The Sovereign [original poetry]

The stately swan-punctuated moat of Egeskov Slot

Over the last week in Denmark, we've visited several castles and my reaction to these gorgeous, ancient, towering, decadent homes has been mixed. Admittedly, they drip with history and that leaves me in complete awe. Most are close to 800 years old. Some are quite opulent, and even the burned-out castle we saw in Kolding was poised and beautiful in its refusal to completely collapse:

Remnants of the castle's outer wall after several fires at Koldinghus

I'm planning to make separate posts about each castle because the architecture and history deserve notice. But because these castles were built and furnished and maintained with a form of economic extortion, I also find these castles troubling.

Something rotten in the state of Denmark: a prop skull of Yorick's at Kronborg Slot
in Helsingør, dramatized as Elsinore in Shakespeare's "Hamlet"

It's not the opulence; that doesn't offend me. Live as luxuriously as you like. It's not my place or desire to tell anyone how to live. But if you can't pay for this opulence yourself -- with your own ideas and innovations and work and service to your fellow man, your society, your market's consumers who pay you willingly for these things -- then your life of luxury becomes ugly. With this thought in mind, the more castles I see, the uglier they appear.

Some royal opulence in Egeskov Slot

Kronborg's opulent ballroom

The Kings who inhabited these castles drew most of their income from sound dues -- a toll foreign ships were forced to pay to enter the waters between Sweden and Denmark. (Back in the 15th and 16th centuries, Denmark controlled several provinces in what is now Sweden.) The dues were enforced primarily by Kronborg Slot and its bevy of cannons lined up facing the sound. If ships refused to pay, these cannons would fire in an effort to sink the ships.

The cannons of Kronborg Slot pointing east toward the sound;
Denmark-controlled cannons were also posted in Helsingborg
in what is now Sweden (just visible in the photo) pointing west;
both sides were poised to fire on ships refusing to pay

In economic terms, such tolls are also known as “rents” or unearned revenue -- income from “non-produced” goods such as land, or assets created out of official privilege. And while they financed the opulence of several generations of Danish royals, these tolls also caused much trouble between Denmark and other countries, especially Sweden, and was a major factor in the Torstenson War of 1643.

The dues caused domestic problems, too, having a negative effect on Denmark's own merchants in Copenhagen and on the Danish economy. In this way, the dues functioned as a tax on Danish citizens as well as a tariff on foreign merchants. By claiming this exclusive right to charge rents on Danish waterways, the Kings were using elite privilege to enrich themselves while hurting the economic well-being of their own people.

The main gate at Koldinghus, keeping out the 99 percent

I'm not the type of person to complain about the lifestyles of the rich and famous here in the US, but such complaints do happen. It's fashionable here (and economically illiterate) to insist that teachers deserve higher salaries than professional basketball players. Movie stars are often criticized for spending their millions on mansions and designer clothes rather than feeding the poor. And CEOs of large corporations have become pariahs in our society simply because they receive extremely large salaries and severance packages.

But whether or not you agree that such people “deserve” their wealth, it's important to remember that they earn their money. Movie stars don't tax us to pay for their beachfront properties. We choose to buy tickets to their movies. And the CEO of McDonald's can't force you to buy a Big Mac (although CEOs of companies with government contracts actually can do that). The point is, only governing bodies can tax others to fund their extravagant lifestyles; Denmark's castles are a perfect if somewhat impermanent illustration of this.

Of course, these experiences in Denmark inspired a poem:

 

The Sovereign

Castles crumble into the slapping sea;
red bricks break, a crimson dust,
the remnant of cordoned-off Kings.
Time, the first dimension, ticks away
the bricks, the dust, that's forced
into that straightened stream,
the downward drip of decay.
Fire has licked and lapped at these castle walls,
stained black, an angry paint,
turning castle to kiln.
But time and fire have failed
to solve the problem of Kings,
divine rights dissolving only after
the minds of men refuse them.
And again we will pen that timeless law:
a mind is a sovereignty unto itself.

~Stephanie Herman (@geke)