1636: The Saxon Uprising — Snippet 21:
Chapter 6
Stockholm, capital of Sweden
“It’s a tub,” pronounced Kristina. The Swedish princess made the statement with a royal assurance that sat oddly on her slender eight-year-old shoulders.
Nine-year-old shoulders, she would have insisted herself, and never mind that her birthday was still a month away. Kristina tended to view facts with disdain, if they conflicted with her axioms.
Being fair, Prince Ulrik was pretty sure he’d had the same attitude toward facts when he’d been eight years old. Or nine, for that matter.
“I know the Union of Kalmar is unpleasant to travel on,” he said patiently. “But it’s the only ship that can get us across the Baltic without fear of being intercepted.”
“If it gets across the Baltic at all,” she countered. Triumphantly: “You said yourself the thing was not really suited for the open sea! I heard you! And that wasn’t more than four months ago!”
So, he had. Not for the first time, Ulrik reminded himself to be careful what he said in front of Kristina. The girl had a phenomenal memory to go with her ferocious intelligence. He could only hope that she would not prove to be a grudge-holder as she aged, or their marriage would be a tense one.
But that possible problem was still a considerable number of years in the future. Right now, he had to squelch the girl’s developing tantrum over the issue at hand.
“Risks are relative,” he said. “No, the Union of Kalmar is not the best vessel in which to venture on the open sea. It’s a shallow draft ironclad, designed for bombarding shoreside fortifications and destroying ships in sheltered waters. On the other hand, it is — by far — the best vessel to be in should we encounter a Swedish warship on our way across the Baltic. By now, Chancellor Oxenstierna may well have drawn the right conclusions from your silence, and have sent vessels to prevent our passage across the Baltic.”
“I’m mad at him, anyway!” Kristina had a furious expression on her face, most of which Ulrik thought was play-acting. “He was rude in the last two letters!”
The pretense of fury vanished, replaced by another triumphant look. “So that’s the reason I haven’t answered his letters. Well, it’s not really the reason, of course. We had already agreed that it would be smarter to say nothing. But he might think that. So he wouldn’t send ships out.”
Baldur Norddahl chuckled. “The key word is ‘might,’ girl.” The burly Norwegian sat up straighter in his chair, glanced at the salon’s window, and looked back at her. “But he might not think that, either. In which case there we are, in the middle of the Baltic, in our comfortable staterooms on a proper seagoing vessel — and fat lot of good it does us, with our plump merchantman under the guns of a Swedish warship. The captain wouldn’t even think of putting up a fight. Certainly not against a Swedish ship going about the chancellor’s business.”
“Whereas the captain of the Union of Kalmar is a Dane,” Ulrik added quickly, “and will certainly do whatever we tell him. Especially since his ship can destroy any warship in the Baltic –”
“Except one of the other ironclads!”
“Yes, that’s true. But the other two ironclads are under the command of Admiral Simpson in Luebeck. Who is an American, not a Swede.”
Kristina started to say something but Ulrik drove over her. “Yes, I know that he’s formally under the authority of Prime Minister Wettin, who is doing Oxenstierna’s bidding nowadays and might well order us intercepted as well. But whether Simpson would actually obey such a command is doubtful, in my opinion.”
“Why? You told me yourself once he was given to formalities. So why wouldn’t he do what his lawful superior ordered him to do?”
Keep — his — mouth — shut. Speak only of recipes in front of the girl.
He made that vow, knowing full well he wouldn’t be able to keep it. The problem was that Kristina was both too smart and too important to his developing plans. There was no way he could manage this situation without her cooperation, and she was quite capable of withholding that cooperation if he didn’t involve her fully in the project.
“Yes, I know I said that, Kristina. But…”
How to explain?
“Most people are complicated,” he said. “Simpson certainly is. Under most circumstances, I am sure he would be the very Platonic ideal of a politically neutral military officer obeying lawful orders. But the thing is…”
“He’s also very intelligent,” said Baldur. “And politically sophisticated. Simpson will know full well that if he’s ordered by Wettin to take into custody the lawful heir of three crowns — only one of which answers to Oxenstierna and only one of which answers to Wettin –”
“Might answer to Wettin,” interjected Ulrik. “It’s actually not at all clear if the prime minister has the right to act as regent for the crown in the event the monarch is incapacitated and his successor is not of age.” He waved his hand. “The whole area is completely gray, in legal terms.”
