kingcraft

James was always boasting of his skill in what he called kingcraft; and yet it is hardly possible even to imagine a course more directly opposed to all the rules of kingcraft, than that which he followed.

The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 1 Thomas Babington Macaulay Macaulay 1829

At that early age she was already a wife, victim of a political marriage which, in the exercise of the ponderous cunning he called kingcraft, King James had been at some pains to arrange.

She Stands Accused 1935

Never was there so consummate a master of what our James the First would have called kingcraft, -- of all those arts which most advantageously display the merits of a prince, and most completely hide his defects.

Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches — Volume 2 Thomas Babington Macaulay Macaulay 1829

His very duplicity was due sometimes to schooling in "kingcraft," but oftener to inability to see two sides of a question.

Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 3 of 8 A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History 1906

In the place of an essential equality, distorted only by tradition and early training, by the artifices of those devils of the Liberal cosmogony, "kingcraft" and

Anticipations Of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human life and Thought 1906

I should fall for the kingcraft of a merit-less crown

Wolfson On Ferraro's Latest: "We Have Made Clear That We Reject Her Remarks" 2009

And a man hath good reason to believe that there is as much of kingcraft as priestcraft in withholding the scripture from the public in popish countries.

Common Sense 2002

You will find that all the arguments in favor of kingcraft were of this class; they always bestrode the necks of the people, not that they wanted to do it, but because the people were better off for being ridden.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) 1989

He loved kingcraft; here was a whole empire, weak with misrule, whose bridle had scarcely felt his hand.

The Persian Boy Renault, Mary 1972

Once his father took me aside, and talked to me of kingcraft.

The Bull From The Sea Renault, Mary 1962