BY HERESIES DISTRESSED – snippet 18:
Some toys were more dangerous than others, however, and before the great nobles had awakened to their danger, the king and his handful of trusted advisers had created a genuine royal army, one which was both rather larger than the nobility had anticipated and answerable directly and solely to the Crown. And one which was independent of the feudal levies upon which previous monarchs had been forced to rely.
They should call it the Parliament of Idiots, Cayleb thought bitingly. Not that I mind the fact that they were idiots, but how in God’s name could they have let him get away with it?
Actually, he had a pretty shrewd notion of exactly how it could happen. Chisholm’s military traditions had been so backward by the standards of the great kingdoms of the mainland that it had still relied on feudal levies on the rare occasions when an army was required. That was the way it had always been, and Sailys’ nobles had been so accustomed to thinking in terms of those same feudal levies — which they controlled, not the Crown — that it had never occurred to them that a professional standing army could actually pose a threat.
Unfortunately for them, they’d been wrong. The Royal Chisholmian Army might not have been particularly large by the standards of mainland realms, but it had been large enough. And its troops had all been volunteers, raised from the ranks of commoners. That had made them a dragon of a different color compared to the conscripted peasants who had filled out the ranks of the traditional levies. Among other things, they’d had a cohesiveness, an awareness of themselves as servants of the Crown and as voluntary members of something far greater than the usual noble’s drafted levies ever attained. More than that, they’d had a very good idea of who was most likely to get ground into dust in the course of any fighting between their betters’ competing factions, as well, which probably helped to explain why they’d been so impervious to aristocratic blandishments or threats once the nobility finally woke up to what was happening.
With Sailys shrewdly playing the nobility’s factions off against one another to prevent them from combining against him while Green Mountain adroitly managed the kingdom’s financial affairs and Halbrook Hollow commanded the army, the king had broken the three most powerful of those factions, one by one, within six years of taking the throne. The other factions, made wise by the misfortune of their fellows, had finally combined against him and attempted to cut off funding for the Army through their control of Parliament, rather than face it in battle. But, while they’d been looking at Halbrook Hollow’s campaigns in the field, they’d missed Green Mountain’s rather quieter yet ultimately more deadly efforts inside Parliament Hall. Until, that was, the traditionally browbeaten Chamber of Commons had suddenly defied its rightful lords and masters and ranged itself at the Crown’s side under Green Mountain’s leadership. Even worse, the alliance Sailys and Green Mountain had quietly concluded with a sizable chunk of the lesser nobility (who had resented the great nobles’ self-aggrandizing monopoly of power just as much as the Crown had) made common cause with the Chamber of Commons. Instead of depriving the Army of funding, Parliament had actually voted to increase its size!
Ten years after assuming the Crown, King Sailys had made himself the master of his own house. In the process, he’d established the precedent of the Crown’s alliance with the Commons which had been maintained during Sharleyan’s reign. The Chisholmian aristocracy was far from resigned to the permanent curtailment of its power, but it had at least learned the rudiments of discretion. The fact that Chisholm had become progressively more powerful and prosperous under Sailys had probably helped it swallow the painful medicine he, Green Mountain, and Halbrook Hollow had forced down its collective throat. Unfortunately, that power and prosperity had also posed a threat to Prince Hektor of Corisande’s plans, which explained Hektor’s subsidization of the “pirates” who had ultimately succeeded in killing Sailys.
The more disgruntled of Sailys’ nobles had publicly mourned their king’s death even while they laid quiet plans for dealing with their new child-queen as their own great-great-grandfathers had dealt with Queen Ysabel. But if Sailys had been killed, Green Mountain and Halbrook Hollow were still very much alive, and Sailys’ daughter proved even more capable — and, when necessary, ruthless — than he had been himself . . . as the Duke of Three Hills and his allies had soon discovered.
