A Rebel’s View of the An Tir Rebellion, Part the First: The Twelfth Night Plot

A Rebel’s View of the An Tir Rebellion

A Rebel’s View of the An Tir Rebellion Part One - The Twelfth Night Plot By Emily SD Thompson

Once upon a time, long, long ago and far to the north in the Kingdom of the West, there was a place where SCAdians began to assemble, high in Three Mountains. In AS IV did Frederick of the West Tower and Anne of the White Tower, founding Baron and Baroness of Three Mountains, host their neighbors to a New Year's Eve Revel at their home - the first official event of the Current Middle Ages in what had been theretofore a howling wilderness of mundanity.

The following month did Maid Laurellan host a Sewing Fest and Practice Session at her home, less than a day's travel to the north of Three Mountains. And the Barony of Madrone came into being, founded by Baron Raymond the Mild and Baroness Sheen of Eire and their friends. Thus did the gentlefolk of the Current Middle Ages begin to settle in the wilderness.

In February was Baron Frederick appointed to be Knight Marshall of Madrone and Three Mountains, and a coterie of aspiring young fighters, of an age to be students at the universities, gathered around him; by AS V, Edward Zifran of Gendy and Steingrim Wulfarson (later far-famed as Steingrim Stellari) were among the young fighters.

Edwin Bersark and Jerald of Galloway were fighting by that time also. Frederick of Holland was a frequent sight at fighter practices that year as well, until August. Then he persuaded his lady, Nicorlynn of Caer Wydder, to give over her duties as seneschal to Crane the Golden, and dwell with him in the Mistlands.

Three Mountains did not at first flourish as Madrone did. But with aid and advice from Raymond the Mild, at long last Three Mountains became more settled, until all danger of the little colony dying out was at an end. And Madrone grew and flourished, and so did Three Mountains, and there was friendship between their people.

In AS VI, the year following the foundation of Madrone, Roger the Goliard and Nancy Current, seeing that the people were scattered and were not always able to attend the assemblies of their fellows, began to print a newsletter, the which they did style The Crier. And as Madrone grew, so grew The Crier.

In the summer of AS VII, Raymond and Sheen did move their dwelling unto the Mistlands and did appoint Liam of the Barque and Deirdre Muldomhnaigh to reign over Madrone as Castellans in their absence.

Presently, the Crown and officers of the Kingdom of the West noted that Madrone and Three Mountains were doing well. And they were pleased. For though the far northern lands were distant from the heartland of the West where the dukes dwelt, yet those lands were a part of the Kingdom of the West, and the Westerners were glad to see that the land was being claimed for their Kingdom.

In May AS VIII, in the presence of King Paul and Queen Carol, monarchs of the Kingdom of the West, the Tourney of Union was held. And a charter there was signed by King Paul, Baron Frederic, and Baron Raymond joining the Barony of Three Mountains and the Barony of Madrone into the Principality of An Tir. But the formal charter had yet to be signed by the Board of Directors.

On August 25, AS VIII, Sir Frederick of the West Tower, the founding Baron of Three Mountains, was victorious in the lists of the first An Tir Coronet Tourney. And the King and Queen of the West, Henrik and Seitse, crowned him and his lady, Anne of the White Tower, the first Prince and Princess of the Principality of An Tir that same day.

And An Tir grew and flourished, and new branches came to be. The Crier expanded and began to publish information for the entire principality. And Adiantum to the south and Lions Gate to the north were settled and soon became baronies.

But although the Crown of the West visited An Tir from time to time, it seemed to many An Tirians that few awards were given to those who lacked the means to make the long pilgrimage down to the heartland of the West, home of the Western Crowns and the Western peers. And although many of the Crowns of the West did try to recognize the merit of their subjects of An Tir, the great distance between the Western heartland and the lands of the north made this difficult.

Reports made by An Tir's officers to Western officers were sent but not always acknowledged. Sir Jerald of Galloway was persistent in insisting that his marshals and heralds were warranted, but too often other officers, even Principality officers, went unwarranted through their entire terms of offices.

And the people of An Tir sent in their membership fees. Sometimes they got their newsletters; sometimes their checks were cashed, but no newsletters did they receive; and sometimes their checks were never cashed. It was faster, easier, and more certain to get a subscription to The Crier than to become a member of the SCA, Inc.

The West Kingdom newsletter, the Page, often did not include copy for An Tir events, even when multiple notices were sent in good time. Thus An Tir events were denied official status. And snide comments were made in the Page by the Western chronicler about the apparent lack of activity in An Tir. This was very annoying to event organizers who knew they had sent notices south in a timely manner.

Communication from An Tir to the heartlands of the West – and vice versa – was often a very great problem.

Once when King Paul was coming up for a royal visit, an event had been planned, and not published, despite chat the autocrat had sent notice of the event to the editor of the Page in due time. No one told An Tirians chat the King was coming. Grane the Golden, then seneschal, told me he discovered the impending visit when he read of it in the Page; the editor questioned how An Tirians were intending to entertain the King, so as not to be "guilty" of "noblesse oblige" (sic).

