enfants installs leur place. Les modes de reproduction
laissaient de nombreux choix: mariage monogame contre polygamie, maria-
ges endogamiques quasi galits contre concubinage esclave et des com-
binaisons de celles-ci. Il est intressant dobserver le passage du mariage
dynastique au concubinage esclave bas sur le harem, dans les empires abbas-
side et ottoman, assez loigns dans le temps La dynastie est alors exclusive-
ment dfinie en termes patriarcaux. Les concubines taient des esclaves et des
trangres. Les formes de mariage et de concubinage ont t dgages dans
les diffrentes dynasties chinoises. Les phases de contrle par les impratrices
douairires et leurs lignages dans lhistoire chinoise ont t dcries par les
mandarins lettrs qui dtestaient voir le pouvoir dans les mains de leurs rivaux
de la cour intrieure. Les nouveaux souverains Qing furent apparemment
convaincus dadopter le concubinage en plus du mariage pour viter le pou-
voir des impratrices et pour assurer la procration. Les concubines taient
slectionnes tous les niveaux sociaux de llite des conqurants, elle-mme
organise dans des bannires, formations militaires des allis mandchous,
mongols et chinois des Qing. De plus, les successeurs ntaient pas ncessai-
rement les fils des impratrices ou concubines de haut rang, ce qui vitait la
formation de lignages puissants autour des impratrices
29
.
En Europe, la pratique du mariage entre personnes de mme rang sest
renforce dans les dynasties souveraines. Dans le mme temps, la primogni-
ture est progressivement devenue la pratique dominante, bien que les lec-
tions, les acclamations et le choix direct faits par le souverain taient encore
pratiqus. De mme, le morcellement des territoires entre les diffrents suc-
cesseurs la mort dun monarque, ou les variantes moins radicales de telles
pratiques allouant aux plus jeunes fils des apanages dans les terres domania-
les, se sont maintenues. Ailleurs, les diffrents modes de mariage et de concu-
binage ont abouti de multiples systmes de succession. La succession est la
cl et le talon dAchille du pouvoir dynastique: la descendance est une pr-
condition ncessaire la continuit, mais elle peut en mme temps prsenter
un terrible dfi. Les mariages dynastiques monogames ont rendu linfertilit
et les dcs prmaturs trs proccupants, conduisant de srieuses crises, par
exemple, en France aprs 1712, ou en Autriche sous Charles VI. La plupart
391
29
R. S. Watson P. Buckley Ebrey (eds.), Marriage and Inequality in Chinese Society,
Berkeley 1991, notamment les articles de Jennifer Holmgren et Evelyn Rawski; S. Wang,
The Selection of Women for the Qing Imperial Harem, Chinese Historical Review, 11, 2
(2004), pp. 212-222.
des guerres europennes entre 1648 et 1789 ont t dclenches par des dispu-
tes de succession, elles-mmes causes par lextinction de branches anes des
dynasties. Une abondance de successeurs potentiels a cependant fait merger
dautres tensions et anxits, en Europe et ailleurs. Les querelles de succes-
sion dominent lhistoire dynastique: dans les dynasties dAsie centrale bases
dans les steppes en particulier, la notion de souverainet collective a dict un
partage du pouvoir dans la parentle masculine. Entre les souverains Mughal,
sinscrivant dans la descendance de Genghis aussi bien que dans celle de
Timur, les combats pour la succession furent endmiques
30
. Les Ottomans pra-
tiquaient une forme de succession qui mettait en comptition les fils du sou-
verain dfunt. Le partage du royaume aprs le dcs dun souverain est rest
une option jusqu ce que Mehmed II formalise la pratique du fratricide
31
.
Tous les fils taient des successeurs potentiels, servant en tant que gouver-
neurs dans les provinces frontalires ils se prcipitaient vers la capitale ou
vers larme pour en obtenir le soutien et affronter les concurrents. Les rivaux
taient tus lors des batailles, ou par la suite par le vainqueur le fratricide
mergea ainsi comme un recours ncessaire. Vers 1600, la pratique disparut.
Les fils ntaient plus envoys pour gouverner les provinces, mais taient gar-
ds au palais de Topkap. Tous les hommes de la dynastie ottomane devaient
y rester, jusqu ce que le sultan meure et que lan des mles succde. Le
critre de lge, qui a conduit la succession de frres plutt que de fils, rem-
plaait le systme prcdent. Les Qing ont rejet la primogniture des Ming :
tandis quils acceptaient la pratique gnrale selon laquelle les fils succdaient
leurs pres, ils rservaient lempereur le droit de choisir librement parmi
ses fils. Ce ne fut pas sans douleur : lorsquune prfrence devenait vidente,
elle tait conteste de nombreux cts. Mme un personnage aussi puissant
que Kangxi fut oblig, maintes reprises, de modifier ses choix, ce qui lui
causa de grands soucis. La succession de son fils Yongzheng se dessinait dans
des circonstances douteuses et la mfiance de ses frres a marqu le dbut de
son rgne. Finalement, Yongzheng et Qianlong le petit-fils prfr de
Jeroen Duindam
392
30
Voir p. ex. M. D. Faruqui, The Forgotten Prince: Mirza Hakim and the Formation of
the Mughal Empire in India, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient,
48, 4 (2005), pp. 487-523; J. Flores S. Subrahmanyam, The Shadow Sultan: Succession
and Imposture in the Mughal Empire, 1628-1640, Journal of the Economic and Social
History of the Orient, 47,1 (2004), pp. 80-121; J. Flores, I will do as my father did: on
Portuguese and other European views of Mughal succession crises, e-Journal of
Portuguese History, 3, 2 (2005).
31
Murphey, Ottoman Sovereignty, cit., p. 42.
Kangxi ont introduit un systme o la succession restait secrte jusqu la
mort de lempereur
32
.
Ala premire gnration, les enfants dun souverain permettaient de ren-
forcer des alliances par mariage. Les filles de sultans pousaient habituelle-
ment les vizirs et les pachas parmi les plus hauts agents dEtat de lempire
33
.
Lchange des princes et des princesses consolidaient les traits de paix en
Europe o un maillage de plus en plus serr dalliances matrimoniales finis-
sait par runir tous les souverains en une seule famille. Les princes du ligna-
ge imprial mandchou ou Aisin Gioro conclurent des alliances endogames
avec les Mandchous devenus, avec les Mongols et quelques femmes chinoi-
ses, des partenaires privilgis. Les princesses Qing se marirent galement,
bien quen des proportions diffrentes, avec des princes mongols dont le rang
tait dsormais lev. Ces mariages refltent limportance des alliances mon-
goles dans la conqute de la Chine des Ming, largement pratiques lors de la
longue phase dexpension des Qing vers les steppes occidentales de la
Mongolie aux XVII et XVIII sicles
34
.
Certains descendants proches du trne mais sans chances relles de gou-
verner, pouvaient poser de srieux problmes aux souverains. Ils faisaient
dexcellents reprsentants du pouvoir ou des vice-rois parfaits mais, pour les
mmes raisons, constituaient galement de dangereux rivaux pour lautorit
en place. La pratique ottomane dune succession en comptition et du fratri-
cide, remplac par le nouveau schma disolement des mles et de la succes-
sion par anciennet, a limin ou du moins attnu le problme. Les empe-
reurs Qing ont cherch contrler la famille impriale. Les princes pouvaient
occuper de hautes fonctions, mais restaient limits dans leurs mouvements: ils
vivaient et autour de Pkin, assists tout autant que surveills. Leurs titres
de noblesse, de plus, baissaient dun degr chaque gnration, lexception
des familles les plus importantes. En Europe, les branches cadettes qui figu-
raient en bonne place dans les rebellions, se transformrent petit petit en
opposition contenue ou en soutien fragile. Les Orlans en France du rle
393
32
Rawski, Last Emperors, cit., 101-103; J. Spence, Emperor of China. Self-Portrait of
Kang-His, NewYork 1974; voir aussi M. C. Elliott, Emperor Qianlong. Son of Heaven, Man
of the World, New York-San Francisco 2009.
33
Peirce, The Imperial Harem, discusses at length the marriages of Ottoman princes-
ses to the highest state servants, Sultanic sons-in-law or Damads; voir galement sur les fem-
mes seldjoukides et abbasides E. J. Hanne, Women, power, and the eleventh and twelfth cen-
tury Abbasid court, Hawwa, 3, 1 (2005), pp. 80-110.
34
E. Rawski, Ching Imperial Marriage and Problems of Rulership, in Marriage and
Inequality in Chinese Society, cit., pp. 175-182.
ouvert de Gaston dans la Fronde, de la rgence du duc dOrlans et du vote
de Philippe galit en faveur de lexcution de Louis XVI, au bref triomphe
dynastique de Louis Philippe en 1830 en offrent une belle illustration. Ds
quune succession rgulire tait dune certaine faon branle par des
minorits, des rgences ou un mcontentement populaire des princes
jouaient un rle de premier plan.
A un niveau infrieur, des tensions similaires se retrouvaient de faon
endmique dans les relations entre souverains et la haute noblesse europen-
ne. Dans les empires ottoman et Qing, au dessous du clan dynastique (ou celui
des dynasties prcdentes), le statut hrditaire et lorigine noble taient rare-
ment souligns aussi ouvertement et aussi fermement quen Europe.
Machiavel, Montesquieu et beaucoup dautres opposrent la toute puissance
des souverains asiatiques servis par des esclaves ou leurs quivalents, aux rois
europens qui gouvernaient sur la base dun consensus avec leurs lites
nobles, lorsquils reprochaient leurs souverains de trop se rapprocher du
despotisme oriental. Malgr les grandes diffrences de lgitimation et de
reprsentation de statut, il semble vident que pour tous les exemples prsen-
ts ici, les agents du gouvernement central tout comme les lites rgionales
taient des forces ne pas sous-estimer. Leurs relations avec le centre dynas-
tique, en tant que foyer de lactivit administrative et en tant que centre rituel,
taient un lment essentiel dans le fonctionnement de lEtat pr-moderne.
Une analyse dtaille des groupes servant dans lentourage du souverain, le
foyer du troisime cercle concentrique, est ncessaire pour comprendre ces
rapports.
Lorganisation de la reproduction et de la succession ainsi que les dfis
poss par les prtendants ou plus gnralement par ceux qui partagent le pres-
tige dynastique, invitent une recherche thmatique comparative. Les chan-
gements dans la pratique tels que ceux qui arrivrent vers 1600 dans lempire
ottoman ou durant les premires gnrations des Qing, constituent un bon
point de dpart.
1. Le personnel de la cour: topographie et sexe, fonction, statut, origines
Au coeur de cette analyse des centres dynastiques se trouve la configura-
tion des groupes au service du souverain dans les diffrentes activits: domes-
tiques, conseillers, gardes, religieux et bien dautres. Alors que les problmes
relatifs aux souverains en tant que personnes et la continuit dynastique se
concentrent autour de quelques points gnraux, la discussion sur les groupes
qui voluent dans le centre dynastique risque de se fragmenter en une multi-
Jeroen Duindam
394
tude dexemples qui soulignent plus de diffrences que de similitudes. Je vais
essayer dtablir ici des critres permettant la comparaison et la discussion de
formes qui semblent rcurrentes malgr de grandes divergences dorganisa-
tion.
La topographie et larchitecture proposent une premire approche du cen-
tre dynastique. Les plans et les structures du palais montrent une diffrence
plus ou moins marque entre les espaces intrieurs et extrieurs de la cour.
Lintrieur et lexterieur sont souvent dlimits par des cours agrmentes
de portes subsquentes qui en limitent laccs. Les structures de ces cours
peuvent dfinir des niveaux daccs supplmentaires, liant lapproche de visi-
teurs des trajectoires spcifiques, notamment avec des portes, des escaliers,
et une srie de pices conduisant lendroit o le souverain attend les invits.
La partie intrieure de la cour, incluant par dfinition la zone rsidentielle du
souverain, habituellement relie directement celle de son ou ses pouse(s)
ou concubine(s), tait aussi le centre des dcisions: le coeur du palais servait
galement de coeur politique. Le cabinet du roi, la pice o le roi pouvait tra-
vailler avec ses conseillers, se trouvait dans lappartement du roi. Ceci mont-
re les limites des concepts modernes de priv et public, si ceux-ci sont
considrs comme lexpression de sphres personnelles et politiques. Il ny
avait pas de telle opposition la cour, mme si les services politico-adminis-
tratifs spcialiss vinrent progressivement travailler une distance croissante
du coeur dynastique de lorganisation politique.
Les femmes la cour avaient galement tendance occuper les parties les
moins accessibles de lenceinte du palais. Cela vaut pour les Frauenzimmer
europennes, un terme qui se rfre aussi bien aux femmes qu leur empla-
cement
35
, comme aussi pour le harem Topkap ou les femmes dans la cit
interdite. La centralit de la cour intrieure impliquait la proximit des fem-
mes et du pouvoir contrebalanant les prjugs sexistes traditionnels contre
les femmes au pouvoir. Les prjugs taient, la plupart du temps, utiliss pour
les femmes plus jeunes, sexuellement actives, laissant plus de marge aux
mres et aux veuves
36
. Il est intressant de souligner que le sultan ottoman
395
35
Voir J. Hirschbiegel W. Paravicini (eds.), Das Frauenzimmer. Die Frau bei Hofe in
Sptmittelalter und frher Neuzeit 6. Symposium der Residenzen-Kommission der Akademie
der Wissenschaften in Gttingen, Stuttgart 2000; K. Keller, Hofdamen. Amtstrgerinnen im
Wiener Hofstaat des 17. Jahrhunderts, Vienne-Cologne-Weimar 2005.
36
Le rle des mres et des veuves est soulign in Peirce, Imperial Harem, cit. and
Walthall, Servants of the Dynasty, cit.; sur les reines, voir F. Cosandey, La reine de France.
Symbole et pouvoir xve-xviiie sicle, Paris 2000; C. Campbell Orr (ed.), Queenship in
Europe. The Role of the Consort, Cambridge 2004.
comme aussi les derniers empereurs Ming et mme les empereurs plus actifs
Qing se retiraient davantage dans la cour intrieure pendant les XVIe et XVIIe
sicles, renforant ainsi le pouvoir des autres occupants de la cour intrieure
notamment des femmes. En de nombreuses cours, les eunuques avaient la
fonction de trait dunion entre le monde des femmes et celui des hommes,
entre lintrieur et lextrieur de la cour, et finalement entre le souverain
sacralis et les administrateurs de son empire
37
. Plus gnralement, les servi-
teurs domestiques qui contrlaient laccs aux appartements du souverain,
disposaient dun grand pouvoir, quelles que furent leurs origines. Laccs phy-
sique au souverain, en particulier laccs permanent qui pouvait se transfor-
mer en proximit conviviale, tait un atout crucial pour chacun. Les plans des
palais allis aux registres crmoniels et institutionnels peuvent aider tablir
lorganisation de lintrieur et de lextrieur de la cour en termes de localits,
de trajectoires et de personnel. Ceci fournit un arrire-plan ncessaire toutes
discussions sur le pouvoir, les positions administratives et les prises de dci-
sions
38
.
Les diffrentes fonctions des groupes qui gravitent autour du souverain
peuvent tre compares grande chelle en tudiant lorganisation du per-
sonnel de la maison et des services du gouvernement. Les gardiens et les gar-
des, les chansons et les chambellans, ainsi que les agents du rituel ou de la
religion, les scribes, les scrtaires et les contrleurs des finances, sont pr-
sents dans la plupart des cours. En tablissant des listes de fonctions et de tit-
res parmi les groupes qui servaient le souverain dans les domaines domes-
tique, religieux, administratif ou militaire, nous pouvons tablir une matrice
comparative des fonctions la cour.
