Michael Janvier

Michael Janvier, most commonly referred to by his nobiliary title of Baron High Ridge, is a fictional character in the Honorverse, a series of military science fiction novels written by David Weber.

A peer of the realm in the Star Kingdom of Manticore, Baron High Ridge is a member of the Manticoran House of Lords. During his long political career, High Ridge quickly rose up to become the leader of the Conservative Association, a reactionary political faction devoted to secure aristocratic control of the government and an isolationist foreign policy. Given his political beliefs, his party has had almost no support from the Manticoran common population, and has thus historically been a bastion of the most close-minded nobles of Manticore.

Despite his philosophical and political differences with the Centrist Party led by Prime Minister Allen Summervale -Duke Cromarty-, High Ridge has often sided with the Centrists in matters of military policy. However, his support has always come at a price for the vote-strapped (in the Lords) Cromarty government, such as the appointment of the inept Edward Janáček as civilian head of the Royal Manticoran Navy and the refusal to vote for declaring war on Haven unless Captain Lord Pavel Young (son of an influential Conservative peer of the realm) was spared from the death penalty for cowardice in the battlefield.

When Duke Cromarty and other members of the Manticoran government were killed in a terrorist attack, High Ridge joined forces with the Liberal and Progressive parties (both politically at odds with the Conservatives, but equally resolved to take the government from the Centrists and Crown Loyalist parties) and pushed to form a coalition government. Unable to convince them to stop, or wait until the war was won, Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore was forced to accept High Ridge as her new Prime Minister, in an action which earned him Her Majesty's legendary hatred.

His first action as Prime Minister was to accept a ceasefire proposal by the Havenite leader Oscar Saint-Just, despite Manticore being only weeks from a total victory in the war. He then agreed to begin peace talks with Haven, but these talks were stalled for more than five years due to High Ridge's refusal to negotiate in good faith with the new Havenite regime; in the meantime, he could use the emergency war taxes imposed by his predecessor (even though there was no more open war) for political financing schemes aimed at giving his coalition an edge in the next general elections. For this purpose, he also agreed to cut the budget of the Navy and halt all new constructions, being utterly convinced of Manticore's technological superiority over any possible rival.

High Ridge's administration was rocked by scandals such as the Manpower affair -which exposed the ties of many Manticoran nobles and politicians with the unscrupulous Mesan slave corporation Manpower Unlimited, and infighting between the members of the coalition, which led to many cabinet reshuffles.

His administration's failure to negotiate a peace accord with Haven (compounded by his refusal to negotiate in good faith and the tampering with of his correspondence with President Eloise Pritchart) led to the resumption of hostilities between Manticore and Haven, with the latter quickly winning the upper hand in a series of attacks which caused critical losses to the partially downsized Royal Navy. When news of the loss of a critical shipyard arrived, he tried to convince Queen Elizabeth to call for a government of national unity, a proposal which the Queen gleefully rejected, leading to High Ridge's resignation as Prime Minister and his replacement by William Alexander.

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