ABSTRACT
The sixteenth century saw an expansion of the institution of the court in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This was partly due to the complexity of crown inheritance and the beginnings of a system of elective monarchy. The court and courtiers were discussed in the various literary works analysed in the present chapter. Through this analysis, I aim to define the meaning of privacy at court. Sixteenth-century Polish writers were often closely associated with the court, and they understood privacy as tightly intertwined with the raison d’état and public service—as opposed to the privacy of a landed nobleman far from court. During the sixteenth century, threats to privacy at court were considered serious concerns, and principles that delineated privacy and regulated relations between an individual, the community of the court, and the ruler were defined.
