From The Tribune, Number One:
ITEM ONE; is the Tourney of late March, our first tourney of the New Year, and therefore an important one. Full information on this tourney is printed on the enclosed poster, but His Majesty, King Caradoc ap Cador, has asked me to include here a request to the Ladies of the Court that they bring with them to the tourney such items of craft and artifice as they have been engaged in constructing over the long winter, and that they arrange such items about themselves upon the green in a pleasing manner, so that all may see what things the Ladies of the Court have wrought: It being our most gracious King's desire that the Ladies be given more chance to display their particular and feminine talents.
[Note: The aforementioned flier is a photocopy of a mimeograph, and really just gives directions and such to the site with some artwork on it ... Hirsch von Henford]
From the History (by Wilhelm):
Held at the Douglas St. Playground, San Francisco, California. Harold Breakstone was the autocrat. Caradoc and Amie held court. King Caradoc gave a Grant of Arms to David of Ilwheirlane and an Award of Arms to Ann Parkhurst of Gatehouse. The Crown Lists were held and Sir Siegfried von Hoflichskeit won, defeating Master Edwin Bersark. Ardis an Dearg (Sumer Redmaene) was Sir Siegfried’s lady. King Caradoc admitted Marynel of Darkhaven to the Order of the Laurel. About this time the Tribute, the newsletter for the Kingdom, appeared, with Diana Listmaker as Editress. (The Pennoncel, the newsletter for the East, also appeared at this time, with Elfrida of Greenwalls as Editress.) King Caradoc gave the Order of the Ruby to Master Edwin Bersark.
Annotations:
“Notable among other things for the sudden proliferation of pavilions.
My own household pavilion (never a major one) appeared at this time,
as did Marynel's and a few others. I was at this tourney that I acquired
my page, Michael Oliver (can't remember his medieval name, mostly he was
Michael the Page) when my squire, Houri the Savage, showed up with Michael
in his arms saying "Hey, Steve, look what I got!" Michael was about 11 or
12 at the time. His father was a drama professor at Cal Berkeley. A treasured
member of my household for many years. He eventually got more involved in theater,
the Faire and music.
“The Order of the Ruby was a short-lived attempt
to give awards to people for coming in second and third (I believe the third
place was the Order of the Emerald – not sure). These were formed plastic on
a ribbon. I think I may have come in 3rd at this tourney, since I have one
of them. Absolutely no recollection of who I fought.
“Houri won a similar award for most chivalrous,
which was actually an award for most improved in chivalry.
“There was also one of the first discussions of
conflicting arms that I saw handled. Jon the Lean's initial arms involved crossed
maul and pipe or on sable. As you may well recall, this is very close to
Richard the Short's device. Richard pointed it out and they pretty much
determined Jon's final arms on the spot. Very amicable.” – Stefan de Lorraine
“Minor point. It was a mace not a maul. Though I did enjoy mauling people with
my mace. :-)”
“I remember fighting Siegfried. He fairly
quickly took my leg, I just could not seem to block his attacks. Then,
as I was on my knees, and the final blow came in, I remembered that
he was left handed! It was a learning experience. :-)
“I believe this was also the event where I
first used my one handed fail. Either Edwin or Caradoc tested it quite
completely on me. It did no damage, despite many, many blows. Lots of
force spread out over a large area” – Jon FitzRolf
“Notes on the tourney, and misc. stuff. I think that the newsletter was called the Tribune. This was my first Crown tourney that I fought in. The bathrooms were locked, and we all had to walk a long way. Miscommunication. At this time, the Queen would give out 'jewels' to the finalist and semi-finalists- Diamond, ruby and emerald. I think that there was a revel afterwards at Randall's house on twin peaks, Hightower, but that may have been another time.” – James Greyhelm
“Regarding the jewels -- when digging through back issues of The Page (The Tribune, and TI) that Wilhelm donated to Aldith and I, I did run across the Order of the Diamond, the Order of the Ruby, and the Order of the Emerald. The only problem is, I only found one recipient of each, and in each case, it was Edwin Bersark. Now, that's not to say that they weren't given out to others, but those were the only ones I could find recorded in the newsletters (although when Henrik came over, I noticed he had some TIs that weren't in the stack Wilhelm had, so it's possible other newsletters are missing as well)” – Hirsch von Henford
“Well, given that Edwin was living in the same house as the editor of the magazine, ... ya think?
“I doubt the concept lasted more than a year, and I may have gotten mine at some event other than the Spring tourney – I dunno. Once started, the practice just couldn't build momentum. Since Edwin never won the Crown, I don't think the orders listed were all the possibilities, one of them was probably the chivalry award I mentioned earlier. I think I remember Edwin winning that one. Heck, the one I have may be a chivalry award, I just don't remember.” – Stefan de Lorraine, who is planning to grow crops where he has been raking his brain ... Or is that racking?“My recollection is these “jewels” – transparent plastic resin cast in small star-like jellow molds about 1 3/4" in diameter with a black 3/4" to 1" wide velvet ribbon affixed – I had and may still have a clear white (diamond) one – were given to “the one (fighter) who fought well”, “the one who fought better” (loser to the winner in finals) and “the one who fought best” – the winner of the Crown lists. Since Edwin never won crown, he couldn’t have received the diamond. Diamond was for the winner and I don’t remember for sure but probably ruby was for 1st runner up and emerald was for 2nd runner up.” – Henrik of Havn“I remember these 'awards' as tokens that were given by the ladies to the people they decided were the most valorous or chivalrous or something similar. I was told at the revel after the tourney that this was a 'tradition'. However, I only remember them being done a couple of times. As I remember - and would certainly believe now - the ladies had a hard time on agreeing on anyone other than their own lords.” – Verena of Laurelin
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).