courtier

Whether it is simply fewer courtiers, a bit less ceremony, no more people calling him sir, or bowing.

Stoppard announced himself with “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” an absurdist lark that views “Hamlet” from the keyhole perspective of two courtiers jockeying for position in the new regime.

He has survived multiple damaging scandals and found his way back to power every time, like a wily Renaissance courtier or an unkillable horror-movie villain, and may well survive this one.

So in the end, courtiers used an obscure workaround.

The dashing former helicopter pilot was widely considered his mother’s favorite son and courtiers said Queen Elizabeth II didn’t want to take steps to fully humiliate him.