Court life PG

Living in the Palace
When the young dream of living in a fantasy realm, they do not dream of being a scrubby peasant hoeing pig crap in the field. They want to be a prince or a princess! Or if they are ambitious, king or queen! They want to live in the palace.
Living in the royal palace is a life envied by the majority of others not so lucky. Some are born into it, others work their entire lives just to spend days in such splendor. Some enjoy the solemn pressure of the royal court room, others enjoy the masquerades and balls. Some are here for whispered sweet nothings in the gardens or genteel but bloody duels in the woods.
The palace serves dual purposes, the residence for the king and his family, and the seat of the royal government. His Majesty does not commute. As a royal residence, the palace serves as the house not only of the royal person, but for the entire nation. It needs to show.
A major portion of any kingdom's budget goes into its palace... or palaces. Large kingdoms such as England or France had dozens of royal palaces, and the court often moved from one to another several times a year, for reasons to be seen later. Each palace had to be a place worthy of a king. That meant that each was adorned with the finest furniture, paintings and frescoes, plates and silverware, had luxurious gardens, and generally presented the grandeur of the kingdom to visitors.
There were different types of palace, the most notable difference being between the city palace and the country palace, known in some countries as a chateau. The palace in this book is a city palace in the nation's capital. One didn't need to be a king or a queen to have a palace. Princes and Princesses often had their own palaces, though these were probably owned by their parents. Popes and Cardinals had palaces as well. Dukes and other high ranking nobles could have a palace on a similar scale to their king, though one had to be careful, a powerful and jealous king could take your palace to keep for himself. Just ask Cardinal Wolsey, Chief Minister to Henry VIII. In some places, a noble title was not necessary to have a palace, just wealth and power.
Yet all is not milk and honey at the palace. First off, not everyone gets to be king. For every prince or high lord, there are at least a dozen servants. These servants find that life at the palace is not quite so good. But it still beats being out with the pigs.
For the royals, life in the royal palace is one of the best lives that one could hope for in many fantasy settings. Each royal has numerous rooms all to themselves, either to spend alone as they wish or with friends of their choosing. Servants see to every need, and one is surrounded with the most lavish adornments. Yet all is not milk and honey, even for the most distinguished residents. There is rarely ever truly any privacy, with the closest servants and bodyguards a constant presence.