Thankfully, that piqued Kristina’s interest. “Really? I thought…”
Ulrik shook his head. “The prime minister of the USE isn’t equivalent to the Swedish chancellor. Perhaps more to the point, when it comes to dynastic issues the USE’s parliament is not equivalent to Oxenstierna’s council. Swedish law is fairly clear that the council has the right to appoint a regent for the crown under these circumstances. There is no such clarity in the USE’s constitution.”
Baldur chuckled. “And Stearns, bless the man’s crafty soul, insisted on a formal constitution. So the lawyers can’t just do a quick shuffle of the rules. They’ll need to get an official legal ruling by the supreme court. Which is not known for the celerity of its deliberations.”
Ulrik spoke. “That means, in effect, that the whole issue will be Simpson’s to decide, at least for two months or so. And that’s probably all the time we need.”
Kristina made a last, valiant stand. “You don’t know that!”
Ulrik nodded. “No, I don’t. But we can find out by tomorrow, with the radio.”
The princess chewed on her lower lip for a few seconds. “Okay,” she finally said. “I guess if Simpson agrees, we’ll take the stupid ironclad across the sea. And hope we don’t sink.”
So whoever asked where Kristina et al were, now we know. And we will soon know if Admiral Simpson is on the side of the good guys (of course he is).
Yes Indeed. And thank you.
Is it still daylight savings time? [posted 1:34}
What a great way to start a Monday, reading this snippet. Quite amusing to watch the interactions of Kristina and Ulrik.
@3, dave o —
The time stamps are confusing me, as well. I’m in the Eastern US time zone, and the time stamps on my posts used to be one hour behind my local time when I posted, but now they are one hour ahead of me. I’m not sure why that is. Still, it doesn’t take away from the enjoyment of the snippets.
AFAIK, the time stamp comes from your computer. Most modern OS’s auto update. The default could be on or off. Look and see. My sys time is now 6:13 AM. Test.
My GMT is -6 and the time is correct on my system. So it looks like the displayed time stamp is from elsewhere. Who knows with the WWW. An Email could go around the world half a dozen times before comin’ home to roost.
Test #2 6:16
@6: You should say which timezone you are. Otherwise it won’t help much …
Not that it is at all critical to the plot, but according to Wikipedia, Kristina’s birth date was December 18, 1626, so the birthday she has in 1636 would be her tenth. So it must be late in 1635 in the story?
@9 – Yes, we’re currently in late autumn of 1635.
At some point the husband to be and best man are going to work out that she is smarter than they are.
George, IMO they know it *but* they have the advantage of real world experience.
On the other hand, I suspect that she’ll be asking Ulrik what he’s up to (minor snerk) because he’s up to something.
Mind you, I doubt that she’ll disapprove of what he’s up to.
It’s probably even a little later in the autumn since that birthdate is quite likely Julian.
@13 Right! Surely Julian, as Sweden didn’t accept the Gregorian reform until 1700. Of course by then the equinox was at least 3 months earlier than it should have been.
@9, @13, @14 Its only about a ten day difference 8Dec1626 Julian to 18Dec1626 Gregorian.
Just to add to the calendar wars, wikipedia lists her birthday in both calendars, and how cool is that?
@11 & 12 As to smartness, it is useful to use a computer analogy. Kristina has a faster CPU, more RAM, and better motherboard, but Ulrik (and others) have more data on their hard drives and at the present moment better sorted operating systems. As the her data accumulates and her operating system is updated by experience, she will become formidable. Just yesterday I boasted to my 4 yr old granddaughter how I could read and write at 5, whereupon she took up pen and paper and wrote to me as I watched. Never underestimate children, just as smart but lacking experience for now. I’m torn between wanting to protect her from the world, and to protect the world from her. No contest.
I’ll be curious to see what the inner deliberations of ADM Simpsons mind are. I’m willing to bet that not only has he come to the same conclusions as Mike, but that like Mike he already has contingonsey plans all ready to go.
@13 through 16
What’s the combination to the safe on the Enterprise?
-JK -Love you guys.
whats interesting to me is that, to a certain extent, Simpson is going to be proved right – it will be the uptimers v. the world. Of course Mike is also right, because if it was not an expanded country, they would be getting run over post haste.
@20 dac, it’s the believers in the uptimer political philosophy vs. all the rest of ’em. Simpson was, originally, what I would call an isolationist: Fortress Grantville.
By the way, I don’t think that Simpson will play a role in this episode. I hope I’m wrong, but I just don’t see it. Maybe he will send the marines & sailors out to back up the activists in the capitol…
Simpson really has only to keep his ships in port and he helps the CoC’s. Ulrik will be in Magdeburg and able to rally whatever forces he can.
Which may include his father’s troops, a force that did not get covered in any of the discussions.