Straw Fealty Issue
Burke McCrory
burkemc at ionet.net
Wed Sep 25 22:54:25 PDT 1996
At 07:12 PM 9/25/96 -0500, you wrote:
>Good Cousins,
>
>Am I seeing what I seem to be seeing? Peers and assorted other nobles who
>don't understand simple matters of fealty?
>
>Subjects of a Principality swear fealty to the crown and to the coronet. In
>*theory* this never creates any conflict (medievally) as the Princess and/or
>Prince only hold their lands at the auspices of their Sovereigns. In
>practice, of course, a Prince (Duke, Count, what have you) who decided to
>make trouble for Crown naturally had all of his loyal warriors willing to
>help said Prince violate his feudal contract with crown.
>
>In the SCA, we take such theoretical and philosophic questions quite
>seriously. As a former denizen of Atenveldt, in Artemisia, I always swore
>fealty to both Crown and Coronet. I never considered this in any way a
>possible source of conflict as Coronet is ALWAYS in fealty to the Crown.
>What possible conflict could arise?
>
>Incidentally, this featly structure is one of the primary reasons for
>principalities within a kingdom to avoid inter-principality skirmishes. If
>the Red Principality wars against the Blue Principality, which side does
>Crown get to fight on? Not a fair problem to pose.
>
>Voluntas Bene Mereri de Omnibus
>
>Sir Lyonel Oliver Grace
>
>_______________________________
>Dennis G. Grace
>Assistant Instructor
>Postmodern Medievalist
>Division of Rhetoric and Composition
>University of Texas
>___________________
>
>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
>
>
That was my understanding when I made my post, but I am afraid that my
words were not nearly as eloquent as yours. It is possible however that
many in Ansteorra might be confused by this as they have never played in a
Kingdom in which principalities existed.
In Service to the Dream
Sir Burke Kyriell MacDonald
mka. Burke McCrory
burkemc at ionet.net
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