ABSTRACT
The presence and role of noblemen and, to a lesser extent, noblewomen – always important – increased during the early modern centuries, as courts expanded significantly in size and came to have a fixed location throughout most of the year. The two principal groups attending court were leading aristocratic families, and ambitious members of the middle-ranking nobility. Young aristocrats served as pages, thereby completing their education; many marriages were arranged at court, which became the main site for their conclusion; while both the aristocrats who occupied leading offices and the nobles who filled lesser posts did so in the hope of securing material rewards in addition to enhanced status, though their hopes were imperfectly realised.
