1636: The Saxon Uprising — Snippet 11
She’d paused for a moment to let the implications of her last statement sink in. Then she added: “And the chancellor of Sweden is most definitely the sort of human material from which ruthless counter-revolutionaries are made. He is and always has been an advocate — I should better say, a true believer — in the principles of aristocratic privilege. It is no secret that he has never been happy with the compromises that Gustav Adolf made with my husband. Neither when they set up the Confederated Principalities of Europe nor — especially! — when they created the United States of Europe.”
Again, she paused briefly. “I think it is now clear what has been happening these past few weeks. Ever since the emperor was badly injured at the battle of Lake Bledno and rendered non compos mentis, Oxenstierna has been taking advantage of Gustav Adolf’s incapacity to prepare a sweeping counter-revolution. That is why he has insisted on keeping the emperor in Berlin, where he can sequester him and keep him under control. That is why he has been assembling a congress of reactionaries in Berlin. They will declare Berlin the new capital. And that is why, finally — this news has now been confirmed also — he has ordered Princess Kristina to join her father in Berlin. So that she too can be kept under control while the chancellor goes about his bloody business.”
One of the members of parliament from Westphalia province spoke up. “But Oxenstierna is simply the chancellor of Sweden. He has no authority in the United States of Europe.”
Ableidinger made a sarcastic snorting sound. “And do you think that little awkwardness is causing him to lose any sleep? Not likely! Not Oxenstierna.”
He swiveled in his chair to look at Rebecca. “I don’t doubt Oxenstierna’s nature is just as you portray it to be. But how can you be so sure that he has reduced the USE’s prime minister to a cipher? Giving the devil his due, Wilhelm Wettin is a capable man and not one I would think to be easily intimidated.”
“No, he’s not — as a man,” said Ed Piazza. “But right now he’s a prime minister also, and in that capacity I’m afraid he can be quite easily intimidated by Oxenstierna.”
Piazza was sitting at the opposite end of the long set of tables from Rebecca, which indicated his own position in the party. Both by virtue of his abilities and his position as the president of the State of Thuringia-Franconia, Piazza wielded as much influence and authority as anyone in the FoJP other than Mike Stearns himself.
But Stearns was hundreds of miles away now, leading his army into Bohemia, and no longer directly part of the political equation.
The man who was probably the third most influential member of the party present at the meeting cocked his head quizzically and said: “I will repeat Constantin’s question: How can you be so sure?”
That was Matthias Strigel, the governor of Magdeburg province. That province and the State of Thuringia-Franconia were the two great power centers of the Fourth of July Party. The SoTF was the wealthiest and most populous province of the USE. But Magdeburg province had now surpassed it as an industrial center.
It was also, of course, the province where the capital was located. The city of Magdeburg had an extraordinarily complex political structure. It was simultaneously the national capital of the USE, the capital of the province of Magdeburg, and an imperial city in its own right. Just to make things still more complicated, there was a legal distinction between the “old city” and the metropolitan area. Otto Gericke was the mayor of metropolitan Magdeburg, but within the narrow confines of the original city his authority was legally — if not always in practice — superseded by that of the city council.
“The reason I can be so sure,” Ed responded, “is because I agree with Becky’s analysis and I’ve looking at the situation from a strictly military standpoint lately. The minute you do that, everything gets very clear, very quickly.”
He leaned forward to give emphasis to his next words. “The reason the chancellor of Sweden can today intimidate and bully the prime minister of a nation which is many times larger is because Oxenstierna has an army — right there with him, in Berlin — and Wettin hasn’t got a damn thing except his own bodyguards.”
This time it was a member of parliament from the Province of the Main who protested, Anselm Keller. “But the USE has its own army.”
“With a Swedish general in command,” said Charlotte Kienitz, one of the leaders of the Fourth of July Party from the province of Mecklenburg.
The mayor of Hamburg shook his head. “Torstensson’s authority no longer derives from Sweden. He was appointed by the Reichstag, not the king and emperor.”
