Blue Boots in Songs of Love and Death, SPOILERS for everything

[Farseer]

One oddity made me hopeful too - Timbal describes "the queen" bidding a farewell to an aristocratic couple and then when a king is mentioned I started to wonder what they were doing visiting such a minor keep... but then from the context it's clear that these titles refer to the lord and the lady of the keep. I don't know if this is young Timbal's mistake (or even possibly the authors) because obviously there's only one king & queen at a time in 6D.

I have "just" come across something in AA that may, or may not, shed some light on this use of "king" and "queen" without capitals (within the RotE at least). It comes from Chapter Twenty-Three, "The Wedding" where August is warning Burrich:

" 'I am to say to you, Burrich, that King-in-Waiting Verity is not unaware of how you attempted to help the bastard escape, serving him as if he were your king instead of Verity. You will be judged.'

Also this, a little later from Burrich:

" 'If you succeed, our king may live. That is what I am sworn to. And you?' He made it all seem so simple. "

In both these instances where a lower-case 'k' is used, Verity is the "king" actually being referred to and, yet, we know it is not he but Shrewd who is the Six Duchies "King".

In contrast, we then have this from August:

" 'He did. He said you were once the best of King's men to Chivalry, but apparently you had forgotten how to aid those who truly serve the King.' "

Here "King" seems to me to directly denote Shrewd, not Verity.

Having now read this, I am fairly certain there are other instances where this has occurred (will confirm that as I go through!), and so "king" and "queen" may also refer to others within the royal family (or possibly just the people who are "in-Waiting"?) rather than the actual ruling monarch, which is differentiated by the use a capital?