[Sca-cooks] OT- Peerage Oaths

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Here in the West...

Fealty Oath

When a new King and Queen take the thrones, they swear fealty to the Kingdom and the populace. It's a standard fealty oath that's been used in the West not only since rocks were soft, but around the time of the creation of dirt. It is derived from The Lord of the Rings.

Here do I swear by mouth and hands
fealty and protection to the Kingdom
and populace of the West;
to uphold the Laws of the Kingdom,
to speak and to be silent,
to do and to let be,
to strike and to spare,
to punish and to reward
in such matters as concern the Kingdom,
in need or in plenty, in peace or in war,
in living or in dying,
until I depart from my Throne
or death take me or the world end.
So say I, (name).
(and the Queen says: So also say I, (name).)

Greater officers swear fealty to their (king&queen/prince&princess/baron&baroness) when they step up (into office) and when there's a change of royalty. The Heralds reads the oath, which differs from the above a fair bit, and at the end all say, "I so swear(or affirm)". One can choose not to if one doesn't care for the tuchus on the throne - perhaps one needs to take an urgent potty break, or perhaps one never makes it into court.

Peers are asked (but not required) to swear fealty when there's a change of royalty. Some royalty call them up peerage by peerage, or sometimes as a whole group of peers. This is repeated at Principality events, in case anyone missed the kingdom event.

Peerage Oath

A peerage oath is what one swears when when one becomes a peer (i'm sure i'll be corrected if i'm wrong). The oath for knights differs from the oath for laurels and pelicans. There is a standard ceremony and oath, but one can also use a non-standard format for the ceremony up to a certain point, when the standard oath kicks in. It ends with the oath of fealty, related to the oath the royalty swear when taking office. Here's the one for Laurels and Pelicans:

Here do I swear by mouth and hand
fealty and service to the Crown and Kingdom of the West;
to speak and to be silent, to come and to go,
to strike and to spare, to do and to let be
in matters as concern the Kingdom
on my honor and the lawful commands of the Crown
in need or in plenty, in peace or in war
in living or in dying from this hour henceforth
until the King depart from His Throne
or death take me, or the world end.
so say I, (name).

The Ceremony Books for the Kingdom of the West and its three remaining Principalities are on-line at
http://heralds.westkingdom.org/
under Court Heraldry.
--
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita
I dunno if this is any clarification...