The Throne Room is whatever room you set up your throne in. Thrones generally weren't permanent fixtures - instead, whenever you needed one, you'd put it where you wanted it. (Typically there would be a platform & maybe drapery to emphasize the specialness of the chair & its occupant.) Sitting in state was a function of the event, not the location or the furnishings.
The Great Hall is an architectural feature. It was a multi-function room that could be used for whatever you needed a big room for -- you might set up the throne there, or have dinner, sleep, duel, dance, etc. In earlier medieval times, it was pretty much the only room in the building. Later on, you got private living quarters & special-purpose rooms too, so the Great Hall was less essential & eventually disappeared.
So they'd just take the King's Throne out of the room and place a table there instead for a gathering?
So they'd just take the King's Throne out of the room and place a table there instead for a gathering?
Yep.
And the table probably would not be a big piece of furniture, but a set of boards and trestles that were easily set up and taken away. Big heavy permanent tables didn't really exist till the 15-16c. And most people would be sitting on benches, which were also easily disassembled & moved.
I was under the impression that a throne room has a specific bit of kit in it, i.e. a throne. A great hall is just a very big room in a secular structure. Add throne to great hall, get throne room...
Yep.
And the table probably would not be a big piece of furniture, but a set of boards and trestles that were easily set up and taken away. Big heavy permanent tables didn't really exist till the 15-16c. And most people would be sitting on benches, which were also easily disassembled & moved.
And the king's throne was probably a folding chair.
Why? Because kings & other nobles in the middle ages had to be on the move frequently, because otherwise they & their household (servants, soldiers, courtiers, officials) would have eaten up every morsel of food in the neighborhood and then everybody starves. They had to shift about the countryside to spread the burden. And they had to pack up and move all their furniture with them, and set it up again wherever it was needed. Only when the transportation & commercial network developed to the point that large quantities of food could be moved around to where and when they were needed did courts settle down in fixed locations -- in the 15-16c. That's when furniture stopped being temporary too.
It's no coincidence that there's very little surviving furniture from the middle ages, but a great deal beginning in the Renaissance.
When you ate dinner, you ate out of the common pot sitting around the hearth, or else ate out of your lap. No chairs either - benches or stools if you were lucky. Sucks to be a peasant!
Is there a difference between the two rooms? Or is the Great Hall just the Throne room with massive dining tables brought in/out of it.
I'd say the Throne Room is where the king receives visitors, even other kings, and gives orders etc.
The Great Hall is where the banquets and dances are held.
So different things happen in each location.