Viska Skaft

Viska Skaft af Beinnvaði
Viska Skaft, future alráðherra of Helminthasse; this portrait was painted in 1795 while she was a student and sent as a gift to her parents
5th alráðherra of Helminthasse
In office 31 Dominy 1827 (12 Mandæsur 1027 ÁL) – 24 Nollonger 1833 (3 Ekunur 1034 ÁL)
Preceded by	Vitringur Hýði
Succeeded by	Vitringur Hýði
Personal details
Born	28 Ediface 1779 (6 Pisasmur 980 ÁL) Sumarsey, Hélla, Siurskeyti
Died	7 Conservene 1847 (16 Ekunur 1048 ÁL) (aged 68) Beinnvað, Helminthasse, Helminthasse

Viska Skaft af Beinnvaði (1779-1847; 980-1048 ÁL) was the fifth alráðherra of Helminthasse, serving in that role between 1827 and 1833. Prominent in the debate surrounding the Helmin secession, Skaft was noted for much of her political career for intransigence in defending her viewpoint, to the extent that she acquired the uncomplimentary kenning of Viska Vanaföst (the Hártal adjective vanafastur roughly translates as “set in one’s ways”).

Early life

Skaft was born on 28 Ediface 1779 (6 Pisasmur 980 ÁL) in her family home in Sumarsey, a small village then just outside Beinnvað in what was then the commonhold of Hélla, and was the eldest child of Hugrakkur Skaft, the thosse of Beinnvað. She was a rather reserved and very studious child; although mainly educated at home by tutors in her early years, she outstripped their ability early enough that she was granted admission to the University of Ostari at the comparatively early age of fifteen. While inspired by her childhood reading of the philosophies of Arlatur and the life of its founder Ragna Hrafnamaður, she elected to study the law as the Summoner had originally set out to do, reasoning that when the time came for her to become thosse in her father’s stead, the discipline instilled by study of the law would help her carry out those responsibilities better. She graduated with first-class honours in 1797.

Early career

Following in the traditions of public service frequently expected of Siur nobility, Skaft took up the responsibilities of a réttarmaður or Siur jurist. In this role she frequently fought the corner of small farmers and traders placed at disadvantage by larger business interests and, as she moved from the local to the commonhold level, on many occasions her fellow noblemen.

Succeeding her father as thosse of Beinnvað in 1805 allowed her to bring her concerns over this kind of injustice to the commonhold level in the þeinsráð of Hélla and, later, within the Vísráð; years of court argument gave her the insight and eloquence needed to voice those concerns in compelling fashion. In the process, she attracted a fair measure of derision from the ill-informed, and some concern from the more connected and more powerful. As the debate over the continued union of the Siur commonholds began to grow larger and more heated, Skaft gravitated naturally towards the patrimonialist side of the debate, and became one of the early lightning rods for unionists and separatists alike. Given Hélla’s position broadly on the unionist side of the debate, Skaft’s increasing outspokenness on the issue of the rights of the commonholds over the broadly federal Siursk government gained her the soubriquet of Axarkonin (“the axe-woman”).

Skaft particularly turned her attention to the question of how, and to what degree, the existence of the Sáttmáli, the Siursk treaty of union, neutered the individual rights of the member commonholds; with other like-minded delegates, she established the Ógilding or “annulment” faction in 1807. Skaft drafted one of the key elements of their platform, the requirement for legislation to have the support of a double majority in the Vísráð – both of voters and of commonhold blocs – which was later incorporated into the constitution of the new Helminthasse. Her growing involvement in the secession debate also led her into print as one of the contributors to the Skynsemi series of essays which laid out the case for secession.

Homeland insecurity

The growing chasm between Skaft’s political stance and the attitudes of her people in Beinnvað finally became too much; in Petrial 1811 her status as thosse was formally challenged under moltalandi. Skaft protested the decision – arguing that it could not be invoked merely over a political dispute – but, to her surprise and disgust, the commonhold’s court in Hélla ruled that the procedure could legitimately be invoked; the vote, which took place in Dominy of the same year, went against her and in favour of her cousin Jόnas Þursur, by almost three to one. Skaft thus became the first thosse to be unseated for almost 100 years.

