] You were the person that started me thinking this direction. :-)

I'm so proud. :o) Yes, Claudius is a stronger king than Hamlet would be (IMO), but not as good as the guy who already had the job! ;-)

] Claudius seems to treat Fortinbras as a misbehaving upstart child. After all, he goes to Old norway to negotiate, not to F himself.

And this makes sense to me. After all Old Norway is the King, supposedly he has influence and control over his nephew...

] Seems to me, F is a very real threat to Denmark. Perhaps that is why he lets F traipse across Denmark to Poland - C is grossly underestimating the threat.