En plus du personnel et des fonctions, les statuts et les hirarchies cons-
tituent un lment essentiel de lorganisation aulique. Est-il possible de dis-
tinguer partout des groupes au statut nettement diffrenci, tels que les escla-
ves, les affranchis, les serviteurs, les roturiers, les nobles, les princes? En
Europe, le foss noble-roturier semble assez important; il est compliqu par la
prsence des artistes et autres spcialistes qui atteignent un rang lev par leur
talent ou la proximit au monarque. Ala cour ottomane, la catgorie trs large
desclaves du sultan (qui englobait les pages dans les coles du palais, les
eunuques noirs et blancs, les femmes dans les harems) et diffrentes catgo-
Jeroen Duindam
396
37
K. Hopkins, Conquerors and Slaves, Cambridge 1981 avec un chapitre clair sur le
pouvoir politique des eunuques.
38
B. S. Bartlett, Monarchs and Ministers: The Grand Council in Mid-Ching China,
1723-1820, Berkeley-Los Angeles 1994.
ries de serviteurs de la cour extrieure ou birun, recouvraient en fait des situa-
tions trs diffrentes. Chez les Qing la cour intrieure hbergait des groupes
de statuts trs ingaux : les eunuques, les serviteurs subordonns des banni-
res, limpratrice et les concubines, les nobles de bannires et les princes
impriaux. Le statut lev des bureaucrates lettrs Han dans les ministres
tait bas sur des critres spars et diffrents. Les hirarchies complexes dans
et parmi ces groupes constituent sans aucun doute un lment universel de la
vie de cour, et une pierre angulaire du crmonial. La hirarchie de fonctions
(cest--dire une chane de commandement au sein du personnel) peut aller
lencontre dune hirarchie de statuts (cest--dire entre nobles et roturiers,
ministres et princes). Les contestations taient endmiques dans les cours
europennes. Quelles taient les raisons et la nature des conflits? Ces derniers
suivaient-ils les lignes de fracture entre les groupes, entre la cour intrieure et
la cour extrieure, entre la maison et le gouvernement? Ou cela suivait-il un
schma plus souple changeant selon les occasions, et croisant les divisions
structurelles de la cour? Le conflit tait frquent dans toutes les cours euro-
pennes mais variait dintensit dune cour lautre: celles dAsie taient-
elles plus ordonnes et mieux disciplines? La prsence de conflits dans len-
tourage royal a t interprte par Norbert Elias et de nombreux autres comme
une stratgie dlibre du prince, qui utilisait systmatiquement les luttes
entre lites rivales pour renforcer sa propre autorit. Si nous observons la cour
travers ce critre, nous pouvons constater diffrentes causes de rivalit et
tenter de vrifier si les souverains y ont en effet recouru systmatiquement.
Dans ce cas, ils ont contribu crer une situation instable dplore dans les
manuels de morale de souverainet; de plus, ils risquaient dtre accuss de
malfaisance.
Le recrutement, la provenance et la formation du personnel peuvent four-
nir des informations essentielles. Le centre dynastique a-t-il privilgi ou
cart des groupes, des rgions, des religions spcifiques? Se dmarquait-il de
la socit par sa composition? La plupart du personnel mandchou au service
de la cour intrieure en Chine contrastait avec la prdominance chinoise Han
dans la bureaucratie, recrute par le systme des examens. La prdominance
des esclaves choisis parmi la population chrtienne de lempire travers le
systme devshirme pour servir dans la maison ottomane et dans les troupes du
palais a loign la cour de son environnement, mme si le systme allait bien-
tt permettre des recrutements sous dautres formes
39
. Les concubines du sul-
397
39
I. Metin Kunt, The Sultans Servants: The Transformation of Ottoman Provincial
Government, 1550-1650, New York 1983.
tan, de mme, avaient tendance venir de zones priphriques. Dans les deux
cas, le centre tait dans une certaine mesure pourvu dun personnel tranger,
lequel formait des groupes particulirement disposs la loyaut envers la
dynastie en place. Les trangers et les exils peuvent se retrouver en de nom-
breuses autres cours, souvent en une position proche du pouvoir. Hannibal
partage ainsi aprs sa dfaite lintimit dAntiochus le Grand.; les souverains
europens dchus rsidaient la cour de souverains amis. Marco Polo et Ibn
Battuta furent pourvus doffices dans les cours quils visitrent. La distance
avec les rseaux locaux et solidaires rendaient les trangers particulirement
utiles pour faire contrepoids la formation dlites dans lentourage royal. A
contrario, laccession au pouvoir dtrangers suscitait de nombreuses contes-
tations et provoquait lindiscipline au cur des cours europennes, quand les
mariages dynastiques introduisaient de nouveaux souverains accompagns
damis venus dailleurs. Bien que le recrutement pouvait sappuyer sur une
formation pralable, la plupart des cours proposaient aussi des sortes dap-
prentissages lintention de groupes spcifiques. Cest le cas des jeunes pages
de lcurie: ils restaient la cour plusieurs annes pour se former avant de par-
tir commander aux armes ou travailler dans les bureaux. Des jeunes filles
nobles, un peu plus ges, taient formes dans lentourage des reines ou des
princesses avant de se marier avec des courtisans et poursuivre leur carrire
la cour. Linitiation des pages et des jeunes filles se rencontrait finalement
dans toutes les cours mentionnes ici. En effet, cet univers fonctionnait sou-
vent comme un centre dinitiation des plus jeunes la culture de cour, aux
arts, au mtier des armes ou de ladministration.
Les plus jeunes, levs la cour, ny passaient pas ncessairement le reste
de leur vie. Ceci nous amne une autre question: nous concentrons-nous sur
des groupes prsents en permanence la cour, visibles sur les registres finan-
ciers du personnel du souverain, ou visons-nous retracer lexistence dune
vaste lite ne participant qu quelques activits de la cour
40
? De telles soci-
ts de cour taient-elles un phnomne gnral des centres dynastiques, ou
mergeaient-elles uniquement dans des situations spcifiques? Dans lhisto-
riographie europenne, la maison princire a souvent t confondue avec les
images vhicules par le Livre du Courtisan de Castiglione. Cet ouvrage,
pourtant, ne dcrit pas la vie de cour dabord parce quil prsente un idal
de perfection plutt quune situation ordinaire, ensuite et surtout parce quil
saisit un moment unique, une rencontre fortuite de la fine fleur de llite des
cours italiennes. Ce ntait ni une maison ni un groupe lis de manire insti-
Jeroen Duindam
398
40
Spawforth, The Court and Court Society, cit., p. 8.
tutionnelle et partageant un calendrier journalier. Toutefois, il est vident que
les visiteurs et les occasions fortuites constituaient des moments forts de cette
existence-l. Autour du noyau restreint des serviteurs prsents en permanen-
ce, une multitude dautres pouvaient fortuitement participer la cour. Ce pro-
cd tait institutionnalis, dans une certaine mesure, par la reconnaissance de
membres honoraires, par le service par terme, et par un calendrier des v-
nements festifs et des crmonies. La cour princire constituait le lieu dune
srie dactivits qui en amenaient provisoirement beaucoup de visiteurs, les-
quelles ne se retrouvaient pas ncessairement inscrites dans les registres
financiers du personnel royal. Ceux-ci concernait habituellement les courti-
sans, les cavalieri, les gentilhommes, soit la couche suprieure de ceux qui
frquentaient la cour, forme par la culture aulique mais contribuant aussi au
style si particulier de cet univers. Cette interaction dynamique, commune en
Europe, se retrouve-t-elle dans les cours dAsie, avec leurs espaces interieurs
plus isols et des souverains plus renferms? Les tudes rcentes de Rhoads
Murphey sur la cour ottomane proposent une analyse semblable chez les
mteferrikas ou les personnes distingues, lesquelles semblent en fait repr-
senter un chelon suprieur bien plus restreint que dans les milieux euro-
pens
41
. Cette question redevient pertinente dans la dernire section de cette
quadruple prsentation : les relations.
La topographie des palais, le sexe, la fonction, le statut, les hirarchies,
lorigine et la prsence la cour peuvent tre utiliss pour tablir une anato-
mie de la cour. En appliquant les rsultats ces diffrents domaines, et dans
la mesure o il est possible de les faire concider, nous devrions pouvoir
mieux comprendre nombre de processus de cour. Des recherches focalises
sur certains aspects peuvent faciliter lexploitation des sources. Un exemple
doit ici tre donn. Un changement de souverain entranait souvent des rfor-
mes, les sources tendent donc tre abondantes. Mme si la succession ne
soulevait pas de difficults, le passage dune suite princire la cour du nou-
veau souverain posait toutes sortes de questions. Quelles personnes et quels
groupes iraient de la suite princire la nouvelle cour? Que faire des servi-
teurs surnumraires devaient-ils partir ou rester? Y avait-il un soutien pour
eux? Etaient-il pensionns ou r-employs dans une autre maison? A Vienne,
la maison de limpratrice douairire prit en charge les surnumraires, per-
mettant au souverain un nouveau dpart avec ses propres serviteurs. En
France, les offices de cour devinrent progressivement semi-hrditaires. Une
tude approfondie des centres dynastiques pendant les priodes de succession
399
41
Murphey, Ottoman Sovereignty, cit., pp. 154-158.
peut claircir ces pratiques, les rles des souverains, et le devenir des servi-
teurs de cour.
2. Relations de cour et expansions
La plupart des centres dynastiques rsidaient en un lieu privilgi, un
palais principal dans la capitale, comme Topkap, la Cit Interdite, ou
Versailles non loin de Paris. Toutefois, ces palais taient rarement les seuls.
Dans et autour de la capitale existaient dautres palais, quelquefois occups
par des membres de la dynastie avec leur propre maison. Des lieux plus loi-
gns offraient la possibilit dun changement saisonnier, tant de dcor que de
climat, et lopportunit dactivits rcratives diffrentes, notamment la chas-
se. La dynastie, entoure dun groupe de serviteurs qui pouvait changer selon
loccasion, voyageait dans tout le pays. Dans le mme temps soprait un
mouvement rgulier de la priphrie vers le centre afin que des groupes divers
viennent prsenter leurs hommages au souverain ou ses agents. Enfin, lin-
trieur de la capitale, nous pouvons supposer une interaction conomique,
sociale, politique et rituelle continue entre la ville et le palais.
Comment pouvons-nous caractriser les relations entre la cour et la capi-
tale? La topographie claire les points de contact et de circulation entre le
palais et la ville reliant les principales places, difices religieux, terrains de
chasse et zones militaires la rsidence royale. Les gens pouvaient-ils se
dplacer librement dans les parties les plus ouvertes du palais? Utilisaient-ils
ces espaces dans dautres buts, comme lieux de socialisation ou de commer-
ce? Dans la capitale, autour du palais principal, les relations avec la socit
urbaine pouvaient se raliser travers lapprovisionnement ou lutilisation
dune main doeuvre artisanale bien que la cour elle-mme puisse se char-
ger de ces questions en tant que centre de production part entire
42
. La
messe, la prire du vendredi, le cycle des grands sacrifices, ont cr des liens
entre le palais et la ville, entre le souverain et la population. Les occasions
plus exceptionnelles telles que les festivals de circoncision, les mariages
royaux ou la venue de dlgations trangres importantes faisaient lobjet de
longues et somptueuses festivits
43
. Quels groupes participaient aux crmo-
Jeroen Duindam
400
42
P. M. Torbert, The Ching Imperial Household Department. A Study of its
Organization and Principal Functions, Cambridge (MA)-London 1977.
43
Sur la cit, la cour et la crmonie, voir S. Naquin, Peking. Temples and City Life,
Berkeley-Los Angeles-London 2000, pp. 324-331; T. A. Wilson, Sacrifice and the Imperial
nies engageant la ville et la cour et avec quelle importance titre dorgani-
sateur, dacteur, de spectateurs proches ou loigns, dtrangers soigneuse-
ment tenus distance? Qui lisait par la suite les relations de crmonies,
voyait les reprsentations en images, les rdigeait ou les imprimait? La dis-
tinction marque entre les populations attaches aux bannires et la popula-
tion Han chinoise dans les diffrentes sections de Pkin ajoute une dimension
qui ne se retrouve pas Istanbul ou dans les capitales europennes.
Les centres dynastiques gouvernaient une pluralit dautorits infrieu-
res. Celles-ci pouvaient tre attires dans lorbite de la cour par des conditions
favorables ou la garantie dune place spcifique. Les empereurs Qing ont cul-
tiv leur hritage mandchou et ont maintenu pour leur soutien principal, les
bannires, un statut distinct. Ils ont favoris les relations avec les Mongols au-
del des alliances matrimoniales. Les expditions de chasses dans le Nord-Est
et des liens solides avec les bouddhistes tibtains, clairement manifests dans
les lieux de villgiature estival de Chengde, taient aussi destins aux
Mongols. Une cour daffaires coloniales fut ajoute dans ladministration
pour traiter spcifiquement avec les peuples continentaux dAsie
44
. Des terri-
toires acquis plus rcemment, notamment la province occidentale de Xinjiang,
taient traits diffremment des rgions domines de longue date
45
. Mais en
mme temps, les empereurs Qing se prsentaient comme des parangons de la
tradition chinoise Han. Le coeur gographique et conomique de la Chine
dans le Sud-Est tait surveill par des tours dinspection qui ractivaient les
liens entre la dynastie et ces territoires tout en les contrlant
46
. Ces contrles
spcifiques se superposaient lorganisation ordinaire de ladministration.
Dans la monarchie des Habsbourg, caractrise par un gouvernement
lger jusquen 1740, le centre dynastique a attir de plus en plus dofficiers
honoraires qui ntaient quoccasionnellement prsents la cour, mais qui
avaient besoin de tenir un rang pour amorcer leur carrire. La marque dap-
401
Cult of Confucius, History of Religions, 41, 3 (2002), pp. 251-287; Murphey, Ottoman
Sovereignty, cit.; J. Duindam, Palace, city, dominions: the spatial dimension of Habsburg
Rule, in M. Fantoni, M. Smuts, G. Gorse (eds.), The Politics of Space: Courts in Europe c.
1500-1750, Rome 2009, pp. 59-90.
44
Voir Rawski, Last Emperors, cit., sur les nobles mongols et le Lifan Yuan, pp. 66-71.
45
L. J. Newby, The Begs of Xinjiang: Between Two Worlds, Bulletin of the School of
Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 61, 2 (1998), pp. 278-297. Les souve-
rains ottomans ont accept diffrentes conditions pour le centre et conquis des territoires,
acceptant pragmatiquement les situations locales sous lgide du pouvoir ottoman.
46
Rcemment M. G. Chang, A Court on Horseback. Imperial Touring & the
Construction of Qing Rule, 1680-1785, Cambridge (MA)-London 2007.
partenance cet ensemble curial est devenue un moyen efficace de rassembler
les diffrentes lites en un gesamthabsburgische Adel. Par ailleurs, le rang
obtenu la cour sest confondu et a progressivement surpass le classement
rgional. La contrainte semble avoir t la base du processus, mais elle a vite
dvelopp une dynamique motive par des intrts, des opportunits et des
idaux plus efficaces que les menaces, de sorte que le droit de participer la
vie de cour, confr titre honorifique, tait devenu indispensable. Les signes
culturels propres la cour, manifestes en architecture et dans lhabillement,
tout comme dans les coutumes, se sont diffuss plus facilement grce ces
nombreux courtisans intermdiaires. Ces relations, fondes sur des distinc-
tions honorifiques, existent pour toutes les cours europennes, notamment
dans les ordres de chevalerie qui symbolisent le haut degr de noblesse. Une
conomie de lhonneur produite par la cour contribuait ainsi certainement
attirer les lites vers le centre dynastique leur convergence autour du sou-
verain renforait le prestige de tous.
