[Ansteorra] gonna stir some bunnies

[Chris Zakes]

At 12:19 PM 1/17/03 EST, Thora asked:
>--
>[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
>I am sure this bunnie pot has been stirred before but I don't recall being
>around for the conversation.
>
>I was sitting around with some friends and one of them mentioned that rapier
>fighters cannot become King because Kings are always choosen by heavy combat.
>
>I was wondering if the way Kings are determined is set by Corpora or by
>Kingdom Law.


and Rurik also asked:
>
>If the wording states that the Crown must be by tournament and by single
>combat, how or even where does it say that this tournament and single combat
>must be a chivalric Single combat tournament and not a Rapier single combat
>tournament or even a combined Chivalric/Rapier single combat tournament
>(where the fighter must fight both styles). It seems to me that people, by
>tradition, assume that the tournament must be Chivalric and no other
>Fighting style.

Actually it's in the SCA's By-Laws, not Corpora. The relevant section is
Governing and Policy Decision #5, originally made in September of 1979 and
(slightly) revised in July 1988.

"The Board acknowledges period rapier combat as an ancillary activity of
the Society when properly supervised by the marshals and when approved by
the individual kingdoms.

Rapier Combat may take place within a kingdom only by rules established by
the marshallate of that kingdom and after the approval of those rules by
the Marshal of the Society. The Board directs the Marshal of the Society to
formulate guidelines for rapier combat within the Society.

Rapier combat, not having been a part of formal tournament combat in the
Middle Ages, shall not be a part of formal tournament lists for royal ranks
or armigerous titles."


That final paragraph is the crucial one. It basically says that while you
can have rapier tournaments for "unofficial" titles like Queen's Champion
or Defender of the Barony of Mudflats, you can't have rapier combat in
Crown or Coronet tourneys.

	-Tivar Moondragon