The History of the Kingdom of The West
The Second Year

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Held at Newman Center, Palo Alto, California. Mediocrates of Hellas (Israel ben Jacob) was the autocrat. Henrik and Leanne were crowned by Richard and Diana. Crown lists were held. William the Silent won, defeating Caradoc ap Cador. Sheryl of Thespis was William’s lady. King Henrik knighted William on the spot. Kerry the Rock gave the MGC to Edwin Bersark. A revel followed at the home of Joe and Felice of Mayhavn House (Felice of Mayhavn House).

Henrik of Havn Vert, on a pellet a horse's head couped Or above a coronet showing three Latin crosses Or.

Leanne of Maywood Azure, a Unicorn countertrippant argent, armed, crined and pizzled and cullioned Or.

Arms drawn by Nicholas Bawcock of Petersfield, used with permission
Arms colored by Aja du Jardin

Annotations:
“The Sept. '67 tourney (a week before I joined) was unique in that a total newcomer won it. I believe John & Sherry Jackson were friends of John & Bjo from SciFi Cons, and when John came to Cal as a new grad student, Bjo recruited him. He had, I think, had a wrestling scholarship as an undergrad, was about 5'4" and very quick. After one practice session, he came to a tourney and won. (Of course, Richard, Fulk, Henrik, & Siegfried, I was told, all chose not to compete that time.) I later went fabric shopping with Bjo and John & Sherry, getting stuff for Bjo to costume them in regal fashion for 12th Night and for her to make me my first banner after Karina had helped me design a device, which was easier then, since the College of Heralds wasn't in being yet.) Since the previous kings had all been there from the start, more or less, they didn't need to be told how to do things, but now Don (Jon de Cles) saw a need and invented the office of Seneschal for himself to advise the King. (I think all officers thus far were more or less self-appointed as need arose, with consensus of the inner core of the group, i.e. those who helped make it all happen, rather than merely attending events.) Perhaps Master Edwin was the first appointed to an office by the Crown some time later, upon petition by the teen-aged squires (about 1/3 of all fighters) whom he taught, when he became Earl Marshal.” – Robert of Dunharrow

“This was going to be the tourney that Edwin or Siegfried won, since they hadn't won yet. Henrik was on the throne, Richard and Fulk would rather not end up the way they had at the March tourney. So they acted as Marshals and fought individual challenges (one of which ended up with Ken (Fulk) challenging Don (Jon de Cles) to a duel at a later time.)
     “However, as I recall, Siegfried had gotten out in the sun and burned himself thoroughly the weekend before. He could not fight. So it was going to be Edwin's tourney. But (again as I recall) relative newcomer Jamie Oakenshield beat Edwin, and slightly less of a newcomer Caradoc ap Cador beat Jamie while William the Silent beat first the Little Green Dinosaur, and then me. So it was the relative newcomer Caradoc (he'd been to a couple of events) versus the total newcomer William the Silent. William was too fast and deadly, Caradoc went down.
     “It was such an unexpected event that Bjo had to remind people that they had a new winner and he needed to be congratulated and praised and prepared to be king. Folks were in a daze for quite awhile afterward.” – Stefan de Lorraine

“Oh, and Felice's home was Mayhem House, a name she coined as assistant editor of Niekas for the columns she wrote.” – Stefan de Lorraine

[Re: Edwin being Marshall] “This is the second time in a couple of months that I heard this story, and I never heard it before. Perils of living in San Francisco when the In Crowd was in Berkeley, I guess. All I knew was that Edwin was suddenly Earl Marshall.” – Stefan de Lorraine

“The idea to knight William was first suggested by Fulk to me in private. At that time in SCA history there was no thought of group consensus to knighting – only two had occurred and they had been unilateral actions each.” – Henrik of Havn

“Exactly correct. An event that was also interesting in that Henrik, who was King at the time, was puzzling over whether he had to talk to all the chivalry first and I’m one of the ones who told him, “No, you’re the king, you want to knight him, you knight him.” (Thus following the path of Cromwell instead of Moore). I don’t know if I used the phrase “The King’s word is law,” in that discussion or not. When I later followed my own advice and handed out Laurels to Michael of Moria and Joseph of Locksley, I got criticized roundly. Out of such incidents to things like Knights Councils and Laurel Councils spring.” – Stefan de Lorraine

[Comment originally from events in AS I, moved to here as being more germaine – Hirsch] “I joined the SCA the first Sunday of October AS II (1967) at 1st Northern RenFaire, one week after the 7th tourney (the first not won by Richard, Fulk, & Henrik in turn, but by a total newcomer, William the Silent, aka John Jackson.) At that time, the SCA was still largely a fairly well-functioning anarchy, with few official officers. Everyone knew everyone else and someone pitched in to do whatever was needed. Authority seemed to rest collectively with the group, although it was mostly exercised by a core of a dozen or so members who chose to put in the most effort. (I certainly wasn't appointed keeper and maintainer of all SCA property a week after joining by any royal or board authority. They just all loaded everything in my truck and told me to take it home and bring it to all events.)
     “As of Oct. II, as best I could tell, Diana was Mistress of Arts, Harold of Breakstone was Herald (field heralding only at that time), Siegfried was Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jon de Cles was editor of TI (of which issue #3 was just out, and sale of subscriptions for $1.50/yr. had apparently just begun.) All the fighters took turns marshaling, Edwin was made the first Earl Marshall some time later upon petition to the Crown by all the young squires (aged 13 to 17 mostly) that attended his weekly fighter training sessions. As best I could tell, Jon de Cles invented the office of Seneschal in response to having a complete newcomer win the crown. Someone had to stand by the throne and tell him what to do, but that was at 12th Night II. Janet of Breakstone was doing the lists job at that time, I believe. She sat at the edge of the field with a lap full of file cards and told everyone who was fighting next, but I don't think anyone had given her an official title for doing it.” – Robert of Dunharrow

Description of this event, © Copyright 1980 by William R. Keyes (Wilhelm von Schlüssel)
This is from The History of the West Kingdom, Volume 1 (the only volume produced). When reading this text, please keep in mind the following disclaimer:

Disclaimer: This history may have errors in it, as much of the detail is “remembered” history, or as one of the cover pages of the original type-written manuscript states “The material within is derived from the information printed in The Crown Prints and in The Page, and from the memories of the participants.” The original document was typed on onion-skin paper, with hand-written notes (often in the margins). All attempts have been made to reconcile the notes with the original document.

Annotations, when they are added, are from The Annotated History of the West, Volume 1, which is the same text as Master Wilhelm's mentioned above, with commentary from members of the SCA who were active at the time of the event, and are added to help clarify questions and expand on what happened and why. This volume is copyright © Ken Mayer (Hirsch von Henford).

The West Kingdom History Website was created by and is maintained by Hirsch von Henford (mka Ken Mayer).