ABSTRACT
To what extent did early modern rulers harbour expectations concerning privacy, as we understand the concept today, and if they did, what did these expectations consist of? To answer these questions, I focus on the processes of negotiation through which various spheres of privacy were shaped at the early modern court. My essay considers three distinct areas of court culture that, taken together, represent a significant stretch of the bandwidth on which these processes of negotiation unfolded: (1) the organisation of space, (2) the use of material culture, and (3) the royal body. Discussing examples from a wide variety of sources, this chapter offers some insights into the meaning of privacy in a courtly context.