There was no doubt that the aristocracy retained a larger share of political authority in Chisholm than its Charisian counterparts did in Tellesberg, but that authority had been drastically reduced. And it was only a shadow of that which the nobility continued to enjoy in most other Safeholdian realms. Yet the trappings of its four-generations-ago dominance remained in Parliament Hall’s decoration and procedures, and Cayleb made it a point to keep reminding himself that the Chisholmian tradition of royal authority was younger — and probably weaker — than the Charisian tradition.
On the other hand, we’re establishing all sorts of new traditions, aren’t we? Cayleb thought. And — so far, at least — Alahnah and Green Mountain have the situation in hand. Probably — his lips twitched in an involuntary smile — at least partly because these people really don’t want to see Sharleyan coming home to deal with any . . . unruliness herself!
As always, the thought of his wife’s proven capabilities was deeply comforting . . . and sent a tremor of loneliness through him. It was still a marvel to him that someone should have become so deeply, almost painfully, vital to him in so short a time. And not just on a pragmatic level. In fact, if he was going to be honest with himself, not even mostly on a pragmatic level, any longer.
He glanced over his shoulder to where Merlin rode at his back in the uniform of the new Imperial Charisian Guard. The blackened armor remained, as did the black tunic, but the golden kraken on Merlin’s breastplate now swam across a kite-shaped shield in the blue-and-white of the House of Tayt. Sharleyan’s personal guard detachment wore the same uniform, except that hers bore Chisholm’s doomwhale in place of the kraken.
“Impressive, isn’t it?” the emperor said quietly, twitching his head at the building looming before them, and Merlin snorted.
“So is the Temple,” he pointed out, equally quietly. “The wrappings are less important than the contents.”
“Is that one of those wise seijin proverbs?” Cayleb asked with a grin.
“No, but it probably should be.” Merlin cocked his head, studying the Hall’s imposing façade. “I wish Her Majesty were here to play tour guide,” he added.
“So do I,” Cayleb admitted, then stopped speaking as they reached their destination and halted in the space a cordon of halberd-armed Royal Army infantrymen had kept clear before Parliament Hall.
A quick question where chronologically speaking is the Charisian marines?
Or in other words at which time on “old earths” time line would they be equal to britian or the US army?
And what would be the next obvious develpoment in weapons?
Probably a little more professional than the British Navy’s marines at the end of the Napoleonic wars. They may also be volunteers not “pressed” which would militate towards a higher quality of marine compared to the Brits of that time. I don’t think there is a precise equivalent in our own, past, history, however…I think you have to look at a number of historical examples and combine bits and pieces. David Weber is not that ‘other’ David who so likes to model things on past historical events…
I think you’ll find the Brits only pressed ordinary seamen.
Anybody care to bet that this is where Holbrook Hollow makes his move against the Charisian heretics..and where Merlin saves the day (and Cayleb) in front of a throng of amazed Chisholmians?
The average person on safehold is smarter and cleaner than their counterparts in Earth history.
A lot of these political maneuvers in Chisholm’s history seem to rise out of very singular focuses. Weber seem pretty keen on giving recent rulers the big picture that their forebears and competition didn’t/don’t have. This bit seems to rule out second-stringers so I’ll leave it at High-Nobles are Jerks.
I would think the next likely development in weapons would be bolt-action rifles. Not sure how obvious it would be to Seamount and company, but they already have the idea of cartridges via the paper wrapping around a pre-measured charge of powder. If somebody comes up with the idea of putting the bullet on the end of the paper then the entire thing could be loaded at once, with the action of throwing the bolt forward replacing the previous need to ram the bullet home from the front. Engineering the bolt might be a bit of a challenge but I suspect Seamount can handle it… eventually. The only remaining need would be to make sure they made a powerful enough spark to burn through the paper “instantly” or close enough to it. But I suspect that would not be that difficult for somebody as clever as he.
After that, “proper” brass cartridges might provide something to use all that metal from those old bronze guns on… if somebody can figure out the secret of fulminate of mercury (or some other chemical soup) without totally making a hole in the proscriptions that you could drive a mack truck through…
RH
O! Eric Flint
My nerves are spent
While in frustration
I am forc’d to wallow!