As he usually did in the middle of an argument, Albert Bugenhagen lapsed into a down-timer’s term for the USE’s parliament. Up-timers, speaking English to one another, had a tendency to call it a “congress,” although that wasn’t technically correct. Down-timers, speaking to one another, tended to call it a “Reichstag” — that meant “Imperial Diet” — although wasn’t technically correct either.
For that matter, the official term “Parliament” wasn’t really correct, in the terms that a fussy political scientist might use. When Gustav Adolf and Mike Stearns created the USE in the course of negotiations late in 1633, Mike had deliberately picked a term that was rather foreign to both American up-timers and German down-timers. The USE Parliament was a hybrid two-house creation with elements from up-time America, the down-time Germanies, and both eighteenth-century and twentieth century Britain.
Piazza’s been relatively quiet for seemingly ages. Bringing him back to the fore?
Just to repeat from the last snippet:
I’m wondering when some printer or printers are going to end up causing a religious shit-storm when they publish Charles Darwin’s books †On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life†and “The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sexâ€. Just wait and watch while the Catholic church and various other protestant organisations go through the ceiling; I wonder how the muslims in the Ottoman empire would react?
Ah, I now have a picture of how Mathias Strigel looks: like Boris Johnson, Mayor of London.
French regions at the time have Parliaments, allthough these tended to be more like regional courts than elected political representative organisations. The CSE is a federal republic, why not use Bundestag? It would have been a perfectly understandable neologism from the already known (in the 17th century) terms Landtag and Reichstag.
Diet is (in current terms) generally used for specific sittings of the Reichstag (Diet of Worms). Mind you, it is probably more used in English than in German. Try following the Wikipedia-link from ‘Diet (assembly)’ to the German equivalent, and you end in ‘Tagung’. If you follow the English page on ‘Diet of Worms’ to German you end up with ‘Reichstag zu Worms’. ‘Diet’ draws few relevant hits on German Wikipedia, and the ones that refer to any form of parliament do so to the Japanese Diet.
:blink:
And that pertain to this situation how?
I think Eric is having fun with us in this snippet. He just knew some readers of his will fall for this red herring.
Strictly infodump, it is.
@3 Not really *just* an infodump. The point is that the idea of a sitting legislature is a bit foreign to downtimers.
As #2 pointed out, a ‘Tagung’ (Diet derives from the Latin dies = day, so it is a direct translation of the German ‘Tagung’) is a specific meeting of a legislative body. They had to be called at a specific time, and specific people/territories had rights to attend and vote, and there was usually a specific agenda. Even the English Parliament (which would be the source of the word to most down-timers, French Parlements were almost exclusively judicial) works like that as we are still before the English Civil War.
So Oxenstierna would not be familiar with the idea that an elected legislature would retain its authority until the next election. He would think in terms that he will hold a Tagung in Berlin and basically start over. But he is calling only the Senators of some states, plus his aristocratic friends. The ‘Lower House’ in Magdeburg has continuing authority per the USE’s constitutional arrangements and can give some political cover to the Anti-Oxenstierna group. If they can get a rump — maybe even a majority — of Senators to stand with them, they might turn it into a legislature vs. executive type conflict. I’m not sure if Wettin as Prime Minister is elected by the lower or upper house (or both), but it would be a nice trick if the Magdeburg government could swing a vote of no confidence and replace Wettin with Stearns.
But the main point is that Oxenstierna has *no clue* that any of this can happen, and that he will be able to continue to control developments — *if* he can get physical control of Katrina. Katrina in Magdeburg would give *dynastic* cover to the 4ofJ/CoC movement, and will start tearing down Oxnstierna’s authority with the nobles and army. Heck, she is even already a Lieutenant-General in her own right :-)
Eric is having way too much fun with this. But then thats been true since he wrote 1632. :-)
It’s a fine argument on less than infinite information. There are dots, but different people in them are connecting them differently.
For N dots there are far more than N! connections. Loops, you know.
