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Court Physician

 Court Physician
type
FeatureClass
 Court Physician
label
Court Physician
 Court Physician
page
CourtPhysician
 Court Physician
comment
When it comes to those in power, it's not enough to make do with public health professionals like everyone else: to those in the highest echelons of government, only a private physician will do... and in some cases, only one who can be exclusively employed to care for the head of state.
With this in mind, the Court Physician often commands considerable influence within the government, being entrusted with the personal safety of the ruler and the preservation of the governing body's deepest, most scandalous secrets. If the ruler has a family, the Court Physician's duties will often encompass their care and wellbeing as well. For this reason and many more, such doctors are also under immense pressure: should the head of state fall ill or even die, the physician may be blamed, either for failure or for outright treason - with hideous penalties in store.
Court Physicians occupy a very dangerous position, especially among more volatile heads of state, who may not be averse to taking out their frustrations on their doctors in response to a worrying diagnosis.
Depending on the government's overall effectiveness and health, the Court Physician may be a Mad Doctor, a Dr. Feelgood, or a Super Doc. If magic is a given in the setting and the healing arts are exclusively mystical in nature, this trope can overlap with Court Mage.

Examples
 Court Physician
fetched
2024-02-17T03:01:09Z
 Court Physician
parsed
2024-02-17T03:01:09Z
 Court Physician
processingComment
Dropped link to BuryYourDisabled: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Court Physician
processingComment
Dropped link to DrFeelgood: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Court Physician
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Court Physician / int_135f4195
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_135f4195
comment
In the Dune saga, Suk doctors are employed by the richest and most powerful families to serve as private physicians. Already highly-regarded for their skills, what makes them truly valuable is their reputation for utter trustworthiness: as part of their training, Suks are conditioned to be incapable of betraying their masters, ensuring that they can never be used as assassins or saboteurs. It's for this reason that only Suk doctors are allowed to attend to the Padishah Emperor and that Dr Wellington Yueh enjoys the total trust of the Atreides family. Unknown to all, Baron Harkonnen has been able to break Yueh's otherwise-infallible conditioning by holding his wife hostage, allowing the Harkonnens to mould him into the perfect traitor within Atreides ranks.
 Court Physician / int_135f4195
featureApplicability
1.0
 Court Physician / int_135f4195
featureConfidence
1.0
 Dune
hasFeature
Court Physician / int_135f4195
 Court Physician / int_16724165
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_16724165
comment
In The Land of What Might-Have-Been, professional mage-surgeon Dr Kiln serves as the personal physician to the Great Mentor of the Deviant Nations. Given that his employer is old, infirm, and not above straying onto the battlefield, he's got his work cut out for him. However, the Mentor also enjoys sending him to care for vital personnel like Elphaba - who usually doesn't want his help or appreciate being covertly dosed with performance-enhancing drugs on the Mentor's instructions. Consequently, Kiln is left a bit exasperated by the fact that both of his patients seem to have a death wish, forcing him to work overtime on the battlefield to save their lives. He's actually the alternate universe equivalent of Boq, while the Mentor is none other than the alternate Glinda.
 Court Physician / int_16724165
featureApplicability
1.0
 Court Physician / int_16724165
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Land of What Might-Have-Been (Fanfic)
hasFeature
Court Physician / int_16724165
 Court Physician / int_210767ac
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_210767ac
comment
Crusader Kings
Crusader Kings II: "The Reaper's Due" DLC allows the player to hire a court physician who can attempt to treat the diseases the DLC also added. Mind you, since it's Middle Ages medicine, any treatments he offers are a crapshoot at best, and if the physician has the mystic trait, he might try to treat the patient by rubbing them with the ashes of sacrificed animals - or decide they're possessed and attempt to drown them, for example. However, if the physician's learning score is high enough, these madcap treatments can actually work.
This feature appears again in Crusader Kings III.
 Court Physician / int_210767ac
featureApplicability
1.0
 Court Physician / int_210767ac
featureConfidence
1.0
 Crusader Kings (Video Game)
hasFeature
Court Physician / int_210767ac
 Court Physician / int_422a6794
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_422a6794
comment
The Madness of George III from 1991 has three personal physicians attending the King: Doctors Baker, Pepys, and Warren. Their principal treatment is bloodletting, which was in vogue at the time. Analyzing the King's symptoms is regarded as the theatrics of flim-flam phonies.
 Court Physician / int_422a6794
featureApplicability
1.0
 Court Physician / int_422a6794
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Madness of George III (Theatre)
hasFeature
Court Physician / int_422a6794
 Court Physician / int_431f7ab9
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_431f7ab9
comment
The Kingkiller Chronicle: The Maer Alvaren retains Caudicus, a University arcanist and alchemist who doubles as Court Mage. He prepares a daily dose of medicine for the Maer, and Kvothe cements his position at court by discovering that it's actually a slow poison.
