Courtier
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Courtiers should not be confused with couriers.
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 the placemen and rewarded campaign-donors in the American political system are contemporary examples of de facto courtiers.
[edit] Examples of famous courtiers
- Anne Boleyn
- The princesse de Lamballe
- The duc de Luynes
- The marquis de Cinq-Mars
- The duc de Saint-Simon
- Einhard - Courtier of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious
