[Ansteorra] changes to crown entrance laws

[willowdewisp@juno.com via Ansteorra]

As I have been sick I didn't know about the changes  and I cannot speak to the whys but I can speak about what was changed. As part of team that put the requirements into effect that affected entrance into the crown list. I would like to give a little historyFirst In Atenveldt it was the custom for non belted fighters to have a belted fighter speak for non belts as to their "safely" in a Crown Tourney. That meant that someone would vouch that they were not a danger to themselves or to others. In a Tournament at this level everyone assumes that fighters at that level know how to protect themselves and understand that fighting will be faster than any other tourney. In Old Atenveldt the first day was passed in fights between belted and unbelted fighters and by the Crown list on Sunday everyone have an understanding of the skills needed to be "safe" during the list. No one was denied a chance to fight because of what they felt about the person as a future king.   That custom was kept up in Ansteorra and as far as I know the only reason that someone was denied being spoken for was that no one had known the fighter and so they could not speak as his safety. As for the other requirements they were our own concepts. In Ansteorra we felt that people needed to learn what it meant to be Crown because we put so much power into the hands of our Crown. Other kingdom didn't require that much because they had the Curia that took power away from the Crown. I mean that when the Crowns in other places did things that upset the system those kingdoms made their Crowns into more like ceremonially heads. The conflicts were very great and when we became a kingdom there was a lot of talk about doing it here. After a lot of debate it was thought there was danger of us being controlled by the officers and if the officers got into control there was almost no way to get them out of control. Power has to go somewhere so if you defanged the Crowns then who would be there to protect the people. If we gave the Crowns the power they could keep the bureaucrats in line and without the officer it would be hard for the Crowns to do too much harm. The need for powerful Crowns to know about the SCA and Ansteorra made the requirements for a year residence and offices holding logical. You need to know about a system you are going to run. Also Ansteorra made the requirements for consorts the same as for sovereign because we wanted our consorts to be treated with the same respect as sovereign. Old Atenveldt didn't require anything of consorts and they were not taken seriously. All of those requirements were at the pleasure of the Crown and could always be waved and sometimes were. The first problem we had with a Crown was when Inman McMoor fought and won in his first Crown Tourney before he had been in the kingdom for a year. While we don't talk about it his actions caused so many problems that shortly after he stepped down an Ansteorran Curia was created to curb the power of the Crowns. It took years to undo that. My husband and I bought back the system of the powerful Crown in balanced with powerful officers and an active system of peers and nobles. That system lasted for the first 25 years of our kingdom but since then there have been little changes mostly around the Crowns viewing themselves as "absolute”. Crowns that wanted to control everything and to set all the rules themselves. Instead of letting people fight in Crown tourneys who were qualified they began using the letters of intent as a way to filter who could fight and whom they could fight for. I see this decision of taking any set qualifications away as one more step in giving Crowns unlimited powers and while I cannot say if this is good or bad I do know that in SCA History this usually means a push to limited the powers of the Crown.  When officers take on the powers of the Crown they can do some strange things. I am reminded of the edict hat came down to either the middle or some other kingdom about 25 years ago where the Curia made an edict that no person under the age of 18 could use any  knife  The local officers saw that this meant underage people couldn't use knives to cut their meat at dinner. At the Pennsic I was at Mothers asked me what they should do. I told them they should line up their children and make the officers cut the children's meat. I told them that those who make the decisions should be held accountable for those decisions. While I believe in loyalty to the Crowns I also believe that we, the gentry of Ansteorra, have the right to expect that the people who fight in our Crowns have a general idea of how to get things done in the SCA and have a general understanding of we do things in Ansteorra. I believe some kind of office and a year is little enough to ask.Yours Duchess Willow de WispThe queen who put these things into effect and taking responsibility for my actions
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