The time grows long
I repeat my song
WHERE THE HELL
IS LORD HALBROOK HOLLOW???
Bolt action rifles are probably easier to make than flintlocks because the firing mechanism would be moved to the bullet rather than the gun, so they’d eliminate the need for priming pans, ramrods, etc. The new bullet then becomes the problem, paper bullet casings are possible for things that don’t require much accuracy like the early puckle guns and shotguns (shotguns make more sense to me than bayonnets once the range of armies has closed) but if they want to make a true bolt-rifle bullet they’ll need to invent the brass casing with an internal primer. After that, if they want better range they’ll have to go conical with the lead and case it in other metals for even better range. Modern rifles are either about combining rate of fire with accuracy or combining range with accuracy.
True, E, for modern rifles, but we’re also talking about “next logical step” not where they want to get to eventually. I think they could make a reasonably accurate (and faster loading) bolt-action rifle while still using a paper cartridge. The primary source of accuracy — at least when compared to smoothbore muskets — is the rifling of the bullet. Modern brass cartridges and bullets that are no longer pure lead are, of course, yet further improved, but I think they can live without either in the short term.
RH
Halbrook Hollow was last seen escorting Sharleyn in Tellesburg. Probably still there, given the questions about his religious convictions affecting his reliability in the current crisis.
Oh and shouldn’t “… concluded with a sizeable chunk of the lower nobility…” be “… colluded with…”?
I think the bigger problem with the bolt-action or any newer rifle is going to be with the cartridge. Fulminate of mercury isn’t going to be easy to develop or work with. Correct me if I’m wrong, but has their level of technology even reached close to this point?
Going back to #1 here — it seems like Cayleb is collecting quite a bit of the truly professional military forces on the planet within his Empire — The Chariseaan Marines are long service volunteers as is the Navy combined with privateers who are in it for the money. And then the Chisholm Army is a small, professional, all-volunteer force… we’ve seen this plot before of the high tech, high professional volunteer force hold off and defeat the vast conscript swarms of Bugs or Peeps….
No bolt actions require too many un-obvious steps to be the next “logical” progression. Remember, the still have to keep to the edicts as much as they can. I would say that a breech loader still using the current (or similar) firing mechanism is the next generation of weapon for the marines and army.
Of course this will also work its way to artillery as well, now that will be impressive….
I think the next logical step is the rear-loading cannon.
A rear loading cannon IS a breech loader (grin).
Now that I reflect on it, I think the breech loading cannon will come first, followed by a breech loading rifle similar to an early Sharp’s rifle, the ones around 1851 when it still used paper cartridges.
I think the next invention, assuming that it does not violate the proscriptions, is percussion caps. Making FoM requires making sulfuric acid (by burning sulfur in a lead box, then distilling), then nitric acid (by mixing sulfuric acid and saltpeter, and distilling), and then mixing the final ingredients. And then it has to be mixed with ground glass, black powder or saltpeter, or various other things to reduce sensitivity. The Confederates had one small facility I read about that produced something like half a million percussion caps a year, so it could not be that difficult.
As far as the first weapon to be developed using percussion caps, my vote is for a revolver, preferably a Remington-style (so that loaded cylinders can be replaced). You don’t need cartridges, although adding percussion caps to flintlocks is also an obvious evolution. Most future history stories I have seen have started post-percussion cap weapons with Sharps-style rifles.
Making a breech for a cannon is difficult. The interrupted-screw style of breech requires a fair degree of complexity, although I would think that it could be done with water power and a lot of time.
Given what Charis did to the other navies on the planet, I’m wondering if they’ll ever use their pretty new inventions in this book. Most likely Charis will let their enemies on the mainland continue with their galley construction while they focus on Corisande for a bit. Afterwards they can either attack the Mainland navies or dispose of them at leasure once they try to invade. Given the advantages Charis demonstrated, I imagine Siddarmark is hard at work setting up things in the background for their own spurt of development.
