Serving at the Palace: From the Throne to the Kitchen in Early Modern Courts
The 2026 Sintra Summer School explores the political, social, and moral dimensions of service in early modern courts. Far from being limited to domestic tasks, service structured hierarchies, careers, and everyday life at court, connecting the king, courtiers, and servants in networks of obligation, loyalty, and prestige. Participants will discover how princely households functioned as complex, hierarchical communities, where domestic duties, ceremonial roles, and administrative responsibilities intertwined, and how the governance of the palace reflected the governance of the realm.
This year’s Summer School brings together experts who have made groundbreaking contributions to the history of service in early modern Europe, from noble and chivalric service to domestic labour. Key sessions will explore service as a political bond, the organisation of court households and the management of royal sites, the social conditions of the palace workforce, the forms of bodily care, and entertainment as a distinct mode of service.
To emphasise the importance of spatial context in shaping service relations, discussions will take place in the medieval-to-early-modern National Palace of Sintra and the rococo National Palace of Queluz. Guided visits and excursions to the Ducal Palace of Vila Viçosa and the National Palace of Pena will provide hands-on encounters with kitchens, chambers, chapels, and ceremonial spaces where these social interactions unfolded. Workshops and demonstrations, covering the economy of favour and historical sports, offer experiential insights into service as both practice and performance.
Through a combination of expert-led discussions and immersive site visits, participants will engage with the careers, duties, and lived experiences of early modern servants, officials, and courtiers. This programme offers a unique opportunity to understand service not merely as a daily practice but as a foundational element of early modern political and social order.
Join us!
Audience
- undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students of history, art history, museology and heritage;
- heritage and museum professionals;
- general public with a specific interest in the topic.
PROGRAMME
31 AUGUST > 4 SEPTEMBER 2026
(the course will take place in English)
31/08 - National Palace of Sintra
09:15 – Reception and registration (main entrance)
09:30 – Welcome Session
- ANTÓNIO NUNES PEREIRA (Parques de Sintra)
- BERNARDO GARCIA GARCIA (Univ. Complutense Madrid)
- BRUNO A MARTINHO (Parques de Sintra; CHAM)
09:45 – Session 1: Governing and Rising through Service
- PEDRO CARDIM (Univ. NOVA Lisboa) | Courtly and Military Service in Habsburg Portugal: Noble Self-Fashioning in the Castelo Branco Chronicle (c.1590)
- DRIES RAEYMAEKERS (Radboud Universiteit) | Service, Skill, and Status: Building a Career in the Princely Household
11:15 – Coffee break
11:45 – Workshop 1: Service, Grace, and the Economy of Favour
- JOSÉ MIGUEL ESCRIBANO (Univ. Pablo de Olavide)
- PABLO HERNÁNDEZ SAU (Univ. Pablo de Olavide)
13:30 – Lunch (not included)
15:00 – PhD Presentations
16:00 – Visit to the National Palace of Sintra
19:00 – Cocktail dînatoire
20:30 – End of Day 1
01/09 - National Palace of Sintra
09:15 – Reception (main entrance)
09:30 – Session 2: The Court Workforce I
- RAFFAELLA SARTI (Univ. Urbino Carlo Bo) | Serving the prince, serving the poor in early modern Europe and beyond (online)
- MARIA ÅGREN (Uppsala Univ.) | To study servant work with the verb-oriented method: Some insights from the Gender and Work project
11:15 – Coffee break
11:45 – Session 3: The Court Workforce II
- CRISTINA HERNÁNDEZ CASADO (Univ. Complutense Madrid) | More Than Enslaved People: Black Communities in the Iberian Peninsula and Their Presence at Court (16th-17th Centuries)
- FRANCISCO J. MORENO DÍAZ DEL CAMPO (Univ. Castilla La Mancha) | Entre Vielas e Veludos: Mouros e Mouriscos nos Ambientes Cortesãos da Monarquia Hispânica | From Alleys to Velvet: Moors and Moriscos in the Courtly Spaces of the Hispanic Monarchy (in Spanish, with written translation in English)
13:00 – Lunch (not included)
14:30 – Workshop 2: Historical Fencing
- EmCadeamentos – Associação para a Promoção do Património Histórico e Cultural
18:00 – End of Day 2
02/09 - Ducal Palace of Vila Viçosa
08:00 – Bus departure from Sintra
10:15 – Arrival in Vila Viçosa
10:30 – Session 4: Service at a ducal court
- MAFALDA SOARES DA CUNHA (Univ. Évora) | Serving the Dukes of Bragança at Court and in Manorial Administration, 16th-17th centuries
11:30 – Visit to the Castle of Vila Viçosa
12:30 – Lunch
14:30 – Visit to the Ducal Palace of Vila Viçosa
- NUNO SENOS (Univ. NOVA de Lisboa)
18:00 – Bus departure from Vila Viçosa
20:30 – Arrival in Sintra and end of Day 3
03/09 - National Palace and Gardens of Queluz
09:45 – Bus departure to Queluz
10:30 – Session 5: Body care as service
- CECILIA NOCILLI (Univ. Granada) | Dance as courtly labor: Embodied practice and musical thought in Domenico da Piacenza (1410 ca. – 1477 ca.)
- EMMA GRIFFIN (Queen Mary Univ. London) | Hunting, sport, and pastimes in the early modern court
12:00 – Apéritif
12:30 – Session 6: Entertainment as service
- JANET RAVENSCROFT (Ind. Scholar) | Companions to royalty or figures of fun? Examining the complex role of court entertainers
- MARIA LUISA LOBATO LOPEZ (Univ. Burgos) | Comediantes al servicio de la corte de los Austrias | Court Performers in the Service of the Spanish Habsburgs (in Spanish, with written translation in English)
14:00 – Lunch (not included)
15:30 – Visit to the National Palace of Queluz
18:30 – End of Day 4
04/09 - National Palace of Sintra and National Palace of Pena
09:30 – Reception
10:00 – Session 7: Managing Royal Sites
- MATHIEU DA VINHA (Centre de recherche du château de Versailles) | The functioning of the Palace of Versailles in the 17th century
- JOSÉ ELOY HORTAL MUÑOZ (Univ. Rey Juan Carlos) | The Managing of the System of Royal Geographies of the Habsburg Spanish Monarchy (XVI-XVIIth centuries): from the Iberian Peninsula to America
11:30 – Closing Session: Managing Royal Sites in the 21st Century
- JOÃO SOUSA REGO (Parques de Sintra)
12:15 – Lunch with Wrap-up Session
- BERNARDO GARCIA GARCIA (Univ. Complutense Madrid)
- BRUNO A MARTINHO (Parques de Sintra; CHAM)
14:00 – Bus departure to the National Palace of Pena
15:30 – Visit to the National Palace of Pena
18:00 – Bus departure to Sintra and end of Day 5