Re: New Peerage? disregard if disordered thought bugs you.

[nostrand@pi.math.wsu.edu (Barbara Nostrand)]

Poster: nostrand@pi.math.wsu.edu (Barbara Nostrand)

Noble Cousins!

Lord Luther wrote about how knighthood is so difficult to achieve in our
society, while becoming a noble was very easy.  First of all.  By the end
of the first event, all of the males in the fledgeling society (which did
not even have a name yet) were knights.  One person showed up as a squire
and was dubbed a knight at that event.  Later on, the knights were
regularized and I believe that according to the narator at film night at
30YRC many (if not all of them) were redubbed as knights at that time.
Consequently, in very earliest usage, knighthood was quite common in our
society.  Scarce knighthoods were a somewhat later development.  What has
developed is an Order of Chivalry.  This is quite a bit different than
simply being a knight in a medieval sense.  Unfortunately, while names were
invented for the Laurel and the Pelican, no such name was ever invented for
our order of chivalry.  The most obvious name for the order would be the
"Order of the Golden Chain" or even simply the "Order of the Chain".  This
might cause problems with our Masters of Arms who do not wear golden chains.
Similarly, while the knights wear white belts, the master's do not.  Thus,
the best name would probably be the "Order of the Golden Spur".  Personally,
I think that it would be even more interesting for each kingdom to have its
own order of the chivalry.  This would much agree much better with historic
practice than having a universal order admission to which is granted by any
local king.  The universal orders made a lot more sense back in the days of
the imperium than they do now.  Each of the universal orders could then be
viewed as imperial orders.

Regardless of whether or not "knights" would ever be dubbed outside of the
chivalric order, there should be an actual order name for the chivalry. Again,
this would ideally be done at the kingdom level.  However, as the order is
handed down from the days of the ancient imperium, it would be appropriate
for the name to be shared amongst the kingdoms.  In short, I think that there
should be an order name for the order of the chivalry and I think that the
best candidate for such a name would be "Golden Spur" provided that the name
is not already taken.  Otherwise, "Golden Chain" would be appopriate as the
annulet of chain has been reserved to chivalry for a long time now.

Again.  This proposal would only create an order name for the chivalry, and
would not effectively change anything else.  The order of chivalry would have
two equal classes of members, knights obligated to swear fealty to the crown
and masters which is the current situation.  There would still be the spiff
knighting ceremonies, reserved regalia and all of the other stuff.

                                                Your Humble Servant
                                                Solveig Throndardottir
                                                Amateur Scholar

+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------+
| Barbara Nostrand, Ph.D.               | Solveig Throndardottir, CoM    |
| Dept. of Pure & Applied Mathematics   | Amateur Scholar                |
| Washington State University           | Medieval Japanese Research     |
| Pullman, Washington  99164-3113       | Carolingia Status Mentis Est   |
| (509) 335-5110                        |                                |
| nostrand@pi.math.wsu.edu              | bnostran@lynx.neu.edu          |
+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------+


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