 Court Physician / int_431f7ab9
featureApplicability
1.0
 Court Physician / int_431f7ab9
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Kingkiller Chronicle
hasFeature
Court Physician / int_431f7ab9
 Court Physician / int_468bebb0
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_468bebb0
comment
Discworld: Played with in "Feet of Clay". When the Patrician falls mysteriously ill, Commander Vimes doesn't trust a doctor to attend to Lord Vetinari's health, mostly because nearly all of the Ankh-Morpork medical community consists of quacks who can always claim that a dead patient was "the will of the Gods". Instead, he hires a horse doctor as his physician - because racing horses are valuable, and a horse doctor who can't keep the majority of his patients alive risks having an encounter late at night with somebody telling him that "Mister Chrysophrase is very upset."
 Court Physician / int_468bebb0
featureApplicability
1.0
 Court Physician / int_468bebb0
featureConfidence
1.0
 Discworld
hasFeature
Court Physician / int_468bebb0
 Court Physician / int_59da62aa
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_59da62aa
comment
In Fallout: New Vegas, it's possible for you to "volunteer" the services of Arcade Gannon as a personal slave and physician to Caesar. Should Caesar survive his illness and achieve victory over the Mohave, Arcade spends many years unwillingly attending to his new master's health, even becoming valued as a companion for his education and his willingness to argue with Caesar; in the end, Arcade is able to use this as an opportunity to steal a scalpel and disembowel himself. However, if Caesar dies prior to the endgame and Lanius achieves victory in his stead, the Legate quickly tires of Arcade's sarcasm and has him crucified.
 Court Physician / int_59da62aa
featureApplicability
1.0
 Court Physician / int_59da62aa
featureConfidence
1.0
 Fallout: New Vegas (Video Game)
hasFeature
Court Physician / int_59da62aa
 Court Physician / int_682da49d
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_682da49d
comment
The Madness of King George, as the 1994 film adaptation of the 1991 play, introduces Doctor Francis Willis to treat the King's worsening mental health, which he does. The King makes a recovery, much to the chagrin of his son, the Prince of Wales, and other conniving weasels in Parliament. Sadly. this doesn't last: the King would have a relapse, becoming unfit to govern by 1810.
 Court Physician / int_682da49d
featureApplicability
1.0
 Court Physician / int_682da49d
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Madness of King George
hasFeature
Court Physician / int_682da49d
 Court Physician / int_699bb236
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_699bb236
comment
In All's Well That Ends Well, Helena is the daughter of a celebrated physician and is introduced serving as a lady-in-waiting to a Countess. She accompanies the Countess' son, Bertram, who she loves to the French court and applies what she learned from her father to heel the ailing King. In exchange, she asks for Bertram's hand in marriage.
 Court Physician / int_699bb236
featureApplicability
1.0
 Court Physician / int_699bb236
featureConfidence
1.0
 All's Well That Ends Well (Theatre)
hasFeature
Court Physician / int_699bb236
 Court Physician / int_6aaa1fab
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_6aaa1fab
comment
City of No End: Odham Kendar keeps a doctor of the Medical Cabal in his court at nearly all times, due to suffering from hereditary epilepsy which he would like to keep secret.
 Court Physician / int_6aaa1fab
featureApplicability
1.0
 Court Physician / int_6aaa1fab
featureConfidence
1.0
 City of No End
hasFeature
Court Physician / int_6aaa1fab
 Court Physician / int_72262aee
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_72262aee
comment
Avatar: The Last Airbender: In Katara's final battle with Azula, after Zuko gets shot with Azula's lightning, Katara tries to heal him but Azula makes reference to one before trying to blast her into a pile of ashes.
 Court Physician / int_72262aee
featureApplicability
1.0
 Court Physician / int_72262aee
featureConfidence
1.0
 Avatar: The Last Airbender
hasFeature
Court Physician / int_72262aee
 Court Physician / int_762546c3
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_762546c3
comment
The Great: Doctor Chekov is the physician in service to the Russian royal family. He is quirky and very deadpan, but also willing to act as a Torture Technician if Peter so demands.
 Court Physician / int_762546c3
featureApplicability
1.0
 Court Physician / int_762546c3
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Great
hasFeature
Court Physician / int_762546c3
 Court Physician / int_9cba83fd
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_9cba83fd
comment
This feature appears again in Crusader Kings III.
