Recognizing Skill and Good Works

[dennis grace]

Greetings Cousins,

Lyonel here.  

This evening (11/1/96), Daniel de Lincoln wrote:

<stuff I didn't care about followed by>
>On Friday, 25 October, I sent a message to the Ansteorran list about
>such topics.  Did it not get out?  Summary: Corpora and kingdom law
>are confused, but Baroness Katrionna summarizes the usual reality.
>(Well, I can't say about "solely at the discretion"; for all I know
>there are baronies out there where the baron/ess consults, and I would
>think it a good thing too.)

Yes, Daniel's message got out, but Corpora and Kingdom law aren't all that
confused.  Recall that Daniel noted 

>. . . Corpora VII.B.3 has
>
>      Other Awards and Orders.  Non-armigerous awards and orders may
>      be established by a kingdom, principality or barony, according
>      to the laws and customs of the kingdom.  The names and insignia
>      of these awards and orders must be ratified by the Laurel
>      Sovereign of Arms.  ...
>
>         b. The Crown must approve any non-armigerous award or order
>            before it may be recognized by the College of Heralds of a
>            kingdom and given a place in its Order of Precedence.
>
>Yet Corpora VI.B.2.c reads
>
>     The privileges, duties, and rights, ceremonial and otherwise, of
>     the office of territorial Baron and/or Baroness are established
>     by the laws and customs of the kingdom, and shall include the
>     right to make such awards as the Crown (or the Coronet, if
>     applicable) shall specifically delegate, and to establish and
>     present non-armigerous awards specific to the barony.
>
>Because of that "SHALL include", I'd say you can "establish and
>present non-armigerous awards" regardless of other law.  Yet I think
>it contradicts VII.B.3.b above!  Wait, I guess not: if the Crown
>doesn't recognize it, it just doesn't get "recognized by the College
>of Heralds" and doesn't get into the OP.  The baron/ess can still
>establish unrecognized and unOPed awards.  But still, VII.B.3.b has
>"according to laws and customs", and VI.B.2.c has the "shall include",
>which seems to be regardless of "laws and customs".

It is a tangled mass of legalese, but it doesn't say quite what Daniel's
reading into it.  Note that Corpora VII.B.3.b
  
>            The Crown must approve any non-armigerous award or order
>            *before it may be recognized by the College of Heralds of a
>            kingdom and given a place in its Order of Precedence.*
[emphasis mine]

In other words, if a barony wants their non-armigerous awards recognized by
the College of Heralds and placed in the OP, Crown must sign the charters.
As Daniel noted, you don't have to have your awards recognized by the CoH or
added to the OP. If you don't, however, then the recipients can't put all
that alphabet soup after their names.  Weeellllllll, yeah, they can, but no
one (outside their home barony) will be able to figure out what it means.   

Also, if a recipient of such an award is part of one of those pompous
marches of precedence, a truly anal herald might refuse to read off such
non-precedential award.  Can't say I've ever met a herald quite that anal.
So, mostly, you need to get your award charters signed by the Crown if you
want them fully registered.  

Daniel also said:

>Kingdom law reads, in I.2.a:
>
>    All armigerous and non-armigerous titles, ennoblements, grants,
>    awards, etc., recognized by the College of Arms are derived solely
>    from the Crown, and may be awarded only with the prior consent of
>    the Crown.
>
>I personally think this is the *single* most boneheaded provision of
>Ansteorran kingdom law.  (Followed closely by II.3.p, saying that all
>officer's handbooks are (if specified) part of kingdom law.  That
>means that I can't effectively get a listing of all kingdom law,
>unless I know and get all the handbooks.)  Because of "shall include",
>I also doubt its lawfulness.

Again, I think our good herald overstates the situation.  Since Corpora
VII.B.3.b requires Crown's approval for CoH recognized awards, this
provision is not out of line.  This bit of kingdom law was probably included
to prevent the baronies giving out AoA's without Crown's approval.  All the
baron/ess have to do if they want to give out their awards without Crown
approval for every award is be sure that the award's charter includes a
provision allowing the baron and baroness blanket approval to give the
awards in the name of the Crown.  No sovereign should have any objections
(remember, I'm talking NON-armigerous awards). Can you imagine a Queen or
King who care who gets inducted into the Order of the Cool Sparkly Thing in
the Barony of Somewheres (see also "control freak")?

Anyway, until another opportunity arises, I remain

Yours in Virtual Service

Lyonel Oliver Grace, KSCA, OP, Thegn, CHL, CKS, PGT, CPA, CPP, CPH, CIT,
UVWXYZ--next time won't you sing with me.
__________________________________________________________________________
Dennis G. Grace
Postmodern Medievalist
Division of Rhetoric and Composition
Department of English
University of Texas at Austin
amazing at mail.utexas.edu
___________________

Baro, metetz en guatge                    |  Lords, pawn your castles,
Chastels e vilas e ciutatz                |  your towns and cities.
Enanz qu'usquecs no'us guerreiatz         |  Before you're beat to the draw,
                                                    draw your swords.

                   -- Bertran de Born (a really fun Viscount)