cthia wrote:JeffEngel wrote:Conservative Graysons were up in arms about a Steadholder not being married to the co-parent of that Steadholder's future heir, when that co-parent was certainly not a Grayson. (Although he's certainly someone of whom Graysons approve.)
So, yeah. With Hamish Alexander's foreign status as a total non-issue as the lover of a Steadholder, with the resolution of the issue being their marriage arranged by Father Church's leader himself, and with nary an eye batted by his foreign status by people eager to make trouble, I don't see effective trouble being made by a Steadholder's daughter (got plenty of those, and this one's not an heir) choice of a non-Grayson as a groom. If she up and wants to marry, say, a Masadan, then I can see a whole lot of fuss. If Abigail should choose one of Grayson's most prominent and respected immigrants as a spouse, the Keys would end up looking totally ridiculous making trouble about it.
Jeff, of course I could be mistaken regarding my memory of the events. But IIRC, the Conservative Graysons weren't so much as harping on there not being a traditional union in the form of a marriage between the two; that wasn't what was getting their knickers all in a twist. They were protesting the admittance of the heir. They did not want to allow Honor's heir. Harping on the fact that there was no marriage was the leverage, they'd hoped. However, Reverend Jeremiah Sullivan threw a curve in the form of a monkey-wrench that caught them completely unawares and off-balance - which bit them in the proverbial backside. Am I incorrect here? I certainly could be without a reread.
Mostly it was an opportunity to smear her. I doubt they figured they had practical constitutional standing to stop Raoul's inheritance on the issue of bastardy, given how routinely it was waived to get
any son of a Steadholder inheriting the steading when no legitimate son was available. It was effectively another round of messing with her reputation and, by association, Benjamin Mayhew's, on the basis of sex outside marriage as with Paul Tankersley. (With added nastiness, because it was ongoing instead of to do with a dead man, and because the lover was married to someone else.)
But still, it's telling what was the basis of it. It was never that the heir should have a parent not of Grayson: it was that the heir should be born outside marriage. And in either case, it's directed at the Steadholder for behaving this way. Given that the relevant sin, by people really looking hard for a sin to pin on her, had nothing to do with Hamish Alexander's or Paul Tankersley's nationality (or even religion) and everything to do with sex outside marriage and Steadholder conduct, I'm confident that the conservative/opposition Steadholders would not even think that marriage to an outworlder would be a big deal for a Steadholder, much less a Steadholder's non-heir daughter.
And if there was a problem, I strongly suspect they'd run it on suggestions that the resulting heir wouldn't be a member of the Church of Humanity Unchained, another attack they've run on Honor. But in Abigail's case, with the Owens Steading not something running down her branch of the family at all, even that could not be an issue.
I suppose, if they are rummaging around the bottom of the insult barrel, they could mutter about how Grayson women are abandoning Grayson men when they put on uniforms and fight. But with so many of the people in Grayson uniform and workforce now being either (1) immigrants, (2) women, or (3) immigrant women, they would likely find themselves heading out from "opposition politicians" toward "embarrassing lunatic fringe" in a hurry trying that.
Now I know that even entertaining the fact that Honor wasn't married may have negatively impacted the Conservatives in the long run, per our current discussion. And that reasoning is just a small step away from native Graysons marrying foreigners. But Honor has always been treated as a special case Grayson, whose grading on a political and religious curve was never accepted for Graysons proper.
She's a special case but also a precedent and a wedge. That's the point of Benjamin Mayhew giving her a steading. If a niche or an activity is something Honor Harrington can fill or perform well and honorably, it's a door open to Grayson-born women as well.
Maybe, just maybe, opposition Steadholders could try condemning Abigail Hearns in case she enters into that honorable estate with some worthy man born off Grayson. And maybe Steadholder Owens would rather do without some political fights. But if a political enemy is going to go for an attack that will make him look crass, narrow and stupid, that's a kind of attack that will go so badly for that enemy that I'd welcome it. And beyond that, Steadholder Owens loves his daughter and isn't going to tell her not to marry a man she loves because some jerk with a key is going to be a jerk about it. Fair warning so it's not a surprise to him is about all I can see him asking.
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