House Harcourt

A Great House whose power is strongest where chancery, seals, legal endurance, old service and Westminster access overlap; one of the houses most deeply embedded in the capital, with clients in law, record, bridge administration and older Crown offices.

A Great House keeping Harcourt Hall in Westminster, strongest in chancery, petitions and the law of enduring paper. Its London seat is also described as standing for guarded approach, escort culture and disciplined access.

Named with it

• Duke Aldren James Harcourt · head
• Sir Odo Harcourt · author, historic
• Duke Aldren James Harcourt (bears the house name
• memorandum on household precedence)
• Colonel Alexander Harcourt (bears the house name
• stair guards and bridge detachments)
• Sir Matthew Harcourt, Defender of the Bridge Stairs (honoured on Westminster walls
• bears the house name)

Ties

• contests river authority with House Bellamy over paperwork
• tied to Chancery
• one of the Great Houses with seats in the Crown City belt

In the chronicle

• 4441–4452 · The War of the Two Kings

At the table

The Duke is urbane, procedural, and better at making a rival's proposal impossible than defeating it openly. Harcourt riders upheld Robert II in the War of the Two Kings. Duke Aldren James Harcourt's portrait hangs above subscription desks in the richer commercial halls, and he belongs to Westminster's daily machinery.