ANST - fealty and courts

[ALBAN at delphi.com]

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From: ALBAN at delphi.com
Subject: Fealty in public
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I'd written
> 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.
My esteemed heraldic colleague, the youth Daniel de Lincolia, responded:
>With all due respect to a senior member of the Society -bullpucky.  The 
>oath is just as binding if the two principals are alone in an empty room.  
>Witnesses add to the solemnity, mark it as a Significant Act, and may be 
>called to testify about it in case of dispute, and are therefore desirable.
In other words, swearing in public adds more oomph to the binding of that 
oath, which was my (ill-written) point. It's not so much that oaths have to 
be public to be valid that I'd wanted to emphasize as the _extra_ emphasis 
that doing so in public adds to the whole schmear. It's having all those 
gimlet eyes of friends and enemies staring at you that makes for the lump 
in the throat, and the little voice that says "What _are_ you getting yourself 
into?" Private oaths ar binding; public oaths are more so.
(Me? A "senior member"? Just because my membership is old enough that 
it can buy alcohol? Hmmph.)

Moi:
> It's for the same reason you get married with witnesses, 
> rather than just with the two participants and the priest.
Daniel:
>I suspect (but I'd have to look up aspects of canon law, I suppose) that in 
>most of period only the two people involved needed to agree, even 
>without a priest.  After all, marriage is the only sacrement that was 
>instituted in Paradise, well before there were priests.
Oh, I have no doubt that marriages made privately were valid in period; 
but, again, getting married in public makes it that much more significant, 
that much more obvious, that much harder to get out of/deny <grin>.

>In any event, "with witnesses" != "in Court".  I would much
>rather see fealty given while sitting in state (an occasional Middle 
>Kingdom custom hardly ever done here to my knowledge).  A peer could 
>come up with their dependents and local notables and swear there.  It's 
>semi-public -- anyone can watch a sitting in state.  However, it doesn't eat 
>into the schedule quite like a court.
This is a part of Inter-Kingdom Anthopology. When I swore fealty and did 
homage to my Laurel, in the (then) Principality of Artemisia, it was done 
well _after_ court, because I was told Ansteorrans simply didn't do that 
kind of thing in court. We still had a fair number of witnesses (damn near 
everyone who showed up at the event, near as I could tell, there being 
nothing else happening right then), and it sure as hell impressed both of us 
with the solemnity and the respoonsibilities we were taking up. In 
Calontir, I've seen such things done both within and outside of Royal 
Court. It depends on the kingdom, and the individuals involved. (And 
after mumblety-mumble years, and after more than enough Long, Boring 
Courts, I'd certainly love for more business to be conducted away from 
them, too.)

Alban "over-the-hill-and-well-into-the-woods "senior member"" St. Albans

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