ANST - fealty

[Timothy A. McDaniel]

~v
To: ansteorra at Ansteorra.ORG
Subject: Re:  ANST - fealty

Alban S. Alban wrote:
> 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.

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.

> It's for the same reason you get married with witnesses,
> rather than just with the two participants and the priest.

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.

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.

Daniel de Lincolia
-- 
Tim McDaniel.   Reply to tmcd at crl.com; if that fail, tmcd at austin.ibm.com
is work account.  tmcd at tmcd.austin.tx.us ... is wrong tool.  Never use this.

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