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Re: Disarming in the Presence




Poster: Wayne Precht <wayne@apollo.umuc.edu>

'Mlonski@aol.com'
> 
> 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.)

I think, for me, that a, b and c definately apply and most of the time I
was armed myself.  The concept of regicide (that is not part of a
planned theatre senario) is so far beyond the pale of acceptable court
behavior, even in these vulgar times, that it is unthinkable.  It fact,
considering some of the people we used as retainers, I would be more
concerned about the health of the would-be assassin (have you seen how
sharp Harald's ax is?  And then there is Xenophon, he *wants* someone
to try something...I think you get the idea).

In reality, I tried to have prompt and short courts, out of respect to the
populous (and having set through many a tedious court myself).  As Earl
Dafydd pointed out, cutlery demonstrations go a long way towards slowing
things down and are really unnecessary (except, maybe, as theatre).  In
our last reign we gave out 92 awards, which means we probably called about
150 people into court.  Even at on 2 min.  per person, that would have
added 5 hours to royal court over the reign. *gack*


Duke Galmr.

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