In the meantime, however, a brief period of stability in the otherwise volatile political situation in the PRH resulted in the nomination of Admiral Esther McQueen to the post of Secretary of War. Under McQueen’s guidance, the PN scored its first offensive victories of the war, unsettling the Alliance and throwing its military plans into chaos.
The momentum shifted once again, however, when White Haven’s Eighth Fleet moved on Barnett in the final push towards the Haven System itself. A new generation of weapons, the fruit of Roger III’s Project Gram and the much later Project Ghost Rider, heralded the final turning point of the war, and McQueen’s death after a failed coup attempt threw the PN once again into disarray.
Following these successes Queen Elizabeth made a state visit to Grayson. During the visit, she survived an assassination attempt that claimed the life of Prime Minister Cromarty. With his death, the Centrists’ alliance with the non-aligned peers in the House of Lords (which had depended in no small part on Cromarty’s personal relationships) fell apart amid fears that Elizabeth planned to reduce and restrict the power of the Lords. Baron High Ridge was able to form a government of Conservatives, Liberals, and Progressives who were hostile to the Crown, and the new government immediately accepted a Havenite offer of a ceasefire in place. Shortly after the ceasefire has been signed, a second coup against the Committee of Public Safety, this one led by Admiral Thomas Theismann, succeeded. Theismann restored the old, pre-Legislaturalist Constitution and proclaimed the restoration of the old Republic, but fighting between forces loyal to the Constitution and State Security warlords asserting their loyalty to the Pierre Revolution continued for several years.
For the next five T-years the High Ridge Government deliberately failed to reach a formal peace agreement with the newly restored Republic. More fearful of Elizabeth’s reported plans to reform Parliament than of a technologically outclassed and still divided Haven, High Ridge and his allies preferred to maintain a technical state of war in order to avoid a general parliamentary election and to justify the maintenance of wartime taxation rates. Taking advantage of that revenue stream, High Ridge and his allies diverted funding from the military into their “Building the Peace” initiative, which was intended to bolster the voting strength of their own parties when elections were finally held.
In 1917, a new Junction terminus was located and surveyed, linking the Manticore Binary System to the Talbott Cluster on the far side of the Solarian League.
Birth of an Empire and the Second Havenite War
1918 PD–present
The almost immediate request by the residents of most of the star nations in the Cluster to join the Star Kingdom, mirroring that of the San Martinos after the Trevor’s Star’s liberation, necessitated a modification of the Star Kingdom into the Star Empire. The process has been neither simple nor peaceful, however, and may well pose an existential threat to Manticore’s very existence.
High Ridge and Edward Janacek, his First Lord of the Admiralty, had believed that Manticore’s unchallengeable military lead meant they could not only negotiate in bad faith with Haven but simultaneously draw down the military to fund their efforts to buy public support at the polls.
They were incorrect.
Their fundamental misjudgment was made infinitely worse by a massive intelligence failure which permitted the Republic of Haven to secretly build an entirely new navy, with weapons which largely closed the gap between its own capabilities and those of Manticore. Faced with the evidence of the Republic’s new military capability when that navy’s existence was finally revealed, the High Ridge Government and Janacek Admiralty scrambled desperately to retrieve the situation, but events had taken on a momentum of their own. Following an acrimonious diplomatic exchange in which each side accused the other of negotiating in bad faith and of falsifying diplomatic correspondence, Haven renewed hostilities. Operation Thunderbolt, the Republic of Haven Navy’s initial series of attacks, was devastatingly effective, allowing Haven to recover virtually every system—except Trevor’s Star—which Manticore had taken in the First Havenite War. The same offensive destroyed hundreds of ships being built for the RMN, inflicted heavy losses on many of Manticore’s alliance partners, and brought down the High Ridge Government in disgrace.
Following High Ridge’s fall, the new Grantville Government under William Alexander (newly created Baron Grantville and current leader of the Centrist Party) took up the heartbreaking task of rebuilding the fleet and its technological edge. In an attempt to even the odds, the Star Empire entered into an agreement for the Andermani Empire to join the Alliance and to end the ongoing piracy, civil unrest, and loss of life in Silesia by partitioning the Confederacy between Manticore and the Empire.
In the three years since the resumption of hostilities, the war has shown no sign of abating. Indeed, it has become even more threatening with the Star Empire’s discovery of direct Solarian interference in the annexation of the Talbott Cluster. Captain Aivars Terekhov’s preemptive attack on the Republic of Monica, a Solarian ally, in February 1921 PD, prevented a Monican attempt to seize the entire Cluster and the Lynx Terminus of the Manticoran Wormhole Junction as a Solarian proxy, but only at the risk of open hostilities with the Solarian League, as well as the Republic. The thought of confronting the enormous power of the Solarian League Navy is somewhat mitigated by the evidence that the SLN has lagged far behind the navies of the Haven Sector in terms of weapons technology, but the League remains the largest and most powerful star nation ever to have existed.