Lhonneur et le rituel ne rsument pas toutes les relations. Le dispositif
administratif lui-mme tait centr sur la cour: diriger et contrler les agents
du pouvoir princier tait la principale responsabilit du souverain et de ses
proches. Dans le systme ottoman classique, la graduation (chikma) promou-
vait les pages, forms dans la cour intrieure, la cour extrieure et ensuite
de hautes fonctions dans les rgions. Y ayant excut leurs tches, ils retour-
naient au centre en attendant une nouvelle mission. Une fois dans le centre, ils
pouvaient esprer obtenir la place de pacha ou tout en haut de lchelle, de
vizir ou grand vizir. Bien que thoriquement carts de la cour intrieure aprs
la promotion, leurs carrires dbutaient et se terminaient idalement au palais.
Inutile de dvelopper ici en dtails le contrle inhrent au systme adminis-
tratif chinois, avec ses mandats de courte dure dans diffrentes rgions et
diffrentes fonctions, son valuation, son censorat, sa correspondance forma-
lise, ressemblant aux innovations introduites en France et ailleurs en Europe,
de la fin du XVIme au XVIIIme sicle mme si en Europe une formation
formelle et des examens nont t introduits que dans les dernires dcennies
de la priode pr-moderne
47
. Les Qing ajoutrent toutefois ces mcanismes
ancestraux un autre moyen de contrle, bas sur une communication directe
et secrte de Kangxi grce des rapports personnels de mandchous en mission,
contournant ainsi la bureaucratie chinoise Han, pratiques formalises par la
Jeroen Duindam
402
47
Voir une valuation approfondie des preuves in B. Elman, Political, Social, and
Cultural Reproduction via Civil Service Examinations in Late Imperial China, The Journal
of Asian Studies, 50, 1. (1991), pp. 7-28.
suite comme le palace memorial system sous Yongzheng
48
. Apparemment,
dlguer le pouvoir des agents dans des rgions priphriques demeurait un
procd difficile ncessitant dtre continuellement adapt pour viter laccu-
mulation de pouvoir entre leurs mains. Les intimes du cercle intrieur de la
cour quils soient nobles, serviteurs, eunuques ou esclaves apparaissaient
frquemment comme agents de confiance employs pour surveiller les admi-
nistrateurs. Ds que ces agents atteignaient un rang lev et un pouvoir rl
dans ce processus, les stratgies patrimoniales pouvaient saverer intressan-
tes pour eux aussi.
Dans mes observations prcdentes sur le souverain, jai mentionn ses
devoirs envers la justice et lharmonie. Suivant cette injonction morale, les
souverains pouvaient atteindre le peuple, promettant quit et protection, en
linvitant soumettre des plaintes concernant des suprieurs. Lire les pti-
tions, couter les dolances et administrer la justice servaient par consquent
darme double tranchant, apaisant la population tout en mettant la pression
sur les bureaucrates. Permettre un accs personnel direct aux ptitionnaires et
instituer une procdure administrative pour traiter les plaintes crites tait une
charge majeure des souverains. Les despotes clairs dEurope, qui en ten-
tant de restaurer les finances de ltat mcontentaient frquemment les corps
intermdiaires, trouvaient l une voie pour gagner laffection des peuples et
en mme temps contrler les agents indociles
49
. Ils dveloppaient une strat-
gie de protection du citoyen qui ressemblait celle du despotisme bien-
veillant en Asie
50
. Cependant, la justice ntait pas lunique moyen dattirer
les gens de diffrents milieux la cour. Les souverains europens classaient
tous parmi leurs priorits la conservation en leurs mains de lattribution des
honneurs. Les plus hauts titres, les offices et bnfices devaient idalement
tre distribus par le souverain lui-mme. A des dates fixes par le calendrier
de la cour, les listes des offices et de leurs assignations taient rendues
publiques; un tel vnement tait prcd dun tourbillon de demandes et
403
48
Voir p. ex. S. Hsiu-liang Wu, The Memorial Systems of The Ching Dynasty (1644-
1911), Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 27 (1967), pp. 7-75; Bartlett, Monarchs and
Ministers, cit.
49
Voir par exemple les rapports directs avec la population, cultivs par lempereur
habsbourgeois Joseph II: D. Beales, Joseph II, petitions and the public sphere, in H. Scott
B. Simms (eds.), Cultures of Power in Europe during the Long Eighteenth Century,
Cambridge 2007, pp. 249-268.
50
Sur le despotisme bienveillant voir Murphey, Ottoman Sovereignty, cit., pp. 35-39;
P. . Will R. Bin Wong (eds.), Nourish the people: the state civilian granary system in
China, 1650-1850, Ann Arbor 1991.
dinterventions au cours duquel les serviteurs de la cour pouvaient marchan-
der leurs services. Lintercession de personnes influentes pouvait tre dter-
minante lgard du moindre office, et tait susceptible datteindre les plus
hauts niveaux. A plusieurs reprises, des ordonnances royales interdirent aux
serviteurs, et notamment aux valets de chambre, de reevoir et de transmettre
des requtes au souverain une opration probablement aussi lucrative que
frquente. Leurs homologues asiatiques se sont-ils eux aussi adonns de tel-
les pratiques
51
?
A travers tous ces mcanismes, le centre dynastique pouvait fonctionner
comme le moyeu dune roue qui entranait de nombreuses rgions et groupes
sociaux. Cette centralit ne pouvait pas tre garantie sur le long terme. La cour
risquait dtre perue comme trop partiale dans lordre des rcompenses et des
condamnations, ou comme trop renferme pour accomplir ses fonctions
rituelles. Son image idale pouvait facilement se transformer en son oppos
une situation convenant parfaitement aux attentes du dclin et renouveau
dynastique. Le cycle dynastique, ou lanalyse parallle dIbn Khaldun dune
invitable rosion de la puret et de la force tribales, peut aussi tre interpr-
t dune faon moins morale. Les institutions novatrices et les groupes loyaux
mis en place par une nouvelle dynastie sont susceptibles, travers leur rel
succs, de devenir terme des obstacles pour les monarques suivants. Les
corps dinfanterie dlites du Sultan, constitus desclaves recruts selon le
devshirme, les clbres janissaires, illustrent cette mutation: dabord servi-
teurs les plus fiables du Sultan, ils consolident progressivement la position de
la premire gnration par des mariages, une succession et des liens troits
avec lartisanat dIstanbul, pour devenir finalement larchtype des faiseurs
de rois et des prtoriens, avec un pouvoir qui allait parfois jusqu dtrner le
souverain, quoique toujours avec largument de protger la dynastie elle-
mme. En 1826, le sultan Mahmud II dmantela brutalement le corps, lequel
agissait comme un puissant groupe dintrt empchant les rformes.
La figure centrale, entoure de serviteurs du premier cercle avec leurs
propres intrts, pouvait tre manipule en tous sens. Retenir ou modifier des
informations sont un effet secondaire de la souverainet autocratique elle-
mme: qui apporte les mauvaises nouvelles lempereur
52
? La monarchie
Jeroen Duindam
404
51
Voir N. A. Kutcher, Unspoken Collusions: The Empowerment of Yuanming yuan
Eunuchs in the Qianlong Period, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 70, 2 (2010), pp.
449-495.
52
Voir la communication entre le mandarin lettr accompagnant Macartney et lempe-
reur Qianlong telle quelle est dcrite dans P. H. Durand, Langage bureaucratique et histoi-
espagnole tait un modle de russite dans lEurope du XVIme sicle, mais
les problmes financiers ont finalement conduit une privatisation partielle
des offices et des moyens de ltat : au cours du XVII sicle, la monarchie a
perdu sa position hgmonique. La France a rpt le mme schma un sicle
plus tard, lorsque les lites cres par la monarchie ont refus de sacrifier leurs
privilges et ont ainsi paralys la rforme du gouvernement. Ces cycles dynas-
tiques courts par lacclration du dveloppement de la fin du XVIIIme
sicle, correspondent, peu prs, aux modles cycliques que nous pouvons
observer dans dautres Etats et empires pr-modernes.
Conclusion
La prsentation de thmes rcurrents dans lhistoire du centre dynastique
fournit un cadre danalyse pour diffrents projets de recherche. A leur tour,
ceux-ci donneront davantage de force et de cohrence la dmarche visant
examiner, rfuter ou confirmer les dclarations prliminaires faites ici dans
cette synthse trs gnrale. Un tel projet peut galement aider clarifier et
traduire la terminologie du centre dynastique, produisant un glossaire de
concepts, dactivits, de rangs et doffices. A travers lanalyse du coeur
domestique de lEtat pr-moderne, il sagit de rexaminer les divisions clas-
siques entre les modles de pouvoir orientaux et occidentaux. Il existe sans
aucun doute des diffrences majeures, mais elles mritent dtre abordes
nouveaux frais, loin des distorsions cres par des interprtations focalises
sur la modernisation de loccident.
Il sera ncessaire de diffrencier soigneusement les idologies des pra-
tiques. Dans lEurope de lAncien Rgime, les lites avaient tendance se
prsenter en termes de lignage et de noblesse, mme lorsque cela tait fort peu
plausible. Dans le contexte asiatique, le statut desclave des lites servant le
Sultan compliquait la question du lignage, mais nexcluait pas la formation de
groupes de pouvoir hrditaires. De mme, en Chine, les examens du service
civil mettaient davantage laccent sur le mrite que sur lorigine, et ne pou-
vaient pas garantir la transmission lignagre des hautes fonctions. Toutefois,
le systme nempchait pas que les familles gentry conservent une riches-
se confortable, laccs la formation, et donc un semi-monopole des positions
de pouvoir de gnration en gnration. Pour les souverains eux-mmes, lop-
405
re. Variations autour du Grand Conseil et de lambassade Macartney, tudes Chinoises,
13, 1 (1993) pp. 41-145.
position entre le statut idalis et leur situation de facto trs vulnrable doit
tre prise en compte. Comment ces souverains, et leurs conseillers politiques,
sen sont-ils sortis face aux dfis et aux changements? A quel niveau ont-ils
consciemment remodel et utilis les structures en place pour servir leurs int-
rts? Leurs choix ont-ils, dans lensemble, reflt des adaptation hsitantes et
ad hoc, ou pouvons-nous les comprendre comme des interventions mrement
prmdites? Si cette dernire proposition savre vraie, les consquences de
ces actions correspondent-elles aux intentions, court et long terme?
Enfin, ltude des politiques pr-modernes bases sur les structures
domestiques touche de nombreux aspects qui semblent extrmement familiers
dans le contexte politique moderne. Malgr des changements considrables
dans la lgitimit du pouvoir et les processus politiques, la coercition, lido-
logie et les intrts forment toujours les principales composantes dune attitu-
de dadhsion ou de rsistance. Les Etats possdent encore un fondement
rituel o spectacles et crmonies sont souvent aussi importants que le conte-
nu des discussions. La remise des honneurs tient une grande place dans les
systmes modernes et pr-modernes, bien que la pratique soit plus voile
aujourdhui. Lindignation devant la corruption nest pas nouvelle, les scan-
dales politiques non plus. Ces exemples ne sont pas destins indiquer que le
changement est hors de propos. Mais ils insistent sur lide que lcart entre
les politiques modernes et pr-modernes est autant une construction rhto-
rique quune ralit. Etudier le coeur du systme politique pr-moderne peut
aider mieux comprendre les Etats actuels.
Jeroen Duindam
406
Raffaella Morselli
ARTISTI AL LAVORO: COMMISSIONI DI CORTE E
DECLINAZIONI DI RUOLI TRA CONVENZIONE E ECCENTRICIT
NELLITALIA DI ANTICO REGIME
Esistono due poli di ricerca, distanziati da circa trentanni, entro cui si
inserisce lanalisi della committenza di corte e del ruolo degli artisti coinvol-
ti in questo contesto, in Italia e fuori dallItalia, italiani e stranieri, tra il
Quattrocento e il Settecento. Due segmenti importanti, ricchi di spunti: uno
apre ai tre decenni successivi, facendo tesoro di una bibliografia pregressa che
aveva segnato gli studi quattrocenteschi sulla corte, laltro si offre, ricco di
suggerimenti, ai prossimi decenni.
Nellinterazione tra il primo testo di Martin Warnke
1
sugli artisti corti-
giani, una lunga elaborazione che ha visto unedizione tedesca e poi due ita-
liane, e quello di Guido Guerzoni
2
, che mette a fuoco il sistema interno delle
corti dal punto di vista del meccanismo committenza-mecenatismo-approvvi-
gionamento suntuario, e quindi di stipendi e pagamenti, si situano centinaia di
saggi di carattere storico-artistico di cui ci si deve occupare in termini di mate-
riale fondamentale per una sistematizzazione dei ruoli, e perci delle linee di
ricerca, che incoraggiano a proseguire questo genere di studi.
407
1
M.Warnke, Artisti di corte: preistoria dellartista moderno, ed. consultata Roma
1991, con ampia introduzione dellautore che spiega la genesi del lavoro e le varie edizioni
che questo ha conosciuto.
2
G. Guerzoni, Artisti di corte?: riflessioni sugli inquadramenti professionali degli
artefici estensi tra Quattro e Seicento, in R. Morselli (a cura di), Vivere darte: carriere e
finanze nellItalia moderna, Roma 2007, pp. 14-44, da cui deriva Id., Artisti di corte?: con-
siderazioni sugli artefici estensi tra Quattro e Seicento, in A.Ottani Cavina (a cura di),
Prospettiva Zeri, Torino 2009, pp. 140-163.
Il densissimo libro di Warnke, che ha il limite del tutto epocale di non
inoltrarsi oltre il primo Cinquecento, ma che vaglia fonti in varie lingue e
insegue gli artisti tra la citt e la corte, speculando sul ruolo e sulle forme di
compenso, sulle mansioni e sugli uffici, ha aperto una strada percorsa da cen-
tinaia di ricercatori che, nei decenni successivi, si spinta oltre tale limite cro-
nologico, tentando di ricostruire gli incarichi e le carriere di molti artefici,
operosi per la corte, che non si possono pi chiamare cortigiani tout court.
Dunque, quale corti, in che contesto si lavorava, per quanto tempo, con
che contratti, quali tipologie di soggetti erano pi richiesti e, soprattutto, per
chi si produceva?
Posto che lavorare per una corte non ha mai implicato lautomatica
appartenenza ai ruoli della medesima scrive Guerzoni e che le corti sono
di diversissimo tipo, laiche, ecclesiastiche, maschili e femminili, centrali o
periferiche e dunque che ogni corte ha una propria regola e non un organi-
smo statico, allora quali sono le categorie che si possono creare e utilizzare
per studiare il rapporto tra gli artisti, soprattutto di fine 500 e del 600-700, e
le corti che si avvalgono dei loro servigi? Quali sono i metodi da applicare per
rispondere ai quesiti di interrelazione tra corte e artefici? E ancora, come ci ha
segnalato Elena Fumagalli
3
, allinterno delle corti, gli artisti presi in conside-
razione sono pagati a provvisione o sono salariati? Sono tutti liberi di sce-
gliere e di vendere i propri servigi o alcuni devono sottostare ai desideri del
proprio committente, stante la condizione di salariato? E infine, conveniva
essere un artista arruolato presso una corte, o, nel Seicento e nel Settecento,
in Europa, era preferibile rimanere un libero battitore?
Sono queste le domande essenziali cui si deve tentare di rispondere, da
questo momento in avanti, attraverso casi confrontati tra loro, alla luce di tutto
quanto stato scritto e analizzato precedentemente.
