[ANSTHRLD] Forms of Address (Was From the Feb 2011 Covr Letter)

[Tim McDaniel]

On Thu, 28 Apr 2011, Bob Wade <logiosophia at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Placing Lord or Lady in front of a title was an Ansteorran
> Heraldic Custom when I first started out.

Known-worlde wide.  I immediately thought of the song "Lady Laurel In
Her Wisdom Nuked My Name", which had to have been 1975-1979 or little
later, and I doubt she lived in Ansteorra (which didn't exist qua
Ansteorra for some of that time).  I grepped quickly thru LoAR Cover
Letters and saw plenty of "Lord [title]" up thru Bruce Laurel's
tenure, July 1992 - November 1993, and when they open Bruce's heart,
they'll see the four crescents of Caid engraved on it (and "callous"
too).

But there were only two-three usages in the next couple of months, one
maybe not by Da'ud, and then it went away (except for quotations and
such).  My guess is that someone in 1993 or a little before pointed
out, "hey, in the real world, heralds don't get 'lord' or 'lady' ex
officio except for Lyon King of Arms", and by the time Da'ud started
his second reign, he decided Let's Do That Thing.

It even had a practical effect ... well, "practical" in the SCA ...
The October 1994 LoAR Cover Letter,
<http://heraldry.sca.org/loar/1994/10/cvr.html>:

     The consensus of the College being that we should drop the
     unhistorical practice of the form of address "Lord [Heraldic
     title]" and "Lady [Heraldic title]", the use of placenames for
     heraldic titles need no longer be prohibited on the grounds that
     "Lord/Lady [placename]" could be considered a claim to
     "landedness".[1] As a consequence, the subtext of Rule for
     Submission III.2.b.iii (Heraldic Titles) is hereby replaced with
     the following sentence:

         These are generally drawn from surnames (Chandos Herald, Percy
         Herald), place-names (Windsor Herald, Calais Pursuivant,
         Sicily Herald), names of heraldic charges (Crosslet Herald,
         Estoile Volant Pursuivant, Noir Lyon Pursuivant), names of
         orders of chivalry (Garter King of Arms), and mottos (Ich Dien
         Pursuivant, Esperance Pursuivant).

     ...

     [1] How should heralds properly be addressed then, you ask? By
     their title, unadorned with any other designation of rank or
     degree: the holder of this office is simply "Laurel"; Marta as tu
     Mika Misliwy is "Brickbat"; Owen ap Morgan is "Green Crown". This
     follows mundane practice, where, for example, the story is
     repeated about the Lyon King of Arms calling one of his staff on
     the telephone and greeting him with "Lyon here, is that you,
     Unicorn?"

Daniel de Lindicolino
-- 
Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com