Throne Room

Lore & Background

A throne room is a setting for a monarch to preside 'in majesty' over official ceremonies, to hold council, to grant audiences, to receive homage, to award high honors and offices, and to perform other official functions. Any of these could just as well be transferred, even on a permanent basis, to one or more other rooms, even outside the palace or ambulant. It can also be where the royal court can gather. A common misconception is that kings and other ruling princes governed their lands seated on a throne for most of the working day.

This may have been true in earlier times, for some rulers who actually presided over their council; yet often, another room was used, but only in peacetime. Many others were almost constantly on the move with an ambulant court. It could even have been that the crown did not have an effective capital, as in England during most of the time before the Norman Conquest. Or it could have been that the crown had, rather, a series of alternative residences, as did the Holy Roman Emperors.

In their case, these developed into palatinates under the Habsburg dynasty when they also acquired extensive crown lands outside Germany and Austria, and their court often travelled on an almost continental scale. Other monarchies frequently changed their capital, but then they would have used a mobile throne, possibly in addition to the permanent one used for enthronement and/or coronation. There are cases in Africa and Asia where the very name of the 'capital' is not a fixed place, but was the place wherever a king settled for a few years.

In some climates court migrated annually between a summer and a winter capital. It was also common to spend quite some time, without need for practical reason, in secondary residences, not in the least hunting lodges. Even when their capitals were fixed, English and French Renaissance kings used to travel extensively, and maintained many royal castles, in addition to paying visits to grandees of the realm. Henry VIII's most frequently used residence was, in fact, at Hampton Court, which was then outside London.

Reader's Guide

Notable examples include: Austria - Hofburg (once the seat of the Holy Roman Empire and the Austrian Empire, now a conference centre); Canada - the chamber of the Senate of Canada in Centre Block (contains three thrones, used for the annual Speech from the Throne); China - the three halls of the Outer Palace in the Forbidden City (Hall of Supreme Harmony, Hall of Central Harmony, Hall of Preserving Harmony); Denmark - Rosenborg Castle (throne commissioned by King Frederik III, used for anointing ceremonies) and Christiansborg (throne room used for receiving ambassadors); France - Versailles (throne commissioned by King Louis XIV, now part of a national museum) and Fontainebleau Palace (Emperor Napoleon I had King Louis XV's bedroom converted into an Imperial throne room); Monaco - Prince's Palace (used for historic festivals and ceremonies since the 16th century); Germany - Residence of Munich (former throne-room destroyed in WWII, now reconstructed) and Neuschwanstein Castle (throne room has no throne because Ludwig II did not live to see completion); Hawaii - ʻIolani Palace (used by King David Kalākaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani, now open to the public); Portugal - Ajuda Palace (throne room still used for state events of the Portuguese Republic); Russia - Peterhof Palace (used by the Tsars) and Winter Palace (St. George's Hall with the throne of Russia); Spain - Royal Palace of Madrid (retains original decor from the days of Charles III).