- House of Winton
The House of Winton is a fictional
royal family ofDavid Weber 'sHonorverse series ofscience fiction novel s.In the Honorverse, the House of Winton is the first and only royal
dynasty in the history of theStar Kingdom of Manticore . The current reigning monarch of Manticore is Her Majesty Elizabeth III, who succeeded to the Throne after her father's (King Roger III)assassination by agents of thePeople's Republic of Haven .A particular feature of the House of Winton is that their members are always black, despite centuries of intermixing and dilution of genetic stock varieties.
Prior to leaving for
Manticore A , Roger Winton, founder and administrator of the colony ofManticore set up the Manticoran Colony Trust of Zurich which was to invest the capital that remained after the expense of mounting the expedition. The interest that this trust accrued was to be used to watch over the colonist's interest during the 650 years that it would take for the colony ship, "Jason" to reach its destination.The Trust did its job well. So well in fact that upon "Jason"'s arrival in 1416 PD (post diaspora), Manticore found itself with a very favorable bank balance. Which was a very good thing because thirty eight years after the colony's establishment a plague which was resistant to everything available to Manticoran doctors struck the colonists. It took ten years for a
vaccine to be developed and in that time, 60% of the original colonists died.New colonists needed to be recruited, but the surviving settlers of Manticore were concerned about remaining in control of their own colony. The solution was an interesting one.
Since the colony's foundation Roger Winton had served as Planetary Administrator. Although now over eighty years old, he remained active and his daughter, Elizabeth, herself President of the Board of Directors was as good an administrator as Roger.
Because the Wintons had served Manticore so well, a convention of colony shareholders elected to convert the planetary government from a Board of Directors to a Monarchy with Roger Winton as its first king. The Wintons have ruled the Star Kingdom of Manticore ever since. The Manticoran Constitution gives reigning monarchs some limited actual executive power.
A not-generally-known fact of the House of Winton is that its founder, Roger Winton, had been genetically engineered at the request of his parents. These alterations, which have not been disclosed, were passed on to his descendents, perhaps leading at least in part to the ongoing predominance of the African phenotype bundle.
Even though the Star Kingdom does not have an official religion, the members of the House of Winton are communicants of the Second Reformation Roman Catholic Church, and have supported the construction of King Michael's Cathedral.
The Manticoran Constitution also mandates that the Heir to the Throne must marry a commoner, thus ensuring that the Royal Family keeps in touch with the commoner population of the Star Kingdom.
Since King Roger's ascension to the throne there have been sixteen monarchs of Manticore. Individually and as a group the Wintons have proven to be unusually strong and respected rulers.
List of Monarchs of the House of Winton
King Roger I
*
Post Diaspora calendar: 1471-1474 pd
* Official Manticoran reckoning: 32-34 al
* Christian Era reckoning: 3574-3577 ADFirst monarch of the Star Kingdom of Manticore. Born Roger Winton, King Roger I was not only the first King of Manticore, but also the only one born on Earth as well as the only Manticoran head of state of the pre-monarchy period. As President of Manticore Colony, Ltd., Roger Winton organized the colony expedition and established the Manticore Colony Trust to safeguard the colonists' rights over Manticore during the centuries-long journey. After colonization, he served as Planetary Administrator and was continuously reelected for more than forty years. The plague that devastated Manticore took the lives of his wife and two
Earth -born children. When Manticore reformed its constitution, Roger Winton (already over eighty years old) was crowned as King Roger I and reigned for three years before his death.Queen Elizabeth I
* Post diaspora calendar: 1474-1507 pd
* Official Manticoran reckoning: 34-53 al
* Christian Era reckoning: 3577-3610 ADSecond monarch of the Star Kingdom of Manticore. Born Elizabeth Winton, Queen Elizabeth I was the first Manticore-born monarch of the Star Kingdom. Before the establishment of the Manticoran monarchy, Elizabeth Winton served as President of the Board of Directors of the Manticore Colony, effectively being Vice President to her father and Planetary Administrator, Roger Winton. She was also one of Manticore's leading jurists and a survivor of the plague that decimated the colony.
