ANST - The Oath of Fealty

[Rollie W. Reid]

Ok, Pug and Daniel got me going.

I will use our Crown Prince and Princess as my example since they will
ascend the throne soon, and wear the crowns.  When I step forward and
swear my oath of fealty to Barn and Kat, I will be swearing my oath to
them in their capacity as King and Queen.  They are the holders of an
office, if you will, and I swear my oath to them as holders of that
office.  When they cease to be King and Queen, they cease to hold my
fealty, but my fealty to the office remains.  If I miss coronation,
and do not swear fealty to a particular holder of the office, as is
actually the case with Richard and Gladwen, I still consider them to
be the holders of my fealty.  As a knight, I am their man, whether or
not I have sworn my oath to them directly.

Therefore, my oath transcends the holders of the office, since when
they step down, my oath remains.  When, at Coronation, the knights
stand guard over the empty thrones and crown, they are showing that
their oaths are held by something beyond the men and women who wear
the crowns and occupy the thrones.  When I say that I swear fealty to
the Crown, I do not mean a circlet of metal, I mean the office.  Barn
and Kat will ascend the throne and we will call them by the name of
the Royal Office they occupy, we will call them the Crown.

Daniel is absolutely right, that "..they had such an abstraction in
period.", but in period knights did not find themselves standing
beside former Kings to whom they have sworn fealty in the past, who
now stand as brother knights, and not as Kings.  It is not a situation
they would have dealt with very well.  The concept of a retired King
is not common.  You were a King until you died.  So comparing our
situation to theirs does not work.

My concept of fealty has arisen because every six months I have to
swear fealty to someone new.  I have little control over who sits on
the throne(Yes, I can fight in crown tournament and effect the
outcome, but unless I win I cannot have full control), but I must
swear fealty to whoever wins, even if I do not like them (Yes, it
happens).  I swear fealty to every Crown, because I want to give them
all the support that I can, in the hope of making their reign better.

I actually wrote two more paragraphs, but they came across so preachy
that I will spare you.

Sir Conor mac Cinneide, OL, KSCA

lucetis sicut luminaria in mundo

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