Eldern Hills Tourney

[Tim McDaniel]

On Mon, 23 Jun 1997, Richard L. Rohde <sales at microtutors.com> wrote:
> In addition to the awards Sir Burke enumerates below, His Majesty 
> announced the creation of a new award to be known as the King's Battle 
> Ribbon. ...
> The current holder of the award will 
> be entitled to carry the standard of the Centurions for the next year, 
> adding their badge to the standard, and then returning it after the 
> next Gulf War.  After that, the unit will be entitled to display a 
> ribbon with the name and number of the war attached to their banner.

I've checked the OED under "campaign" and "ribbon" and found nothing
pertient, and I don't have sources on military history to speak of.
Are those ribbons on unit standards modernly called "campaign
ribbons", or do I have the term wrong (perhaps that's actually the
short bar-codes that US military personnel (e.g.) wear on the breast)?
Anyone have a date for the institution of campaign ribbons on
standards?

The "adding their badge" looks somewhat like an augmentation of arms.
BTW, is it adding the group's badge to the Centurion banner, or the
Centurion's badge to the group's banner?  Is it only for that year?

Giving a group or a person a right -- here, the right to bear a
distinctive banner for a fixed period of time -- is a wonderful period
idea!  I wish far more landed nobles would do such a thing!  Rewarding
an excellent warband is a fine notion.

Not to criticize Their current Majesties in particular -- it's common
to many Crowns and Barons/esses -- but there seems to be a really
common line of reasoning of

1) X is a Good Thing.
2) We should reward those who do it.
3) This reward has to be a new award or order with a name and a dangly
   and a place in the order of precedence.

I agree with steps 1 and 2, and wholly disagree with 3.

Sometimes they go onto

4) We can string together any combination of words with modern meanings
   and get a period-style name, and make any design we want as a
   badge.  (Don't Ask Me About The Badge Of The Order Of The Sable Garland.
   Full Stop.)

Or am I just a stick-in-the-mud curmudgeon to worry about such things?

-- 
Daniel de Lincoln
Tim McDaniel; Reply-To: tmcd at crl.com
tmcd at tmcd.austin.tx.us is wrong tool.  Never use this.