The Peerage of the SCA

        Updated: June 18, AS XXXIX (2004)
        Disclaimer: This is not an official website of the SCA, Inc., and
        does not delineate official SCA or West Kingdom policy.

        Number of hits:

        A Short Menu

        Ok ... this page has gotten just enough info on it that a menu is going to be handy, so ... here y'go ...
        • So, What Is All This About?
        • New Peer Packets and Peerage Ceremonies
        • Notes About Peerage Ceremonies
        • Alternate Titles
        • Mailing Lists
        • Discussions on Being a Peer and Such
        • Where To Get Regalia

        So, What Is All This About?

        This web page started out as a place for 'New Peers' of the West Kingdom to find information about becoming a peer. But there's a lot of useful information here for anyone interested in the peerage of the West Kingdom and the SCA as a whole.

        NOTE: If you got here but don't know anything about the SCA, you should check out the SCA's web site: The Society for Creative Anachronism.

        We start off with New Peer Packets and Ceremonies for the various peerages (these are the West Kingdom ceremonies).

        There's a listing of mailing lists on the internet for peers that you may (or may not) be interested in. These are places where discussions germain to the peerage are sometimes held ...

        Below the peerage packets and ceremonies is a set of links to a group of pages that discuss the Peerage which you may find interesting. The discussions will be, of necessity, West Kingdom-Centric, as the contributors are all Westerners ...

        Another item of interest to peers, and friends of peers, is "where can I get a spiffy medallion ...?" To that end, I recently added a section for contact information for jewelers who do Peerage regalia ... If you would like to be listed, please email me (see link at the end of this page), and I will get you up here as soon as I can.

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        New Peer Packets and Peerage Ceremonies

        The following information is available for those who are either new-made peers, or those who have been asked to join the Peerage of the West Kingdom. You will find information for each Order of Peerage, as well as the Peerage Ceremonies.

        This information is from the West Kingdom Ceremony Book.

        New: May, 2000 -- in the links below are links to Adobe Acrobat renditions of the documents. If you haven't previously, you need to download the Adobe Acrobat reader by clicking on the image below and following the instructions .... It should be further noted that the acrobat versions are links directly to the West Kingdom Heralds' website and therefore if any changes are made to the ceremonies, they will be reflected accurately in the PDFs, but may not be in the HTML versions.

        The Order of Chivalry:
        • New Peer Packet (HTML)
        • New Peer Packet (Acrobat)
        • Ceremony (HTML)
        • Ceremony (Acrobat)
        		The Order of the Laurel:
        • New Peer Packet (HTML)
        • New Peer Packet (Acrobat)
        • Ceremony (HTML)
        • Ceremony (Acrobat)
        		The Order of the Pelican:
        • New Peer Packet (HTML)
        • New Peer Packet (Acrobat)
        • Ceremony (HTML)
        • Ceremony (Acrobat)
        Royal Peers (Kingdom) - Ceremonies:
        • Duke (HTML)
        • Duchess (HTML)
        • Ducal Ceremonies (Acrobat)
        • Count (HTML)
        • Countess (incl. Order of the Rose) (HTML)
        • County Ceremonies (Acrobat)
        		Royal Peers (Principality) - Ceremonies:
        • Viscount/ess: Mists (HTML)
        • Viscount/ess: Mists (Acrobat)
        • Viscount/ess: Cynagua (HTML)
        • Viscount/ess: Cynagua (Acrobat)
        • Viscount/ess: Oertha (HTML)
        • Viscount/ess: Oertha (Acrobat)

        The West Kingdom Royalty Handbook -- This is aimed specifically at the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of the West, but contains useful advice for all potential Royalty (in other words, anyone fighting in the Crown or Coronet Lists as well as their consorts ...).

        If you have questions, please contact the Banner Herald of the West Kingdom (in charge of Court) or the Clerk of a specific Order of Peerage (these are listed in The Page). These copies are posted here as a courtesy, to make the information available to anyone who is interested. If you are a new peer or have been asked to join an order of peerage, please contact the clerk of your order to obtain printed copies of the above ...

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        Notes About Peerage Ceremonies

        Lately some peerage ceremonies have tended to be a lot longer than they used to be. The following are suggestions from a long-time peer and as a herald, to try to shorten things a little.

        Remember that the ceremony is being watched not only by you, but by all the members of the Order you are being admitted to (many/most of whom are kneeling!!), and members of the populace. As it is considered rude to get up and leave court while a ceremony is occurring, most people suffer through a long ceremony, but frankly, a 1/2 hour peerage ceremony is way too long. The following are suggestions to shorten the ceremonies a bit:

        1. Exemplars: Consider, when asked to speak as a spokesperson, if what you are saying belongs in the ceremony, or if it belongs in the vigil. Lately, knighting ceremonies are having someone speak for 10 minutes about exemplars of Knighthood. This kind of thing really belongs in a vigil, which is where a candidate should be reflecting about what it means to become a peer of any specific type. Doing it during the ceremony is, in reality, a bit late -- there's no time to reflect left ...
        2. Spokesperson: When speaking as a spokesperson, be careful of your wording. If you are the "official" spokesperson for the Order (i.e., "Your Majesty, our numbers are not complete ..."), you are speaking for the Order. If, however, you are speaking (as has become more common in Western Peerage ceremonies) as a member of an order, be sure to state: "I speak as a member of the Order of ...", rather than "I speak for the Order of ...".
        3. Length of Speeches: Please, for goodness sake, don't ramble. If it helps, write your speech down. Whatever you do, don't make it long. You can praise a candidate's worthiness to join an order without making the populace fall asleep because your speech is so long.

