RE: Honor vs. Winning

["Jeffrey C. Sussman" <JSussman@erols.com>]

Poster: "Jeffrey C. Sussman" <JSussman@erols.com>

Greetings from Richard,

Julien wrote:

"The way I interpreted HRM Timothy's explanation was of it not being a
"case of winning versus losing that made him decide to lead his army off
"the field, but rather it was the apparent dismissal of the ideals of
"honor and chivalry by HRH Dag...

I don't think that the royalty should let actions by other royalty adversely
affect the event.  Whatever it was that Prince Dag said or didn't say, that
should have been dealt with in some manner that didn't ruin the field
battle.

This is much easier said than done.  If a king perceives an insult to his
kingdom, he rightly feels a responsibility to the crowns that he passes on
to do something to preserve the honor of his crown.  This is also the case
for Pennsic and the Eastern and Midrealm crowns.  King Timothy and Prince
Dag both felt they had a responsibility to the Pennsic kings who would
follow them.  This responsibility means they must insist on the respect and
courtesy due their positions.  It is easy to see how these two imperatives
can come into conflict.

Accepting both their accounts of what happened, it looks like it required
Prince Dag's words and King Timothy's response in order to produce the
result that occurred.

I might add one other possibility.  If there was an undercurrent of bad
feeling truly spreading across both armies, then what King Timothy did was
exactly correct.  I expect however, this was the case for the dozen or so
people who knew what was going on from each side, but not for the rank and
file.  Not enough time had passed between the utterance of the poorly chosen
words and the time when the field battle was supposed to have begun.
Conjecture on my part...

Yours in Service to Atlantia,
Duke Richard Fitzgilbert
(Jeffrey Sussman)

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