Si dir subito che non sono ancora stati offerti alla comunit scientifica,
a parte lo studio di Warnke, volumi che abbiano affrontato largomento con
sistematicit, e soprattutto che si siano posti lobbiettivo di tracciare unevo-
luzione del rapporto artista-corte nel corso dei secoli che vanno dal Cinque-
cento al Settecento. Eppure, dalla disamina delle aperture successive alle sol-
lecitazioni dello studioso tedesco, c una vasta letteratura solipsistica che
esplora micro e macro situazioni in cui artisti di vario tipo entrano in contat-
to con corti italiane e straniere, secondo modalit e incarichi che si declinano
via via in maniera differente. La disamina della letteratura in oggetto pu por-
Raffaella Morselli
408
3
E.Fumagalli, Prime indagini sui rapporti economici tra pittori e corte medicea nel
Seicento, in Morselli (a cura di), Vivere darte, cit., pp. 135-166.
tare ad una suddivisione dei temi affrontati che, a loro volta, indicano delle
categorie utili per la definizione degli incarichi e dei ruoli degli artisti di corte.
Per primi esistono una serie di studi monografici di carattere generale che
ben indagano e valutano gli snodi storici principali delle problematiche in
oggetto
4
; se per la casa dAustria il fenomeno si allarga al Seicento, per lItalia
si tratta di ricerche che tendono a valutare il casus solo presso le corti rina-
scimentali, assestandosi al 1530 come limite massimo
5
, escludendo quindi le
relazioni tra corte e artista in et moderna, molto meno univoche e pi com-
plesse da indagare. Daltro canto modelli interpretativi come il volume dedi-
cato agli artisti presenti alla corte di Emanuele I di Savoia a Torino
6
, prece-
duto dalla mostra Diana Trionfatrice
7
, e a seguire tutte le indagini e le mostre
dedicate a Medici, Este, Gonzaga, oltre ai fenomeni artistici presenti nella
corte spagnola di Bruxelles durante gli anni di regno di Isabella Clara
Eugenia, infanta di Spagna, e dellarciduca Alberto (1598-1633)
8
, e a quelli
molto ben documentati della corte di Madrid, dimostrano chiaramente come
le specifiche distinzioni impiegate per le corti italiane rinascimentali debbano
essere riviste sotto la lente di un mondo molto pi aperto agli scambi interna-
zionali, ad una esigenza di fasto e di maraviglia, ad un impiego di mae-
stranze pi largo che declina numerosissime competenze. E dunque gli artisti
che gravitano a corte devono per forza di cose essere distinti in tante tipolo-
gie diverse per poter trarre delle linee guida di interesse generale.
Fonti
Oltre alla letteratura artistica e ai testi figurativi, che stanno alla base
della committenza e della relazione tra lartista e la corte, su cui converr
Artisti al lavoro
409
4
Si confronti il volume fondante di U. Trevor-Roper, Principi e artisti: mecenatismo e
ideologia in quattro corti degli Asburgo (1517-1633), ed. it. Torino 1980.
5
Si veda, per esempio, il volume molto ben informato di M. Folin, Corti italiane del
Rinascimento: arti, cultura e politica, 1395-1530, Milano 2010; un volume miscellaneo, che
riporta in sintesi molti episodi non correlati tra loro L. Cassanelli, Le corti rinascimentali:
committenti e artisti, Roma 2004; si veda inoltre A. Di Lorenzo (a cura di), Le muse e il prin-
cipe: arte di corte nel Rinascimento, Modena 1999.
6
G. Romano, Artisti alla corte di Carlo Emanuele I: la costruzione di una nuova tradizio-
ne figurativa, in G. Romano (a cura di), Carlo Emanuele I di Savoia, Torino 1995, pp. 13-62.
7
M. Di Macco G. Romano (a cura di), Diana trionfatrice: arte di corte nel Piemonte
del Seicento, cat. della mostra, Torino 1989.
8
A.Vergara (a cura di), El arte en la corte de los archiduques Alberto de Austria e
Isabel Clara Eugenia (1598-1633): un reino imaginado, cat. della mostra, Madrid 1999.
ritornare in altra sede, le carte darchivio sono ovviamente il perno centrale
della conoscenza.
Le serie pi ricche di notizie sono i libri dei conti dei pittori, che riporta-
no passo passo gli incarichi ricevuti e i conseguenti guadagni, le provvigioni
e i costi dei singoli materiali. Da tali documenti si possono ricavare le rela-
zioni che ogni singolo artista aveva con la corte, la continuit dellincarico, e
le modalit di integrazione con altri membri che qui vi vivevano.
il caso di Bernardo Bellotto negli anni trascorsi a Varsavia tra il 1771 e
il 1780: il pittore, attaverso il suo Svolta dei lavori forniti alla corte in cui,
meticolosamente, annota le singole richieste e le commissioni realizzate, non-
ch i pagamenti, ci narra che tipo di rapporto aveva con il re polacco Stanislao
Augusto Poniatowsky e la tipologia delle richieste, ovvero i paesaggi ad
naturam
9
, assai differenti da quelli precedenti eseguiti per Augusto III a
Dresda. Le carte riportano alla luce le sue mansioni, ovvero pittore di corte
ufficiale, che erano legate solo alla realizzazione di grandi paesaggi, come
quei ventisei per la sala detta dindagine nel castello reale di Varsavia, o il
ciclo a fresco per decorare il castello di Ujardow, andati distrutti con la tra-
sformazione delledificio in caserma. Bellotto era un professionista-cortigia-
no, abituato a vivere prestando i propri servigi a Dresda, a Vienna e infine a
Varsavia, dove mor. E infatti il re Stanislao, alla sua dipartita, corrispose una
pensione alla vedova di 25 ducati, un capitale di 3000 ducati per la dote delle
tre figlie e anche una piccola parte per il sostentamento del suo servo.
Non sempre per le mansioni sono cos nette. Se infatti non sono dispo-
nibili i fogli di conti autografi dei pittori, esistono casi in cui altri onorari, que-
sta volta ducali, granducali, o interni alla corte, possono dettagliare le rela-
zioni degli artisti. Si vedano per esempio gli esemplari libri contabili dei
Wittelsbach
10
, in particolare le entrate e le uscite registrate dalla corte di
Alberto V di Baviera tra il 1550 e il 1565, che riportano alla luce i lavori di
un pittore-disegnatore appena tracciato dalle fonti, quale Hans Muelich. E
ancora i libri contabili prodotti dalla tesoreria di Filippo II di Spagna, fonda-
mentali per la ricostruzione delle biografie degli scultori operanti presso la sua
corte
11
.
Raffaella Morselli
410
9
B. Krol-Kaczorowska, Svolta di lavori forniti alla corte di Varsavia ed altri docu-
menti bellottiani, Bulletin du Muse National de Varsovie, 7 (1966), pp. 68-75.
10
H. Schaefer, Note di corte: i libri di corte dei Wittelsbach, Alumina. Italienische
Ausgabe, 26 (2009), pp. 6-15.
11
J. L. Cano de Gardoqui y Garca, Datos salariales para las biografas de los escul-
tores de la Corte de Felipe II, Boletin del Museo e Instituto Camn Aznar, (1991), pp. 5-
28.
Altri documenti in cui si rinvengono notizie sugli artisti impiegati, si
ritrovano nei mandati e nelle patenti per i rolli di corte; per una corte come
quella dei Gonzaga la Scalcheria ducale lufficio preposto alla registrazione
degli impieghi, per Torino e Firenze la Depositeria generale dei conti. Per cita-
re qualche campione di riscontro, attraverso lincrocio di queste carte che
Roberta Piccinelli ha potuto ricostruire il ruolo dei fratelli Castiglione, di
Frans Geffels, di Fabrizio Carini e di Jacob Denis al servizio dei Gonzaga a
Mantova negli anni della reggenza di Isabella Clara (1666-1669) e del ducato
di Ferdinando Carlo (1669-1707)
12
.
In assenza di libri di conti dettagliati, sopperiscono i diari, come quello
dato alle stampe nel 1608 da Federico Zuccari
13
, intitolato Il passagio per
lItalia con La dimora di Parma per le nozze del Sereniimo Prencipe
Francesco Gonzaga a suo figliulo con la Sereniima Infante Margherita di
Savoia; aggiontovi copiosa narratione di varie cose trascorse, vedute, e fatte
nel suo diporto per Venetia, Mantoa, Milano, Pavia, Turino, e altre parte del
Piamonte, in cui il pittore racconta i suoi movimenti di reggia in reggia
Torino, Mantova, Parma e di come un artista del suo grado venisse accolto
presso le varie corti, le commissioni che qui riceveva, i pagamenti e le indi-
screzioni che rastrellava sulla stessa corte dai pittori residenti, come nel caso
del ritrattista Frans Pourbus, che incontra a Mantova, da lui definito, alla spa-
gnola, pittore e cameriere della chiave doro del Duca di Mantova. Un altro
racconto, questa volta dallinterno della corte stessa, quello narrato dal pit-
tore spagnolo Juan Gomez de Mora che ci affresca linsieme degli artisti cor-
tigiani che gravitavano alla corte di Filippo IV e quindi sottostavano al pote-
re di Velasquez
14
.
Infine, unaltra tipologia di carte che ci si augurerebbe di trovare, ma in
cui difficilmente ci si imbatte, sono i contratti con cui i singoli artisti siglava-
no un accordo di carattere privato con il proprio committente, il re o il duca
in persona, con il tramite della tesoreria. Solitamente sono pittori ritrattisti che
trascorrono la loro carriera presso la corte che li sostenta in tutto e per tutto,
in un reciproco rapporto di dare e avere, come nel caso del fiammingo Justus
Artisti al lavoro
411
12
R. Piccinelli, Collezionismo a corte. I Gonzaga di Nevers e la superbissima gale-
ria di Mantova (1637-1709), Firenze 2010, pp. 133-134.
13
C. Gaudenzio, Il pittore Federigo Zuccaro nel suo soggiorno in Piemonte e alla corte
di Savoia (1605-1607) secondo il suo Passaggio per lItalia: con annotazioni artistiche,
Torino 1895.
14
V. Tovar, La Crnica del artista en la Corte espaola del siglo XVII, in Velasquez
y el arte de su tiempo, Madrid 1991, pp. 1-26.
Sustermans (1597-1681)
15
che lavor per i Medici per oltre sessantanni in un
altalenante rapporto economico di dipendenza
16
.
Tipologie di corti
La corte, come ha dimostrato Marcello Fantoni, uno spazio, architetto-
nico e sociale, in cui una serie di individui, soprattutto uomini, organizzati in
maniera gerarchica, lavorano e si confrontano politicamente. anche unisti-
tuzione economica, un centro di potere, ha una connotazione sacra. Ma la
corte, grande o piccola che sia, pu avere una natura differente, sia per la
dimensione, sia per lorganizzazione di governo, sia per la sua apertura al con-
testo che la circonda e alle relazioni internazionali. I pittori, gli scultori, i
decoratori e gli architetti, tralasciando volutamente tutti gli altri produttori di
beni materiali che con essa si relazionano, ovviamente si rapportano ad essa
in maniera differente, in base alla domanda e allofferta.
Per rimanere allItalia, che comunque un condensato tipologico perfet-
to per passare in rassegna vari modelli, troviamo realt differenti in grado di
assorbire i molti artisti che vi circolano.
Le corti ducali padane, Gonzaga, Este, Farnese e quelle ad esse correlate
come Urbino, almeno fino ai primi decenni del Seicento, la corte granducale
fiorentina, i Savoia a Torino, nonostante i vari rovesci della loro fortuna storica,
sono poli dattrazione indiscutibili e luoghi cortesi tipologicamente affini.
I Gonzaga fino al 1630, anno del sacco, riuniscono sotto di se una miria-
de di artefici, residenti o solo di passaggio, suddivisi per incarichi ritrattisti,
pittori di storia, decoratori, responsabili delle fabbriche ducali, architetti
pronti a dare forma ai sogni di Guglielmo, di Vincenzo e di Ferdinando. Dopo
il 1630, e fino al 1709, una corte ancora strutturata e in perenne ammoderna-
mento, chiama presso di se artisti italiani e stranieri per condurre le fabbriche
a un nuovo fasto. Non da meno sono i parenti Medici, che organizzano una
corte di misura internazionale, attivissimi sul mercato, con pittori e scultori
che lavorano vincolati a loro, come per esempio lo scultore Jean Boulogne, a
cui danno speciali permessi, e solo in casi eccezionali, per affrontare com-
missioni esterne; gli stessi tutelano il loro patrimonio creando dei vincoli
allesportazione di quadri, per esempio quelli di Andrea del Sarto. Gli Este,
Raffaella Morselli
412
15
M. Chiarini C. Pizzorusso (a cura di), Sustermans: sessantanni alla corte dei
Medici, cat. della mostra, Firenze 1983.
16
Su questo argomento si veda Fumagalli, Prime indagini, cit, pp. 135-166.
dopo la devoluzione di Ferrara alla chiesa nel 1598, sono costretti a riparare a
Modena e a dare mano a una nuova costruzione di palazzi e di residenze, con
il conseguente impiego di un numero importante di artisti che vengono attrat-
ti dalle nuove fabbriche. Cantieri quali quello di Sassuolo, per esempio, pos-
sono diventare un caso paradigmatico per volont e per maestranze impiega-
te. Voluto dal giovane duca Francesco I dEste, Prencipe et Eroe christiano
salito al potere nel 1629 dopo labdicazione del padre Alfonso III, ritiratosi in
un convento di Cappuccini, polo di attrazione importantissimo per ogni arte-
fice. Il desiderio di rivalsa sul papato che nel 1598 aveva sottratto Ferrara agli
Este, la volont di dimostrare agli altri stati europei il peso che gli Este pote-
vano ancora esercitare sulla scena politica, la necessit di allestire nuovi pre-
stigiosi luoghi per la corte: sono questi alcuni dei motivi che indussero lam-
bizioso duca Francesco I a promuovere il rinnovamento dellimmagine non
solo di Modena, la recentissima capitale, ma anche del vicino territorio, come
Sassuolo in particolare, secondo un vasto e dispendioso programma simile a
quello che coinvolgeva altre capitali europee. Nella Delizia di Sassuolo, a
partire dal 1634, larchitetto romano Bartolomeo Avanzini, coadiuvato dallo
scenografo e ingegnere reggiano Gaspare Vigarani, guid il cantiere che
avrebbe trasformato lantico castello sassolese nella residenza estiva della
Corte: una reggia che avrebbe incantato per la sua bellezza sia Diego
Velazquez, sia la regina Cristina di Svezia. E come non sorprendersi davanti
a questa macchina teatrale barocca, allestita rapidamente, spesso con mate-
riali poveri (stucco, terracotta, gesso, addirittura cartapesta) decorata secondo
un programma iconografico che sispira alla storia e alla letteratura, alla
Bibbia e al mito, affidato al pennello di Jean Boulanger, tra i migliori allievi
di Guido Reni? Come non entusiasmarsi davanti alla profusione delle finte
architetture dipinte, vertiginosamente scorciate dai quadraturisti bolognesi,
Angelo Michele Colonna e Agostino Mitelli, Gian Giacomo Monti e
Baldassarre Bianchi, e dal bresciano Ottavio Viviani? O di fronte ai trionfali
festoni di fiori e frutta di Pier Francesco e Carlo Cittadini; o ai baluginanti
stucchi bianco-dorati del milanese Luca Colomba, del carrarese Giovanni
Lazzoni e del romano Lattanzio Maschio, che si distendono sulle pareti del
sontuoso Appartamento Stuccato? Tutte queste presenze fanno della reggia
di Sassuolo un vero palazzo degli incanti, tra le residenze sovrane pi
importanti dellItalia Settentrionale. Ovviamente nessuno di questi pittori o
decoratori divenne mai un pittore di corte, ma un salariato del duca che lavo-
rava a provvisione.
