I am depressed...

[herveus]

My King writes:

This is just a quick note to inform all order principals of a slight wording change that will take place during Our upcoming curia. This is simply to bring Kingdom Law into a more unified and codified set of verbiage. Nothing in the process of choosing new principals will change, the Crown will still solicit the counsel of the orders before making a decision. Again, this is simply a clarification of wording since there are no "votes" and the selection of order principals has never been based purely on a majority rules scenario. Copied below is the current section of law followed, in italics, by the planned revision:

It's less than accurate. It certainly goes to great lengths to downplay the scope and significance of the change. I have written to my Crown to offer my counsel as a peer, but I fear that the King is resolute and will not be swayed. I could write more, but that would be a Bad Thing. You may extrapolate.

Cousin stitchwitch, I do not think that I will be considering quite the course that you have spoken of, but I fear that this will give further impetus to some significant changes myself -- changes driven in part by non-SCA factors as well.

*sigh*

Update: I have written to both Crown and Coronet (Crown before posting this).

Comments

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

"Less than accurate"? I'd call it a blatant untruth, and request the opinions of former royalty to back that up.

I am not going to Unevent; I don't really want to be in the middle of that firestorm... and I am strongly tempted to change my SCA address to somewhere in Pennsylvania.

[amykb.livejournal.com]

I've been wanting to do that since I have been here, but it is just too far away to play in the East on an even semi-regular basis. I am stuck here, so I have to make the best of things. Thankfully, I like a lot of the people I have met, I just don't like the culture, and what I see him doing is just an extension of the culture I have seen. As a Peer, I have a responsibility, but I am having a hard time living up to it when every interaction I have depresses me and makes me homesick.

[kass-rants.livejournal.com]

What? Royalty in your adopted Kingdom don't always have it up their noses and do things like they really *are* something other than the hottest stick of the day.

The problem with calling someone "Your Majesty" is that, eventually, they start to believe it. Goes to their heads. They think they have power.

Besides the idea that a title based on the guild system isn't decided upon by the guild and guild alone is more than a little ludicrous.

Spoken by not-a-peer. =)

[stitchwhich.livejournal.com]

I know my planned action is not everyone's - but I also know that *someone* has to be a leader and say, "There is another way to be involved in the SCA that does not involve catering to the egos of the few" because otherwise, we're going to see an even faster exodus than we've already seen - out of the Society, rather than out of the kingdom-infrastructure.

When a person says that they are King and the will of the people is unimportant, then sometimes the best reply is to say, "then you shall be the king of a kingdom of one". It is, in fact, the response that the martial community advocates when there is a rhino-hider on the field.

I will be at Unevent to stnad up and state my views. I hope that whoever does so first, all the rest of us stand in support to show Logan that his proposed change of kingdom law is unwise.

[kass-rants.livejournal.com]

I tend to agree with you, T. Staying with it and "trying to make it better from within" isn't the action that's needed. You've been doing that for years. This needs a short, sharp smack over the nose with a heavy stick.

You play the game like an ass and no one will want to play with you anymore. That's what I think you're saying. And I wish you luck!

prosacic

[dameroksanne.livejournal.com]

You just summed up my absence in the last few years more elegantly than I have ever been able to.

Logan knows exactly what I think about him. I told him at my Laureling.

Those people don't give a rat's ass about anybody but themselves, IMO.

[40sw.livejournal.com]

not related to anything at all but I'm absolutely in love with your flashing reindeer icon

[amykb.livejournal.com]

I can't be there. You carry my steel, my Brother.

[luscious-purple.livejournal.com]

Maybe it was, um, edited a bit....

[herveus.livejournal.com]

That was the introductory text, copied and pasted. It was followed by the existing text followed by the proposed new text. It was alleged that the changes were "in italics", but that detail didn't come through in a text-only medium.

The missive was signed "Logan, Rex". Rowan's name did not appear anywhere in the communique.

If He didn't compose them, he certainly claimed them for his own. See also "Flag Lieutenant".

[graylion.livejournal.com]

hmm, that has a certain tendency to remind me of events in my kingdom during the last reign ...

[martelvonc.livejournal.com]

Ok, I think I missed this. Is it in the upcoming Acorn?

[herveus.livejournal.com]

I don't know. Tirloch forwarded to the Laurel list the missive Logan sent out to all the order principals.

The big stinkiness mostly occurred on the Golden Dolphin list when our current principal, being now also Princess, spoke of how her successor would be selected. When kingdom law was cited, Logan displayed considerable displeasure with this "surprising" finding. I guess he had not noticed that part of law any of the other times he reigned, since it has been that way since before he ever won a crown.

[celemon.livejournal.com]

And the royalty in many places seems to believe, oddly enough, that having an order principal they picked is going to somehow make their lives easier, instead of fostering resentment and making sure they never hear the advice they need.

[mysryael.livejournal.com]

See also the knighting of a brother by a brother (biological siblings) in Caid so that the younger brother could win crown and knight his older brother because the Knight's counsel wouldn't consider either brother as a candidate.

Funny thing is that neither brother is much at events these days and the older brother just got sent up for R and D.

[herveus.livejournal.com]

Having written to the Crown and received a reply from Logan, I find myself unsurprised and saddened. The response did not address anything. It merely quizzed me, asking if I thought that orders had the right to compel the crown. The rhetoric was combative and leading.

Of course Orders have that right, as regards the choice of principal. That's exactly what the law says today.

I will not be able to attend Unevent due to prior committments. I don't know what more I can do right now. I suppose I could hold Logan in the light, that the scales may fall from his eyes.