With Mainland society being so top-heavy, it’s likely that Charis is going to have an easy time recruiting citizens from those nations once the apostasy-card wears off. Given Charis’ potential for future growth and the rapid rates at which competition arises in new markets, I forsee a labor shortage that will probably be mostly filled by repatriated Charisians from Siddarmark and Siddarmen. At the same time, Charis should probably expand its influence in the less-inhabited portions of Safehold like the Barren Lands (some new irrigation can fix that) to secure potential trade routes before they become trade routes, especially since in a few generations there will be an exponential need for resources with all the new industry.
I’m wondering if Safehold has any petroleum in large reserves. They seem to have plenty of charcoal, but that can be made artifically with ease, though not in quantities like a steam-based industry would need. As far as human history went, we pretty much accelerated our growth with the stuff but Safehold seems to be naturally in the dinosaur era, so the only petroleum they’d have would probably be from pre-cambrian bacteria… but not so much from ancient swamps like Earth’s land-based reserves. If it comes to accelerating Safehold without petroleum, some kind of synthetic fuel or crop-based fuel will have to substitute… though I imagine that once Safehold hits modern under Merlin’s watch he’ll pretty much be handing over fusion and space-based solar along with the warships etc.
If he really wanted to be emissions-proof he could build everything he needs underground once he’s able to get the world back on modern.
I think the Proscriptions are dead except for what Merlin doesn’t want any remote sensors the Church may have or what Nimue doesn’t want the Gbaba to detect :-) That probably means high power electromagnetics that look obviously artificially modulated or that have unusual spectral characteristics. Better explosives probably won’t register that quickly until they look like something significantly more than a powder magazine catching fire.
Merlin will probably give out increasingly little information as the sheer brainpower of the natives gets applied more and more. Something tells me that Father Paityr will be taking a rather enlightened view of the Proscriptions — not to mention that he knows which side his bread’s buttered on by now, anyway.
17 said, “Given what Charis did to the other navies on the planet, I’m wondering if they’ll ever use their pretty new inventions in this book. Most likely Charis will let their enemies on the mainland continue with their galley construction”
Going off on a tangent here, but does anyone get the feeling that the Church’s galley fleet will never see action? There’s little point story-wise in replaying the Battle of Armageddon Reef, and events seem to be proceeding fast enough that events may come to a head before construction gets done (not to mention Privateers screwing up the construction schedule and causing endless delays).
I’d say some of the Church’s galley fleet will see “action” if you count “the act of burning and sinking.” Most likely Charis will let the Mainlanders complete them for a round-two demoralizing victory (round 1 caused the Mainland to rally) which will aid Charis in gaining a psychological victory that will degrade the mindset that supports the Church. If Charis wants to win on the mainland, they first go for the obvious power, the military assets, then the economic power, then the governmental power. Each layer eventually gets less physical in terms of confrontation but will invariably refocus into physical violence, especially since Church doctrine will get pealed apart at every level. Merlin likened himself to a virus, he found the right host and thus far has converted two other hosts to his needs. Once the Mainland isn’t a military threat, Charis can move in like the British did in India and “facilitate” changes in government.
Well, E, I doubt they’ll be able to go that far. Unless one side has spears and the other side has machine guns it’s rather hard for 10 people to defeat 1,000… and the tech gap isn’t anywhere near that significant.
But I suspect that they will end up sinking a good bit of the galley fleet. And with that disaster proving the failure of the Go4’s leadership, we’ll then likely have a change in management in Zion that will bring things to an early inconclusive conclusion in the form of some sort of truce and partial reconciliation but with the Church of Charis still remaining separated.
But I do think that the original author is probably right in that the galley fleet won’t see action in this book. It’s only November after all, and those ships aren’t likely to be physically completed until March or April at the absolute earliest given both the slower mainland build times and the privateer disruptions. After that, they still have to train crews. Even if they were finished tomorrow and had crews ready to go they’d still take a couple of months to get to Charis and by the time they did it would be the start of autumn down in the southern latitudes, which would be moronic for them to try to fight in per King Haarald. So I figure they will try to finish up by early autumn, train crews over the winter, and then set sail to intend to arrive around next November.