Deprived of her lands and any income from the thossic purse, Skaft lodged with friends in Ostari while throwing herself even harder into the secessionist cause. She was expelled from the Vísráð as a result of the vote in Beinnvað, but this paradoxically freed her to travel the country, debating the need for a new social compact which empowered the commonholds in the face of a dominating central government. She was one of the drivers of an appeal late in 1811 to the Lágskáli-based Ædsthirð on the rights of individual commonholds to rescind the Sáttmáli; and although not technically entitled to a place at the Mikillhörsalur sessions of Petrial 1812 (as neither thosse nor ljósendi), she nonetheless took a prominent role in the debates. As the rebel commonholds moved towards war, she moved to Lágskáli at the request of her friend Armæða Bani, whose responsibilities as the nascent Alliance’s spokesperson on foreign affairs kept her out of the country for long periods, as part of that city’s húðarráð; during the Summer War Skaft helped organise the city’s defences.

The capture of Beinnvað during the early stages of the war, in which the Hélla commonhold was broken into two pieces, heartened Skaft considerably; one of the early acts of the new Helmin Eðaldeild was to restore her to her former possessions, as the captured territory was formally annexed to the commonhold of Helminthasse. This was vehemently protested in Beinnvað; the use of centralised powers by the new althein, Hringur Slátrari, to reward a conspicuously loyal supporter – quite against the commonhold-rights principles that had supposedly driven the war – was not lost on anyone. It also, arguably, foreshadowed the extent to which the centre would seek to override the periphery in the future.

Called to council

Probably because of her uncertain position at home, Skaft took little active part in the councils of power as the new Helminthasse sought to establish itself, concentrating on rebuilding her local power base. It was not until the summer of 1816 that she felt herself secure enough to start making a contribution again at national level. Assigned the post of attorney-general, she began the process of reconstructing the Helmin court system, which was still largely focused around commonhold-level courts with gaps in their mutual recognition of decisions and precedents. The support and assistance of Vitringur Hýði as interior minister from early 1817 in helping to steer the rationalisation of the corpus of law inherited from Siurskeyti was an additional engine of progress.

For most of her career to date, Skaft had been seen as a close associate of Slátrari and one of his most loyal supporters as althein; his death and the breakdown of her close friend Bani deprived her of significant support in the ongoing factional battles of Helmin politics. She surrendered her office in Nollonger 1821, and spent most of the next four years attending to her duties as thosse of Beinnvað. Although she had never been able to completely mend fences with her people there, the passage of time – and the relative lack of negative change in their lives in the years since the war – had done much to soften the animosity.

Becoming alráðherra

Resuming her seat in the Eðaldeild late in 1824, she re-established herself as a player at national level well enough to receive the defence portfolio in the spring of 1825. As with much of the rest of the Helmin economy, the armed forces had to suffer severe cutbacks as a result of the stresses caused by the Porohea crisis of 1825-26. The army was in any event seen as a strong candidate to take the brunt of austerity measures; the country was not significantly threatened by its neighbours – with the exception of occasional grumbles along the Siurskeyti border – and was seen in many quarters as being overfunded and overgeared for the country’s needs.

The scaling-back of the armed forces was strongly supported by Björn Geigur as alráðherra, and it was largely with his support that Skaft emerged as a compromise candidate to replace him when he became althein in 1827. Replaced at defence by her old colleague Hýði, she repeatedly butted heads with him over funding issues – to the extent that Hýði resigned from the cabinet in 1830 – and it was not until Heppinn Stórlind was elected as Geigur’s successor as althein that the defence budget was significantly increased. While this had some positive effects, it proved to be too little and too late; drawn into conflict in Vettermark during the Västrahamn War of 1833, the Helmin army was resoundingly beaten by a larger and better-organised force from Odann. In addition to this, the Sporður region in the country’s south-east was invaded by Alcasia and successfully annexed.

The outcry at not one, but two, military catastrophes caused eruptions in government. Stórlind largely escaped censure, on the grounds that he had attempted to put the deficits right since becoming althein in the previous year. Skaft, rightly or wrongly, was held as the chief scapegoat, and was forced to resign in favour of Hýði in Nollonger 1833. Defeated and disgraced, she withdrew from public life, and gave up her thosseship to Tildi Þursur, daughter of her cousin and predecessor Jónas, in the following month.

In retirement

Skaft turned to writing in her retirement years, and was the author of one of the most detailed early studies of the Helmin secession and the Summer War, Við Berjast ef Við Verður (“We Fight If We Must”); the book was written in the period 1838-40, although not published until after her death. Skaft died in Virkið on 7 Conservene 1847 (16 Ekunur 1048 ÁL) at the age of 68, after a long spell suffering from tuberculosis, and was buried on her estate in Beinnvað.