Yes, I name Logan specifically, as I have no evidence to even hint that Rowan has anything to do with this mess, save for being Queen. This appears to be Logan's ball all the way.

[stitchwhich.livejournal.com]

I got the same response.

[carthew.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's what I got too. Seems to me that :
if the current law says "the order elects" and
if everyone is required to obey the law including the Crowns,
then the crown must deal with who the order has elected, and thus are compelled.

Seems like simple math to me. And its been this way a goodly long time.

And if the Crowns don't comply with the law, then the BoD gets involved to sanction the Crowns. It's happened before, I believe, though not here.

[greta-k.livejournal.com]

Hi - back again.

Actually, Her Majesty did chime in to support His Majesty on His thread on the Dolphin list. Quite passionately, too, I might add. However, the end product has His name - and only His - attached to it.

[herveus.livejournal.com]

Oh. One more comment. I am disappointed in y'all. :)

I was hoping *someone* would bite at the title and come back with the Blazing Saddles reference...

[dukelogan.livejournal.com]

and of course herveus you have not spoken with me, you refuse to listen to actual facts, you continue to claim things that simply are not true, you refused to speak with me at 12th night, you had your chance to pound on your pulpit at 12th night at our town hall meeting, which i reminded you of four or five times, you slinked off to a dark corner to hide instead of engaging in honest discourse. not a surprise. yet, you continue to pound your chest on your little online fourm. blah blah blah blah blah. if you actually have something to say at least have the balls to speak with us face to face. you wont though. you wont because you are simply wrong and too pig-headed to engage in honest discourse. im done with you, and ive given you ample opportunity to discuss your issues with me. you are a coward and someone that bathes in gossip and rumour-speak. feh. i call you out and challenge you to debate me in a public (not your internet world) forum. face to face. you wont do it of course and you will offer no end of reasons why you wont here in your e-world. but that wont change the fact that you tell mistruths and complete lies as long as you dont face the one you condemn.

please please please take me up on this. please engage me in open discourse face to face. dont hide in the darkness. be the man you claim to be. prove me wrong in anything ive said. just once. of course you wont. so make your excuses and crawl back to your shadows. your character is evident and those that accept your words as truth without even bothering to investigate display their character as well. they too will hide and lurk in the safety of darkness.

or who knows, maybe you all will gather together and press your fear into one blob and actually speak to the person you so bravely insult. of course you wont. being wrong is a big mean scary place. 8( unless, of course, you are a person of character. i offer you the time and place. you only need accept that offer herveus. if you do accept i look forward to hearing your concerns face to face. if not, well... i wont be surprised and you can slink back into that hole with your buddies.

logan

[stitchwhich.livejournal.com]

Logan, did you notice that this whole entry/thread is over two months old? It was all written back around Thanksgiving when you made your first announcement and people were reacting to it. I expect, now that you are writing replies, that there will be a flurry of responses to your words but things have moved on a lot since this was all discussed here and what you are reading now is not necesarily how folks are viewing things currently.

[herveus.livejournal.com]

As a Peer of the Realm, I have a duty to offer my counsel to the Crown. In the instant matter, I offered that counsel at some length and breadth, both in public settings and in direct email conversations. In return, I was publicly labeled a "rabble rouser". Now, here, in another public place, you accuse me of much that is bad. You slur me mightily, using all manner of darkly-colored words. That is not the conduct of a mighty prince, but of a mean-spirited bully who cannot tolerate being gainsaid. When the King speaks in this manner, it sends a message that such conduct is not merely acceptable, but to be encouraged as fashionable. That is shameful.

What have I said here that I didn't say to you directly? I did note that there was much more I could have written, but that I restrained myself from putting on a public temper tantrum such as you have treated me to here. Perhaps my restraint was a "sign of weakness" or "cowardice" to you.

We exchanged private emails a some length back when this was "current events". Your tone of voice to me, both in private and in public, support the interpretation that you were not interested in actually listening to counsel that disagreed with you. Now, nearly two months later, you stumble across this thread and lay into me. Openly.

I *did* engage in direct, one-on-one conversation. It was singularly unproductive. While that was going on, your public response to my public request for people to offer counsel was spat upon when you insisted on labeling me a "rabble rouser". It was the conduct of a bully.

When the topic first surfaced on the Golden Dolphin list, I participated.

I ask you "how, exactly, do you come to the claim that I 'refused' to speak with you at Twelfth Night?" Why do you liberally lard your missive with insulting phrases. What is this "dark corner" that I "slinked" off to? If you are really "done with me" (as you had earlier noted in private email), why did you feel moved to come here and repeat it in public?

You make numerous assertions about me and my past and future conduct that are nothing more than straw men or are absolute fabrications. Lies, if you will.

You claim to have reminded me of the town hall meeting at Twelfth Night "four or five times". I received no personal correspondence from you or an agent on that point. The town hall *was* mentioned in various announcements, but you have no assurance that I received those announcements, nor that I read them. I certainly did not look at the Town Hall meeting as a place for me to "pound the pulpit"; that would have been boorish on my part. Did you take note of one of your Baronage observing that they did not have the opportunity to give counsel at you curia? That person's impression was that you gave no sign of comprehension -- that it rolled off you as water on a duck's back. I don't see how me trying to visit the subject would have been of any particular value.

At Twelfth Night, my first obligation was to support my lady in her mercantile efforts. Unfortunately, the only space suitable for us to set up our displays was in the back (dark) corner. Had my apprentice, Margaret Cochrane, actually been able to come to Twelfth Night, the public celebration of that status would also have been very high on my priority list. I did manage to overlook the Arts & Science displays and give counsel and encouragement to the youngest entrant.

I leave your words here on display as another monument to you.