RH
Two words: Time skips.
Are we sure the mainland folks are still even working ‘really hard’ on the galleys? IIRC, Charisian privateers took a boatload of gold intended to be used to pay for the new ships (among other intended uses). Even with reassurances from the Church/Go4 that they’re going to get paid, the economic realities are that unless the boat builders are compensated – even if they are wholly governmental enterprises – lack of funding is going to cripple the ability to build anything… The only exception I can see to that would be such hard-core fanatics that the workers don’t care because “it must be done for God”, or perhaps some kind of slave labor, but even that just delays when you have to stop, because you still have to feed/water/guard the slaves. Just a thought…
-K-
E, there were some in OAR but there weren’t any in BSRA. Considering that BSRA and BHD started as the same novel I doubt there will be any here either.
Piotr, that capture was only crippling to one area (Feyrahd). And then only if the local archbishop didn’t turn around and temporarily make up the shortfall out of his local resources while blistering the semaphore lines for Zion to send another boat. There are plenty of other shipyards that the Charisians haven’t managed to cripple (on camera, at least). But that area at least was probably affected. And probably Dohlar too, they’ve been privateering the tar outta that area for some time now. But there are other shipyards in areas that Charis can’t risk alienating at this point in time (or at least couldn’t prior to the embargo) who are probably still building ships for the Church.
Likely the previously unaffected areas will either have to build more ships (to make up for the disrupted areas) or the slow areas will have to play catch-up after the others are finished. Either way that would delay things further.
RH
If Charis can cripple the funding of gold to Church nations, then it is likely that someone else will come up with the same promissory note system used atm in Corisande. If Corisande has any outside contact they can get the idea out by simply stating it’s what they’re doing to stabilize things internally until the money itself arrives. Once the rest of the world starts printing money, the economic situation will drastically change to require things like numerals and abacuses, and once those innovations are adopted the algebra genies are going to wreak havoc on the Proscriptions.
Hmm. Interesting idea E. I suspect you’re right about paper money causing havoc if they try to keep the old number system. What I’m not so sure about is whether that would lead to algebra and whether that would cause Proscription problems.
But if you’re right, then that sounds like the perfect prescription for promptly puncturing the Proscriptions…
RH
It HAS to lead to algebra because attempting to predict the flow of (theoretically infinite) money supply will require suppositional equations that can be used to direct the hard numbers of where money goes. Once paper money is printed it tends to stay as the currency, because it is logistically easy to supply and move without requiring a great deal of difficulty in physical transference. If a dollar is a dollar everywhere and it’s based on gold then a dollar should be the same amount of gold anywhere and would only require a pocket or suitcase to transfer as opposed to a couple of large freighters. If the Church issues paper money then they get to keep their gold until a nation requests the physical gold, although for the most part the value of the dollar historically was based on it being worth a sum of gold provided a sum of gold is never asked for. Once nations on Safehold realise that the dollar itself can be valuable because it is valued (like gold) then they don’t need to base it on gold and will float the currency on the supply/demand of population and production.
The algebra needed for one item will probably transfer itself to other equations, especially with Merlin publishing Newton’s work, because algebraic representation of numeric forms will be useful everywhere. Construction that depends on predictable weight distributions, ship making that functions on proper hull displacement and balancing, accurate travel estimations, etc.
By keeping her enemies focused on supplying their military needs, Charis’ enemies aren’t looking at the big picture and seeing the little things their engineers and workers will adopt in order to provide them with their demands. Charis wins not because the soldiers of her enemies won’t set foot on her shores, but because the people who try to get those soldiers to Charis need to adopt innovations to do so.
In regards the primer issue, I recall that in the 1632verse the use of potassium chlorate in lieu of FoM turned out to be a plot point in terms of the introduction of percussion caps. Since I’ll admit to not knowing precisely why the first is simpler to synthesize and use, does anyone here know a) why potassium chlorate was a better option in the 1632verse and b) whether the same issues would be applicable to the introduction of percussion caps to Safehold?