The name has its origins in the old practice in which the ruler announced his official decisions and judgements at the gate of his palace.
[2] This was the practice in the Byzantine Empire and it was also adopted by Ottoman Turk sultans since Orhan I.
When Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent sealed an alliance with King Francis I of France in 1536, the French diplomats walked through the monumental gate then known as Bab-ı Ali (now Bâb-ı Hümâyûn) in order to reach the Vizierate of Constantinople, seat of the Sultan's government.
[citation needed] French being the language of diplomacy, the French translation Sublime Porte was soon adopted in most other European languages, including English, to refer not only to the actual gate but as a metonymy for the Ottoman Empire.
During the Second Constitutional Era of the Empire after 1908 (see Young Turk Revolution), the functions of the classical Divan-ı Hümayun were replaced by the reformed Imperial Government, and "porte" came to refer to the Foreign Ministry.