ANST - fealty(to Albans)

[Rollie W. Reid]

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. . .

As I said in my other post, most persons in medieval times did not 
swear fealty to the King, but to some lesser noble or Knight.  The 
SCA Knight is in a very different situation, because he must swear 
fealty to the King and Queen.  The tradition of swearing to the 
symbol and not the man arises from the need to swear fealty to 
whoever wins crown.  If a medieval knight found that he could not 
swear fealty to his liege lord's heir, then he could move on and find 
someone else to give his fealty to.  The story of William Marshal 
shows that there could even be competition for the service of a 
renowned Knight.

Conor

lucetis sicut luminaria in mundo

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