I have heard that the kings used to travel around the country where they were judges, hence the term court for their retinue. Is this true? Also, I heard that their personal servants became the courtiers, for instance the guy that carried the king’s purse became the Pursar or Bursar, Latin for purse, which is a treasurer, I guess. And the king’s man that swept out the chamber became called the Chamberlain and became the prime minister in function with the title of Chamberlain. Did the valet become anything?
It was because these servants were around all the time that they eventually knew everything and became indispensable, little by little being given high titles and offices. Also, what was a king exactly anyway? Why did Moldavia and Wallachia, for instance, have voivodes or was it hospodars instead of just kings or at least princes, when a small German state could have a king? And other than Gibbon, who doesn’t go into details, but gives the Byzantine titles, I can’t find out the fine details of the concepts of basileus, sebastos, panhypersebastos, sebastocrator, and so on, or the list of the 30 or so ranks in the Empire.