Opening and closing courts are not period. A period 'court" is the people and space around a noble. I told his Majesty Finn Kelly that he couldn't have SCA Courts at Ansteorra's "Cloth of Gold Tourney" He rolled up to the event had his Herald get out and present me with a historical treaties on how Henry the Eight gave out things at the historical "Cloth of Gold". It appears that King Henry VIII just stopped things and gave things out whenever he felt like it.
His Grace, Duke Jonathan and I opened our courts at the beginning of our reigns and closed them when we stepped down. 
willow