Made to Swear Fealty

[dennis grace]

Hi there. Aquilanne here.

Siobhan wrote:
>So, what are everyone's thoughts on the issue of fealty in general?  What are
>the rights and responsibilities of the oath taker?  What are the rights and
>responsibilities of the Crown accepting the oath?

Well, considering that this *is* technically a recreational organization and
*not* a real country or religion, the whole SCA fealty thing really is a
construct created to coincide somewhat with medieval precedence and somewhat
with the romantic Arthurian ideal so many of us hold dear. Frankly, the idea
that anyone would actually consider swearing fealty in the SCA to
potentially conflict with any situation in real life is really quite
ludicrous and suggests an individual with one foot out of the stirrup, if
you know what I mean.

Having said all that, here's how I feel about swearing fealty--I think that
anyone embracing the ideals the SCA represents (y'know, chivalry, nobility,
honor, all that) will swear fealty regardless of who's sitting under the
brass hat, because no matter who sits under the brass hat, the greater
ideals still remain. If someone you consider a just and honorable person
sits on the throne, it just makes it a happier occassion. I also think that
swearing fealty to a crown whom you respect is a wonderful gesture of
suppport and declaration of ideals as well.

To me, the idea of a knights wearing his/her chain in their belt just
because they don't like the current crown bespeaks an individual more given
to the need of expressing a personal opinion than upholding or striving for
knightly ideal of chivalry. All they really accomplished is to create a
situation of potential damage, and no real constructive good is done. 

I also believe that the rights and responsibilities of those swearing fealty
and being sworn fealty to remain essentially the same: be respectfull of
others, be helpfull where you can, be supportive and just, feel free to ask
and return favors that don't involve harming another party, y'know, all the
things that we should be doing every day anyway, despite who we are and who
we spend our leisure hours with. How about that? Is that too big an order? I
don't think so; then again, I *am* a somewhat incurable idealist.

What think others?

Aquilanne
_____________________________
Dennis Grace
University of Texas at Austin
English Department
Recovering Medievalist

The pursuit of truth, not of facts, is the business of fiction.
                                            --Oakley Hall