@2 — Tweeky
I don’t imagine the Catholic Church will have too much problem with publication of Darwin’s works, for a couple of reasons. First, OTL, the Vatican has its own science academy, and that science academy has for decades accepted accepted the general principles of Darwin’s theory, although they and the Catholic Church generally stress that Darwin has to be understood in light of the idea that the Creator created; life did not “just happen” as a result of some cosmic accident or evolutionary quirk. Second, NTL, the American religious leaders who went back in the RoF wrote a detailed briefing for the pope (The Galileo Affair [TGA] or one of the earlier books, I don’t recall which). Undoubtedly, Darwin, his theory, its impact on religious belief, and the Catholic Church’s response to it in OTL would have been covered. I would be astounded if it was not covered.
Really, today, the major opposition to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution comes from the Fundamentalist strains of Protestantism, especially Fundamentalist Evangelicalism, who insist that the Bible must be read literally on the subject of creation. (Of course, when they get to Jesus’ words “You must eat my flesh and drink my blood”, then most of them decide that can’t be literal, but logical consistency is not a prerequisite to religious belief.) Historically, Protestants were more vehemently opposed to scientific progress than Catholics, and that’s a point that is made sharply in TGA and other places. In fact, in TGA it was clearly spelled out that Galileo didn’t get into trouble so much for his observations and theory regarding the solar system as he did for his rudeness and absolute insubordination with respect to Church teaching and Church authority. Protestants, excluding Anglicans and some strains of Lutherans, did not generally start accepting scientific progress enthusiastically until the 18th century. Consequently, if there is opposition to publication of Darwin’s theory, I suspect it will come from Protestant groups, not Catholic Church leadership.
@5 IIRC Wettin was not elected, he was appointed as Prime Minister by his status as the leader of the majority party (CL in his case). 24 Senators total: 15 provinces, 9 cities.
Calenburg is with Tortensson. Axel doesn’t invite Hesse-Kassel widow/regent. Tyrol, Horn, and Swabia are busy on the Rhine. Brahe and Prince Frederick won’t knuckle under to Axel. Mecklenburg and Pomerania are contested (FoJP replacements for CL ringers). SoTF, Magdeburg, and Wurtemmburg are solid FoJP. Ernst Wettin is not pro-Axel (Oberpfalz and Saxony thereby contested). Brandenburg is only province uncontested (by USE anyway). Most of the cities are FoJP.
He’s gotten too used to Sweden where he got the Riksdag to pass a law in 1612 that only nobility could hold high office. He may control Wettin and have rounded up every reactionary noble he could lay his hands on, but unlike Sweden the lower Estates are not separated from the nobility. They, like in the USE, are G2A’s largest supporters and Axel’s opponents. By law the USE house of commons contains no active nobles (Wettin had to resign his title and a main reason for Pomerania/Mecklenburg contesting is false resignation of title). Axel, to me, seems to believe that the USE is just another part of the Swedish Dominions (Swedish Ingria, the Swedish Karelias, Swedish Livonia, Swedish Prussia (Truce of Altmark lands), and Estonia) free to be plundered and under a Governor-General. The USE is an independent entity that just happens to have crowned the same man as the Swedish Empire and the Union of Kalmar. Christian IV won’t let him get away with it in Denmark, but he seems to have Wettin cowed.
If he doesn’t seize physical control of Kristina, his fig leaf is mighty small as to his right to govern. His lone regency of Sweden may even be called into question. His current physical control of G2A is his main strength, but that can last only so long. Remember G2A’s cousin Colonel Hand (from GG stories and earlier books G2A’s intelligence asset) is nearly on the scene.
I’m using FoJP as an umbrella for itself, the CoCs, Ram Movement, and other populus-based politics.
@7: Blame the Protestant Reformation for that. Apparently, Martin Luther decided that, contrary to what philosophers had believed previously, Scriptural Creation could only have been meant literally, rather than metaphorically.
Without a belief in literal seven-day Creation, about half of the resistance to evolutionary theory falls apart (furthermore, it’s the less rational half, as a literal account of Creation is clearly contradicted by carbon and isotope dating). Most of the “old Earth” Creationists are more willing to accept the principle of evolutionary theory even if they disagree on the particulars when it comes to human beings.
Re: “Eric is having way too much fun with this. But then thats been true since he wrote 1632.” Eric can have all the fun he wants as long as he writes faster. April is just too long to wait for this book. Particularly since he picked up that nasty TV habit of cliff hangers to end his last book.
