ANST - What Does Pledging Allegiance Or Giving Oath Mean?

[Mike C. Baker]

---Alice Harris <lg_photo at texas.net> wrote:
> What exactly does pledging allegiance or giving oath mean? 

Depends upon your definitions.

> What does it mean when a knight/laurel/pelican pledge their 
> allegiance or oath to our kingdom sovereign? 

Generally, some degree of (relatively) absolute support. Conditions
within the oath typically define any limit, stricture, or conditions
appertaining thereunto. One of the most thought-provoking forms of
the fealty oath I know is generally attributed to the Scots and
takes the form: "As it is between thee and the Almighty, [name of
recipient], so be it between me and thee".

> What do they actually give to their majesty? What does their
> majesty give in return? I see it all the time in courts, but 
> don't understand the point and/or purpose of it.

The point or purpose differs for each oath or pledge, according to
the natures of those giving and receiving the promised [whatevers].

> Next, same question but different twist. Are
> kingdom officer expected to give the same to their
> majesty, their allegiance or oath?

As others have noted, for their office the pledge is service. Their
personal pledges or oaths may be given or withheld as a separate
matter of conscience.

> Is the same expected from local officers to give their majesty
> and to their local BB (baron and baroness)? 

Varies. Some baronies appear to call for more ceremony than others.
Typically, the pledge of service is in terms of the office and is
given to the regnant for the corresponding territory (B&B for
barony, Crown for Kingdom).
 
> It's been a sticky question I have been trying to figure out.
> Questions and not sure of the answers,

 Alina, it is not unusual that you would be uncertain of the
answers, particularly since they are mutable (changeable) based upon
who is called to answer, and when. And in what capacity. 

As I live out my interpretation of what it is to be a bard and Bard,
I cannot and will not swear fealty to any individual who just
happens to be warming a particular cushion with their buns. I may
pledge service, but my fealty has been given to a "higher calling"
-- the distinction being analogous to that made by Richard of
Montroyal, called the Short, when he refused the Knight's Chain and
subsequently became the first formally recognized Master of Arms in
the Society. 

(Other bards of Ansteorra may use other interpretations of what it
is to *be* a bard, or derive from the precepts of other cultures. It
is not strictly forbidden for me as a Bard to accept personal
obligations in addition to those of my calling, but those would be
to a person and not expressed in terms of the office they might hold
at some limited time or place.)

Others have given answers befitting their own experience and
interpretation, Galen among the more eloquent. It is for each
participant in the Society to find their own answer to the essential
underlying questions you have raised.

===
Adieu -- Amra / Pax ... Kihe / TTFN -- Mike
(al-Sayyid) Amr ibn Majid al-Bakri al-Amra  /
Kihe Blackeagle (the Dreamsinger Bard) / 
Mike C. Baker: My opinions are my own -- no one else would want them!
Homepage: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/8661
Alt. e-mail: KiheBard at aol.com, MikeCBaker at aol.com

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