[Bordermarch] SCA Origins, 1965

[tessa]

Compliments today of Sir Ian in Rosenfeld: a bit o' research ...
The History of the Kingdom of The West
Pre-History
The Origins of the SCA 
The origins of the SCA go back to the year 1965, when David Thewlis (now Duke Siegfried von Hoflichskeit) and Ken de Maiffe (now Duke Fulk de Wyvern) were studying the medieval orders of chivalry and the art of sword and shield fighting. In February of 1966 they began practicing sword and shield fighting in the backyard of Diana Paxson (now Countess Diana Listmaker), a medieval history major at the University of California at Berkeley. David and Ken had made the swords out of wood and the shields out of plywood, and were trying to teach themselves how to fight and thereby learning how it was really done. They based their actions on the old order of chivalry. Diana was enthralled with the idea and remembered the fabled "Last Tournament". This was an event which took place in Scotland in 1839. The Earl of Eglanton, a high-minded young nobleman, complete with castle, serfs, and a head full of the novels of Sir Walter Scott, decided to dramatize the values of the Middle Ages, which were Scott's and his own answer to the problems of the Industrial Revolution, by having a tournament. Costumes were prepared, banners were sewn, and the springs of the London hansom cabs broken by the weight of men in armor being born to practice. In was the social event of the year. The Great Day arrived and the splendid procession processed and the jousting commenced. And then it began to rain ... Do you know what happens to armor in the rain? And banners? And respectable English noblemen without any shelter? That was the end of the Romantic Period in England. (This is taken from Diana Paxson's fanzine, Patterns, which gave an account of the first tournament of the SCA.) 
Diana, David and Ken came up with the idea of holding a new "Last Tournament." They would invite all of their friends over to Diana's backyard at 2219 Oregon St., in Berkeley, California for a tournament. Everyone would come in costume and the men could all be knights and fight with wooden swords and shields for the right to crown their lady Queen for the day. Diana was going to graduate in June and this would be a last fling before the end of the quarter and finals. The event was set for May Day, May 1, 1966. It was intended to be a single time event, just for fun. Nobody ever expected it to continue.