The Court

From Crusaderkings

Your court is the assembly of all characters (known as courtiers) in your immediate employ. Courtiers can be employed as ministers. Having a large court is useful, as it provides more options to choose from in appointing ministers, and provides backup characters in case something unfortunate happens to your best ministers.

Courtiers as military officers

It is also critical if your demense is large and you thus have multiple regiments that you can field. The first regiment fielded will be commanded by your ruler, the second by your marshal, and the remainder by your other ministers, in diminishing order of martial ability. Beyond that, unassigned male courtiers will command the regiments, again in decreasing order of martial ability. If you have a small court and a large number of available regiments, you may find many of them commanded by "Anonymous Commanders", who have an effective Martial score of 0, making these regiments far less effective.

Effects of large courts

Beyond the obvious effect of having more options for ministers and marrying off your dynastic members, large courts also have some effect on events. Specifically, they decrease the MTTH of plague events spreading in your court, and increase the MTTH for the "miracle-worker" event which can be used to remove illness.

Effects of small courts

Conversely, small courts are generally undesirable, but this is compensated somewhat by making it harder for plagues to spread in the court and making it more likely to get the "miracle-worker" event for sick characters in the court. This comes into play much more in the 1300's when the Black Plague events are firing, and courtiers are dropping like flies.