A courtier ( /ˈkɔːrtiə/; ) is a person who is often in attendance at the court of a king or other royal personage. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together. A female courtier was called a courtesan, although today this name has come to be associated with female entertainers who served the upper classes (with or without sexual connotations).
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Famous quotes containing the word courtier:
“Although crowds gathered once if she but showed her face,
And even old men’s eyes grew dim, this hand alone,
Like some last courtier at a gypsy camping-place
Babbling of fallen majesty, records what’s gone.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)