Accanto alle corti padane, troviamo la corte di Urbino, pronta a trasferir-
si nel palazzo di Pesaro, che si dota dei botteghini ducali, su modello fioren-
tino, richiamando a se un numero veramente importante di gioiellieri e di arti-
Artisti al lavoro
413
giani dediti alle arti suntuarie
17
; mentre a Urbino, nella sua casa che affaccia
verso i torricini di Palazzo Ducale, Federico Barocci consuma, in solitaria, la
sua posizione di artista di corte al di fuori della corte, ricevendo il suo duca
nella casa-bottega e cercando di assecondare le commissioni che tutta Europa
gli chiede con insistenza e, spesso, senza successo.
Di tuttaltra organizzazione, nel rapporto artista-corte, sono le corti roma-
ne: papali, cardinalizie, principesche, degli ambasciatori stranieri. Gli artisti
che si avvicinano a queste hanno incarichi di differente natura, talora in un
rapporto diretto committente-artista. E proprio nel caso di Gian Lorenzo
Bernini e Urbano VIII, Tomaso Montanari si chiede se si possa parlare di un
cortigiano, o di un artista di corte, nel senso di salariato e, anche se non resi-
dente a corte, legato da un vincolo economico-giuridico alla corte papale
18
. Si
tratta di un caso eccezionale di patto artistico-culturale, poich tanti altri pit-
tori, come Filippo Gagliardi
19
, vivevano allombra dei Barberini, citando
Irene Fosi
20
, essendo stati loro salariati per un certo periodo di tempo.
Accanto alle corti romane e ducali, coesistono in Italia altri modelli: per
esempio quello del vicer spagnolo a Napoli, improntato ad emulazione di
quella madrileno. Quando il vicer Don Gaspar de Haro Y Guzman, VII mar-
chese del Carpio si trasfer da Roma a Napoli nel 1683, oltre a portare con s
tutta la sua cospicua collezione di quadri, disloc anche i pittori che gravita-
vano presso la sua corte, come quel Giuseppe Pinacci che era suo consigliere
artistico e aveva valutato la collezione romana
21
.
NellItalia moderna esistevano altre corti che vedevano impiegati artisti
in qualit di cortigiani: tra quelle non ecclesiastiche i Moncada in Sicilia
22
, di
Raffaella Morselli
414
17
Su questo argomento si veda la tesi di dottorato di G. Semenza, Dalla corte roveresca
alla Firenze medicea. Un panorama inedito del collezionismo artistico di Francesco Maria II
Della Rovere, Scuola di dottorato in Scienze dellinterpretazione e della produzione culturale,
Facolt di Scienze Umanistiche, Universit La Sapienza, Roma a.a. 2008/2009.
18
T. Montanari, Dar todo a uno es obra del diablo: Gian Lorenzo Bernini artista di
corte?, in F.Checa (a cura di), Velzquez, Bernini, Luca Giordano: le corti del Barocco, cat.
della mostra, Milano 2004, pp. 89-99.
19
M. Marzinotto, Filippo Gagliardi: disegnatore, pittore, architetto e prospettico nella
Roma del XVII secolo: un artista poco noto della corte dei Barberini, Bollettino della
Unione Storia ed Arte, (2004), pp. 30-49.
20
I. Fosi, Allombra dei Barberini. Fedelt e servizio nella Roma barocca, Roma 1997.
21
L.de Frutos Sastre, El templo de la fama: alegora del Marqus del Carpio, Madrid
2009 con ampia bibliografia precedente.
22
G. Mendola, Quadri, palazzi e devoti monasteri: arte e artisti alla corte dei Moncada
fra Cinque e Seicento, in L. Scalisi (a cura di), La Sicilia di Moncada: le corti, larte e la
cultura nei secoli XVI-XVII, Catania 2006, pp. 153-175.
origine catalana, furono grandi committenti per conventi, chiese e per il palaz-
zo di Caltanissetta. Don Francisco de Moncada venne ritratto per quattro volte
da Van Dyck, di cui una in un celebre quadro oggi a Parigi (Muse du Louvre;
un altro si trova a Valencia, Museo de Bellas Artes). Si devono ricordare poi
i Caetani nel Lazio, che avevano un rapporto privilegiato con Desiderio da
Subiaco
23
, e ancora i Gonzaga di Novellara presso cui aveva lavorato, per tutta
la sua carriera, leccentrico Lelio Orsi
24
, o gli Acquaviva committenti specia-
li di Paolo Finoglio
25
.
Se si potessero confrontare i loro onorari e le clausole del loro vivere
presso la corte, sarebbe possibile certamente aggiungere nuove informazioni
allo status del pittore presso le corti italiane.
Questa lunga disamina delle tipologie non deve escludere le corti dei
Patriarchi, come quella di Aquileia, presso il cui palazzo a Udine aveva lavo-
rato il Giovane Giovan Battista Tiepolo
26
, a partire dal 1726, per la decora-
zione della galleria al secondo piano e per il soffitto dello scalone raffiguran-
te La caduta degli angeli ribelli, capolavoro della sua fase giovanile, su com-
missione del patriarca Dionisio Dolfin.
Alla corte dei patriarchi si devono aggiungere quelle femminili nei mona-
steri, e quelle interne alle stesse corti maschili, due modelli assai differenti tra
loro. Nel primo caso basta ricordare il lavoro di Suor Lucrina Fetti
27
, sorella
del celeberrimo Domenico, che viveva nel convento di SantOrsola a Manto-
va, la cui badessa era Margherita Gonzaga dEste, sorella di Vincenzo Gonza-
ga e vedova di Alfonso II. Non sono ancora stati recuperati contratti o docu-
menti che ci permettano di capire in che modo venisse pagata la giovane
suora, chi erano i suoi committenti, e perch le fosse concesso di produrre
Artisti al lavoro
415
23
S. Petrocchi, Desiderio da Subiaco pittore della corte Caetani di Sermoneta, in L.
Fiorani (a cura di), Sermoneta e i Caetani: dinamiche politiche, sociali e culturali tra
medioevo ed et moderna, Roma 1999.
24
M. Scolaro, Un artista, una corte: Lelio Orsi a Novellara, Milano 1995, pp. 169-184.
25
C. D.Fonseca (a cura di), Paolo Finoglio e il suo tempo: un pittore napoletano alla
corte degli Acquaviva, Napoli 2000.
26
M. Muraro, Ricerche su Tiepolo giovane: gli affreschi del Patriarcato e del duomo
di Udine; le opere del Tiepolo prima di Udine; storia e cultura alla corte dei patriarchi di
Aquileia, Atti dellAccademia di Scienze, Lettere e Arti di Udine, Udine 1970, pp.
27
C. A.Gladen, Suor Lucrina Fetti: pittrice in una corte monastica seicentesca, in G.
Pomata G. Zarri (a cura di), I monasteri feminili come centri di cultura fra Rinascimento
e Barocco, Roma 2005; M. Bourne, From court to cloister and back again: Margherita
Gonzaga, Caterina de Medici and Lucrina Fetti at the convent of SantOrsola in Mantua, in
S. Cavallo S. Evangelisti (a cura di), Domestic institutional interiors in early modern
Europe, Londra 2009, pp. 153-179.
opere di non stretta necessit del convento, ma certo la sua posizione di cor-
tigiana religiosa incontrovertibile. Nellaltro caso esistono situazioni molto
ben documentate, come quelle sviluppatesi allinterno della corte sabauda nel
corso di tre secoli, da Emanuele Filiberto a Vittorio Emanuele II, che vedono
limpiego di artiste di corte che formano una sorta di enclave organizzata
allinterno di una societ perlopi maschile
28
.
Artisti a corte: italiani e stranieri a breve e a lungo termine
Se presso le corti italiane di et rinascimentale gli incarichi tendono ad
essere pi stabili e gli artisti che vi risiedono, o vi approdano, sono tenden-
zialmente italiani e fiamminghi, a partire dal sacco di Roma del 1527 lo scia-
me dei pittori-scultori-decoratori-architetti che si riversa in Europa in cerca
di una sistemazione, anche temporanea, presso una corte che li accolga. Ecco
allora che le corti si apprestano a diventare luoghi meno stabilizzanti nei ruoli
e nei ranghi per gli artefici che qui sbarcano, e sempre pi tendono a trasfor-
marsi in centri di raccolta per persone specializzate in grado di portare avanti
un progetto, in breve tempo, e con salari che tendono a diventare pi a prov-
vigione che annuali.
Le corti diventano dunque sempre meno statiche e sempre pi sensibili a
quelle esigenze di rappresentanza che sar il loro punto di forza nei secoli suc-
cessivi. Il largo impiego di manodopera specializzata sar perci la base degli
arruolamenti, senza tralasciare che il pittore ufficiale, piuttosto che il prefetto
delle fabbriche ducali, o il guardarobiere maggiore, o il maggiordomo di casa,
sono figure sempre pi centrali nellorganizzazione di una corte di vasto
respiro, e dunque necessitano di ruoli con retribuzioni annuali, residenze
interne, accesso alle cucine e alle cantine ducali.
Per fare qualche esempio che serva pi ad accendere possibili percorsi
che ad affrescare un quadro che abbia anche solo una qualche parvenza di
sistematicit, conviene attingere ad una variet bibliografica, e di casi, in
grado di dare conto di questa situazione.
In primis si deve sottolineare che c molta differenza tra artisti che resie-
dono e artisti che soggiornano in maniera temporanea presso la corte. Infatti
esistono pittori italiani che vivono presso le corti italiane, e hanno un tratta-
mento adeguato e una serie di facilitazioni senzaltro vantaggiose, e quelli ita-
Raffaella Morselli
416
28
A. Alacevich, Artiste di corte: da Emanuele Filiberto a Vittorio Emanuele II, Torino
2004.
liani che vengono invitati presso corti straniere; ovviamente sussiste il princi-
pio di reversibilit, per cui si trovano molti artisti stranieri che vivono presso
corti italiane in maniera stabile e altri che sono di passaggio e a cui vengono
richieste particolari prestazioni.
Nel primo caso, scegliendo due modelli di corti simili, in anni pi o meno
contigui, si pu confrontare il rapporto tra Agnolo Bronzino (1503-1572), dal
1539 pittore di corte per Cosimo I de Medici, per la cui famiglia realizz indi-
menticabili ritratti, intere decorazioni quali la cappella di Eleonora di Toledo
in Palazzo Vecchio a Firenze, cartoni per arazzi per il salone dei Duecento
nello stesso edificio, spettacoli teatrali
29
, e Giulio Romano (1499-1546) che a
Mantova divent il deus ex machina della politica architettonico-urbanistica e
decorativa di Federico Gonzaga. Il primo aveva un ruolo pi ortodosso, il
secondo interpreta il proprio committente con conformismo e eccentricit,
iniziando il suo percorso con lideazione e decorazione di palazzo Te e finen-
do per occuparsi anche della risistemazione della rete idrica mantovana
30
. Un
vero e proprio impresario
31
.
Tra Cinquecento e Seicento il ruolo dellartista residente italiano presso
le corti della penisola, materia che ha bisogno di uno studio approfondito e
comparativo, sembra cambiare e aprirsi a maggiori dubbi e tentennamenti,
causa anche il declino economico delle corti stesse. Un caso emblematico
Domenico Fetti (1589-1623), a Mantova al seguito di Ferdinando Gonzaga
dal 1613, che in un primo tempo asseconda le passioni esoteriche e religiose
del suo committente, diventando linterprete di una corte intellettuale e chiu-
sa in se stessa, e poi fugge a Venezia con una scusa, inseguito dalle lettere di
Ferdinando che lo rivorrebbe presso di se
32
. La sirena del mercato e i lacci
della corte non lo faranno pi tornare.
Si tratta di pochi esempi che servono a inquadrare la problematica, ma
molti altri artisti transitano di corte in corte per periodi pi brevi, rimanendo
giusto il tempo di una commissione impegnativa che richiedeva la loro pre-
Artisti al lavoro
417
29
La bibliografia pi aggiornata su questo argomento si trova in C. Falciani A. Natali
(a cura di), Bronzino: pittore e poeta alla corte dei Medici, cat. della mostra, Firenze 2010,
pp. 17-21.
30
E. Battisti, Conformismo ed eccentricit in Giulio Romano come artista di corte, in
Giulio Romano e lespansione europea del Rinascimento, Mantova 1991, pp. 21-43.
31
Per questa definizione si veda il saggio di E. H.Gombrich, That rare Italian
master. Giulio Romano Court architect, painter and impresario, in Splendours of
Gonzaga, cat. della mostra, Londra, XXX, pp. 77-85.
32
R. Morselli, Il flavo delle stelle: una sera di giugno dellanno 1623 alla corte dei
Gonzaga, Mantova 1999.
senza. Alessandro Tiarini (1577-1688) per esempio, pur restando un pittore
con atelier e scuola molto ben organizzati a Bologna, non disdegna soggiorni
presso le corti padane: lo troviamo a Parma al lavoro per i Farnese e a
Mantova per ritrarre Caterina de Medici, percependo un pagamento per il pro-
prio lavoro, un dono prezioso a chiusura dello stesso, ed essendo sostentato
nellalloggio e nel vitto per se e per i propri collaboratori per tutta la durata
dellincarico
33
. Di tuttaltra natura era il rapporto tra Bartolomeo Schedoni
(1578-1615)
34
e Ranuccio Farnese a Parma: il duca lo invi, a proprie spese,
a Roma presso Federico Zuccari per mettere a frutto il suo ingegno e quando
questi torn a Parma, scrive il Tiraboschi, stava a servigio di quel Duca che
lo alloggi in una casa con giardino in citt e inoltre gli don un pezzo di terra
a Felegara
35
. Insomma, da cortigiani entro il palazzo, alcuni artisti passano al
ruolo di servitori del proprio Duca, abitando in case donate loro a un passo
dalla corte stessa.
Tra Cinquecento e Settecento un grande numero di pittori italiani, sulla
scia delle commissioni di Tiziano per Carlo V e per Filippo II
36
, saranno chia-
mati a ricoprire ruoli importanti in corti straniere, sia per brevi periodi che per
un lungo lasso di tempo, diventando in tutto e per tutto cortigiani. Alcuni ritor-
neranno carichi di onori e viziati dalle disponibilit che le grandi corti, quella
asburgica in particolare, potevano loro offrire, altri si disperderanno, nono-
stante la loro fama, tra i meandri dei palazzi.
Il primo il caso della pittrice Sofonisba Anguissola
37
(1535 ca.-1625),
apprezzata ritrattista a Madrid tra gli artisti di Filippo II, che qui approd nel
1559 in qualit di dama di corte della regina Isabella di Valois e rimase fino
Raffaella Morselli
418
33
A. Ghidiglia Quintavalle, Alessandro Tiarini alla corte dei Farnese, Milano, 1966
pp. 38-44; per i rapporti con la corte mantovana R. Morselli, ad vocem in Le collezioni
Gonzaga. Atlante dei dipinti nellinventario del 1626-1627, Cinisello Balsamo 2006.
34
A. Crispo, Bartolomeo Schedoni alla corte dei Farnese, Atti e Memorie, Modena
2000, pp. 167-199; F. DallAsta C. Cecchinelli, Bartolomeo Schedoni a Parma (1607-
1615): pittura e controriforma alla corte di Ranuccio I Farnese, Parma 2003.
