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Re: On the subject of Fealty




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

Strangely, I find myself argeeing with Tibor in his response to Stephan:

>   If someone is a squire to a knight and becomes a territorial Baron, how
>   does his fealty to the knight affect his fealty to the King?
> 
> The answer to your question is "no conflict is there, unless when he swore
> to the Crown he set up a conflict.

Correct and it is unlikely that the Crown would be ignorant of the
situation if there was a potential problem.  I think that the situatiuon
needs to be examined on a case-by-case basis but, that in general they do
not conflict and there is no reason that the squire should need to be
released to perform his duites to the Crown as Baron.

One major reason is that the Knight is also in featly to the Crown.  It
seems unlikely that the Crown would ask things of the Baron that are
unreasonable to the Knight and visa versa.  Well, I suppose that it is
possible but, most monarchs seek to avoid starting that kind of trouble.
They do step down eventually...
 
The second major reason is the nature of the relationship.  Fealty, as it
is used in the SCA context, is usually used to define support/teacher
relationship.  It is also has fairly narrow parameters.  The squire is in
fealty to the Knight to learn the skills of Knighthood and be supported
and guided as needed by the Knight.  That is usually the extent of it. 
Governing a Barony is a seperate activity and not really related.  If
fact, they rarely come into contact.  A lot of being a Baron occurs at
business/officers meeting and being host at local events.  While most of
being a squire occurs at the local fighting practice(s) and during the
fighting portion of local and away events. 

Saying people can't possibly have more than one fealty is like saying you
can't be married and be a squire (or whatever) at the same time.

> From your questions, Stephan, it appears that you have learned about fealty
> in the Society.  This is like learning cooking in a McDonalds... the sort of
> games we play with fealty are barely historically informed.

I like that.


Galmr.

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| L. Wayne Precht                             | wayne@apollo.umuc.edu         |
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