[ANSTHRLD] baronial service awards

[Diane Rudin]

Countess Sara wrote:

> Really??? Man, someone should write this stuff down. 

20 years ago, when I started learning Ansteorran precedence, this
practice was commonly known.  I learned it along with everything else
that the top precedence heralds told me.  These things didn't need to
be written down; everyone knew them.

When Robin and Adelicia became Baron and Baroness of the Steppes,
they automatically became members of the Order of the Tread of the
Steppes, which through an accident of history was still open,
although it had been for service to the March [Shire] of the Steppes.
 (They were already members of the Order of the Oak of the Steppes.) 
Since they themselves had not been members of the March of the
Steppes, and therefore did not qualify for the award, they made a
point of resigning the Treads.  (They also took care of housekeeping
and closed the Tread.)  No one blinked an eye at this; everyone who
paid attention in court understood why this was necessary, since
everyone knew that B&B's were automatically made members of open
baronial orders.

Clearly it is time -- long past time -- for these things to be
written down.  Sara, I hope you've already opened a file on your
computer and are stuffing it full of all these things that, it seems,
only Robin and I remember anymore.

Note that it has also always been the case that when a Court Barony
is received as a direct and immediate result of a tenure as Baron/ess
in Fief, the precedence date of the Court Barony dates from the date
of investiture as Baron/ess in Fief, not the step-down date.  This is
another one of those ancient Ansteorran common-law things that
everyone used to know, and now almost no one does except for moldy
old precedence heralds.  (Although I discover that someone at some
point DID write this down in Ansteorran Kingdom Law.)  Thus the same
with the date of the Baronial Service Order for those B&B's in Fief
who were not members of the order prior to their investiture as B&B
-- it dates from investiture, not step-down.  

I suppose if so few people know these things anymore, we should make
this a more obvious part of baronial investitures, where applicable.

This practice is part of the body of Ansteorran common law.  (And
yeah, I really do mean that in the technical legal sense of the
phrase.)  Since the trend these days in Ansteorra appears to favor
statutory law, perhaps some very carefully written phrases need to be
written down to confirm our ancient common laws.

As to the comment about the Crown being principals of the Patent
orders:  the Patent orders are Society-wide, and therefore no single
Crown could legitimately claim principalship of any or all of them. 
Now, the Crown of Ansteorra *are*, by constitution, principals of the
*Ansteorran Grant* orders; perhaps that was what the writer had in
mind?

--Serena Lascelles, Blanc Gryffon Herald


 
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