Court intrigue, huh? It's certainly an intriguing topic. It has the potential to add glorious amounts of conflict, mystery, drama, cliffhangers, dead people, and the occasional laugh... Intrigue can take place anywhere. It is, at its heart, a struggle for power—either to gain more, or to maintain it, or to take it away from others. You can have office intrigue, family intrigue... and our main focus of interest, court intrigue.
But what is court intrigue?
I'm glad you asked.
In a nutshell, court intrigue revolves around political power, found in living the court life. By court, I am not referring to legal courts, or even tennis courts. Here, I'm talking about the people who are gathered around a monarch, usually in their place of dwelling (like a palace or a castle). So, if you're a courtier, you're included among the monarch's household. And if you're a courtier, you'll be involved in intrigue—whether you like it or not.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Court intrigue is nothing new. Since many societies had monarchy as a form of government, they almost always had a group of less powerful people gathered around them who acted as members of their court. These less powerful people are usually of noble blood, and can even be related to the monarch... though this is not always the case. There are a few who start off from the very bottom of the social ladder.
The court, then, is a field for less powerful people to become more powerful. Usually, courtiers do so by currying favor with their monarch. It is a fact universally acknowledged that people always want more than they have—so, sometimes, they seek less savory ways of acquiring even more power. And what do they do? They lie, they steal, they sabotage, all in order to eliminate competition and clear their own path to glory. As my teacher is fond of saying, 'Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.'
But what if they want the ultimate prize: the right to rule as the monarch? Then, things get even more interesting. You have people who are pretending to be loyal to their ruler, but in reality they're planning their fall from power—and sometimes, even their death.
