House of Steel: The Honorverse Companion
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More important in the short term, the Rediscovery advanced Masadan and Grayson interstellar warfighting technology drastically in a short period of time. Within less than forty years, the Masadans had developed the ability to attack with no warning and with the massive payloads that Warshawski hyperships made possible. The first attack of what came to be known as the Third Masadan War was launched in 1736 PD, thirty-three years after the Rediscovery. The GSN—by this time, a highly professional military force that had been effectively continuously at war for the better part of a T-century—had developed its first hyper-capable warships primarily for rapid response in system defense rather than to project power beyond its home system and decisively defeated the fresh Masadan attacks. Masada’s much larger system population allowed it to allocate roughly two to three times more resources to its military than the Graysons could afford to allocate to the pre-Alliance Grayson military, however, creating a losing proposition for Grayson. With interstellar distance no longer equalizing the equation, the situation was grim, and the Navy’s strategists soon realized that they would need to destroy Masada’s interstellar capability if Grayson was going to survive
The first true interstellar warships of the GSN were laid down in 1742 PD, and The Fourth Masadan War began seven years later with a GSN strike on the starship construction infrastructure in the Endicott System. The Grayson captains were scrupulously careful to avoid any possibility of an Eridani Edict violation, but their attack completely surprised the Masadans (who had neglected system defense in favor of offensive forces) and wreaked havoc on Endicott’s deep-space infrastructure.
Triumph and the Decline of the Sword
1750–1848 PD
Protector Michael II had made the construction of the GSN’s starships and the destruction of Masada’s war-making capacity his life’s work, and he succeeded. Although the planet itself was too heavily defended to be attacked without committing an Eridani violation, centuries of orbital infrastructure were wiped out during the attack. Unfortunately, Michael died in 1753, before he could drive the war through to a conclusion, and his heir, Robert I, was a very different Protector. Without his father’s aggressive energy, lacking in political insight, and more interested in the fine arts than in matters military, Robert declared victory, recalled the Navy from Endicott, reduced its strength, and turned his attention to domestic concerns.
The respite won by Michael’s strike on Endicott permitted Grayson to survive Robert’s policies, but many of the Keys recognized that would not be true forever. In the power vacuum created by Robert’s vacillation and disinterest in governing, the Conclave of Steadholders began to chip away at the Sword’s authority and prerogatives. Robert I’s protectorship was short, but when his son, Robert II, replaced him in 1766, he proved no stronger or more politically adroit than his father had been.
The erosion of the Sword’s power continued as a political structure reminiscent of the Time of the Five Keys reemerged. A power bloc of steadholders who eventually came to be called the Great Keys gradually assumed primacy. By the end of the era, the Great Keys controlled the government of Grayson, and over the next century, the de facto power of the Protector was reduced to little more than figurehead status.
The Long Crusade and Cold War
1848–1903 PD
The bill for the succession of weak protectors came due in 1848 PD when Masada, having rebuilt its infrastructure—and its navy—launched the Fifth Masadan War, which came to be known as the Long Crusade. The initial attacks took the GSN by surprise and almost succeeded in reaching Grayson’s planetary surface. Defeated at heavy cost, the Masadans withdrew, but only to reorganize and launch a fresh assault four years later. The GSN launched a counterattack, only to encounter powerful Masadan system fortifications and take heavy losses of its own. The fighting continued, see-sawing back and forth, until Masada ultimately did get through to Grayson with a series of planetary nuclear strikes in 1868. Casualties were severe, although Grayson’s heavily protected environmental domes held them to a much lower level than Masada apparently expected, and under the Great Keys, a heavily reinforced GSN took the war back to Masada in a series of bitter battles. The Long Crusade guttered down to a state of cold war in 1875, but neither side was so foolish as to believe the longstanding war was at an end, and the interval was marked by occasional skirmishes, Masadan commerce raids, and Grayson reprisal strikes when the raiders became overly blatant. By 1892, however, the rising tensions between the People’s Republic of Haven and the Star Kingdom of Manticore, coupled with Yeltsin’s Star’s and Endicott’s strategic position between the PRH and the Manticoran Alliance, had drawn the two warring star systems into the toils of great power politics.
The Mayhew Restoration
1903 PD–Present
Both Endicott and Yeltsin’s Star are located along a direct hyper-space route between Haven and Manticore, and, as the likelihood of a conflict between the Star Kingdom and the People’s Republic increased, so did the strategic value of the two bitterly hostile star systems. The growing alliance between Grayson and Manticore may prove to be the most important outcome of the last twenty years, given its major contribution to the survival of both star nations at least to date. Many Grayson political analysts, however, would argue that the political implications of the rise of Protector Benjamin IX, the so-called “Mayhew Restoration,” and his domestic policies have even greater significance for the people of Grayson.
