More tidbits from the Front Lines

I am possibly entertaining no one but myself, here. But, hey, it's my journal and all that. ;-)

More mining of the Middlebridge archives yields the following gem from Mistress Joscelin, on of the original Stallari members of Northshield:



"My prediction is that Midlands will be the next Midrealm region to form a Principality, followed by South Oaken. My political theory is that, at least in the Midrealm, the will to become a Principality is largely driven by perceived neglect by the Royal Family and Kingdom Officers. As most Kings and Queens come from Michigan & Ohio (followed by Indiana), and a large plurality of Kingdom Officers seem to come from Michigan & Ohio (mainly for reasons of SCA population density), it is in the Midlands and South Oaken that folks are less likely to see frequent Royal visits or personally know the Kingdom Officers.

While there may indeed be active, vocal people in both regions who are vehemently opposed to the idea of going Principality, the same was true in Northshield 12 years ago. Some of those people became resigned to the idea of Principality; some even embraced it, as they discovered that it turned out far better than they had anticipated. Some others stopped playing, although there were usually other factors involved as well. I suspect the same will be true as we go Kingdom. On the other hand, people drop out of the SCA every day for various reasons; who knows how many members are still around because they were greatly inspired by the Prince & Princess of Northshield?

The important thing is that the will to form a Principality, or to not form one, must come from within the region. Different folks in Northshield made at least two or three unsuccessful attempts to work toward Principality status before sufficient will existed to make it happen. I remember one such attempt, circa 1989-90 (the other/s were before my time). Then, there was a straw poll circulated to all of the group seneschals in the Fall of 1992. It was in the form of a roster petition, allowing folks to answer "yes" or "no". It was not a secret ballot. Not all seneschals circulated it very widely within their groups. Not all groups discussed the issue in depth. However, there was sufficient interest expressed on the straw poll petitions for King Finn & Queen Garlanda to declare Northshield a Crown Principality and appoint a Stallari Council to start working on the laws, heraldry, etc."



Now, 6 years of time and political movement have, I think, changed the foundation upon which the first paragraph is based. Michigan (that is to say, Pentamere - because we should include Starleaf Gate in this) Crown and Kingdom Officers have gotten rather thin on the ground. This fall's Crown List is much heavier in Midlanders than Pentamerans. But the principles of her statements are the same things I've been saying.

More bits of History

The things ya find when ya go diggin':

The first is for one of the Ealdomeran history, dated March 1976:

"Earlier in the year the western part of North Woods had separated to become the barony of Andelcrag. Now the two baronies were planning to form a principality. The people of Eoforwic were concerned at this, for such a principality would lie between them and the rest of the Middle Kingdom. Therefore Finnvarr, Gillian and Jehanne went to Three Hills to take part in a great folk-moot which had been called to discuss the issue, and to see if it would be in Eoforwic's interest to join such a principality. The question never arose, for the people of Andelcrag and North Woods distrusted each other to the point that the moot quickly degenerated into fruitless argument. Its sole result was the name Pentamer, which some used later to refer to the land including Andelcrag, North Woods and Septentria."

Then there was this from a post that again comes from that 2004 discussion regarding a proposed Oaken principality that was almost immediately shouted down:

The first excerpt is from a Northshielder named Tirloch:

"I am from the Northshield. Before the successful polling in the early 90's that allowed His Majesty Finn to create the Crown Principality, we had two previous attempts that I know of (there may have been a third). One attempt began with some interested gentles in Nordskogen, which is a very central location in the Principality and the largest Barony, and all sorts of accusations about power grabbing and political intrigues killed that one. The next one was killed by the shires. I lived in a small shire at that time that had never seen a hat at one of our events (not even a court Baron(ess)). Basically the shires at that time felt the Baronies did not come and play with us and that we lacked the cohesion to be a principality. Over time this changed and people began to travel as much within the Northshield as they did to the rest of the Kingdom. The third and successful attempt was started as sort of a populace movement. The "powers that be" stayed out of it in the beginning to avoid the perceptions that developed in the first attempt. The shires recognized that the level of support from the Baronies had
increased and that a Principality meant we would actually be able to have Royalty at our events.

My point is, that if you go strictly by attitudes and actions of events that happened a decade or more ago, you will not really be taking a look at how being a Principalty may benefit you today. Also, this seems very similar to the early populace conversations that began when Northshield first began discussing the idea."

Ah, this last paragraph is what I've been trying to say. That's handy....

Hmph. Back to the low level grass-roots politicking. That is - explaining to groups of folks who have joined the SCA in the years since Northshield went Kingdom what a Principality is, and what it means.