 Court Physician / int_9cba83fd
featureApplicability
1.0
 Court Physician / int_9cba83fd
featureConfidence
1.0
 Crusader Kings III (Video Game)
hasFeature
Court Physician / int_9cba83fd
 Court Physician / int_9d47a2a2
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_9d47a2a2
comment
A Song of Ice and Fire: One of the duties of the Order of Maesters is to serve the medical needs of the nobility, and as such, a Maester is assigned to each of the kingdom's lords in order to care for them and their families. The heads of the Order also elect a Grand Maester to serve the ruling monarch of the Seven Kingdoms, entrusting him with the health of the royal family and often the members of the Small Council as well. Unfortunately, Maesters are not in possession of a Hippocratic Oath, and follow the orders of their liege lords ahead of ethical concerns: the story kicks off with the dying Jon Arryn being secretly withheld treatment by Grand Maester Pycelle in order to prevent him from revealing the secrets of Queen Cersei.
 Court Physician / int_9d47a2a2
featureApplicability
1.0
 Court Physician / int_9d47a2a2
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1.0
 A Song of Ice and Fire
hasFeature
Court Physician / int_9d47a2a2
 Court Physician / int_9e2f90f4
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_9e2f90f4
comment
In One Piece, the Drum Kingdom is well-renowned for having some of the most skilled doctors in the entire Grand Line, and twenty of their best were chosen to serve as the king's personal physicians while the rest were either banished or killed. This was done so that the people in the kingdom would have no choice but to submit to the king's whims in order to receive healthcare. They actually despised the king but had no other choice if they wanted to continue their work and research.
 Court Physician / int_9e2f90f4
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1.0
 Court Physician / int_9e2f90f4
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1.0
 One Piece (Manga)
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Court Physician / int_9e2f90f4
 Court Physician / int_a77c0823
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_a77c0823
comment
Sir William Gull was the physician in ordinary to the Prince of Wales, and later to Queen Victoria herself. However, despite his success in saving Edward VII from typhoid, Gull is better known as one of the more popular suspects in the case of Jack the Ripper - as seen in From Hell - though it's doubtful that Gull actually killed any of the victims given that he was in his seventies and recovering from one of several strokes at the time.
 Court Physician / int_a77c0823
featureApplicability
1.0
 Court Physician / int_a77c0823
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1.0
 From Hell / Comicbook
hasFeature
Court Physician / int_a77c0823
 Court Physician / int_b30ae4db
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_b30ae4db
comment
Game of Thrones: Maesters usually fill the role within the Houses of Westeros. So does the Grand Maester at the royal court in King's Landing. Ironically though, the ones who did the most to advance the Maester's rather stagnating medical science (Qyburn and Samwell Tarly respectively) left/were expelled from the order for doing so (Qyburn's experiences were a bit... unethical to say the least).
House of the Dragon has Grand Master Mellos. Among other things, it is he who advises the Traumatic C-Section on Queen Aemma and brings an abortifacent tea to Princess Rhaenyra.
 Court Physician / int_b30ae4db
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1.0
 Court Physician / int_b30ae4db
featureConfidence
1.0
 Game of Thrones
hasFeature
Court Physician / int_b30ae4db
 Court Physician / int_b8abf9b6
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_b8abf9b6
comment
The Triptych Continuum gives us The Doctors Bear (Vanilla and Chocolate), Royal Physicians. In Equestria's case, the posting was recently revived after a major health scare, and the unicorns who contributed to the solution were asked to hold it. They're responsible for keeping the Princesses in good condition, and that means they had to be told certain secrets, like the fact that there's no such thing as a naturally-born alicorn. It's something of a high-stress occupation, especially since having both siblings fall ill at the same time means the doctors become responsible for saving the world — and in the name of preventing that circumstance, they do have a limited capacity to issue medically-based orders, to keep their patients out of needless danger. And there's also the ongoing problem of having to figure out how an alicorn body actually works...
 Court Physician / int_b8abf9b6
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1.0
 Court Physician / int_b8abf9b6
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1.0
 Triptych Continuum / Fan Fic
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Court Physician / int_b8abf9b6
 Court Physician / int_babfc48
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_babfc48
comment
Dr. Prunesquallor from Gormenghast is the flamboyant, foppish doctor to the House of Groan and, also, seemingly the only physician in the entire castle.
 Court Physician / int_babfc48
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1.0
 Court Physician / int_babfc48
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1.0
 Gormenghast
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Court Physician / int_babfc48
 Court Physician / int_c02ce5b4
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_c02ce5b4
comment
House of the Dragon has Grand Master Mellos. Among other things, it is he who advises the Traumatic C-Section on Queen Aemma and brings an abortifacent tea to Princess Rhaenyra.