@8 Thanks for the rundown. I agree Ox’s mistake (one of them at least) is to think of USE as just a province of Sweden.
In part Ox’s advantage is that GA is *temproarily* ill — there is no need to consider a formal regency proceeding as long as it expected GA will eventually recover and Ox can present a fait accompli. That’s where The Adventures of Col. Hand are significant as the time limit for ‘GA will probably not recover’ is set at 6 mos.
I can envision a situation were Ox finally has to order a Swedish army to do something and the commander asks when did the Regency Council meet to appoint Ox. If it’s Torstensson, he might also say he takes orders from the constitutionally legitimate USE government in Magdeburg (if not T, then the CoC oriented troops in the ranks will ask the same.) Then the reaction has not enough military backing and goes ‘pouf’.
But there is a lot of adventure in how Eric will get things to that point. Looking for a Katrina and Ulrik snippett soon.
@10 I hope we can get a eARC for this one (unlike Eastern Font), as Eric is a little more recovered now and the publishing schedule a little less tight.
I am not up to par on swedish law, but Ox acting the way he seems to be; would not GA have him ‘dead to rights’ on a Treason charge when (if) he recovers? Kings of that time took a rather dim view of misuse of power by underlings, no matter how noble.
IMNSHO the adventure is in how Eric gets us past this. Whart are the solutions to the problems here, both short and long term? And what new problems will they create? (in RL solution to one problem almost always creates the next one {one exception: Rome’s solution to the Carthage problem :)})
On another note, interesting to see that Becky knows of the order to Kristina but not her & Ulriks response to it. I hope we’ll get back to them soon. Wonder what the response of the people, who we’ve been told love their little princess, will be if Ox tries to use force to hold her and her squeeze?
@10, 12
Eastern Front and Saxon Uprising are esentally part 1 and 2 of the same book. which is why it was left off at a cliff. from what I get out of snerkers, this book is either in the can or in final cleanup.
I too am hoping we’ll see an electronic copy of both when this is finally released.
@13, Of course Ulrik’s not going to tell Rebecca he’s coming and bringing Kristina with him: the name of the game here is Plausible Deniability, and he’s easily smart enough to know it. If Rebecca can say to Oxenstierna truthfully that she had nothing to do with Kristina’s being in Magdeburg instead of Berlin, Oxenstierna can’t accuse her of conspiracy (well, he can, but who’d believe him? Not anyone in Magdeburg, that’s for sure).
I wouldn’t be surprised if CoC-Magdeburg and the Ram’s people aren’t already getting ready for a repeat performance of NTL Kristalnacht, with Baner’s army (presumably beseiging Dresden) and Berlin as their likely principal targets.
@13 “her and her squeeze” At her age, that is a bit of hyperbole, and to dismiss Erik as merely a squeeze is a mistake that Ox might make to his everlasting regret.
@10 The hold up is not always the author. In this case, if Eric and others are healthy/productive they could do more than 2 books in a year. The publisher, in this case, has a set printing schedule since it isn’t a MAJOR publisher, just a smaller division.
I’d like more now too though.
>.>
A little surprised by the demands for more books. 12 books in 10 years, in a single series, is a pretty heavy pace for any writer, especially with the tangled webs Baen’s stable of authors tend to scheme. I’m the sort of guy who’ll read the Eastern Front in a single sitting, so you can imagine how long the wait is for me in between books, but at least Mr. Flint has the graciousness to give me snippets :P
In other news, I’d been waiting for Gustav to die for quite some time, and find his lack of willingness to comply with my expectations disturbing. I’m less interested in whether or not Ox manages to seize control of Europe (he won’t, good guys always win [though I will enjoy the Hangman delivering an unholy ass kicking somewhere along the line]) than I am in finding out if Gustav is going to die for good, and leave Kristina Empress and High Queen, yada yada, etc etc or if he’s going to come back.