35
G. Tiraboschi, Notizie de pittori, scultori, incisori, architetti natii degli stati del duca
di Modena, Modena 1786.
36
F. Checa, Fuori da Venezia: Tiziano e la corte spagnola, Venezia 2008, pp. 55-61; G.
M. Pilo, Tiziano pittore di corte degli Asburgo: una rivisitazione e qualche riflessione per
un aggiornamento, in E. Avagnina G. Beltramini (a cura di), Per Franco Barbieri: studi
di storia dellarte e dellarchitettura, Venezia 2004, pp. 291-314.
37
D.Fster Sabater, Retrato de una joven dama en el Museo Lzaro Galdiano:
Sofonisba Anguissola en la corte de Felipe II, Goya, (2004), pp. ; O. Ponessi, Sofonisba
Anguissola: un pittore alla corte di Filippo II, Milano 1998; M. Kusche, Sofonisba
Anguissola: vuelta a Italia; continuacin de sus relacines con la corte espaola, Parago-
ne, (1992), pp. 3-34.
alla morte della stessa nel 1568. Per una donna, anche se di genio indiscutibi-
le nelle arti belle, era impensabile avere una nomina come artista ufficiale
della corte spagnola. Di altra natura fu invece il rapporto che leg Leone
Leoni (1509-1590) e il figlio Pompeo (1531-1608) a Carlo V e a Filippo II:
ritrattisti in marmo e in bronzo, furono i divulgatori ufficiali delle figure tri-
dimensionali dei propri committenti, il secondo addirittura mor a Madrid, ma
non entrarono a far parte dei ranghi di corte
38
. Strana congiuntura quella
accaduta a Giambattista Tiepolo (1696-1770), a lungo corteggiato perch si
recasse in Spagna per ser empleado [en] el real servicio di Carlo III e per
affrescare il soffitto della sala del trono della reggia ricostruita del palacio de
oriente nel 1760
39
. La sua fama di illustratore folgorante di fatti dinastici
aveva finito per scontrarsi con la politica accademica impersonata, negli stes-
si anni a Madrid, dallarrivo di un Anton Raphael Mengs che meglio inter-
pretava i gusti neoclassici del sovrano. E cos, alla sua morte, lambasciatore
della Serenissima a Madrid, Giovanni Querini, scriveva il 3 aprile 1770 un
dispaccio rituale al Senato veneto in cui, alla fine e quasi gli fosse venuto in
mente dimprovviso aggiungeva: in questi giorni qui mancato in vita il
celebre Giovanni Battista Tiepolo pittore, avendo qui lasciato una reputazio-
ne non mediocre di se stesso per le sue opere
40
. Una beffa del destino: il pit-
tore che aveva veleggiato di corte in corte con grazia e stupore solcando il
mare ambiguo della fama, proprio da una corte era stato mortificato. Labilit
e il suo gusto moderno, la facilit di pennello che avevano incantato i suoi
committenti, presso questa corte erano state incomprese e tradite.
Se il flusso maggiore degli italiani per lestero verso la corte spagnola
e qui elencheremo, solo per memoria, gli artisti toscani, i quadraturisti bolo-
gnesi Colonna e Mitelli, Dionisio Mantovani e tutto il circuito delle partenze
e degli arrivi ben descritto da Vizcaino
41
molti altri vagheranno per corti
regnanti, monastiche, elettive e palatine.
Artisti al lavoro
419
38
M. L.Gatti Perer (a cura di), Leone Leoni tra Lombardia e Spagna, Milano 1995, pp.
79-86; Los Leoni: (1509-1608); escultores del Renacimiento italiano al servicio de la corte
de Espaa, cat. della mostra, Madrid 1994.
39
Sulla disamina di questa committenza si veda lintelligente saggio di L. Puppi,
Giambattista e Giandomenico Tiepolo artisti alla Corte di Spagna, in Id. (a cura di),
Giambattista Tiepolo nel terzo centenario della nascita, Padova 1998, pp. 443-452.
40
Ibid., p. 443.
41
M. A.Vizcano, El crculo de pintores italianos en la corte de Felipe IV, Madrid
2010, pp. 1797-1822 si veda inoltre L. Zangheri, Artisti toscani per la corte di Spagna,
Antichit viva, Madrid, 1996 (1997), pp. 14-20; F. Pereda A . Aterido Fernndez,
Colonna y Mitelli en la corte de Felipe IV: la decoracin del saln de los Espejos, in F.
Farneti D. Lenzi (a cura di), Larchitettura dellinganno: quadraturismo e grande deco-
razione nella pittura di et barocca, Firenze 2004, pp. 31-47.
Apartire dallinsediamento di Carlo I Stewart, lInghilterra, per esempio,
aspira ad avere artisti italiani residenti presso la propria corte: vi si trasferir
Orazio Gentileschi (1563-1639) nel 1626, proveniente da Parigi e dalla corte
di Maria de Medici, e Benedetto Gennari (1633-1715) sar in strettissimo rap-
porto con gli Arundell, guadagnando in ricchezza e posizione sociale, ma
certo non in stimoli stilistici
42
: lelegantissimo Orazio Gentileschi mor a
Londra e in quei tredici anni produsse pochi quadri e non del tutto riusciti.
Presso Louigi XIV a Parigi, e poi a Fonteinbleau, tra i tanti casi da cita-
re, oltre a quello celeberrimo di Gian Lorenzo Bernini, anche i modenesi
Gaspare (1588-1663/64) e Carlo Vigarani
43
(1622-1713) e da Carpi lintaglia-
tore Francesco Scibec
44
: presenze, queste, attive pi come collaborazioni
occasionali in vasti gruppi di maestranze internazionali, che come artisti invi-
tati per fama e con stipendi fissi.
A Monaco di Baviera, presso una corte gi da tempo ammiccante ai proto-
tipi italiani a partire da Alberto V, troviamo, per sei anni, dal 1586 al 1592, il cre-
monese Antonio Maria Viani (1555/1560-1629)
45
che si giover, nelle sue
rimembranze, delle decorate volte cinquecentesche della Residenz per i lavori in
Palazzo Ducale a Mantova; sempre in Germania, presso le corti palatine, saran-
no attivi soprattutto gli artisti veneti
46
, mentre nella prima met del Settecento
far da polo da attrazione la corte di Dresda, governata da un acutissimo Federico
II di Prussia, che si avvarr della collaborazione di un teorico e uomo di corte
internazionale come Francesco Algarotti (1712-1764) e di un mirabile pastellista
quale Francesco Pavona
47
(1695-1777), per il quale la corte prussiana diventer
Raffaella Morselli
420
42
Sui rapporti ttra il cugino di Guercino e lInghilterra si veda T. Barber, The Arundells
of Wardor: Roman Catholic patrons of art in late seventeenth-century England, Apollo,
143 (1996), pp. 12-17; A. Mazza (a cura di), Benedetto Gennari ritrovato: lingannevole
dipinto fiammingo di Benedetto Gennari alla corte degli Stuart, Cesena 2004.
43
W. Baricchi J. La Gorce (a cura di), Gaspare & Carlo Vigarani: dalla corte degli
Este a quella di Luigi XIV, Cinisello Balsamo 2009.
44
C. Occhipinti, Francesco Scibec da Carpi, maestro intagliatore alla corte di
Fontainebleau, in M. Rossi (a cura di), Alberto III e Rodolfo Pio da Carpi, collezionisti e
mecenati, Udine 2004, pp. 278-295.
45
S. Appuhn-Radtke, Per lattivit dei pittori italiani in Baviera nel Cinquecento:
Antonio Maria Viani alla corte ducale di Monaco, in G. Bora M. Zlatohlvek (a cura di),
Segni dellarte: il Cinquecento da Praga a Cremona, Milano 1997, pp. 83-94.
46
F. Magani, I pittori veneziani della corte palatina e la decorazione del Castello di
Bensberg, in S. Casciu (a cura di), La principessa saggia: leredit di Anna Maria Luisa de
Medici, Livorno 2006, pp. 72-77.
47
B. Mazza Boccazzi, Francesco Algarotti: un esperto darte alla corte di Dresda,
Quaderni della societ di Trieste, Trieste 2001, XXX; T. Liebsch, Il soggiorno di
Francesco Pavona a Dresda e la pittura a pastello della met del secolo XVIII alla corte
sassone, Memorie storiche forogiuliesi, (2005), pp. 117-140.
un trampolino di lancio per un circuito tutto germanico di commissioni impor-
tanti quali Venere e Amore per il castello di Worlitz. JacopoAmigoni (1682-1752)
delizier la corte russa con i suoi ritratti
48
e terminer i suoi giorni a Madrid in
qualit di pittore di corte e direttore dellAccademia Reale di San Fernando, men-
tre Antonio Pellegrini (1675-1741) passer di corte in corte, Londra, Dusseldorf,
Anversa, Parigi, Vienna, sulle ali della fama che lo accompagna
49
.
Questa rassegna non ha nulla di sistematico, ma vanta solo il diritto di
portare allattenzione casi differenti tra loro, che possano contribuire a rispon-
dere alle domande iniziali, ancorate alla base delle indagini sugli artisti di
corte nellItalia di antico regime.
Si ha la sensazione che il flusso degli italiani verso lEuropa sia maggio-
re di quello inverso: se non altro per lespansione del mercato in Italia, a par-
tire dai primi anni del Seicento, e il ripiegamento delle corti su se stesse, che
indirizza gli stranieri verso una libera collocazione nei vari centri della peni-
sola, soprattutto Roma, Napoli e Venezia. Gli italiani in cerca di commissioni
pi sicure, e protratte nel tempo, si rivolgono invece alle corti straniere che
possono soddisfare, con pi agio, i loro desiderata. Ma ormai evidente che
il miraggio dellartista di corte stipendiato per tutta la vita, con casa e pensio-
ne, un privilegio destinato a pochi fortunati.
Per contro esiste un movimento di pittori stranieri, soprattutto fiamminghi,
che si insedia presso le corti italiane pi plasmate sui modelli spagnoli e asbur-
gici, in cerca di unaffermazione politicamente affine. Ecco allora che il ritratti-
sta di corte diventa irrinunciabile e porta i committenti ad attingere a una tradi-
zione consolidata, soprattutto fiamminga, che ben si adatta alle esigenze di una
corte di medie e piccole dimensioni. La casistica possibile parte da un binomio
ben chiarito dagli stessi protagonisti: Frans Pourbus il giovane (1569-1622) e
Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). I due fiamminghi, a partire dal 1599, sono invi-
tati da Vincenzo Gonzaga presso la corte di Mantova in qualit di ritrattisti. Ma
mentre Pourbus assolver con grande diligenza il suo compito, tanto da essere
rapito da Mantova per Parigi alla corte di Maria de Medici che lo volle a tutti i
costi, il secondo dichiarer ben presto di non essere un ritrattista, bens un pit-
tore di storia, tanto da riformulare il proprio contratto con il duca e diventare
lartista di corte pi eccentrico di tutta la storia delle regge italiane
50
.
Artisti al lavoro
421
48
G. M. Pilo, Jacopo Amigoni ritrattista della corte imperiale di Russia, Arte docu-
mento, (1991), pp. 206-207.
49
D. Banzato, Antonio Pellegrini: il maestro veneto del Rococ alle corti dEuropa, in
Padova e il suo territorio, Padova 1998, pp. 40-42.
50
R. Morselli, Vincenzo Gonzaga e la pittura fiamminga alla corte di Mantova.
Spigolature su Pourbus e Rubens, in La Konstkamer italiana. I fiamminghi nelle collezio-
Tanti altri popolavano palazzi e castelli: da Sustermans, di cui si gi
parlato, a Livio Mehus
51
(1627-1691) a Firenze presso il cardinale Carlo de
Medici, a Giovanni Caracca (1568-1607) alla corte dei Savoia
52
, passando a
Ferdinand Voet (1630-1700?) che prestava i suoi servigi al miglior offerente
53
.
Molti altri che si trovano citati tra le carte e nei registri ducali avevano un
ruolo e un nome che, ancora oggi, non riesce ad essere disvelato.
Una corte degna di questo titolo non poteva rinunciare al pittore venuto
dal Nord che, con pazienza e tenacia, produceva ritratti originali e infinite
copie degli stessi da inviare a tutti i regnanti europei per ampliare la fama del
proprio signore.
Quali committenze per la corte?
Il ritratto lunica vera specializzazione che accumuna tutte le corti
dEuropa e che resiste indenne al passaggio tra le corti rinascimentali e quel-
le moderne
54
. Necessitano di ritrattisti la corte spagnola e quella francese,
quella inglese e le corti palatine, la corte papale e quelle cardinalizie, quelle
granducali e quelle laiche di Genova e Venezia. Se mai, come ha gi abilmente
tracciato Elena Fumagalli per Firenze, ci si dovr occupare ora dei formati
delle opere a figura intera, a tre quarti, a met busto, fino alle spalle, alla sola
testa e dei supporti (su tela, su tavola, su rame per un medaglione, a smalto
per un gioiello), dei costi di questo genere in relazione ai committenti e allau-
tore che li realizza e infine della finalit del ritratto stesso
55
. In questo modo
Raffaella Morselli
422
ni italiane allet di Rubens, Bulletin de lInstitut Historique Belge de Rome, LXXVI
(2006), pp. 137-174.
51
M.Chiarini (a cura di), Livio Mehus: un pittore barocco alla corte dei Medici, 1627-
1691, Livorno, 2000
52
P. Astrua, A. M. Bava, C. E. Spantigati (a cura di), Il nostro pittore fiamengo:
Giovanni Caracca alla Corte dei Savoia (1568-1607), Torino 2005.
53
F. Petrucci (a cura di), Ferdinand Voet: ritrattista di Corte tra Roma e lEuropa del
Seicento, Roma 2005.
54
Per una trattazione generale del tema si veda D. H. Bodart, Il ritratto nelle corti euro-
pee del Cinquecento, in G. Fossi (a cura di), Ritratto: gli artisti, i modelli, la memoria, Firenze
1996, pp. 137-172; per i temi declinati di corte in corte si veda C. Caneva (a cura di), I volti
del potere: la ritrattistica di corte nella Firenze granducale, cat. della mostra, Firenze 2002;
L. Ruiz Gmez, Retratos de corte en la monarqua espaola (1530-1660), in J. Ports Prez
(a cura di), El retrato espaol: del Greco a Picasso, Madrid 2004, pp. 92-119; N. Spinosa (a
cura di), Tiziano e il ritratto di corte da Raffaello ai Caracci, cat. della mostra, Napoli 2006.
55
E. Fumagalli, Dipingere ritratti nella Firenze del Seicento, Ricerche di storia del-
larte, 101 (2010), pp. 21-32.
si potranno creare delle gerarchie di oggetti tipologicamente uguali, ma assai
differenti per uso e funzione.
