Before the establishment of the court in Madrid by decision of King Philip II in the year 1561, the court was itinerant. This means that throughout the Middle Ages, the monarchs traveled from one city to another accompanied by their entire entourage, furniture, and documents in order to address the problems of the different geographical areas they ruled over. After the numerous conquests carried out by the Catholic Monarchs and the vast empire inherited by the first of the Habsburgs, it became necessary to have a fixed place where public buildings could be erected to carry out all the bureaucratic tasks necessary to establish imperial policy, and it was at that moment that Madrid flourished: by the end of the 16th century, the population quadrupled, the medieval wall was demolished in order to expand the city limits, and the architectural style that would prevail in all the buildings of this time was created.