Another note: Kristina does not feel like an 8 year old. She does not feel like a *16* year old. I’m not sure if that’s regret on the author’s part that he did not initially cast her older, and is just making her suit his needs, or if he is unaware of how 8 year olds, even 8 year old princesses, behave :P
Reviewing the provinces again (based on Eastern Front), the FoJ party has SoTF, Magdeburg Province, and the seven (not nine) Imperial Cities for 9 votes. Maybe one or two of the cities is shaky — they might need to see a clear win before joining in a vote. There are 11 more provinces plus Swabia/Wurtemmberg, which we don’t yet know if it will be one or two provinces. So they need 2 or 3 more votes to claim a clear majority
The question is what Senate votes the FoJ could gather in Magdeburg to seat a Parliament that can legitimately claim to act for the whole USE.
Swabia and maybe Mecklenburg are not established as provinces yet. ‘Creating’ new provinces to get a majority vote won’t be seen as legitimate and in any case, action regarding that area will be recounted in Wars on the Rhine.
Mecklenburg and Pomerania are in dispute as to the election results, so seating the populist delegations won’t count — it would be seen as part of that particular argument.
Brandenburg is clearly inder Oxenstierna’s thumb.
Main, Upper Palatinate, and Saxony are appointments. Having those provinces join the Magdeburg group will be the result of actons taking in Saxon Uprising. Both Brahe and Ernst Wettin would have to reject Ox’s authority, and in Ernst’s case that might invalidate his appointment to govern Saxony.
So the key votes, the pebbles that start the landslide, have to come from the remaining self-governing provinces. Tyrol and Upper Rhine would seem too far away and more involves in the Wars on the Rhine book.
That leaves Hesse Kassel, a good bet if the widow is confirmed as regent, and Brunswick, who is with Torstensson and well positioned to advise the general on which way to jump.
Should be interesting, showing how many diffeent threads come together in solidifying a revolution.
I’ve been wondering whether Wettin will continue to support the Ox for the whole book. I think there have already been signs that he’s dismayed by his own followers, though not yet enough to break with them. Ox seems to despise Wettin as a weakling, and this must get Wettin’s back up. And it isn’t clear that he’s anything like as reactionary as Ox. My feeling is that he wants to slow the clock, not turn it back.
#18 I think Flint used her historic age. And she sounds like an eight year old HEIR TO A THRONE to me. In that era, even some not very bright royal kids were educated and trained within an inch of their life.
Dont forget our wild cards in all this mess. Mike Stearns of course, but also Erik Hakaanson Gustavs right hand man who i see working behind the scenes the put a crink in Oxs plan.
@18 re Kristina not behaving like a typical 8 year old, it is probably the result of good research as to the personality and upbringing of the historical Kristina, who was born in Dec 1626. She was anything but typical.
Also, we don’t see a lot of the scenes where she is behaving like a kid. We see her mostly when she is ‘on stage’ as the princess.
@18 I hope no one takes my previous comment as a complaint. It is quite the opposite. I am enjoying the books in this series and the Grantville Gazette more than anything I have ever read before, and appreciate the snippets just as much. I just wish they could come out faster. One book every two months, alternating with GG would be great.
Regarding Kristina’s depiction in this series, it does not seem all that unusual to me, particularly when you take in to account all the one on one tutoring she has received. I have encountered quite a few kids in that age bracket that I would describe as “ 8 going on 18 “. This seems to be more common with girls than boys, and while in some areas they seem to be much older than their actual age, in most things (particularly emotional areas) they are still children.
@ 20 – I’d agree that Wettin (the PM that is) does not seem enthusiastic about the people in his party or Ox’s plans and is likely to try to break with him at some point.
In all honesty, Wettin’s depiction in 1634: Baltic War and since has been a big dissapointment for the series. If you go back and read the passages for him in 1632 and especially 1633 Wettin comes across as a very astute person in general and specifically politically. If you reread the conversation that Admiral Simpson has with him and a few others at the first soiree that Simpson attends, Wettin is shown to be quite aware of the social and economic changes to the aristocracy and more inclined to seek the advantages for the smart individuals not the class as a whole. Comments were even made between the Wettin brothers that Stearns was looking for a counterpart to have a party to demonstrate peaceful transfer of power between parties.
