boballab wrote:There is another possibility that is being overlooked if you look at the timeline of years and events.
1. Stephanie Harrington was born in the year 1505 PD.
2. At the start of "Treecat Wars" Stephanie is 16 years old which places the year the events of the book takes place at 1521/1522 time frame.
3. In Treecat Wars it is stated that one of the richest Lords on Manticore will lose a lot of their fortune if they lose their land options on Sphinx and they expect that the worth of them will triple in the next 30 to 40 years:Over the course of the next thirty to forty T-years, that value would at least triple, and the bankable value they already represented had been used as security for loans totaling just over a billion dollars. Those loans were critical to the Earldom of Frampton’s solvency, and their terms required full payment or refinancing within the next ten T-years. Repayment would be difficult or even impossible; refinancing would be a routine transaction . . . as long as the options’ value was maintained.
Treecat Wars Chapter 13
4. 30 years after Treecat Wars is the year 1551/2 and Stephanie will be 46 and would be heavily involved in the politics surrounding the Treecats. However that in an of itself would not get her a title and awarded the Order of Merit IMHO (which we know she had from "What Price Dreams") but there is this line from the story to think on:Despite the SFS's best efforts, people are already beginning to forget what a monumental role she played in Sphinx's history—or that of the entire Star Kingdom, for that matter. Unfortunately, that was apparently the way she wanted it, and the Harrington family has steadfastly refused to release her private papers. Until they do, it's unlikely anyone will be able to do a job much better than Simmons'. Which is a pity."
Ponder on just what the Chief Ranger meant by the the highlighted part and just why the Harrington's never released her private papers even through Honor's day in 1921 PD.
5. I haven't found an exact date for when the 9th Amendment to the Manticore Constitution was passed but keep this in mind from "What Price Dreams" dealing with when the debate on the 9th started.The fact that the Star Kingdom had been in existence for barely a hundred and thirty T-years when the debate began hadn't helped. The original Constitution had already been extensively modified and reinterpreted (very creatively indeed, in some cases) as the Crown, the Lords, and the Commons worked out the real balance of power. Indeed, one reason the Ninth Amendment had taken so long to ratify in the first place had been that the document it was intended to modify had been in such a state of flux.
130 T-years after first landing is the year 1546 PD 2 years after the crowning of Queen Elizabeth II and part of the flux in that statement would be her push for the changes at the end of "Call to Vengeance"
Would it be out of the realm of possibility that Axelrod gets wind of Framptons(and Gwen Adair sister to the Earl of Adair Hollow)financial problems and strikes a deal with them to help one another. Over throw the throne and your Treecat problems go away and Axelrod gets what they want. It is just a slight change in plans, instead of having an outside force over throwing the government to be Axelrod puppets you just support a coup, this is something we have seen time and again in the Shadow books on how Transtellars took over Verge planets.
Of course it could all be coincidence and the two most major and far lasting events in the Kingdoms history do not even touch one another.
Suggest you read the HoS section on Treecats it gives the year of the passing of the ninth amendment as 1568 PD and the date of 1685 PD decision of the Kings Bench banning any challenge of the Treecats sentience.
Foreign Secretary office to Breakwater.