Royalty in the old days?

Question

In the movie, ever after, they talk alot about cortiers? im probably spelling it wrong. I no they were the girls in the court but what exactly were they there for?

Answer 1

All servants of course, served at the pleasure of the monarch and did the bidding that was required - be they the duties as described or not . That being said, most historians describe court servants as honored servants, not necessarily slaves as some would suggest.

In either case:  from our friends at Wikipedia

Definition:

A courtier is a person who attends upon, and thus receives a privileged position from a powerful person, usually a head of state. In the United States, the term has taken on negative connotations as a synonym for favorite or hanger-on.

It is usually also used in a historical context, especially to describe the attendants of a luxurious autocrat such as Louis XIV of France. This context is used by many to make the word quaintly old-fashioned and irrelevant in contemporary circumstances, although "placemen" and rewarded campaign-donors in the American political system are contemporary examples of de facto courtiers.

Answer 2

Royalty is nothing else than living of the worker's sweat.  Both in the old days, as now.  Any royalty left should either be exiled or... well, dealt with like the tsar in 1917.

Answer 3

Male courtiers certainly saw to the personal needs of a king or queen, but they weren't necessarily servants (at least in the modern sense).   They were often nobles themselves, asking for titles and land from the monarch.  The White House staff surrounding the President of the United States is a watered-down equivalent of the aristocrats that surrounded any Renaissance or Medieval king or queen.

Many ambitious artists and scholars also appeared at Court.  For example, Shakespeare was one of the King's Men, an acting troupe sponsored by James I after he became King of England.

Historically, women aren't thought of as "courtiers", even if a lot of beautiful women surrounded the king.  A more appropriate title for some of these women might be "mistress".  Charles II of England, for example, had eighteen mistresses.  Of course, a lot of the women at court might be wives and eligible daughters of attending nobles or the unmarried daughters of the king.  

Since "Ever After" retells the Cinderella story, it is set in France.  The magnificent French court at Versailles of Louis XIV is probably the court most historians think of when they hear the word "courtier".