 Court Physician / int_c02ce5b4
featureApplicability
1.0
 Court Physician / int_c02ce5b4
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1.0
 House of the Dragon
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Court Physician / int_c02ce5b4
 Court Physician / int_c43df4d8
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_c43df4d8
comment
Doctor Who: In "The Wedding of River Song" one sign that the timeline has gone nuts is that Winston Churchill is Holy Roman Emperor and has a Silurian as his personal physician.
 Court Physician / int_c43df4d8
featureApplicability
1.0
 Court Physician / int_c43df4d8
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1.0
 Doctor Who
hasFeature
Court Physician / int_c43df4d8
 Court Physician / int_d3907802
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_d3907802
comment
In the Marvel 1602 continuity, Dr Stephen Strange is the court physician to Queen Elizabeth I, no easy task given her failing health. Despite the change in setting, though, he's still essentially Doctor Strange and thus also serves as an unofficial Court Mage to his monarch - making him the best-equipped to investigate Virginia Dare's strange condition. Tragically, Elizabeth is assassinated by Otto Von Doom, leaving James I on the throne; soon after, Strange ends up being jailed for witchcraft. Virginia desperately tries to plead for his life, but in the end, James gleefully orders Strange executed for treason instead.
 Court Physician / int_d3907802
featureApplicability
1.0
 Court Physician / int_d3907802
featureConfidence
1.0
 Marvel 1602 / Comicbook
hasFeature
Court Physician / int_d3907802
 Court Physician / int_ec9965ca
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_ec9965ca
comment
In the The Culture novel Inversions, Vossil is the (female) court physician at a court with a Medieval European Fantasy feel and is capable of miraculous cures. Although the other characters she interacts with don't know this, the reader is to understand that she is an operative for The Culture, a post-scarcity science fiction society.
 Court Physician / int_ec9965ca
featureApplicability
1.0
 Court Physician / int_ec9965ca
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Culture
hasFeature
Court Physician / int_ec9965ca
 Court Physician / int_f3e1f424
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_f3e1f424
comment
Merlin: Gaius is Uther's court physician, who occasionally shows knowledge of medicine beyond what would be expected for the medieval setting. He's also implied to have been the Court Mage before Uther turned against magic.
 Court Physician / int_f3e1f424
featureApplicability
1.0
 Court Physician / int_f3e1f424
featureConfidence
1.0
 Merlin (2008)
hasFeature
Court Physician / int_f3e1f424
 Court Physician / int_fccc35cc
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_fccc35cc
comment
Crusader Kings II: "The Reaper's Due" DLC allows the player to hire a court physician who can attempt to treat the diseases the DLC also added. Mind you, since it's Middle Ages medicine, any treatments he offers are a crapshoot at best, and if the physician has the mystic trait, he might try to treat the patient by rubbing them with the ashes of sacrificed animals - or decide they're possessed and attempt to drown them, for example. However, if the physician's learning score is high enough, these madcap treatments can actually work.
 Court Physician / int_fccc35cc
featureApplicability
1.0
 Court Physician / int_fccc35cc
featureConfidence
1.0
 Crusader Kings II (Video Game)
hasFeature
Court Physician / int_fccc35cc
 Court Physician / int_fee760db
type
Court Physician
 Court Physician / int_fee760db
comment
The Last King of Scotland charts the career of the fictitious Dr Nicholas Garrigan, personal physician to Ugandan President Idi Amin. Having taken a shine to the young doctor during a chance encounter, Amin has him attend not only to his own health but that of his family, while also allowing him to spend his off-hours working at a hospital. Unfortunately, though Garrigan is rewarded with five-star accommodations, fine clothes, fancy cars, and significant influence with the president, he soon ends up having to confront the human rights violations that ensue as his patient grows steadily more unstable and cruel. By the end, Garrigan is widely hated throughout the country as an unwitting enabler of Amin's madness and treated as little more than a pet for the president to amuse himself with.
 Court Physician / int_fee760db
featureApplicability
1.0
 Court Physician / int_fee760db
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Last King of Scotland
hasFeature
Court Physician / int_fee760db

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Court Physician
processingCategory2
Authority Tropes
 Court Physician
processingCategory2
Doctor Index
 The Land of What Might-Have-Been (Fanfic) / int_4852cf04
type
Court Physician
 The Last King of Scotland / int_4852cf04
type
Court Physician
 City of No End / int_4852cf04
type
Court Physician
 Dune / int_4852cf04
type
Court Physician
 Feet of Clay / int_4852cf04
type
Court Physician
 Girls of Many Lands / int_4852cf04
type
Court Physician
 The Kingkiller Chronicle / int_4852cf04
type
Court Physician
 The Great / int_4852cf04
type
Court Physician
 The Madness of George III (Theatre)
processingUnknown
Court Physician