ABSTRACT
The English (British, after 1603) monarchy was one of Europe’s oldest, but the role of the king and the nature of his court were under constant revision. At the end of the fifteenth century Henry Tudor seized power from the unlucky Richard III, but, like its predecessor, Henry VII’s court was an intensely personal one. Influenced to some degree by the innovations of the Burgundian court on the Continent, the first Tudor was nevertheless a ruler cast in a medieval mould. Henry’s successors, however, adopted and adapted their court in the light of changing circumstances – sometimes of necessity, as in the case of Elizabeth I, who was hampered by early modern notions of female inferiority.
