### Royal court, royal chapel
The Royal court A notion to refer to all the persons around the ruler. Servants employed in the court satisfied the every-day needs of the king and his family under the command and supervision of the clerks of the court. The leading secular and ecclesiastical dignitaries usually stayed near the ruler, so the court also enbodied the top level of state government, as the Royal Council held their meetings there. Besides these the court was the center of royal legislation and elite culture. The royal court followed the king, since - just as in other European states of the time -there was no capital city, in the modern sense of the word, in Hungary in the age of the Árpád dynasty. Not even Esztergom or Székesfehérvár can be considered as the capital city. ZSA royal chapel Originally the name of the institute, where a royal relic (in the Merovingians' time St Martin's apron, the cappa) was keept. Later it referred to the oratories, which were established in the centers of royal estates and fulfilled the spiritual needs of the ruler's court, and also to court priests as a board. The royal chapel also performed governing duties throughout Europe: court priests performed diplomatic duties and they issued royal charters. In Hungary royal charters mention persons called the ruler's chaplains from the end of the 11th century. From the 12th century the board of courtr priests are headed by the chapel bailiff, who - in spite of his secular title - was an ecclesiastical person, and the chapel people of royal estates were under his supervision. In the 12th century the chapel bailiff was responsible for the king's signet, and the members of the chapel wrote or composed the charters signed with the ruler's signet. Finally, during Béla III's reign the royal chancellery separated from the chapel as an independent institution. From the end of the age of the Árpád dynasty the chapel bailiff issued charters as well. However, the most important duty of the royal chapel was to perform liturgic duties around the ruler. SZK