Il ritratto funzionale alla corte e quindi diventa irrinunciabile avere a
disposizione un pittore specializzato che possa soddisfare tutte le esigenze di
rappresentanza: che questo sia Velasquez piuttosto che Alfonso Sanchez
Coello, Rubens piuttosto che Pourbus, Sustermans invece di Daniele o di
Valore Casini, dipende dalle scelte e dalle possibilit economiche del com-
mittente. Altra cosa invece la scelta degli artisti specializzati invitati a corte
come residenti o come collaboratori occasionali. E su questa opzione pesa for-
temente proprio la trasformazione delle corti tra il Quattrocento e i secoli suc-
cessivi. Sembra evidente, attraverso lanalisi degli studi relativi allapporto
dei singoli maestri presso le corti europee, che la figura dellartista onni-
sciente tenda a sparire, soprattutto dopo il 1530, e che la ricerca di manodo-
pera specializzata diventi unesigenza sempre pi pressante nei decenni suc-
cessivi. Si gi ricordato come sopravviveranno i prefetti delle fabbriche, che
per saranno sempre di pi architetti o ingegneri in grado di gestire costru-
zioni, giardini, apparati, o i guardarobieri maggiori, suddivisi ora in singole
competenze piuttosto che plurimandatari come Pierfrancesco Riccio al servi-
zio di Cosimo I a Firenze
56
, che si occupava di tutti li salariati e li provisio-
nati del granducato in maniera tanto accentrata che, allaggravarsi della
malattia nel 1548, fu costretto a farsi sostituire da sette persone. Tutti gli altri
ingegni impiegati nelle arti saranno dunque sempre pi degli addetti ai lavo-
ri, in grado di portare avanti singoli progetti di breve e media durata, piutto-
sto che secretari di un duca, tanto da diventare insostituibili
57
.
Se dunque la specializzazione una scelta obbligata, sulla scia dei nuovi
cantieri che verranno aperti in tutta Europa per aggiornare le residenze urba-
ne e soprattutto per creare le nuove regge suburbane sul modello di Versailles,
le maestranze saranno selezionate per originalit e eccellenza nel singolo set-
tore, indipendentemente dalla loro provenienza geografica. Quellandare e
venire di decoratori e stuccatori, quadraturisti come Colonna e Mitelli, dora-
tori e intagliatori, lapicidi e architetti di giardini, o maestri di fontane, deli-
neer un perimetro molto instabile entro cui inserire la nuova figura del lavo-
ro a provvigione, ora pi che mai necessario alla corte. Il gran numero di
persone che una reggia pu impiegare in tal senso dimostrato, per il model-
lo di Ferrara, da Guido Guerzoni in maniera esemplare e, per certi versi, pro-
Artisti al lavoro
423
56
A. Cecchi, Il maggiordomo ducale Pierfrancesco Riccio e gli artisti della corte medi-
cea, Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, 42, 1998 (1999), pp. 115-143.
57
R. Morselli, Ferdinando Gonzaga secretario di natura e il magnifico, eccellen-
te, invitto Domenico Fetti, Studi di Storia dellArte, 9 (1998), pp. 189-256.
dromico, ma anche dagli studi di Giulia Semenza per Urbino al tempo di
Francesco Maria II Della Rovere e di Roberta Piccinelli per la corte manto-
vana dopo il sacco del 1630.
Accanto alle maestranze troviamo artisti di maggior pregio e ancora pi
specializzati, che vengono impiegati non solo su precisi incarichi, ma su temi
indicati dagli stessi committenti. Si veda, per esempio, la specializzazione di
Bartolomeo Bimbi
58
(1648-1730), a servizio di Cosimo III de Medici e poi
della figlia, lElettrice Palatina Maria Luisa de Medici, a Firenze. Attraverso
le scelte dei suoi committenti divent un eccentrico specialista di meraviglie
di natura, raffigurando agrumi di ogni specie, conchiglie, variet vegetali e
animali. In questopera di catalogazione iconografica, voluta dal granduca, si
trov a collaborare con Antonio Micheli, botanico di corte, e fu coinvolto
nelle imprese decorative delle ville suburbane dellAmbrogiana e della
Topaia. il caso di segnalare anche Ludovico Brandin (1575-1635)
59
, detto
Mons Bordino, specializzato in dipinti di battaglie chiamato alla corte di
Carlo Emanuele I a Torino. Gli esempi ovviamente includono i copisti, i pit-
tori di storia chiamati a corte per illustrare le gesta della famiglia e immorta-
lare cos, per sempre, i committenti si pensi a Jacopo Tintoretto (1519-1594)
autore dei Fasti gonzagheschi a palazzo ducale a Mantova, voluti da
Guglielmo Gonzaga, e realizzati dal pittore a Venezia, tra il 1578 e il 1580,
escludendo cos ogni soggiorno a corte , quelli convocati per affrescare salo-
ni con temi mitologici e ancora i pittori illustratori di temi letterari e cos via,
in una casistica che tende allinfinito.
In questo rinnovato panorama, resistono tuttavia gli artisti che con la
corte hanno un rapporto da salariato stabile e che fungono da accentratori e
diffusori della politica artistica del proprio committente. Il caso emblema, in
Europa, certamente quello di Velasquez (1599-1660), che ha il privilegio di
entrare nelle stanze di Filippo IV, sui cui margini di dipendenza/indipenden-
za, ha scritto pagine di raro acume Pemn nel 1960
60
, ma gi il ruolo di Van
Dyck (1599-1641) alla corte degli Stewart mostra i segni di cambiamento
ormai definitivo: egli infatti vive in una ricca dimora a Blackfriars, con giar-
Raffaella Morselli
424
58
S. Meloni Trkulja L.Tongiorgi Tomasi (a cura di), Bartolomeo Bimbi: un pittore di
piante e animali alla corte dei Medici, Firenze 1998.
59
M. B. Failla, Ludovico Brandin e la pittura di battaglia alla corte di Carlo Emanuele
I, in G. Agosti, G. Dardanello, G.Galante Garrone (a cura di), Per Giovanni Romano: scrit-
ti di amici, Savigliano 2009, pp. 78-79.
60
J. M. Pemn, Verdad y limite de Velzquez como Pintor de la Corte, Madrid 1960,
pp. 94-99; J. M. de Azcarate, Noticias sobre Velazquez en la Corte, XXX, 1960, pp. 357-
385.
dino sul Tamigi, donatagli dal re, riceve Carlo I e i suoi nobili suoi amici, ha
una rendita annua di 200 sterline, pi il pagamento delle singole opere.
Lartista che per eccellenza mostra i segni di maggior cambiamento del rap-
porto tra primo pittore di corte e proprio sovrano certamente Rubens: dopo
aver frequentato le maggiori corti europee, ed aver lavorato con grandi soddi-
sfazioni di fama e di salario a Bruxelles, a Mantova, a Parigi, a Madrid, a
Londra, non solo decide fermamente di essere solo e sempre un ospite di pas-
saggio, ma scriver chiaramente, in una lettera ad un amico, las cortes me fan
horror. Chi pi di lui avrebbe potuto affermarlo, avendo la duplice possibi-
lit di scegliere i propri committenti e di far parte dei meccanismi cortigiani,
in ogni caso ai massimi livelli?
Nel corso del Settecento questa tendenza a fuggire dalla corte ben rap-
presentata da un pittore di provincia assurto ai fasti delle corti europee senza
esservisi mai presentato fisicamente. Il veronese Giambettino Cignaroli
(1706-1770) ha commissioni importantissime dal re di Francia, dal vescovo di
Neustadt, uno dei suoi pi assidui ammiratori, da Augusto III a Dresda, dai
collezionisti russi Stroganoff, Razumowski, Schuwalow, dal plenipotenziario
dAustria conte Carlo Firmian, dal console inglese a Venezia John Udney: le-
lenco impressionante per la proporzione del fenomeno, governato sapiente-
mente dallartista, soprattutto perch, come ebbe a dire Tomaso Temanza, ha
egli ricusato di ire al servigio delli Sovrani, ove con larghe offerte pi volte
stato invitato
61
.
Per affrontare in maniera sistematica le varianti tipologiche delle moda-
lit di residenza degli artisti presso le corti, le differenze e le similitudini, i
guadagni, le commissioni in loco e a distanza, le adesioni e i rifiuti, bisogner
proprio partire da queste considerazioni di ordine generale, andando a riper-
correre, ove possibile, i mandati, i registri, le patenti, i contratti. Intersecando
i dati salariali e oggettivi, con le committenze, tenendo conto delle varianti
politiche ed economiche delle singole corti, si potr cos comprendere appie-
no il significato dellartista di corte in et moderna.
Artisti al lavoro
425
61
F. Magani, Dipinti profani di Giambettino Cignaroli, in Altichiero e Jacopo Avanzo:
gli affreschi del santo risarciti: omaggio allarte veneta nel ricordo di Rodolfo Pallucchini,
Monfalcone 2001 pp. 179-181.
Guido Guerzoni
COURT HISTORY, CAREER ANALYSIS AND
A PROSOPOGRAPHIC APPROACH
This essay sets out to underline the advantages offered by a combination
of traditional lines of research into court history, developments from proso-
pographic research and new avenues suggested by the analysis of career his-
tories.
I am convinced that this approach can produce significant results and is
now in a position to move beyond the limits characterizing some historio-
graphical approaches to the theme of the court.
They waver between bold declarations of intent and texts that often
indulge in a taste for juicy literary morsels or the meticulous carving of biog-
raphical cameos, and thus remain bound to a descriptivism that, no matter
how refined and erudite, has difficulty grasping the new directions for
research that the subject can offer, despite the excellent results that have been
achieved in neighboring fields by a happy union between the qualitative-nar-
rative dimension and mass prosopography, standard network analysis, or
event history analysis.
It is, however, no coincidence that this kind of experimentation is often
carried out by anthropologists, demographers, political scientists, sociolo-
gists, and historical economists, who, compared to professional histori-
ans, can boast a greater familiarity with analytical tools whose formal refine-
ment is directly dependent on the users knowledge of mathematics and com-
puter science.
This is an area in which part of historians still nourish a barely concealed
diffidence, even though the front of quantititave historians has broadened to
embrace scholars of the lites and social mobility, social history la
Labrousse, serial history la Chaunu, or histoire quantitative la
427
Marczewski, cliometric historians and new economic historians, historians of
medicine and of criminality, etc.
Unfortunately, the high-level international debate that in the course of the
last thirty years has reawakened interest in the prosopographical approach (from
antiquity to medieval history) has not had a wide following among court histo-
rians, hampering the evolution of the directions of research which might have
been able to benefit greatly: from the study of lites to the union between micro-
history and macro-quantification, from case studies on the personnel of politi-
cal institutions to longitudinal investigations of social-professional groups.
Nevertheless, even though I lend my voice to the chorus of those who force-
fully assert the complementarity and the absence of any claim to exhaustiveness
of this type of experimentation, I feel that studies of the courts in the modern age
cannot postpone the inevitable even though it may represent a compromise
merging of quality and quantity, biographical portrait and institutional panorama,
events involving individuals and epics involving the collectivity.
These passages represent the requisite conditions for the success of such
experiments: a humble approach, a preference for one-mode data, a profound
knowledge of the historiographical debate and the historic context, a total
mastery of the primary sources, clear ideas about the object of study, and com-
parisons that make sense.
When these demands are met, prosopographical analysis can reveal itself
to be an excellent tester of rigorously constructed historiographical hypothe-
ses, especially in the spheres of research pivoting around relationships, mobil-
ity, patronage and social capital, such as studies of clientary mechanisms,
careers, relationships of credit and supply, factions and coalitions, etc.
In this sense, to refute the thesis, still accepted by some modernists, that
the court is the place of ambiguity
1
(Prandi 1990) or a system that is less
well described the more it is circular and capillary
2
, it is necessary to under-
stand, as Karl Ferdinand Werner noticed in 1977, that la prosopographie per-
met, comme nous lavons dit en 1977, de combiner lhistoire politique des
hommes et des vnements avec lhistoire sociale anonyme des volutions
long term, par ltudes des individus qui sont le support des deux
3
.
Guido Guerzoni
428
1
S. Prandi, Il Cortegiano ferrarese. I Discorsi di Annibale Romei e la cultura
nobiliare nel Cinquecento, Firenze 1990, p. 35.
2
G. Mazzacurati, Percorsi dellideologia cortigiana, in C. Ossola A. Prosperi (eds),
La corte e il Cortegiano, vol. I, Rome 1980, p. 151.
3
K.F. Werner, Lapport de la prosopographie lhistoire sociale des lites, in K.S.B.
Keats Rohan (ed.), Family Trees and the Roots of Politics: the Prosopography of Britain and
France from the Tenth to the Twelfth Century, Woodbrige 1997, p. 5.
Furthermore, although prosopography as a social history of institutions is
a path rarely followed in Italian historiography, it is a fundamental one for
whoever wishes to investigate administrative structures or to use Bernard
Guenes words, to take apart the cogs and wheels of the mechanism on
which the monarchy based its power
4
.
This is not a question of slavishly following the latest fad in historiogra-
phy by displaying ones own badly applied skills with computers and sta-
tistics, but of recognizing the ineluctable nature of this step. As Francois
Autrand pointed out as early as 1979 in an essay entitled, significantly, De
lhistoire de ltat la prosopographie
5
, the history of institutions coincides
with the history of its members and only a better understanding of the par-
ticipants can lead us to a better appreciation of the functioning, success, or
failure of medieval or early modern institutions
6
.
It is obvious that this type of approach can demand the formulation of
bold hypotheses that sometimes border on the risky, and can result in a dimin-
ished view of the details that for some is unbearably painful. But the more
ambitious the goals that are set and the greater the masses of competing doc-
umentation, the more it becomes indispensable to adopt a far-sighted histori-
cal vision, given that the historiography of the courts has been often near-
sighted.
We know the most minute details about the life of third- and fourth-rank
courtiers and almost all there is to know about the wooden chest, the most
obscure poem, the editio princeps or the spare set of dishes, but we often are
in the dark as to what the court really was, how far it reached, how many peo-
ple lived there, and how and what were the rights, duties, and privileges of the
courtiers, how they were hired, paid, and dismissed, and so on.
These paradoxes are present in different national historiographies, where
nonetheless excellent work has been already done. The databases developed
by Maria Narbona Carceles for the household of the kings of Navarre (1387-
1415)
7
, by Werner Paravicini in his Prosopographia Curiae Burgundicae
8
, by
Court History, Career Analysis and a Prosopographic Approach
429
4
Quoted by F. Leverotti, Diplomazia e governo dello stato. I famigli cavalcanti di
Francesco Sforza (1450-1466), cited above, Pisa 1992, pp. 9-10.
5
Published in G.A. Ritter R. Vierhaus (eds), Aspects de la recherche historique en
France et en Allemagne; tendances et mthodes, Gttingen 1981, pp. 43-53.
6
N. Bulst, Prosopography and the Computer: Problems and Possibilities, in P. Denley,
S. Fogelvik, C. Harvey (eds), History and Computing II, Manchester 1989, p. 15.
7
M. Narbona Crceles, La corte de Carlos III el Noble, rey de Navarra: espacio
domstico y escenario de poder, 1376-1415, Pamplona 2006.
8
See http://www.prosopographia-burgundica.org/
Olivier Matteoni for the officers of the the dukes of Bourbon in XV century
9
or by Caroline zum Kolk (La Maison des Reines de France
10
and Curia
11
) or
my
12
Este courts database confirm the remarkable progresses made in the last
15 years.
However, despite studies of the Middle Ages and the 15
th
century have
been particularly attentive to the political and institutional themes most close-
ly concerned with the courts, the research of modernists has given priority
mainly to analyses with an artistic, political and cultural slant, in which the
courts appear frequently as backgrounds, the settings for events that can even
be extraneous to them. This lacuna is aggravated by the lack of systematic
studies on the economic and social history of many courts, which is still
anchored to the results of the meritorious efforts made many years ago (for
instance the book edited by Maurice Aymard and Marzio Achille in 1998)
13
.
Nevertheless, the focus of many prosopographical investigations is still
focused more on specific groups or sub-set of courtiers (high nobility, diplo-
mats, professionals, clergymen, artists, members of the councils, etc.), rather
than encompassing all the courtiers, regardless their social position or hierar-
chical relevance.