Elizabeth became Queen of Manticore after the death of her father, and immediately took steps to ensure that the Crown would not be a mere figurehead. Queen Elizabeth played the nobility's various factions against each other and gained the support of the growing commoner population of the Star Kingdom, securing for her and her descendants the supreme role in the Manticoran political system.
King Michael
* Post diaspora calendar: 1507-1539 pd
* Official Manticoran reckoning: 53-72 al
* Christian Era reckoning: 3610-3642 ADThird monarch of the Star Kingdom of Manticore.
King Edward I
* Post diaspora calendar: 1539-1544 pd
* Official Manticoran reckoning: 72-74 al
* Christian Era reckoning: 3642-3647 ADFourth monarch of the Star Kingdom of Manticore. King Edward I ruled for only five Terran years before dying in a boating accident. He was succeeded in the Throne by his sister, presumably due to the lack of heirs of his own.
Queen Elizabeth II
* Post diaspora calendar: 1544-1601 pd
* Official Manticoran reckoning: 74-107 al
* Christian Era reckoning: 3647-3704 ADFifth monarch of the Star Kingdom of Manticore.
King David
* Post diaspora calendar: 1601-1642 pd
* Official Manticoran reckoning: 107-131 al
* Christian Era reckoning: 3704-3745 ADSixth monarch of the Star Kingdom of Manticore.
King Roger II
* Post diaspora calendar: 1642-1669 pd
* Official Manticoran reckoning: 131-147 al
* Christian Era reckoning: 3745-3772 ADSeventh monarch of the Star Kingdom of Manticore. During his youth, Prince Roger espoused several of the Liberals' ideas, which was a source of problems for his parents in the light of intense criticism of the monarchy (this criticism stemmed in no small part from the example of the then-Republic of Haven, which was second only to the Solarian League itself as the most powerful and prosperous nation of the period). Prince Roger married Gryphon-born commoner Solange Chabala, and after his crowning as King Roger II, the couple worked intensely to make the monarchy useful in the eyes of the population.
Following the death of Queen Solange onboard the royal yacht HMS "Queen Elizabeth I" when her inertial compensator failed, King Roger II undertook to run the government efficiently and ensure that the Crown ruled supreme over all the Star Kingdom. This led to clashes between the Crown and elements in the Manticoran government which attempted to resist his will, particularly the
Sphinx Forestry Service (which was protected by an amendment to the Manticoran Constitution guaranteeing the rights of treecats). This resulted in the King developing an obsession to bring Sphinx under his control. Some of these positions changed, however, after Princess Adrienne survived an assassination attempt due to timely intervention by some of the local treecats.Queen Adrienne
* Post diaspora calendar: 1669-1681 pd
* Official Manticoran reckoning: 147-154 al
* Christian Era reckoning: 3772-3784 ADEighth monarch of the Star Kingdom of Manticore. Born Adrienne Michelle Aoriana Elizabeth Winton to King Roger II and Queen Solange. During a state visit to Sphinx, then-Crown Princess Adrienne suffered an assassination attempt. Queen Adrienne was the first Manticoran monarch to be adopted by a Sphinxian
treecat , and at her request, the Manticoran Admiralty allowed officers which had been adopted by treecats to serve in the ships of theRoyal Manticoran Navy .The famous last battle ofEdward Saganami took place during her reign. (see "Shadow of Saganami", ch. 1)The royal yacht HMS "Queen Adrienne" was named after her.
King William
* Post diaspora calendar: 1681-1690 pd
* Official Manticoran reckoning: 154-158 al
* Christian Era reckoning: 3784-3793 ADNinth monarch of the Star Kingdom of Manticore. King William was the first Manticoran monarch to be assassinated. He was murdered by a psychotic during his ninth Terran year of rule.
The superdreadnought HMS "King William" (affectionatly nicknamed "Billy Boy") was named after him. This ship was the lead ship of her class, and was destroyed at the Second Battle of Basilisk durring Operation Icarus.
