[Sca-cooks] OT- Peerage Oaths

[Stefan li Rous]

Urtatim replied to me with:

<<< Stefan li Rous wrote:
They don't call up the knights individually to give their oaths?

You mean, one at a time? Cheez, dude, we'd be in court all day. As i  
said, sometimes the peers are called up in groups: knights and  
masters of arms, then laurels, then pelicans; and sometimes all peers  
at once. I suppose it depends on the King and also on how much  
business court needs to contain. >>>

Yes, that is what I meant. Not a roll call, but each Knight is  
sometimes allowed to come up individually and give his oath. And yes,  
I can remember it taking quite a long time and boring since, unless  
you were in the first few rows, you couldn't hear the oath. And in my  
case, see who it was up by the King, anyway. :-)

<<< King Radnor kept an sand-glass on the table between him and his  
queen and when the sand was all at the bottom, in 90 minutes, court  
was over. The vast majority of the populace was quite grateful.>>>

Oh my. I will say that HTM Gunthar's courts have been fairly short.  
Unfortunately, I can also remember some long courts both in and  
outside of Ansteorra. One that comes to mind was the Meridian portion  
of the Grand Court at Gulf Wars several years ago which went on and  
on and on with award after award from AoAs on up. This was probably a  
factor in Grand Court being changed in later years.

<<< I remember bailing out of a court with some friends - court had  
started around 5 PM, and we left at 8 PM. We had a child with us who  
needed to be fed. It had already been about 3 hours. I don't know how  
much longer it went on. This was, fortunately, atypical.>>>

I guess I wouldn't call a three hour court here typical, but not that  
atypical, either. Of course it is worse when it happens just prior to  
feast.

<<< So why do knights swear fealty individually, but laurels and  
pelicans don't? They are all peers, after all, and they're all needed  
to make the events, and the SCA as a whole, be what it is. >>>

I don't know the justification for calling up the Knights  
individually but the other Peers as groups. It's just what I've seen  
at several Coronations. Yes, I've heard that all the Peerages are  
supposed to be equals.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****