Royal court place. One of the criteria of Norbert Elias' concept of a court society is that it existed in space.. The German word "Hof", meaning an enclosed courtyard, can also apply to a rural farmstead with outbuildings and walls forming the perimeter. It has also been used for the palatial seat where the court was held. Thus "Hof" or "court" can become transferred to the building itself. For example, the grand residence Hampton Court Palace on the River Thames above London was where Thomas Wolsey held court as Catholic cardinal (built after the Italian ideal for a cardinal's palace) until his
Hampton Court Castle Hampton Court Castle Hampton Court Castle, also known as Hampton Court, is a castellated country house in the English county of Herefordshire. The house is in the parish of Hope under Dinmore south of Leominster and is a Grade I listed building, which is the highest category of architecture in the statutory protection scheme. Hampton Court dates from 1427. Sir Rowland Lenthall built the original house on an estate which had been granted to him some years previously on his marriage to the king's cousin Margaret Fitzalan, a daughter of the Earl of Arundel. Informally the grant occurred in the