"King Haakon sent a message to [the Eirikssons], bidding them to go ashore on the mainland to Rastarkaalf, where he had marked off a battlefield with hazel wands. It was broad and flat, at the foot of a long and rather narrow ridge. The Eirikssons agreed, led their host across the neck of land in Fraedarberg, and took stance on the chosen ground."
-Poul Anderson, Mother Of Kings (New York, 2003), Book Four, Chapter XXV, p. 377.
That all sounds very gentlemanly, almost like a game of cricket. I suppose that both sides hope to rule, or to continue to rule, the kingdom after the battle so they want to destroy as little as possible of it in the hostilities - although they do plenty of looting and burning when it suits them.
Having mentioned church-state relations here, let us bring the story up-to-date somewhat. Here, in twenty first century Northern Europe, we live in the long aftermath of the conflicts described by Anderson. In England, our national church is established, a state religion. In Lancaster, our current Member of Parliament is a Methodist. This evening, she and the Leader of her Party spoke in Lancaster Priory Church. Thus, politics and religion can still be entangled. One thing that they offered and started to deliver was a new approach, based on issues, not on personal hostilities. Character assassinations of political opponents would have been out of place on hallowed ground.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Except I wonder how REAL that "establishment" of the Anglican Church is nowadays. Beginning with Catholic Emancipation in 1829 and the disestablishment of the Anglican Church in Ireland in the 1860s, the Anglican Establishment has become more and more nominal, even hollow. The chief remaining practical effect has been the continued banning of Catholics from inheriting the crown. Which has caused irritation from time to time, esp. when a person in the line of succession becomes a Catholic.
Sean
Sean,
And, of course, Bishops in the Lords.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
True, but again, I wonder how much real influence these Anglican bishops have these days in the Lords? And even that had Catholic origins, from the pre-"Reformation" bishops. I have read suggestions that Catholic bishops should again sit in the Lords, but it was declined by the Archbishop of Westminster. Probably because he didn't want the Church running the risk of being too closely entangled with the state.
Sean
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