ANST - What Does Pledging Allegiance Or Giving Oath Mean?

[Paul Mitchell]

Burke said:
> >> This whole topic was decided many years ago by the
> >> BOD. their decision is that an officer gives an oath of
> >> service to the Kingdom and the Crown.  That oath is to do
> >> their best at the job that they have been given and to
> >> follow the rules of the Society.

Then Daniel wrote:
> >I can't seem to find that in Corpora or in the Governing and
> >Policy Decisions.  No occurrences of "oath", and "swear"
> >only occurs for the three main peerages (knights, masters of
> >arms, laurels, pelicans.  Three.).

And Burke replied: 
> It was handed down by the BOD at the Ansteorran BOI in 1979.

And now Galen points out:

Sorry Burke, but the Board of Inquiry that met here in '79
to adjudicate the upsets of that time _wasn't_ the Board
of Directors of the SCA.  It was the Steward (that time's
equivalent of what we now call the Society Seneschal),
Countess Bevin Fraser of Stirling (author Katherine
Kurtz), the Marshal of the Society, Earl Kevin 
Peregrine, and a third officer whom I don't recall.
(All that detail is for those who weren't there, as
Burke was.)  But it wasn't the BoD.

In most kingdoms, I believe, Great Officers do
swear fealty.  But you're right Burke, that the tradition
in Ansteorra of officers swearing not-fealty-but-service
dates back to our earliest times, to the days of the
first reign of Lloyd & Jocelyn as King and Queen.

But it's Ansteorran tradition (a good one, I believe),
not SCA law.

- Galen of Bristol
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