[ANSTHRLD] Bonwicke Order Comments

[Timothy A. McDaniel]

Etienne / "Darin K. Herndon" <darin-herndon at utulsa.edu> wrote:
> Borek, Star, wrote in part:
> >The Order of the Keepers of the Cross of Bonwicke.
> >
> >The proposed device, if I am blazoning this right, is:
> >[Fieldless] A Latinate cross patonce sable, overall Bonwicke

That blazon is incomplete, because the arms of Bonwicke have to be
*on* something -- an escutcheon?  a roundel?  an ashtray?

Probably

    [Fieldless] A Latin cross patonce sable, overall an escutcheon of
    Bonwicke.

> As only a Prince, Princess, King, or Queen can have a crown

For the most part, crowns are coronets are crowns are coronets.
A coronet with strawberry leaves in particular is reserved for ducal
rank, and embattlements for comital:

    However, the Society has changed a great deal since the ban was
    first put into place, in the early 80's. One of these changes is
    that we hold historical recreation to be our ideal goal, however
    unrealized this goal may be. The equation of a crown/coronet (or
    any other charge) in a coat of arms with the rank of the bearer is
    almost entirely post-period. While we have no intention of
    overturning our rules on reserved regalia, we see little point in
    having regalia reserved in one situation but not another. (We
    exempt the laurel wreath from this decision, since it is reserved
    to official SCA groups, not individuals.) Therefore, as we said
    above, effective with this decision, and having discussed this
    with Laurel designate, court baron/ess may use a coronet in their
    arms, so long as it does not use the embattlements of county rank,
    or the strawberry leaves of ducal rank. (Jaelle of Armida, LoAR
    May 1999, p. 7)

See also the CoA Admin Handbook quote of II.D.2.

> If a coronet, as a baronial order, the coronet should only be in a
> style that a baron(ess) could use.

 From the wording of AH II.D.2,

          Branch Arms ... Kingdoms must also include a crown or
          coronet in the design.  Principalities may include a crown
          or coronet, but are not required to do so.

(look, Ma, equivalence of "crown" and "coronet"), I think it may be
implied that a barony cannot have a coronet in their arms.  If so,
they shouldn't be able to have it in their badges.

There is also the principle that mutable status changes do not entitle
one to the sign of that rank.  From the same precedent as above:

    This hereby overturns the ban on people of baronial rank using
    coronets in their arms. Henceforth, in addition to royal peers,
    court barons/esses may use coronets in their arms. Note: this does
    not include territorial barons/esses, since that is not a
    permanent rank. Just as a sitting king/queen/prince/princess
    cannot put a coronet on their arms until after they have attained
    the rank of count/ess or viscount/ess, since, while it is rare,
    there have been cases of royalty who have not completed their
    reign, neither can a territorial baron/ess, unless they are
    already a court baron/ess, use a coronet, since they have not
    attained a permament barional rank.

If it loses population, a barony can be demoted to a shire.
So, from the two arguments given, I suspect that a barony could not
register a crown or coronet.

> can an order badge include a restricted item for members of the
> order that members may not be personally entitled to use?

What a fascinating question!  *Probably* not, but the closest I find
is

    Unfortunately, in Latin, Equitatus is not merely an equestrian
    order, but the equestrian order. This is frequently translated
    into English simply as "the knights". Since this guild is not
    restricted to members of the chivalry only, it must be returned
    for presumption. (Jaelle of Armida, LoAR June 1997, p. 10)

> Lastly, I think use of the arms of Bonwicke carries the same
> concern.

Now *that's* a clear "boing": the Jan w Orzeldom case (probably the
4/92 LoAR), infamous for the amount of fuss it kicked up.  A laurel
wreath is restricted to the arms of an SCA branch.  The branch cannot
put it on anything else.

> derive a registerable device for the order

Terminology nit: the CoA Glossary of Terms has

    Device. A heraldic design that uniquely represents the person or
    group that owns it. A person who has not been awarded arms may
    register personal armory as a device. This device will become arms
    when the person receives an award, grant, or patent of arms. See
    also: Arms.

"Unique": one per customer.  The device of Bonwicke is the thing that
has the laurel wreath.  Everything else is termed a "badge".

Mind you, this is yet another place where the SCA diverges from all
real-world usage.  In any real heraldry system, they'd call that
"arms" unconditionally, and other corporate bodies (guilds, say) could
have "arms" too, what we'd call a "badge".  I'm just sayin'.

> from Their desires and wishes.

Terminology nit: I believe that traditional English-language usage
reserves capitalized pronouns for God.

Daniel de Lincolia
--
Tim McDaniel is tmcd at jump.net; if that fail,
    tmcd at us.ibm.com is my work account.
"To join the Clueless Club, send a followup to this message quoting everything
up to and including this sig!" -- Jukka.Korpela at hut.fi (Jukka Korpela)