Within the Haven Sector itself, however, the pace and scale of combat has only grown still more intense. While Haven held a huge initial quantitative edge at the time it launched Thunderbolt, the technological edge still belonged to Manticore. Although the gap had become far narrower than it had been at the time of Earl White Haven’s offensive in Operation Buttercup, it began to widen once more as weapons research and production which had been stifled under High Ridge and Janacek was urgently resumed. The results of that resumption became manifest in the RMN’s Cutworm Offensives and, especially, the introduction of the Apollo FTL missile control systems.
Government
Constitutional monarchies come in many varieties, with both written and unwritten constitutions, and with monarchs which possess widely varying degrees of actual power. For its part, the constitution of the Star Empire grants its empress very broad authority indeed.
For example, the Constitution grants the Monarch the power to function as both head of state and head of government. Although the written Constitution enshrines a cabinet form of government, headed by a Prime Minister, the unwritten portion of the Constitution established during Queen Elizabeth I’s reign (1489–1521 PD) holds that the Cabinet is the Monarch’s servant and serves at his or her pleasure. The written Constitution provided her with several weapons which aided significantly in her ability to establish that point. Among those weapons, the Constitution specifically provides that when Parliament is hung and no party in the House of Lords can form a majority or coalition government, the Monarch may choose the Prime Minister and instruct him to form a minority government. In fact, under a strict interpretation of the written Constitution, the Monarch is not required to accept a Prime Minister even if he commands a majority in the Lords. In practice, that majority could refuse to support any other candidate for the office, creating an impasse which would paralyze government completely.
The supreme legislative body of the Star Empire will be the Imperial Parliament, which will meet in a new Imperial Hall of Parliament in Landing on Manticore. Based closely on the structure of the original Parliament of the Star Kingdom, but with membership drawn from the entire Empire, the Imperial Parliament is still in the early stages of formation. In the meantime, the Parliament of the Old Star Kingdom continues to act in a caretaker role for the Empire as a whole.
Parliament is bicameral, with an upper house (the House of Lords) and a lower house (the House of Commons). The Constitution requires the Pr
ime Minister to be a member of the House of Lords (and hence a peer) who must receive the endorsement of a majority of his fellow peers to hold the office. This provides him with a base of political power which a wise Monarch does not challenge, since the Crown can accomplish little without the support of Parliament. As a consequence, despite the Monarch’s status as head of government and despite the Crown’s power to dismiss a Prime Minister at will, successful governance requires a partnership between Monarch and Prime Minister. The consequences when the Crown finds itself at odds with a Prime Minister not of its choosing, backed by a powerful majority in the Lords, can be disastrous, as demonstrated by the recent High Ridge Government.
Monarch
The present Monarch is Elizabeth III. Until late 1921 PD, Manticore was officially a kingdom and the Monarch was King or Queen. After the incorporation of the Talbott Quadrant and the formation of the Star Empire, the monarchy adopted the new title of Empress or Emperor while retaining the title of Queen or King of the Old Star Kingdom.
The constitution acknowledges a wide range of executive powers the Monarch may exercise without regard to elected government, collectively referred to as the “Royal Prerogative.” Royal Prerogative is concerned with several areas critical to the government of the Star Empire, including the conduct of foreign affairs, defense, and national security. Most monarchs maintain the tradition of soliciting advice from the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, however, and rarely exercise Royal Prerogative in direct opposition to the will of the government.
Parliament
The Star Kingdom’s House of Lords is the senior and upper house of Parliament. Membership is attained by appointment or letters patent. Membership is composed of three groups: the senior ranked hereditary peers, their immediate heirs, and life peers upon whom voting rights have been bestowed. All three groups may also designate a representative, of their choice, if they are unable to fulfill their rights and duty to the house. (The precise basis upon which peers in the new, Imperial House of Lords will be selected by previously independent star nations with no preexisting hereditary aristocracy is in the process of resolution at this time.) Membership of the Lords as of 1921 PD is 587, and the total membership may be increased by a maximum of only ten percent between general elections of the House of Commons, no newly created peer may assume his or her seat until after the first general election following his elevation, and grants of peerages may be confirmed only by the House of Commons. (Note, however, that the majority of these peerages are also granted “cadet” seats, held by the heir apparent to the peerage. Holders of cadet seats have no vote in their own right in the Lords but act as proxies for the actual peer in his or her absence.) The peers may vote to exclude any peer for any reason and at their own discretion, however.
The Prime Minister must come from among the peers in the House of Lords and command a majority within it. Arguably, an exception was made to this rule when William Alexander became Prime Minister, since although he had been named Baron Grantville he had not yet taken his seat in the Lords as Baron Grantville. The Queen, however, argued that since he had held the cadet seat in the Lords for his brother, Earl White Haven, for many years, he was de facto a member of the Lords and so eligible on that basis until he assumed his seat in his own right. Under the circumstances, no one was inclined to dispute her on this point.