Going forward in the other 1634 books (and even 1635: Cannon Law) there are interludes with Stearns or Piazza that reference political developments and Wettin seems to be doing quite well in them. (Getting a sit-down meeting every week with Stearns on developments, etc.)
But in 1634:BW, 1635:Dreeson Incident, Eastern Front and Saxon Uprising, it’s quite apparent that Wettin in those books is not the same character as before. I’m not on Baen’s Bar so I don’t know if this is discussed there or not, but it seems as if the plot arc for the series superseeded the character development path that was initially laid out for the character.
On the flip side, the portrayal of Hesse-Kassel (both of them) as being essentially a third-side is quite true to the 30YW as OTL. Ox and Hesse-Kassel (the wife that is) didn’t see eye to eye and really parted ways (after the death of G2A and Wilhelm V) both politically and militarally in OTL.
Sounds like a job for Harry and his merry band.
Regarding Kristina’s age, many parents have found that their 8 to 10 year old daughter is very smart and astute but drops at least 20 IQ points between 12 and 16 as puberty takes its toll. An adult can have a quite intelligent conversation with a bright child, but in many cases teenagers are off the planet.
@27 Does anyone here know what Kristina’s teenage years were like?
Hahahaha xD Good point about puberty @27
As someone who’s watched 3 girls grow up, I think the toll of their teenage years may have wiped some of the memories from when they were a little less precocious.
Speaking as the Father of a now 23 year old daughter, and a former leader of a Camp Fire club, samrt girls discover sometime in Jr. high/Middle school that if they want to popular and/or get dates they have to act like morons. Applies to boys too, only not quite as much. Pressure to conform to this standard varies by area & other factors but the problem is really there. Hard to fight as a parent, you have to lay the groundwork early, before the opinion of so-called friends is more important than yours.
Just re-read Eastern Front last night so a few thoughts relating to posts on the last couple of snippets.
1) Changes in way PM Wettin is portrayed. His friends are concerned about this too. The Landgravine has been upset about it. And several places have had his opponents (Becky, Gretchen, even Ulrik) musing about how out of character with the man they thought they knew his recent behavior has been.
2) Ox’s orders post G2A’s injury. Before G2A went to Poland he had already ordered Ernst Wettin & Gen. Baner to Saxony. Mike going to Bohemia with his Division (“As soon as we defeat the Poles and the Brandenburgers in a major battle…”) was also set up at the same time, altho one might argue the condition has not yet been met. So what Ox has done that wasn’t previously agreed too is: a) Ordering Tortentson to conduct a militarily unwise (see the Landgavines reponse to the news near the end of EF) seige of Poznan. b) Summoning a conference of German Reactionaries. and c) Retaining G2A in Berlin instead of moving him to where the best medical care is available. Those are all the things we’ve actually *seen* him so do so far, not sure they can be used to support a treason charge in law w/o something a bit more active.
Just something to chew on during the long weekend’s wait for the next short snippet :)
#20 In 18th century British law, treason was defined a lot more broadly than it is now. Denying G2A the best possible medical care would fit just fine. (Plotting the King’s death) I have no idea whose law would govern in the present situation, but I think that if Ox is defeated, the victors could find a justification. And if he’s defeated, how likely is he to live long enough to be tried? Not if he falls into the hands of the COC.
But it’s not at all clear that moving the King WOULD be all that much better than the care he get’s in Berlin.
Moving a patient is always risky, especially with a head wound. And I have no doubt that Ox has expert medical advice to say so (including up-time advice). The suggestion was to fly him to minimize the stress of the journey, but the available planes aren’t all that safe. Berlin has plenty of good passive support care, which is all he’s likely to get no matter where he is.
Similarly issuing orders isn’t treason when you’re the guy who’s SUPPOSED to take over in the King’s absence or disability. This is WHY Mike is still obeying orders, NOTHING done so far (that we’ve seen) is actionable under any reasonable legal code with the possible exception of sending the doctor away, and that was done after the doctor admitted that he couldn’t really do anything much other than monitor and wait.
