ANST - fealty

[ALBAN at delphi.com]

I just joined this discussion, so if I could wedge myself in . . . 

Alina said
>The answer(s) I seem to have gotten to my question have kinda been the 
>same. When one gives oath or fealty, it is to the the position of the crown, 
>not of the person who holds the crown. You can or not choose to do the 
>oath to the person. I suppose the same goes for kingdom and/or local 
>officers, whether or not they are kingdom or local. 
>From the replies I've seen (which may not include all of them), I'd like to 
add minor points:
1) Why do people swear fealty to the Crown during a court? Because it 
serves to bind person to Crown, and Crown to person, in a way that 
swearing an oath in private doesn't. It's for the same reason you get 
married with witnesses, rather than just with the two participants and the 
priest.
2) In period, you would not swear fealty to an abstraction like The Crown; 
you'd swear fealty to the King. It was the person, not the office, that was 
important, for, after all, how could An Office promise anything in return? 
An abstraction couldn't lift a sword to defend you anywhere near as well 
as the King could. . . Now, here in the SCA, people can say "Here do I 
swear my fealty and do homage to the Crown of  <whatever>" without a 
qualm, swearing to the abstraction and not to the person. It's an acceptable 
(but not strictly historical) SCA tradition. . . 
3) In several kingdoms, The Crown and the Baron/Baroness are not the 
only people you can swear fealty to. There are examples within the SCA of 
someone swearing fealty to a Bestowed Peer. Both parties have to agree 
beforehand, of course; you couldn't just walk up to someone you admire 
and swear service, fidelity, and the rest of the nine yards without being 
sure he/she wouldn't mind. . . And such things cover a wide field of 
expectations and ceremonies, all the way from "Here's a belt; I expect you 
to learn from me" and "Yessir" to the other extreme of a period-oid Fealty 
and Homage Ceremony, with the household in attendance, historical oaths, 
pledges and promises made and accepted on both sides, feudal contracts 
worked out, land exchanged for promises of garb. . . Sometimes they're 
done in Court, sometimes not. Sometimes one or the other of the Crowns 
may be in attendance, sometimes not. Sometimes the promises exchange 
apply only within persona and within SCA functions, sometimes it spills 
over to mundanity. There's a wide variety. . . 

Alban St. Albans (Standing Stones, Calontir)
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