1632 Series...Whaddya Think?

[Rich]

I recently finished reading Agincourt, by Bernard Cornwell, and his depiction of Henry V's foray in 1415 to add France to his realm, has a bearing here.

In this book he depicts most petty nobles as having great amounts of debt and responsibilities thrust upon them from above, but given very little in the way of the means to accomplish those responsibilities and pay off the debt, except work the peasants even harder. And of course, the peasant/serf was used to being screwed by the higher ups, and only hung around because they knew they would be screwed worse if they left. And some nobles were actually not venel by nature, but forced into venel acts by the political system in place. I don't believe any of us would like living in a feudal system at any level.

And , to me, it makes perfect sense for Stearns and company to be diplomatic and try to acquire allies in quantity to avoid being steamrolled by whatever "bossman" happened to roll by first.

BTW, Agincourt is a good book for a little light reading.

[skb12172]

Too this day we have a potential problem in the form of [strike]large pools of people[/strike] illegal immigrants lacking sanitation and inoculation serving as pools for old and new diseases.

fixed it for ya!

[Greg]

In this book he depicts most petty nobles as having great amounts of debt and responsibilities thrust upon them from above, but given very little in the way of the means to accomplish those responsibilities and pay off the debt, except work the peasants even harder. And of course, the peasant/serf was used to being screwed by the higher ups, and only hung around because they knew they would be screwed worse if they left. And some nobles were actually not venel by nature, but forced into venel acts by the political system in place. I don't believe any of us would like living in a feudal system at any level.

There's the obvious incentive- bankrupt nobles don't revolt. It's good to be the king. And it's good to keep your underlings too poor to try to mess with you. ISTR that the entire modern concept of high fashion grew out of Loius XIV's efforts to keep the nobility at his court bankrupt and preoccupied.

But that's in a kingdom with a strong monarchy. Things were worse in Germany, where the Holy Roman Empire had been slowly dissolving since the more or less disastrous Hohenstauffens (and their wars and feuds) with central control sporadic and weak and the local rulers free to pursue their own ends. So they weren't bankrupt from obligations from higher up, they were bankrupt from trying to kill each other.

[HTRN]

(and thanks, HTRN, for the link to Baen's free library!).

Have we discovered the Fifth Imperium website yet?


HTRN

[Cybrludite]

Oh and something y'all should know. Eric Flint is an anarcho-syndicalist; which is essentially a voluntary form of soft socialism, best thought of as a far left libertarian. Mike Stearns is his viewpoint character, though as I said considerably more moderate.

Yeah, I seem to recall John Ringo referring to him as "Eric the Red" at LibertyCon a few years back. I suppose that between Eric the Red and Crazy Einar, we could have gotten quite the Viking raiding party going...

[Greg]

(and thanks, HTRN, for the link to Baen's free library!).

Have we discovered the Fifth Imperium website yet?


HTRN

http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com

Best archive of the Baen CD's.

In case anyone is curious, that site belongs to Joe Buckley. Yes *the* Joe Buckley.

[Windy Wilson]

Maybe it's different since the aerospace shakeout, but in the mid 80's, I swear you could bring America back to a 1950 level of technology in under a year with just the contents of the single-family home Garages in So Cal.

[Rich]

greg: In case anyone is curious, that site belongs to Joe Buckley. Yes *the* Joe Buckley.

Please cure my ignorance.

Who is Joe Buckley, and why is he "the" Joe Buckley?

-----------------------------------------------------

Ignorance cured (see below). Thanks.

[HTRN]

Joe Buckley is Baen's Resident Redshirt.

I think he's been "killed" in half a dozen different novels.


HTRN

[Greg]

Joe Buckley is Baen's Resident Redshirt.

I think he's been "killed" in half a dozen different novels.

Indeed. He's ubiquitous.

IMO the worst by far is Cally's War. "Joe Buckley's" personality is used as the template for a pseudo-AI. And it's *seriously* annoying. The main character has one. And they let frustrating interactions with this 'buckley' go on literally for pages. Makes you want to yell "ENOUGH WITH THE FUCKING BUCKLEY, GET ON WITH THE STORY." (Well there was lots about that book that was annoying. You could replace BUCKLEY above with ANGST, BLUE BALLS, and maybe a few others.)

Anyway, if you wanted to know why every Baen book has a guy named Buckley who dies...