No. Why do you think he was required to verbally bow and scrape? The sample letters here show nothing more than ornate politeness. His brilliance was known in

No. Why do you think he was required to verbally bow and scrape? The sample letters here show nothing more than ornate politeness. His brilliance was known in his own time and he was respected and established at court. Whether he saw advantage in this connection for financial, social or purely altruistic reasons is debatable, but it is presumptive I think to declare subservience. More exploration of the possible context and relationship between them here: https://arxiv.org/abs/1406.7417v1 https://arxiv.org/abs/1406.7417v1 (Edit: paper also linked earlier in another comment in this thread)