King William II
* Post diaspora calendar: 1690-1741 pd
* Official Manticoran reckoning: 158-188 al
* Christian Era reckoning: 3793-3844 ADTenth monarch of the Star Kingdom of Manticore.
Queen Caitrin
* Post diaspora calendar: 1741-1762 pd
* Official Manticoran reckoning: 188-200 al
* Christian Era reckoning: 3844-3865 ADEleventh monarch of the Star Kingdom of Manticore. The superdreadnought HMS " Queen Caitrin", flagship of Admiral
Hamish Alexander during the campaign to conquer Trevor's Star, was named after her.Queen Samantha I
* Post diaspora calendar: 1762-1785 pd
* Official Manticoran reckoning: 200-214 al
* Christian Era reckoning: 3865-3888 ADTwelfth monarch of the Star Kingdom of Manticore.
King George
* Post diaspora calendar: 1785-1802 pd
* Official Manticoran reckoning: 214-224 al
* Christian Era reckoning: 3888-3905 ADThirteenth monarch of the Star Kingdom of Manticore.
Queen Samantha II
* Post diaspora calendar: 1802-1857 pd
* Official Manticoran reckoning: 224-255 al
* Christian Era reckoning: 3905-3960 ADFourteenth monarch of the Star Kingdom of Manticore. Mother of King Roger III and Caitrin Winton-Henke. Queen Samantha II died of old age and heart failure due to incurable deterioration.
King Roger III
* Post diaspora calendar: 1857-1883 pd
* Official Manticoran reckoning: 255-270 al
* Christian Era reckoning: 3960-3986 ADFifteenth monarch of the Star Kingdom of Manticore. King Roger III was behind the Star Kingdom's pre-war military expansion, aimed at resisting an attack by the expansionist People's Republic of Haven; he received the support of the Centrist and Crown Loyalist parties. King Roger III was also the first Manticoran monarch to receive the prolong treatment. He died while grav-skiing; while this was presented to the public as an accident, investigations revealed that he was the victim of a conspiracy by a cabal of isolationist politicians and political figures in the payroll of the Havenite Office of Internal Security (InSec).
His common-born wife, Queen Angelique, was called "poor little beggar maid" by the Manticoran nobility. He had two children, the future Queen Elizabeth III and Prince Michael.
Queen Elizabeth III
* Post diaspora calendar: 1883 pd-present
* Official Manticoran reckoning: 270 al-present
* Christian Era reckoning: 3986 AD-presentSixteenth and current reigning monarch of the Star Kingdom of Manticore. She is straightforward, unduplicitous and honourable. This sets her apart from many of her aristocratic contemporaries.
Quirk: She is said to keep her grudges for so long that they die of old age; then she has them stuffed and mounted. It is said that even elephants admit they can be forgetful compared to her when it comes to tenacious memory of slights and opposition. Particularly, she hates the
People's Republic of Haven , as the People's Republic was responsible for the assassination of her father, the death of a great many of her subjects, and her Prime Minister, uncle, and cousin.Her father was killed in a grav-skiing 'accident' orchestrated by some Manticoran politicians who disagreed with his military policies and who were influenced by Havenite agents or paid directly by them. The apparent plan had been to put a weak, teenaged Heir onto the throne and to influence Star Kingdom policies (specifically the military buildup in anticipation of war with the PRH). They were, however, faced instead with Queen Elizabeth Winton III.
Elizabeth III, like seven of the previous nine Manticoran monarchs, has been adopted by a Sphinxian treecat. She has named him Ariel. Treecats have named her Soul of Steel. Her consort, Prince Justin, is also an adoptee, having been adopted by her father's treecat, Monroe, after the late King's assassination. The Royal Couple also have two children, Crown Prince Roger and Princess Joanna.
ources
More than Honor by David Weber, David Drake, and SM Stirling. Line of Succession excerpted from: More than Honor by David Weber, David Drake, and S.M. Stirling. "The Universe of Honor Harrington" by David Weber. page 337-338.
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