[Ansteorra] Principality?

Faelan Caimbeul faelancaimbeul at gmail.com
Wed Apr 26 21:11:28 PDT 2006


Do you think the peoples of the three Principalities of the West think
themselves any less Western citizens? I doubt it.

Faelan

-----Original Message-----
From: ansteorra-bounces+faelancaimbeul=gmail.com at ansteorra.org
[mailto:ansteorra-bounces+faelancaimbeul=gmail.com at ansteorra.org] On Behalf
Of HerrDetlef at aol.com
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2006 11:32 PM
To: ansteorra at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Ansteorra] Principality?

Oh Lord.  This thread just refuses to die.  Since I lost my wand that I
could 
wave and make all this go away, I guess I will jump into the fray with my
own 
two Groschen.

I looked up the SCA geography today, just out of curiosity, and this is what

I came up (I may be missing some things here):

Out of eighteen kingdoms currently in the SCA, three were never 
principalities (they were founded as kingdoms), and sixteen were
principialities before 
they became kingdoms.

There are currently six principalities today: three in the West (which have 
been in existence as long as I can remember) and three in An Tir (founded 
within the last ten years).  That's only two kingdoms that currently have 
principalities.  

Now, this doesn't prove that "principality" automatically means "incipient 
kingdom", but it does demonstrate a high correlation between one and the
other.  

If the rationale behind forming a principality or two is simply so that the 
visitation load on the Crown can be lightened, well, that's really not 
convincing enough.  That purpose is served by the tradition of allowing
landed barons 
and baronesses to usurp certain royal prerogatives (such as holding chancery

courts and awarding arms to worthy individuals).  Local groups or
individuals 
can also pitch in to help the Crown with travel and accomodation expenses so

that they can attend events in the far reaches of the kingdom.  I guess the 
question here would be this one:  What would forming a principality in
Ansteorra 
achieve that could NOT be done without said formation?

My impression has always been that a cluster of local groups forms a 
principality when they see themselves collectively as culturally distinct
from the 
rest of the kingdom.  A principality is a regional identity, if not a
national 
one, not only in the SCA but also in mundanity.  Do we have that in
Ansteorra?  
I know that proximity does influence many people's event attendance
patterns, 
but we really don't have any regional identities here.  One of the cool
things 
about Ansteorra is our basic unified nationality, and most people would be 
loath to compromise that simply to solve issues that can be solved by other 
means.  Talk of principalities in this kingdom has rarely accomplished much
beyond 
a rash of hard feelings and distrust among the populace.  

Ansteorra has a great thing going with the fact that we can operate just
fine 
without principalities.  I cannot think of a soul who plays SCA in Ansteorra

who would seriously entertain identifying themselves as something other than

Ansteorran, at least beyond the identify of the local group.  I am an 
Ansteorran exactly as much as my friends in Namron (for example) are, or the
good folks 
living in Bonwicke.  We are of the same blood.  We react in much the same
way 
when we see a ten-pointed star on a gold flag.  We are Ansteorrans.  And we 
are family.  (Okay, I'm being mushy......but this is a family without
factions. 
 That's the point I am trying in my clumsy way to make.)  That camraderie is

a significant part of what identifies us to the rest of the Knowne Worlde.
I 
wouldn't trade that for anything.

P.S., long story short:  we don't have anything resembling the kind of 
regional identity in Ansteorra that would entice a whole group of people to
think of 
themselves as anything other than Ansteorrans.  Without that, there really
is 
no reason to open that can of worms here.  Creating a principality for the 
wrong reasons can only spell disaster.  Only my opinion; you can take it or 
leave it and I won't be offended.  

Peace, y'all!

Detlef
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