Tuesday 1 August 2017

Fealty

"'I cannot give fealty to a machine or a mere form of written laws. It must be to a person, someone who respects my honor, who loves it, even if he sends me to death and condemns my lands to the fire for a greater duty's sake.'"
-SM Stirling, The Tears Of The Sun (New York, 2012), Chapter Fifteen, p. 477.

Fire? No thanks. There speaks a medievalist. Modernists accept the rule of law, not the rule of men, although we can give trust and friendship to persons.

Dominic Flandry defended the vile Emperor Josip against the would be usurper, McCormac, following the principle of legitimacy in government - although Flandry also did something about Josip's vile appointee, Snelund!

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I looked this up and I have to think you may be a bit too hard on Baron Maugis. The nascent kingdom of Montival was still very NEW to him and he had never yet met Artos. The baron needed to be SURE Artos and Montival was worth his loyalty and the possible dangers that might place on his people. Maugis had to be SURE he and his people would MATTER to Artos and Montival.

And your mention of Aaron Snelund interested me. More than once I have regretted how bad a man he was, because he was in many ways a VERY able man. If he had been just a little different in character, then Snelund might have been a good sector governor or even a member of the Policy Board.

Sean