This thesis examines the importance of the royal court and household in Scotland during the reign of James I (1424-37). The medieval royal court and household has received little concentrated attention in recent Scottish studies. However, a significant body of published research exists elsewhere in Britain and Europe which shows the importance of this arena for other kingdoms at this time. These studies have emphasised how the court and household was an important centre for politics and culture in the medieval period, indicating how a similar study of the Scottish evidence is essential for a fuller understanding of James I’s reign. Through a variety of sources, the composition of James’s household and court affinity has been examined. It is evident from this that James lacked an appropriate body of companions and high-status administrative officers for a medieval ruler and this was to have significant consequences for his reign. Additionally, by looking at some of the cultural aspects of the royal court, in particular the architecture, literature and religion, a clearer picture of the socio-political dynamics and tensions of James I’s reign emerges. In contrast to the generally held view of James as a politically successful, strong and active monarch for much of his reign, this study instead indicates a king who failed to establish an attractive and useful court and household that could be exploited for royal political gain. With his failure to establish a suitable court and household, James was a king incomplete and it is the contention that this contributed significantly to the king’s assassination.

À la croisée de l’histoire sociale, culturelle et des techniques, ma thèse porte sur la fonction de l’écuyer tranchant, un office majeur de l’hôtel royal à qui incombait la tâche délicate de découper et servir les mets à la table du seigneur. Exercé au départ par les grands du royaume, l’office se professionnalise à la fin du Moyen Âge et au début de la Renaissance, comme l’atteste la multiplication des traités de découpe en Espagne et en Italie durant cette période. Le présent travail permet de mesurer, d'une part, les interférences textuelles entre les traités de découpe ibériques et italiens et de s'interroger, d'autre part, sur la correspondance entre les normes et la pratique. A la fin de comprendre la place occupée par l'écuyer tranchant au sein de l'hötel royal, et le rôle qu'il a pu jouer dans l'entourage du roi, un travail prosopographique a été mené durant les règnes des rois aragonais Ferdinand Ier et Alphonse le Magnanime / My thesis is at the crossroads of social, cultural and technical history. It deals with the duties of the Carver who was entrusted with a major assignment at the Royal Court: he was given the delicate task of carving the food and serving up the dishes for his Lord. This office, first performed by the royal officers, became a profession at the end of the middle ages and at the beginning of the renaissance period, as may be attested by the multiplication of treaties on carving in Spain and Italy issued at that time. The antiquity of the "arte Cisaria" (1423) led me to wonder about its influence on the Catalan and Italian treaties on carving which were the established later on. I also wondered afterwards to what extent these treaties complied with the established norms. Finally, in order to understand the place occupied by the Carver within the Royal Court, I focused my prosopographic research on the reigns of the Aragonese kings Ferdinand I, and his son Alphonse V

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Cette thèse propose une analyse de la « cour royale » égyptienne sous la XXVIème dynastie saïte (664-525 av. J.-C.) à partir des sources majoritairement textuelles (privées et royales) et historiques. Le volume de synthèse se développe autour de trois axes principaux traitant la « cour » dans son acception sociale, telle qu’on l’entend dans la sociologie historique. La première partie est ainsi consacrée à l’étude de la cour comme la Maison du souverain afin d’éclairer l’ensemble des activités qui caractérisent la « vie de cour » et son organisation domestique et qui rendent l’espace curial « privé » ou « officiel ». La deuxième partie examine la cour dans son agencement social et en tant qu’outil de représentation et de communication : ce sont alors le protocole du palais royal et son rôle-clef dans le maintien de l’équilibre social entre les souverains saïtes et leurs sujets (système des faveurs–ḥswt) qui sont analysés. La troisième partie se concentre sur les acteurs sociaux de la Résidence du roi (les courtisans et l’entourage royal) et tente de démontrer les différentes catégories auxquelles appartiennent ces élites et de déceler les modalités de leurs accès au palais et au rang de « courtisan modèle » dans la hiérarchie de la cour. Enfin, l’enquête diachronique suivie tout au long de la synthèse permet de mieux connaître l’impact des emprunts archaïsants dans le système palatin saïte, et par conséquent, d’évaluer la continuité et/ou le changement de ce système par rapport aux modèles traditionnels de la cour pharaonique. Le volume du corpus regroupe un ensemble de données prosopographiques appartenant à plus de 130 officiers royaux. Un troisième volume est consacré à la bibliographie générale, aux annexes et index. / This thesis offers an analysis of the Egyptian "royal court" under the XXVIth Saite Dynasty (664-525 BC) based on textual (private and official records) and historical sources. The synthesis develops around three main axes and deals with the "Court" in its social meaning as defined by the historical sociology. The first part, then, concentrates on the study of the court as the House of the sovereign and attempts to identify the activities which characterize the "court life", its domestic organization and which make the curial space "private" or "official". The second part examines the court as a symbol of social order and the outil of representation and communication of the monarchic authority: the protocol of the Royal palace and its key role to maintain the social balance between the Saite kings and their subjects (system of the favours ḥswt) are analyzed here. The third part focuses on the social actors of the Residence (courtiers and royal entourage) and tends to demonstrate the various categories of these elites and to reveal the modalities of their accesses to the palace and to the position of "model courtier" within the hierarchical order of the court. Finally, the diachronic study followed throughout the synthesis allows to better comprehend the impact of the Archaism on the Saite palace institution and consequently to estimate the continuity and/or the changes of this system compared to the traditional models of the Pharaonic court. The corpus includes a group of prosopographical data belonging to more than 130 royal high officials. The third volume is composed of three sections general bibliography, appendices and indexes.