In this space defined by the presence of the king which we call ‘court’ the activities of those whom the modern age came to call ‘courtiers’, that is the men and women living permanently at court, developed. Although the word is new, in the thirteenth century the Partidas distinguished the permanent residents from those who were present at court for reasons other than those of ‘daily service’. The word ‘courtier’ found its first appearance in Portuguese in writings of the princes of the Aviz dynasty such as Duarte and the Infante Pedro, in Zurara's chronicles and in the fifteenth-century Portuguese translation of the pseudo-Aristotelian Segredo dos Segredos, while its semantic field was from the outset associated with a daily presence alongside the monarchs and in ‘court service’. ‘Court service’ as referred to by the sources of the age to a large extent comprised ritual activities.

As a result of the main lines of the study I have been outlining, I do not examine this specific way of life of the man at court in isolation. On the contrary, I have emphasised the narrow articulation existing among various juridical, bureaucratic, pragmatic, financial and ritual aspects of the duties and offices of the court. Court life did not solely comprise ceremonies. Having said this, ritual activity was prominent in spite of everything as something fundamental in ‘palace life’ as seen by the age, and remained the final redoubt of an effective performance of many court ‘offices’, since it was endowed with enormous importance.