Feudal Future: Difference between revisions

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** Manticore had an interesting [[Justified Trope|Justification]] for its nobility: The oldest noble families are descended from the original colonists who footed the initial investment for the trip out to the Manticore system, with the Queen's family being descended from the biggest investor.

*** Manticore was initially established as a ''corporativist'' society not unlike Beowulf or Mesa, but it had to fall back on feudal structure after [[The Plague]] that wiped out more than half of its entire population shortly after the colony foundation. Faced with a need to quickly import a huge number of fresh immigrants, and fearing the erosion of their original investment, the original settlers developed the current feudal system as a way [[Sleazy Politician|to ensure their political and economical domination]]. A comparison would be an expanding corporation making a new stock issue but protecting the old interest by giving them first chance to buy preferred shares.

***To be fair it had been their own planet before and one might at least allow them some claim to have the right to set terms in which to invite immigrants. Furthermore there was no fraud or undue pressure, the terms of the immigration were not intolerable in themselves and while they did establish an ascribed hierarchy they retained rule of law, and a constitutional government. And in any event later immigrants could and did have descendants ennobled for achievements, or married or adopted into noble families, sometimes a noble would resign from the Lords to run in the commons. This could happen when there was a factional clog and was a strategy used on one occasion in the book; coincidently it is often known in the real British system(especially as the Commons have more power in real life), the royal consort always had to be common born and in general there was enough "churn" to make the system livable.

***To be fair it had been their own planet before and one might at least allow them some claim to have the right to set terms in which to invite immigrants. Furthermore there was no fraud or undue pressure, the terms of the immigration were not intolerable in themselves and while they did establish an ascribed hierarchy they retained rule of law, and a constitutional government. And in any event later immigrants could and did have descendants ennobled for achievements, or married or adopted into noble families, sometimes a noble would resign from the Lords to run in the commons. This could happen when there was a factional clog and was a strategy used on one occasion in the book; coincidently it is often known in the real British system (especially as the Commons have more power in real life), the royal consort always had to be common born and in general there was enough "churn" to make the system livable.

** ''Empire of Man/[[Prince Roger]]'' series, by [[John Ringo]] and [[David Weber]].

** Also Weber's ''[[The Excalibur Alternative]]'' in passing, but there it's justified by the Emperor being an English noble born in the 14th century(yes, it's sci-fi - it's a rather odd story).