Court office

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The court offices were mostly tasks performed by noblemen in a court , which originally had to ensure the functioning of the princely household. The most important were chamberlain , marshal , truchess (or Drost ) and cupbearer (or just Schenk). The Chancellor soon joined the group as the fifth .

The character of these offices changed early on from service to honorary office, which had little to do with the original function and was almost always given to high-ranking nobles. Not infrequently, these high-ranking titles, also known as court charges , were associated with important tasks in administration and government.

  • The chamberlain (see also Latin camerarius ) was originally the personal servant - the chamberlain - of the prince. This relationship of trust originally included taking care of his finances, a function that was later passed on to the treasurer .
  • The marshal (see also Latin mareschallus ) originally supervised the stables , the prince's horse stable, but with the emergence of knighthood rose to become commander in chief of the cavalry troops. Later the title generally referred to a high-ranking military leader.
  • The stewardess (or Seneschall , English also steward , see also Latin dapifer and Drost (e)) was originally the kitchen master, who was responsible for the supervision of the princely table, but who rose to the head of the entire court administration in Franconian times.
  • The cupbearer (see also Latin pincerna ) was responsible for supplying the princely table with wine and other drinks in the early Middle Ages, and since Carolingian times also for managing the royal vineyards.
  • The bread master (see also Latin panetarius , panistarius , or pistor ) was responsible for bread and pastries and for the water and towels for cleaning the hands, in France the royal bread master also had jurisdiction over other privileges up to the 17th century the bakers' guild of Paris.

The court offices at the court of the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had developed from the Merovingian house offices and had only been exercised by important imperial princes since the 10th century , whereby in practice they became more and more symbolic, while the original function was almost entirely got lost. The most important of them were later than "Erzämter" with the Electorate connected so exercised by the electors. The court offices of the empire were hereditary early on with the secular electors and tied to the respective bishop's seat with the clergy, their administration and practical exercise in deputization of the electoral owner (e.g. at the coronation of an emperor or Roman king ), however, became Also hereditary at the beginning of the 13th century, transferred to lower-ranking noble families as " inheritance ". The hereditary offices of the empire were, however, more numerous than the senior offices.

At the many royal courts of the empire, however, there were also hereditary court offices, with which families of the local lower nobility were hereditary and with some of them the court office was then also transferred to the family name, combined with the name of the ancestral seat, so with the Schenck Schweinsberg , the Schenk von Stauffenberg (see: List of families bearing the Schenk title as part of the family name ) , the Truchseß von Wetzhausen , Marschall von Bieberstein , Marschall von Altengottern , Marschalk von Ostheim (see: List of families with the marshal title as part of the family name ) , or the chamberlains of Worms, barons from and to Dalberg .

In the Roman Curia there were numerous traditional court offices, including the cardinals and prelates of the Apostolic Palace (the court master - Maggiordomo - His Holiness, the papal chief chamberlain - Maestro di Camera - the auditor of His Holiness), the magister of the Holy Hospice , the Grand Furier of the Papal House , the Chief Stable Master , the Postmaster General , the Bearer of the Golden Rose, the Legation Secretary, the Exemte Tribune of the Papal Nobel Guard , the Chamber of Honor, the Chamber of Honor "extra Urbem" (outside Rome), the secret chaplain, the secret chaplain of honor, the secret chaplain of honor “Extra Urbem”, the secret clergy, the ordinary chaplains, the confessor of the “Papal Family”, the secret food taster . These court offices were held in 1968 by Pope Paul VI. Abolished as part of the reforms after the Second Vatican Council by § 3 of the Motu proprio " Pontificalis Domus ". Pope Francis announced in 2013 that he had decided not to appoint any more Gentiluomini di Sua Santità .

In England, the Lord Seal Keeper , the First Lord of the Treasury and the Lord Chancellor have been the most important government offices since the High Middle Ages. Numerous court offices still exist today and are often inherited from certain families, such as the Earl Marshal of England to the Duke of Norfolk from the House of Howard .

In Sweden and Denmark, the imperial chancellor , imperial marshal , imperial admiral , imperial treasurer and Reichsdrost were the most important imperial offices. Their owners were members of the Reichsrat.

When the power of the king waned in the Kingdom of Bohemia during the Hussite period, the court offices were transformed into state offices . When making appointments, the king had to take the estates into consideration. The most important positions ( Oberstburggraf , Oberstchanzler , Oberstlandrichter , Oberstlandhofmeister and Oberstlandkämmerer ) were reserved for members of the gentry. Much of the power of government lay with the above-mentioned offices, which, apart from the Chancellor Colonel, had hardly been dependent on the court since the 15th century.

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Basics of the study of history: an introduction by Egon Boshof, Kurt Düwell, Hans Kloft, Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 1997, p. 184, house offices
  2. ↑ Court offices
  3. ↑ PAOLO VI LETTERA APOSTOLICA MOTU PROPRIO PONTIFICALIS DOMUS - VIENE CAMBIATO L'ORDINAMENTO DELLA CASA PONTIFICIA [1]
  4. ↑ The Prince and the Pope's noblemen: "Their abolition is correct, but Paul VI made a mistake", entry on Katholisches-Magazin für Kirche und Kultur [2] , accessed on April 29, 2019