This approach is intimately dangerous, because to portray a subject that
is so large and imposing, we must take our inspiration from the canvases of
the late Titian, the mature Rembrandt: an inch from our eyes, they appear to
be an aggregation of formless patches, a whirl of casually combined colours,
but if we lift our heads and step back the proper distance, they yield a clear
and wondrously beautiful overall vision.
To escape the danger of a gaze so near-sighted as to become intellectual
blindness, we must shadow, question, and gaze into the eyes of all, and I mean
really all, the courtiers, from the highest lieutenant to the least of the kitchen
boys, in order to infuse with new life and energy a cognitive process which
has to deal with the entire institution and not with individual members or spe-
cific parts.
To attempt to answer such broad questions, it is worth the effort to cover
the entire range of positions, titles, and functions to trace a collective biog-
raphy that embraces the entire human spectrum populating the court stage.
Guido Guerzoni
430
9
O. Matteoni, Servir le prince: les officiers des ducs de Bourbon la fin du Moyen Age
(1356-1523), Paris 1998.
10
See http://cour-de-france.fr/squelettes/bases/maisons/recherche_simple_maisons.html.
11
See http://chateauversailles-recherche.fr/curia/curia.html.
12
See www.guidoguerzoni.org.
13
M. Aymard M.A. Romani (eds.), The Court as an Economic Institution, Paris 1998.
In this regard I do not believe there is a more effective tool for achieving
this goal than prosopographic databases, hopefully on-line and based on open-
source approach. They may be lacking in specific chronological referents or
biographical details, but they can furnish precise and valuable information
about institutional structures, the mechanisms by which they functioned,
career dynamics, the demographics of power, and the strategies of its mem-
bers.
As so often happens in life, it is necessary to take a stand, to make choic-
es and assume responsibilities, since there are significant differences of
approach, the result of the distance between the interpretation of prosopogra-
phy as a mere investigation of the common background characteristics of a
group of actors in history by means of a collective study of their lives, as
pointed out by Lawrence Stone in the remote 1977
14
, and that proposed by
Neithard Bulst which coincides with a sharp separation, felt particularly in
Germanic circles, between prosopographie as the collection et relev de
toutes les personnes dun cercle de vie dlimite dans le temps et dans le-
space and a Historische Personenforschung presented as la mise en valeur
des dones prosopographiques sous des aspects divers de linterprtation his-
torique with the former being subordonne la Personenforschung et la
prcde ce qui en consquence la rend indpendante de la Personenforschung
et la classifie en science auxiliaire to the point that si dans la suite nous
employons le terme prosopographique nous entendons par l contrairement
sa signification en allemand, la combination entre Prosopographie et
Personenforschung
15
.
I believe that its better to maintain a position close to Bulst, even though
the methodological framework of reference has been complicated by the addi-
tion of further elements. The prosopographical approach, as practiced in the
past, made headway in the historiographical areas, typically in studies of
ancient and medieval history, where the sources were and are scarce, frag-
mentary, and full of lacunae, as an exalted form of collecting and collating bits
431
14
L. Stone, Prosopography, in Daedalus, 100 (1971), p. 46.
15
N. Bulst, La recherche prosopographie rcente en Allemagne (1250-1650). Essai
dun bilan, in F. Autrand (ed.), Prosopographie et gense de ltat moderne: Actes de la
Table ronde 1986 organisee par le Centre national de la recherche scientifique et lEcole
normale superieure de jeunes filles (Paris, 22-23 octobre 1984), Paris 1986, p. 37. The
author made this same distinction in Prosopography and the Computer: Problems and
Possibilities, published in Denley, Fogelvik, Harvey (eds.), History and Computing II, cit.,
pp. 13-14, and Objet et mthode de la prosopographie, in J. P. Genet G. Lottes (eds.),
LEtat moderne et les lites XIIIe-XVIIIe sicle, Paris 1996, pp. 471-473.
and scraps of information and documentary rarities. In this sense, the recent
developments in the use of computers have reinforced the natural propensity
of prosopography to present itself as a superior criterion for systematically
ordering universes of citations which would be difficult to handle without
tools capable of overcoming the complexity, reticence, and heterogeneous
nature of the sources.
And yet, these premises, for the scholars who work on fronts chronolog-
ically closer to us, can tend to vanish to the point of being reversed: here it is
not a fundamental need to overcome the scarcity, but rather to govern the
swirling abundance of information, thus moving the focus of the problem
sharply away from making a selection and hierarchy of the sources to design-
ing and managing systems for collecting and using the information.
Just the one data set concerning in my case the some 4,200 courtiers of
the five Este dukes involved the entering and processing of more than 35,000
records, and the major problems faced in the course of the work did not lie in
the identification of the sources, but rather in designing the system, codifying
and standardizing the data, resolving the cases of more than one person with
the same name, formulating hypotheses on missing data, etc.
In this sense, while taking inspiration from the philosophy of the proso-
pographical studies made by medievalists and fifteenth-century specialists, it
might be better to give a slightly different slant to the task, which may bother
purists but answered modern historians needs very well, by dwelling less on
the group, the sub-set, the statistical sample, and focussing more on the insti-
tution, the set, the statistical population, and following models which pertain
to historical demography, in the strong conviction that it is more important to
investigate the relationships between officials operating in the territory, men
at arms and courtiers (how many couriers functioned as officials, how many
men at arms/officials became courtiers?), the patterns of development of
careers (diagonal, vertical, or horizontal?) and their duration, the exchange of
personnel between the central courts and the particular courts, which family
groups were more or less present, what relationships existed with the high
ranks of the army or the financial lites, than to know in the minutest detail
the life of a single individual or a small sub-group.
In this sense, the logical passage implied by the adoption of such method-
ological attitude, it the passage from prosopography to career analysis, from
single and static spot data to collective as well as dynamic sets.
Indeed, even with access to a broad-ranging and extraordinarily complete
masses of data, it is not a simple task to decide how they should be employed
to study the careers of courtiers. The motive for this is the most surprising
aspect of the current state of the history of careers, namely the uncertainty
Guido Guerzoni
432
apparently surrounding the question of what it is or indeed aspires to be. In
fact, it is important to underline the absence of debate regarding the aims and
instruments of historical research seeking to investigate the history of careers
and not, it should be noted, a specific individual and therefore his career, seen
as one of many elements contributing to define individuality. In order to ori-
entate better in such framework, its better to examine the body of literature
related to or focusing indirectly on the history of careers.
Firstly, it should be noted that the history of careers has concentrated upon
various categories of individuals. Despite their importance, courtiers, however,
are notable in their absence. Ecclesiastics are among the most studied
16
, partic-
ular those with medium to high profiles but also, in research closer to modern
periods, those of more humble origins, for whom it was, nevertheless, almost
always possible to improve status by following the correct procedures.
Secondly, much attention has been paid to university students and aca-
demics
17
. Very often the study of ecclesiastics and individuals in the universi-
ty environment is intertwined, given that an advanced level of education was
necessary in order to obtain some of the highest positions in the church and
that academic posts were often merely a stepping-stone in a brilliant ecclesi-
astical career. But there are also many valuable studies dedicated to the uni-
versity population as whole and therefore to both secular and ecclesiastic
components
18
. The abundance of studies on ecclesiastic and university careers
(covering both students and teachers) is largely due to the availability of
sources, which, particularly for the Middle Ages, is far richer than that relat-
ing to any other social group.
433
16
For example the canons of Exeter cathedral studied by D. N. Lepine or the Venetian
bishops of A.M. Ippolito: D. N. Lepine, The Origins and Careers of the Canons of Exeter
Cathedral 1300-1455, in C. Harper-Bill (ed.), Religious Belief and Ecclesiastical Careers in
Late medieval England, Woodbridge 1991; A. M. Ippolito, Politica e carriere ecclesiastiche
nel secolo XVII. I vescovi veneti fra Roma e Venezia, Bologna 1993.
17
See for example Lepine, The Origins and Careers, cit.; R. de Keyser, Chanoins
sculiers et universits: le cas de Saint-Donatien de Bruges (1350-1450), in J. Ysewyn J.
Paquet (eds), The Universities in the Late Middle Ages, Louvain 1978.
18
Much work has been done, for example, on the University of Paris and great English
academic institutions. For the former, W. J. Courtenay, Teaching careers at the University of
Paris in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, in Texts and Studies in the History of
Medieval Education, no. XVIII, Notre Dame (IN), 1988; for the latter see G. F. Lytle, The
careers of Oxford Students in the Later Middle Ages, in J. M. Kittelson P. J. Transue (eds),
Rebirth, Reform and Resilience: Universities in Transition, 1300-1700, Columbus 1984. See
also H. de Ridder-Symoenss contribution, who summarises the state of research on this
theme in Belgium: H. de Ridder-Symoens, Possibilits de carrire et de mobilit sociale des
intellectuels-universitaires au Moyen Age, Gent 1986.
Thirdly, there are many studies regarding officials. In this instance, too,
the reconstruction of careers of officials has focused on ecclesiastics
19
or ded-
icated particular attention to the possibilities opened up by periods of time
spent at university either as a student, teacher or in other capacities
20
. I would
also like draw attention to research dedicated to officials at the Italian ducal
courts
21
, which explores themes very similar to mine (although often with dif-
ferent methods and objectives). Finally, many other works concentrate on par-
ticular careers of officials, namely those in the Army
22
. Apart from these gen-
eral indications, it is important to underline that studies on the careers of offi-
cials have investigated a large variety of subjects.
Furthermore, research into artisan groups has also provided an opportu-
nity to investigate aspects of their career. In this case, the focus has primarily
been on the fundamental stage of apprenticeship and on inter-generational
dynamics: whether sons carried on the activities of their fathers, whether
opportunities for self-advancement were opened up to them and so on
23
. In
addition to these four main areas of research, many other studies have con-
centrated on other groups, even if in a less systematic fashion.
With regard to the different methodologies employed, research into the
history of careers can be divided quite neatly into two categories. On the one
hand there are those based on prosopographic databases, which might be of
varying sizes but generally of statistical significance (it should be noted that
Guido Guerzoni
434
19
This occurs above all in studies devoted to the papal court, among which see R. Ago,
Carriere e clientele nella Roma barocca, Bari 1990.
20
For example H. de Ridder-Symoens, Milieu social, tudes universitaires et carrire
des consillers au Conseil de Brabant (1430-1600), Gent 1981.
21
For an example of this and further bibliographical references see M. Folin,
Rinascimento Estense, Bari 2001.
22
See the collected essays in the volume C. Donati (ed.), Eserciti e carriere militari
nellItalia moderna, Milano 1998.
23
I would like first of all to draw attention to an important Italian research programme,
centred around the construction and use of Artigen, a prosopographic database on Genoese
maestri and apprentices between 1450 and 1535. This project, unique in Italy, has laid a
basis for more in-depth studies of artisan careers in the early modern period. Various contri-
butions in these field have already appeared: C. Ghiara, Famiglie e carriere artigiane: il
caso dei filatori di seta, in Maestri e garzoni nella societ genovese tra XV e XVI secolo,
Genova 1991. For a description of Artigen see O. Itzcovich, Artigen. An Oracle database for
mass prosopography. Nominal record linkage and kinship network reconstruction, in IVe
Congrs History and computing, LOrdinateur et le mtier dhistorien, Bordeaux 1990 and
G. Casarino, Profilo e itinerario quantitativo della ricerca, in Maestri e garzoni nella soci-
et genovese tra XV e XVI secolo, Genova 1988. Finally, a novel research perspective has
been opened up by J. Amelang in The Flight of Icarus. Artisan autobiography in early mod-
ern Europe, Stanford 1998.
a certain interest in careers is implicit in the very term prosopography); on the
other hand there are those who have preferred to concentrate on a single or
restricted number of cases. Doubtless the motives for chosing one or other of
these approaches can be attributed to the authors convictions regarding the
most efficacious means of interpreting history. However, the choice of period to
be studied seems to be even more decisive. It is not a coincidence that almost
all the research into careers for the medieval period has been carried out by
reconstructing the prosopography of significantly broad groups. The relative
lack of sources for earlier periods makes a narrower and deeper focus difficult.
A broader view is therefore necessary and even so not always possible (this
being the motive, as we have seen, for concentrating in the first instance on par-
ticular social groups, notably ecclesiastics and university academics).
At this point it becomes possible and useful to clarify what the term his-
tory of careers signifies from my point of view. I believe that It might be
helpful to concentrate on the study and reconstruction of patterns of courtiers
careers, relating to individuals bound together by a common feature (being
part of a court, regardless their social position/hierarchical levels).
These patterns develop out of the links between the different job/posi-
tions that could be assumed by the members of the population studied, links
that are often (but not always) of a nature of precedence (taking on one
job/position opens up the possibility of assuming, in the future, certain oth-
ers). It is possible to discover cases in which the passage from one position to
another appears to be on the whole deterministic, in the sense that it was the
only possibility for career advancement open to an individual. Often in the
case of the courts, however, the system of changing roles was so involved and
rich in possibilities that it cannot be described in simple terms, but more gen-
erally in terms of opportunities that opened up to individuals occupying par-
ticular roles. Nor should these careers, very complex in their complete poten-
tial development from a certain beginning to certain end, be considered as
closed. There were cases of what could be termed lateral appearances
(people who joined the court taking on a role that, within a specific career
path, would not have been feasible at the beginning stages) as well as career
exits in order to commence other activities.
Without doubt, from a methodological point of view its better to com-
pare these approaches with the evidences of research carried out adopting tra-
ditional prosopographic approaches.
Afinal clarification is necessary. It is not my intention to suggest that the
history of careers should focus solely on careers, as if its final goal were
merely to reconstruct often very complex models of regression or advance-
ment. On the contrary: the norms or discontinuities revealed in the structure
435
of careers constitute a body of evidence on which to test the validity of a large
variety of hypotheses, concerning the relationships between courtiers and
external institutional bodies or professional sectors.
In other words courtiers prosopographic databases constitute the base of
a first level of analysis, which could cope with intrinsic historiographical
questions: ennoblement and social mobility, familial strategies, marriage poli-
cies, professional backgrounds, relationships between central and particular
courts, demographic life cycles, recruitment strategies, periods and methods
of court apprenticeship, and so on.
But the real effort to be done is the creation of prosopographic database
concerning the external subjects: state officers, members of the army, suppli-
ers, merchants and members of the financial lites, members of the local
authorities, etc.
It was not by chance that many of the most important suppliers were
members of the courts, or relatives of members. Neither is it by chance that
inclusion among the number of courts suppliers brought with it, almost auto-
matically, inclusion in a relational circuit which was also in direct contact with
the lesser courts and with all the high consumers connected to them
(churchmen, aristocrats, officials of the state magistratures, and so on). This
is how the courts created a genuine stakeholder environment in the man-
agement, and above all in members profit-sharing, of the administration of
the House and the State. This not only bolstered the policy of initiating and
maintaining political consensus, but also met specific economic directives.
The fact that many individuals were, at the same time, dependants and sup-
pliers, debtors on account of salary but also creditors for supplies, was until
now taken as incontrovertible proof of an atmosphere in which chaos and cor-
ruption ruled, and a symptom of deficiency in the bureaucratic and mod-
ern sense of the administrative apparatus.
The tensions and conflicts, the supposed contrasts between the noble and
bourgeois classes, between prince sand cities, between the will of the rulers
and mercantile needs were often mitigated by the relational network involv-
ing a huge number of individuals and interests. This network facilitated con-
ciliation between divergent positions and rewarded loyalty above all else,
repaying it in different ways and means, but only the cross analysis of these
data will reveal and measure the celebrated social and political centrality of
modern courts. The suns are well known, but the rays of the power, regarde-
less the points in which they felt, should be already investigated, with the help
of the prosopographical tools.
Guido Guerzoni
436

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