Re: Disarming in the Presence

[David KUIJT <kuijt@umiacs.UMD.EDU>]

Poster: David KUIJT <kuijt@umiacs.umd.edu>



Aedan wrote:

> I've never been a Royal Peer nor do I play one on stage but
> I have stood behind quite a number of monarchs (5 out of
> the last 6) as a Queen's Guard.
> 
> The prevailing attitudes that I remember were...
> 
>   a)  Why should I (the monarch) fear my subjects?
>   b)   If there is a problem, that's what the guards are for in the
>         first place.
>    c)  Remember how I got here in the first place?  Why worry?
>    d)  This scepter (or whatever) is really scary.  Do you really want
>         to threaten me while I am holding it?  (This last is due to at
>         least 2 different queens who loved swinging that mace/scepter
>         around and just looked for an excuse to use it.)
> 
> Any former/current Crown's want to comment??


You have it exactly right.

There is no grand and ancient tradition of stripping yourself of weapons 
in the presence of Royalty in Atlantia.

Without meaning to criticize other kingdom's traditions, I've always found
the idea rather silly.  Atlantia is not an armed camp suffering the
constant threat of regicide, and I have never found it amusing to pretend
that it is.  Only tyrants and paranoids fear regicide, and I've never seen
an Atlantian monarch that was so base or cowardly as to fear his own
people.

>From a theatrical standpoint, I find it has even less to recommend it as
a custom.  A paramount rule of running Good Court is to make it as 
entertaining as possible.  Allowing every Tom, Diccon, and Ysabeau to
spend five minutes in a cutlery demonstration before entering (or when
leaving) court loses its humour very quickly, and can easily stretch
a nice 40 minute court into a tiring 80 minute one.  It might have its
place by contrast in a special event (bringing in a known treacherous
knave, for example) that was specially scripted as theater -- for example,
at the Great Guido Trial.  But by and large, I think it is neither
appropriate nor interesting.

Dafydd, once King.

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