Of course, these events are not independent, as the restoration of Benjamin the Great’s Constitution has been closely linked with the alliance with Manticore. The Courvosier Mission, Manticore’s initial attempt to bring Yeltsin’s Star into the Manticoran Alliance, would have ended in unmitigated disaster if not for a Royal Manticoran Navy squadron commanded by then-Captain (subsequently Steadholder) Honor Harrington. Harrington’s desperate and costly defense of Grayson against the so-called “Maccabeus Campaign” launched by Masada with Havenite support, created the political climate in which Protector Benjamin Mayhew IX could reassert the Sword’s ascendancy and restore the Constitution. In public statements, Protector Benjamin has acknowledged that the absolute power of the Protectorship may need to be reduced in the fullness of time. His actions, however, imply no intention of giving up any of his authority in the near future. Opinion polls of steaders in the last several years show powerful majority support for his continued power and policies, despite periodic complaints from individual steadholders in the Conclave. While it seems likely his heirs may face a gradual transition to a genuine limited monarchy, most Manticoran constitutional scholars and Grayson historians agree that too precipitous a transition could prove disastrous because of the nature of the Protectorship itself. Every steadholder is recognized as a sovereign head of state and absolute ruler, limited only by the citizens’ rights clauses of the Constitution and the fealty he owes to the Protector. Until and unless the power of the individual steadholders can be reduced, any attempt to limit the Sword’s powers is all too likely to result in a return to something very like the Time of the Great Keys.
Government
The Grayson’s form of government evolved as the result of the challenges that faced its colonists. Although the Civil War and the Constitution that followed provide a convenient dividing point in its development, the Protectorship and Steadholderships both predate them. The Protector was originally called “Protector of the Faith,” but that was changed to the present title in 1822 PD after decades of debate. The Time of the Five Keys is the term used to describe the period when the Protectorship was legally no more than the first among equals, elected from the Mayhew dynasty by the majority vote of all steadholders and subject in almost all ways in secular matters to the paramount authority of the Conclave of Steadholders. This all changed, beginning in 1337, with the start of the Civil War. At its conclusion, as the triumphant leader of the Moderates following the Civil War, Benjamin Mayhew IV instituted the Constitution of 1357 (deliberately promulgated on the twentie
th anniversary of the Faithful’s initial coup) which established the primacy of the Protector and the general form of government that remains in effect.
The Protectorship
The Protectorship, also known as “the Sword,” is passed through the male Mayhew line, and can be traced directly back to the original Oliver Mayhew. Prior to the Civil War, the Protector was elected from all adult male Mayhews; since the Civil War, the Protectorship has passed in unbroken patrilinear succession from Benjamin the Great to the current holder of that office. The Protector serves as both the head of state and head of government for Grayson, and the Constitution grants him far more executive power than is typically seen in constitutional monarchies. All military oaths are sworn directly to the Protector and he has the power to issue direct orders to any military personnel. With the exception of a steadholder’s personal armsmen, no other Grayson armed forces are allowed to recognize a different commander in chief. He is also the only person on Grayson who has the right to organize full-scale military units out of his personal vassals.
Because religion and public life are inseparable on Grayson, the Sword is also responsible for upholding the authority of the Church of Humanity Unchained. It is the Sword’s responsibility to enforce the decisions of the Church if necessary. By extension, the Sword is also responsible for enforcing judicial decisions of the High Court.
The reigning Protector of Grayson is Benjamin Mayhew IX, a direct descendant of Oliver Mayhew, the First Deacon of the Church of Humanity Unchained. His son, Bernard Raoul Mayhew, is his heir.
The Sword is assisted in his duties by the Protector’s Council. Its membership is composed of:
Chancellor: Lord Floyd Kellerman
First Elder: Reverend Jeremiah Sullivan
Minister of Foreign Affairs: Brother Uriah Madison
Minister of Security: Hiram Bledsoe, Steadholder Seneca
Minister of Agriculture: Gregory Mandalow
Minister of the Navy: Truman Womack
Minister of Industry: Brother Jacob Inman
Minister of Justice: Aaron Sidemore
Minister of Commerce: Francis Maxwell, Steadholder Redmon
The Council supports the Protector by serving as his advisory panel, and assists in the high level organization and operation of the government and its bodies.
With the exception of the First Elder, who is automatically on the Council, all Ministers are chosen by the Protector and serve at his pleasure. Although the Constitution does not require him to abide by the advice and consent of the Great Conclave, the Keys and Steaders hold the power of the purse and may refuse to fund a particular ministry if they disapprove of the individual chosen to head it. Prior to the Mayhew Restoration, the Conclave of Steadholders, having taken advantage of a succession of weak Protectors, was able to use this power of the purse to effectively control both the Council’s membership and its policies. That situation ended with Benjamin IX’s reassertion of the Sword’s prerogatives.
