Venality at court: some preliminary thoughts on the sale of household office, 1660–1800

This article contributes to the field of court and corruption studies by explaining why sale of office was common at the court of Charles II and persisted ‘under the table’ even after being proscribed by Queen Anne in 1702. It utilizes the testimony of contemporary diaries and letters, satirical poetry, a quantitative analysis of office-holding based on the Database of Court Officers 1660–1837 (< http://courtofficers.ctsdh.luc.edu/ > and < http://www.british-history.ac.uk/office-holders/vol11 > [both accessed 29 August 2017]), as well as three previously unpublished schedules/accounts for the sale of court office in 1660–2, 1668–73 and c .1689 (included here as Appendices 1–3), to determine the advantages and disadvantages of venality to the Crown, aristocratic department heads and the officers themselves. Finally, it draws on sociological ‘corruption theory’ to explain how participants rationalized their behaviour as the wider culture grew less tolerant of such practices.