@20 I was counting from the end of 1635 (Cologne and Bonn added to cities, Brandenburg, Saxony, Swabia, and Wurtemmburg to provinces). Your accounting is much more accurate. We know from ‘Eastern Front’ that Tyrol has joined and Brandenburg and Saxony are taken. All the others along with the Upper Rhine province and probably Tyrol are involved along the Rhine. I think Ernst Wettin, Nils Brahe, and Prince Frederick are politically opposed to Axel and faithful to G2A and the government of the USE in that order.
@29 Even ordering Tortennson and 1st and 2nd Armies of the USE to besiege Poznan could be construed as a continuation of G2A’s original (pre-injury) orders. Keeping G2A in Berlin could be explained away as preventing further injury during travel. Calling the reactionary nobles to Berlin could be explained as a convention. Having Wettin in Berlin, Axel seems to be under the impression that he has the whole government under his thumb. As if Wettin is the reigning noble for the whole of the USE.
@31 I agree. Nothing so far is actionable but is very telling.
IMO Axel sees the noble’s control over G2A’s actions slipping away. He still has G2A’s coronation vows that relinquished many Swedish Crown powers/priveledges to the Noble Estate that the House of Vasa had previously removed from them. As stated either in an earlier snippet or EF, G2A was keeping to the letter but abandoning the spirit (especially in the USE).
Axel doesn’t seem to understand that in the USE the four traditional Swedish Estates (Noble, Priest (Lutheran only), Burgher, and free-holding Peasant) are comingled and an active title bars its owner from the USE lower house.
In OTL by the end of his tenure almost 75% of Swedish land (Sweden, Finland, and the Dominions) was owned/managed by the nobility (less than 25% before his tenure).
He was also a forerunner OTL of Lutherans-only within Swedish lands (forced conversions, no non-Lutheran (including Calvinist) open worship, and exile for non-Lutheranism (especially Catholics (Roman and Orthodox)) were standard OTL). AFAIK Roman Catholics in Swedish Livonia were only spared by the OTL 1635 Treaty of Stuhsdorf which didn’t happen NTL (Sweden also lost Swedish Prussia ATT).
NTL Krystallnacht is also not too far in the past. Mecklenburg’s nobility was pretty much exterminated when they opposed the CoC (and the uptimer-heavy USEAF helped at first). Axel may think the nobles (who should be in charge IHNSHO) must strike now while they still have a chance.
Both the citizenship and state church decisions have not yet been made and ratified, and I don’t think he understands what passes for the USE constitution. He seems to think the USE provinces with G2A appointed administrators/regents are part of the Swedish Empire and that Wettin is an independent head of government (not an executive office with a sitting legislature).
With the Queen’s assassination, his need to physically control G2A and Kristine is paramount. The Union of Kalmar without them is totally beyond any political control by him. ATT he seems to have PM Wettin under his thumb, but little of the elected legislature (he’s calling NOBLE reactionaries to Berlin and excluding Calenburg and Hesse-Kassel). As stated by @20 and myself at @8, he also doesn’t seem to have Senatorial (upper house) support. And his political opponents in Sweden seem to be gathering strength as well (OTL he and his family had a lock on many high offices by 1635, IMO NTL not so much).
correction to @34
Just reread ‘Eastern Front’. Axel seems to be calling reactionaries of all but the fourth estate (IMO he sees them as nonentities).
@28, @29, @30: Having been in those shoes, too, I agree that Kristina’s behavior during the teenage years doesn’t need to correspond to behavior in either childhood _or_ adulthood. Also keep in mind that Kristina has been polluted by two things: American attitudes, and American notions of nutrition.
American attitudes? Scorn for authority. Resentment of limits. American food? Yes, that too. Much of the early-onset, and extreme, sexual development of 20th/21st century adolescents in the First World has been blamed on high-fat, high-sugar diets. Thirteen-year-olds of today appear to have more-developed sexual characteristics and sexual behavior than contemporaries of mine had at _twenty_.
Remember, Kristina was in Grantville, and even though the first winters were tough, there will be enough wealth and enough bad habits there to have addicted her to pork rinds and chocolate cheesecake. A mental-health MD I know calls “hormonal toxicity” the bane of his job, and he blames the fatty foods kids eat for jump-starting sex-hormone production.
Sean