Re: Crown Tourney

[kuijt@umiacs.UMD.EDU]

Ellwood writes:

>If the burdens of being King/Prince are so great, why does anyone try
>to become King?  For the title?  For the prestige?  For the money?
>For the _perceived_ power?  Obviously, there must be some attraction
>to the position, otherwise people wouldn't enter Crown Tourney....

The burdens of being a responsible monarch are great.  The burdens
of being a self-centered, irresponsible monarch are quite light.

The perks of being monarch are obvious.  You are important.  You
are the center of attention.

Of course, the reason you are the center of attention is that you
occupy the position that is one of the foundations of the illusion
that we are part of a non-modern, pseudo-medieval society.  It is
very important to most of the people in the SCA to have someone
be King and Queen, so we can all pretend to be in a society with
lords and ladies, social ranks and obligations, and all the other
flavours of the middle ages.

The obvious implication, then, is that the Monarchs have a duty
to support this illusion.

Many people lose sight of this.  The Monarchs are there to support
the Kingdom; the Kingdom is not there to support self-centered
dweebs who happen to win a Crown tourney.

Dafydd, Earl and Philosopher, a man who would be King.