Word: courtcraft
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...court, which, for all its Frenchified airs, was a bear pit of intrigue and malevolence. "One could lay a wager that half the court could hardly read, and I would be surprised if more than a third could write," noted Catherine, who was soon wading through the classics of courtcraft (Tacitus, Plutarch, Montesquieu) and such French philosophers as Voltaire, D'Alembert and Diderot. To Encyclopedist Diderot, after her accession, she once wrote: "You philosophers are lucky men. You write on paper, and paper is patient. Unfortunate Empress that I am, I write on the susceptible skins of living beings...
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