When the Constitution was adopted, converting shareholders into peers of the realm, the membership of the House of Lords was fixed at fifty, with seats granted based on the order in which the original colonists had invested in the expedition. That is, a “baron” who had been among the very early investors (or whose parent or grandparent had been) would be seated in the Lords in preference to a “duke” whose investment had come later. This rule of seniority within the Lords continues to this day, which helps to explain the influence of Michael Janvier, who was “merely” Baron of High Ridge but whose direct ancestor had been only the sixth individual to invest in the colony expedition. In the years since the founding, the number of seats in both the Lords and the Commons have been adjusted several times to reflect the SKM’s growing population base, but even today, not all peers hold seats in the House of Lords, by any means.
The old colonial territorial and administrative districts were also transformed at the time the Constitution was ratified. The existing geographically defined units were retained, but they became duchies, rather than the previous “districts” and the senior noble in each county became its hereditary governor. This created some problems, since the senior peer in one existing “duchy” might be an earl or even a baron, rather than a duke. The constitutional solution adopted was to create the title of “magister,” which applies to the senior peer (and governor) of any duchy, regardless of his hereditary rank. Although one magister may take precedence over another when seated in the House of Lords, all magisters are equal before the law when acting as the administrators of their duchies.
The House of Commons is the junior and lower house of Parliament. Unlike the House of Lords, members of the House of Commons must sit for reelection every four T-years, although the ruling government may call an election anytime earlier. General elections may also be suspended in declared times of emergency, supported by a two-thirds majority in each house, or in time of war, at the discretion of the Government. For elections to the Commons, the planets of the Star Kingdom are divided into constituencies known as boroughs, with one Member of Parliament representing each borough. Membership in the House of Commons is limited to no more than eight hundred, apportioned on a population basis, and fights over boundaries when reapportionment requires boroughs to be redrawn have been among the most bitter of the Star Kingdom’s domestic political battles. Peers cannot stand in elections in the House of Commons, although they may resign their titles of nobility in order to seek election.
Prior to 1919 PD, the House of Lords had the power of the purse, meaning that only it could introduce a finance or budget bill. The House of Commons could propose and pass amendments to the bill, but the House of Lords was empowered to strip them out again without the need for reconciliation, effectively relegating the House of Commons to an advisory role on budgetary matters. The House of Lords would then conduct a vote on the final bill which, if passed, would become law (subject to negation by royal prerogative). This constitutional provision was part of the deliberate effort to see to it that the original colonists and their descendants retained effective political control of the Star Kingdom and, in the view of many Manticorans (including the House of Winton) had long outlived its usefulness by the twentieth century PD. After 1919, the Lords lost the right to create budget or financial bills, which was transferred to the House of Commons, although the Lords have the right to amend and the upper house’s assent is necessary to the final passage of any such bill introduced by the Commons.
Political Parties
The House of Lords was intended by the framers of the Constitution to be the most powerful organ of government in the Star Kingdom. While it has been the scene of many bitter factional fights over the centuries, historically it was not marked by the creation of formal political parties, although that has been gradually changing for some time now. Most (though by no means all) Manticoran aristocrats have possessed a fairly strong sense of noblesse oblige; those who have not, as exemplified by Baron High Ridge and his allies, are among the most self-centered and intolerant in the known universe. The aristocratic parties which have existed have tended to be working alliances of individuals with the same basic interests, but those alliances also tend to be flexible, elastic, and subject to change. This approach to party and faction has been changing for some time now, but the tradition of ad hoc alliances irrespective of formal party labels remains very much alive.
Formal political parties have always been very much a part of the House of Commons, on the other hand, and over the last hundred years or so, the parties of the Commons have been finding members in the House of Lords, as well, as alliances are forged acr
oss the house boundaries. The more powerful parties are the Centrist Party and its normal ally, the Crown Loyalists; the Liberal Party; the Conservative Association; the Progressive Party; and the so-called “New Men” Party. Traditionally, members of the Commons, as the peers, have been expected to vote their own consciences if they find themselves at odds with their parties’ positions. A more collectivist approach, with tighter party discipline, has developed out of the bitter political battles marking Roger III and Elizabeth III’s military buildup prior to the First Havenite War, but personal conviction is still expected to trump partisan politics on critical votes.
Ironically, it is not at all uncommon for the leader of a “party of the Commons” to be a member of the House of Lords. The reason for this apparent contradiction becomes evident when one considers the Lords’ historical ascendency over the Commons. A party which sought to wield power or influence national policy absolutely required allies, at the very least, in the upper house, and the fact that peers need not stand for election gave them a huge advantage in terms of political tenure and effective power. By the same token, members of the Lords have come to recognize that they require allies in the Commons, which helps to explain the gradual “bleed over” of the parties of the Commons into the Lords.