        If we all try to remember the items above, it will make peerage ceremonies more palatable for the populace, as well as ourselves. I have heard the populace groan when a new peerage ceremony started -- not because it was any specific ceremony, but because it was another long ceremony that they had to sit through. This is a bad sign. Let's try to alleviate the problem, at least a little, shall we?

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        Alternate Titles

        Note that there are alternate titles that may be used by members of the SCA for any position with a specific rank. For peers, the titles (based on specific orders of peerage) include: Sir, Master, Mistress, Dame, and language specific versions. This information can be found at this site: http://www.sca.org/heraldry/titles.html (This is the official SCA heraldry site ...)

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        Mailing Lists

        There are various mailing lists for the peerages, which allow peers to discuss items of interest. These are usually closed to folk not of the peerage, or not of a specific peerage order. The following are links to the websites for these specific lists. Note that it is often easier to subscribe to the list and get the messages in email, but that is a matter of personal preference. The lists below are West Kingdom specific and SCA-Wide. Some other Kingdoms have mailing lists for their own orders of peerage, check with the peerage clerks for your Kingdom ...

        West Kingdom Specific:

        • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/west_peers/ (All Western Peers, moderated by Megan nic Alister of Thornwood)
        • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/west-chivalry/ (Order of Chivalry -- moderated by Parlan MacGillivray)
        • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/westlaurels/ (Order of the Laurel -- moderated by Juana Isabella de Montoya y Ramirez)
        • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/westpels (Order of the Pelican -- moderated by Aaron of Buckminster)
        • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WestRoses (Order of the Rose -- moderated by Berengaria de Montfort of Carcassonne)

        SCA-Wide:

        • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SCA-RoyalPeers/ (SCA Royal Peers -- moderated by Berengaria de Montfort of Carcassonne)
        • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SCA_Chivalry/ (SCA Order of Chivalry -- moderated by Gaius Marcellus Liberius Auklandus)
        • http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-laurels (SCA Order of the Laurel -- moderated by someone in Ansteorra)
        • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Pelicans/ (SCA Order of the Pelican -- moderated by Berengaria de Montfort of Carcassonne)

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        Discussions on Being a Peer and Such

        The following (and I hope to add more from other people) is unofficial, but may help remove some of the mystery about the peerages (I hope).

        These discussions are less prone to being West Kingdom-centric, but as noted at the top of this page, the authors cited here are all Westerners, so there will be a bias ... if you are in another Kingdom and are viewing these pages, you may want to check with others in your local Kingdom to see if there are differences (some of it may be attitude, custom, etc.) ...

        (Special thanks to Mistress Cedrin Etainnighean in Oertha for prompting me to work with her on helping disseminate information about the peerage, in an attempt to dispell myths about the peerage and just plain communicate more ... otherwise this would've had just the peerage-packs and ceremonies above, and thanks to Vikontessa Tatiana and others for their contributions to these pages!)

        Discussions About the Peerage
        by Vikontessa Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova,
        and Earl Kevin Perigrynne
        • Peerage In the Kingdom of the West
        by Master Hirsch von Henford
        • Disclaimer (PLEASE READ FIRST!!!)
        • What Is a Peer?
        • Goals versus Obsessions
        • Double and Triple Peers
        • Why Change a Peerage Ceremony?
        • Being a Peer (Responsibilities)
        • What are Your Rights as a Peer?
        • Are All Peers Equal?
        • The Peers are Unapproachable!
        • One Last Bit ...
        by Duke Frederick of Holland &
        Mistress Eilis O'Boirne
        • Fealty, Loyalty and Obedience
          NOTE that this is an Adobe Acrobat File,
          from the West Kingdom Herald's Handbook ...
        by Viscount Richard of Aldertree
        • So, You're Going to a Vigil ...

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        Regalia

        Well, as either a new peer, a peer who is just looking for a new bit of regalia, or as a friend of a peer (or soon to be peer) looking for regalia for that special person, it's not always easy to find something. And most or all of the folk listed also do other jewelry for SCAers ...

        A friend was looking for a replacement for her husband's token which he gave to a friend who was being made a peer of the same "stripe", and started searching the web ... she is passing on information to me, which I am posting here.

        Note that I do not know most of these individuals personally, I can make no guarantees about the quality of work, timeliness of the jeweler's delivery, etc. I am just listing the information -- if you end up ordering anything from anyone listed here it is at your own risk and I do not take any responsibility (although the work I have seen is pretty good ...). In addition, each jeweler listed here is with explicit permission of said jeweler ...:

        • Drachenstein Treasures (Link to website) ** Personal experience: good.
        • Odo de Anjou (Marc Bilyeu) (Link to email)
        • Clan Badges\Award Medallions\Distinctive Jewelry (Link to website)
        • Master William Bjornson (Bill Dawson) - Metalsmith (Link to website) **** Personal experience: very very good.
        • Gaukler Medieval Wares (Link to website)
        • Mistress Fjorleif in Haga (Link to website) **** Personal experience: very very good (the green enamaled Pel/Laurel medallion I often wear is one of her work)
        • Diane de Winchester and Mark von dem Falkensfenn (Link to website) They do SCA jewelry, among other things, including peerage medallions, coronets, etc. While I don't own any of their work (at least not at this time <g>), it is quite good ...
        • Future Relics (Link to email) They "make a wide variety of period jewelry, currently including two styles of laurel ring brooches and a pelican ring brooch. ... We have also made collars of state for East Kingdom royalty and the Company of St. Michael (EK tournament company), and we do custom work including coronets." They plan to have a website available soon.

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