ARN - Rapier Peerage

[Brent & Susan Rachel]

"adams, ozy" wrote:

> Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but Peerages are Known-World wide,
> aren't they?
> It seems to me that a major reason there is no Soft Suit Peerage, is that
> not all Kingdoms recognize the activity.
>
> -Erazmus

Kazimir here, blushing mightily at the praise heaped on him by Lord Lionardo.

Naked Patents are a thing of the distant, distant past.., much like the first
Court County given out for A&S.

Patents of Arms may only be given out in 3 instances:

1. If your Kingdom does such things, to Territorial Coronets and Crowns when
they step down.., the Royal Peers.

2.  To accompany the Order of the Rose (for consorts when they step down), This
overlaps with #1 a bit, and is clearly the product of a time when mostly Knights
won crown (as it made the Lady a peer to accompany her Knight).

3.  One of the 3 Peerage Orders (Chivalry, Pelican, Laurel)

There is no longer any stipulation for giving out a naked Patent.

As for peerage for rapier:  that's a muddy one.

First, the BOD's take:  they claim (as of 3 years ago) that there is currently
insufficient support for creation of a 4th peerage order for rapier combat.  At
the same time they said that the current structure of peerages was sufficient to
reward rapier combat.  What they CONSPICUOUSLY did NOT say was WHICH PEERAGE was
sufficient to reward rapier.

Let's analyze:

Rapier is a martial pursuit, but the Peerage for martial pursuits, the Chivalry,
is clearly regulated by Corpora. Corpora states that the Chivalry is for prowess
with the weapons of the tournament.  What are the weapons of the tournament?
Well, we know what they ain't. The Governing and Policy Decision that allows
rapier in the first place states that rapier, not having been a part of the
tournaments of the middle ages, cannot be used to select Crowns or Coronets.  So
it is clear that rapier is NOT a weapon of the tournament, at least as defined
in Corpora.  THEREFORE: The Order of the Chivalry  --Knight OR Master--  cannot
be awarded for rapier.., as the wording currently stands.

Rapier as an Art or Science - this one has had some success.  There are at least
3 Laurels for the Arte of Defense in other Kingdoms.  I think that this is
putting a decidedly UNmartial spin on what is clearly a martial pursuit.  I know
of no serious consideration of this for Ansteorra..., though there has been some
idle talk.

Rapier as Service - most of the Dons who have won way to peerage here seem to
have done so via the Pelican.  Work hard enough and sincerely enough at anything
and you'll eventually be recognized for it. However.., does this really
recognize rapier COMBAT and its corollaries?  And, since the Pelican, by nature
is not FOR any one particular thing, it really cannot be said to be given FOR
rapier.

So, here we stand. The going precedent is to spin rapier (and archery, for that
matter) off as Art, Science, or Service, rather than its true martial nature.
Why?

A lot of it has to do with the paradigm of Knighthood in the SCA.  We don't see
Knights as 16th century courtiers and statesmen who were given Knighthhoods for
that service..., but rather they are the Knights of the heroic mold: Round table
knights, Knights who fought at Agincourt.., not former Postmasters.  Rapier
doesn't seem to fit in there.., I agree.

But, a simple changing of words could allow the awarding of the other half of
the Chivalry, Mastery of Arms..., and this would not infringe on the "mythos"
that surrounds Knighthood.., and will allow rapier to be awarded "martially."

Unfortunately, this brings us back to the quandry of the BOD's enigmatic
opinion.

Who knows?

Kazimir Petrovich Pomeshanov
Kingdom Rapier Marshal





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