FW: I was a teenage Prince...OK, I was 21! (long)

[Mitchell, Paul]

Galen of Bristol here!

Speaking as the former ruler of a Principality, and a former Seneschal of 
Ansteorra:

I understand the proposal to be set forth (through 2nd- and- 
higher-number-hand sources) (and keeping in mind that I've had to apologize 
for combining fact with assumption here in the past) as being this:  To 
create within the Kingdom of Ansteorra, three principalities, which would 
subsume the entirety of the kingdom, leaving no one in the Kingdom who was 
not also in a principality.  I understand that the lines are to be drawn 
roughly horizontally, leaving a north, central and southern principality.  I 
am told that this very major change in our Kingdom is to solve three 
problems:

1.  Crowding on the Calendar; too many events conflicting with too many 
others; events of differing principalities would simply not be considered to 
conflict.

2.  Burden of the Crown; Ansteorra has gotten too large, and we need support 
for TRM to get their job done properly.

3.  Too many people feel alienated from the Crown; some places never get 
royal visits, therefore the residents feel no link to the King and Queen.

A fourth reason I have not heard, but which seems reasonable to me (and 
which Gunthar started to form):  Principalities would provide a context for 
the service of an increased number of people.

Twice in the past since A.S. XX this matter in some form has come up, and I 
have opposed it vocally.  I still oppose this proposal, because it does not 
solve the problems it purports to solve (if I have, in fact, correctly 
stated the proposition).

1.  As has been pointed out, three principalities means twelve coronet 
events every year ([two Investitures plus two Coronet Tournies] times 
three).  The Crown wouldn't have to go them all (after the first of each), 
but that's a lot of calendar-crowding.  Add in Principality events and 
competitions in all the disciplines and it just gets worse.  Which will you 
go to?  The one in your principality, of course.  There would be a tendency 
for each principality to become more isolated from the others.  This would 
also tend to push events like "Three Kings", and Lady's Tournament of 
Chivalry off the calendar altogether (not making them impossible, but 
harder).  We'd be adding more "club" activities and leaving time for fewer 
"dream" activities (a reference to Hrabia Jan's thesis that the SCA has 
three necessary elements:  the "club", the "dream" and the "joke"; this 
mailing list would be a club activity, so is King's College; Lyonesse is a 
"dream" activity, the Yuks are a "joke" activity; Jan said that people in 
differing modes didn't blend well, but that all three modes were like the 
three legs of a stool).  The calendar-crowding problem would be made worse, 
not better, by this proposal.

A better solution would be to simply declare that events in different 
regions don't conflict.  As we grow, we must learn to fit an increasing 
number of activities into schedules that don't get bigger.  If an event in 
Stargate conflicts with Steppes, so be it; I'll go to the one that looks 
like more fun, if I can afford either.  Otherwise, I go to the one I can 
afford.  The Kingdom Seneschal can do this today, without consultation with 
_anyone_.

2. Kings and Queens do have a lot of work to do.  But this situation won't 
detract from that.  Most Royal Duties are pleasurable:  holding court, 
presiding, giving awards, deciding how Things Get Done.  This proposal will 
increase the amount of unpleasant work the Crown has.  Every time a Prince 
makes a decision that any strong-willed Duke, Baron or even armiger 
dislikes, the King gets a midnight phone call.  Easier to travel west, or 
north, or south.  The Crown would have to approve three sets of Principality 
Law, and every single change to them.  The Crown would be called upon to 
mediate disputes both within and between principalities.  And what influence 
would the Crown have?  Far less than now.  If I don't get along with the 
King now, I'm out of luck; it's a strong motivation to get along with the 
King.  With Principalities, I can play the Prince off the King; don't like 
the Prince?  Go see the King!  King being an idiot?  Hang out with the 
Prince!  Kings will  have to be more masterful politicians than ever to get 
done what they want to do.  Under such circumstances, how much power might 
really be delegated to the Coronet?  Under Corpora, they can't give AoA's 
without the Crown delegating them the authority.  Many Crowns would want to 
hold that power tightly, lest the Coronet give awards to the "wrong" people.

As we grow, the job of King and Queen _must_ get harder.  They may delegate 
nobles, barons and peers to do certain things (and could do so far more than 
they do) like give awards, but for many things, only the CROWN will suffice.

3.  Indeed, many people do go a long time without seeing the King and Queen. 
 I do not think these people  would be well-served by a solution that would 
create surrogates to relieve the Crown of whatever guilt they may feel over 
this situation, which each set of rulers copes with as best they can.  This 
is one of the reasons for six-month reigns.  And what guarantees that the 
Coronet will be able to travel to neglected places better than the Crown, 
when that crowded calendar requires him to be at some Kingdom function or 
political hotbed event?  Won't those remote groups feel even _more_ 
alienated from the Crown under a principality?

As before, the Crown can and should delegate more.  No ruler ever called me 
up to carry AoA scrolls to Abilene or Corpus.  We have a growing number of 
nobles, most of whom would be delighted to run such errands for the Crown.

4.  In a Kingdom where oldtimers who hold office and haven't been able to 
advance to Kingdom are choking the local groups' vitality, there might be a 
need for another level of structure at which to serve.  But my recent 
experiences in neither Bryn Gwlad, nor Steppes, nor Elfsea, suggest that 
there is any surfeit of willing workers.  Many groups seem to have a core 
that does 80-90% of the work, everytime something's going on.  Wouldn't the 
necessity to staff three principalities' offices create a shortage of 
willing workers at local offices and events?

Here's a couple of collateral problems:

Rank:  Some people care about rank; some don't.  For those who do, are you 
ready for 12 more people of Viscounty rank each year?  I'll still outrank 
them, by virtue of having been a Viscount since 1984, but they'll probably 
outrank you.  What (if anything) does that do to the value of awards?

Inter-principality competitiveness:  At its best, this could make for some 
great wars (albeit smaller than the Gulf War, but also closer).  At worst, 
we're talking voting blocks in peerage circles, Kings who won't give awards 
in principalities they don't like, Crowns that refuse to travel outside 
their own principality, principalities' fighters striving to keep the Crown 
within their borders as often as possible, and principalities discouraging 
travel to other principalities or to Kingdom events.

Anemic principalities:  Could one principality find itself in the position, 
as some baronies sometimes do, of having declining paid membership, a 
shortage of quality fighters, a lack of people to serve in office, and just 
find itself struggling along, barely able to maintain itself?  Yes, I've 
seen it happen.

Three principalities could be a lot of fun, for those who enjoy ceremony, 
want to hold office at a higher level, fight in interprincipality wars, or 
hope to win the Coronet Lists.  Myself, I've always said that I wouldn't be 
a Prince again, except for the chance to be the first Prince of a new 
principality; I have a new reason:  my beautious lady wife is not a 
Viscountess.  But being a Prince can mean being caught in the middle between 
subjects who know there's a higher authority than you they can appeal to, 
and a sometimes-uncaring Crown, which is what happened to me in Drachenwald.

But I feel that the proposal we have would not solve the problems it's 
designed to solve, and would create additional problems.  I do not believe 
that it is in the best interest of the majority of Ansteorrans.

 - Sir Galen of Bristol, Eighth Viscount von Drachenwald, Seneschal of 
Ansteorra under Mikael I, Gerard, and Patrick I

!now at!  MITCHELL at dallas.genphysics.com