The Great Conclave
The Great Conclave, or planetary legislature, is composed of two houses. The senior house is the Conclave of Steadholders, also known colloquially as “the Keys.” The lower house is known as the Conclave of Steaders, collectively referred to as “the Steaders.” As a legislative body, the conclaves are rather more circumscribed than those of other star nations. Because of the Constitution and the almost feudal supremacy of the Sword, the conclaves may not propose or introduce financial bills. National budgets and taxation policy are formulated by the Protector, and the Great Conclave is restricted to an up-down vote to approve or disapprove. Although there is no formal amendment procedure for money bills, the practice of “remonstrance” allows either chamber—or both jointly—to set forth what portions of a proposed money bill they find objectionable, inviting the Sword to craft a compromise acceptable to them. Aside from money bills, the Great Conclave does have the power to create national law and legislation, and the Constitution specifically grants the Great Conclave the power, by majority vote of both chambers, to defund any ministry as a means of avoiding tyrannical rule by the Sword.
The Conclave of Steadholders is composed of the heads of every steading on Grayson and dates from before the Constitution. Members are immune from prosecution in most instances unless the Protector can provide proof of treason, or the Conclave sustains a two-thirds vote of impeachment. The Sword, however, holds the right to remove any Steadholder from office upon his sole discretion for acts of treason. His decision takes immediate effect and may not be contested or resisted, though it may be subsequently appealed to a joint session of the Great Conclave, where a two-thirds majority vote, after presentation of evidence, may reverse the Sword’s decision. A steadholder condemned by the Sword also holds the ancient right of an immediate challenge to trial by personal combat and, if he is victorious, is permanently exempt from any punishment on the charge for which he was condemned. The Keys share the right of legislative veto with the Protector, where a two-thirds majority can override the Protector’s decision. The Conclave of Steadholders also has the right to approve the heir to a steading whose succession is in doubt as well as to approve a regent for any minor heir.
The lower house is the Conclave of Steaders. Unlike the Conclave of Steadholders, it was created by the Constitution, ostensibly as a check on the Conclave of Steadholders. It is an elected body with proportional representation based on population. Realistically, for many years it had been reduced to irrelevance by the power of the steadholders. Since the Mayhew Restoration, it has become a source of strength for the Sword, as a solid core of its members, even those uncomfortable with some of Protector Benjamin’s social reforms, are Mayhew loyalists. Like the Conclave of Steadholders, they can introduce legislation but approval must be by both Conclaves.
Following the establishment of the Constitution, the Sword was clearly ascendant. After several centuries, however, a series of weak Protectors allowed the steadholders to reverse that ascendancy by the end of the eighteenth century PD. Prior to the Mayhew Restoration, the Keys acted with de facto powers through its ability to dominate the important ministries and, thereby, the government, yet the de jure powers were reserved to the Protector. Benjamin IX succeeded in reasserting the primacy of the Sword over the Conclave, due in no small part to the fact that the High Court held that the Constitution had never been changed, that it did not provide for ministerial rule, and that the powers enumerated in it—and thus real power—were therefore still vested in the Sword.
Although the Great Conclave can directly exert only a limited effect on the behavior of the Sword, it does have its own weapons and represents a source of opinion the Protector must take into account. Moreover, because the steadholders are ruling lords within their own steadings, a concentrated opposition among the Keys must always be a source of concern. Opposition by the Conclave of Steaders serves as an index of general public opinion.
Local Government
The Protector maintains authority over all of Grayson’s surface which has not been bestowed to a steading. Only the Sword may initiate the process to create a new steading from unallocated land, although the Conclave has the right of approval. The process is known as a Grant in Organization. Once a steading has been created, it may not have its status revoked except under the most extraordinary of circumstances, such as general insurrection or treason. Because all steadings are autonomous on creation, they are considered national units under the overall umbrella of the Protectorate of Grayson. This makes a steadholder an actual head of state, unlike other aristocratic systems like the Star Empire of Manticore or the Andermani Empire where territories are administered in the name of a higher authority.
Steadholders, as absolute monarchs within their own steadings, have virtually unlimited powers. Even the Sword may not interfere with the purely internal functioning of the steading. The only limitation on legislation within the steading is that it may not conflict with either the Constitution or national legislation. The Consti
tution guarantees Grayson steaders’ civil rights, including freedom of speech and freedom, protection from unreasonable search or seizure, protection from arbitary arrest, and protection from self-incrimination, but that constitutes only the planetary baseline and a steadholder may extend greater rights to his subjects than are provided by the Constitution. Because personal armsmen are sworn to the steadholder, they are required to follow any order given by the steadholder, even if the action ordered is illegal under the Constitution. The steadholder who gave the order may be held liable, impeached, tried, and convicted of a crime committed by one of his personal armsmen at his command, but the fact that it was the order of his steadholder is a complete defense to any charges against the armsman, civil or criminal, resulting from his actions.