Now, it is undeniable that incompetence or inattention, rather than malice, was behind some of these problems. In those times, far more than now, the SCA was still very casual, with volunteers doing all the work of even the most critical offices, often with little or no training or experience, with predictable results — or lack thereof. Yet it was not always so perceived among the people of An Tir. And the deliberately slighting comments directed at An Tir by some of the active and influential Westerners indicates that there really was at least some malice there.

Some Westerners were determined to retain for the Kingdom of the West the renown of being the largest kingdom in the Known World. And verily, the removal of An Tir from the Kingdom of the West in AS XI or XII would have left the West instead as one of the smaller kingdoms in the Known World. One may wonder about the extent of the influence and power of chose who wanted that distinction for the West, but there were a number of such among the active Westerners at that time. And in those days the Board of Directors of the SCA, Inc., was comprised of Westerners, who for a time styled themselves Imperial Electors, so that what we now call Corporate was then known as the Imperium.

And many of the people of An Tir grew restive, and began to wish that they could make a kingdom of their principality. But although the Crowns of the West were sometimes friendly to the people of An Tir, several of the officers of the Kingdom of the West seemed to hinder their purpose in every possible way. And some of the more active people of An Tir bickered among themselves, which made matters even more difficult.

And one day three young gentlemen, discussing the difficulties which the people of An Tir were suffering from the officers of the West and of the Imperium, had an idea: why not persuade an An Tirian Coronet and their heirs to simply declare An Tir a Kingdom?

These three gentlemen, so Donn an Bronach told me, shared their vision with other restless and dissatisfied An Tirians, and a plan emerged. Various people made inquiries of the legal requirements, and the necessary paper work was made ready so that the rebels would quickly be able to form a separate non-profit corporation in Oregon if it became necessary to sever the ties of An Tir to the SCA, Inc. In those early days, few branches had much regalia or much in the way of funds; sending all SCA property to the Imperium would not have been nearly as much of a loss as it would be today.

Liam of the Barque and his lady, Deirdre Muldomhnaigh, were Baron and Baroness of Madrone when rebellion first began to be discussed. And Liam and Dierdre resigned their fealty as Baron and Baroness in favor of Theodulf and Anne, so that they would not be in rebellion against their sworn liege. Liam and Dierdre dwelt on the Barque, their houseboat, and by this time they were publishing The Crier. Many talented people assisted them in this endeavor, including Donn, and it was not long at all before the Barque became a hotbed of rebellion in the Barony of Madrone.

The rebels included many principality officers, especially those who had had difficulties with Western and Imperial officers… but not all Madronans knew of the plotting of the Rebel Alliance.

The entire Barony of Adiantum, so Ulfheddin inn Vegfarandi told me, was another hotbed of rebellion, having struggled with the lmperium and been ignored or hindered by Western officers during the formation of their shire and later when they were working to become a barony.

In all fairness, Lions Gate does not appear to have had the same problems in their founding or in their quest for baronial status that Adiantum had. Sir Gerhard Kendal once described to me the response to Lions Gate's application for elevation to Barony thus: “lnsta-barony!”

There were a number of rebels in the Barony of Three Mountains. I have been told that in one part of town there were six SCA households within a six-block radius, all but one of them rebel. There were people in Three Mountains, though, who either did not know what was going on or deliberately ignored it.

And the rebels were having great fun, skulking about and plotting and working out ways to deal with any difficulties that they could foresee. Dierdre Muldomnaigh wrote several songs for the rebels, Ulfheddin inn Vegfarandi cold me "Managed by Nerds" was written in his living room during one of Dierdre's visits to Adiantum .

Then Viscount Edward Zifran won the Coronet Tourney again, fighting for Alma Tea av den Telemarken, and they two were crowned Prince and Princess of An Tir on August 12, AS XII. And although the West had as yet heard nothing of the brewing rebellion, Edward was a natural for a rebel prince, for he loved to star in dramatic or humorous scenes, and what better occasion for such than a rebellion? And Manfred Kreigstrieber, fighting for Koressa Thokubjalla, won the following Coronet Tourney, and they too were drawn into the plotting of the rebellion.

In October, the widely disliked and notably anti-An Tir Terrence of Halliday won the Crown of the West for the second time that year (the West had three Crowns a year). And though some of the rebels may have been reluctant to offend Duke Paul, it seemed unlikely that any did hesitate to offend the offensive Terrence.

Members of the Rebel Alliance gathered a few at a time, secretly. The password was “Robert Barker” and the countersign was “Queen for a Day.” Preparations for the coming of Twelfth Night were made at these meetings, for An Tir Twelfth Night, scheduled for one week after the coronation of Terrence of Halliday, was the appointed time when their plot to free An Tir would finally unfold.

The three estates of medieval times, the clergy, the chivalry, and the civil service, were represented among the rebels by prominent An Tirians in their fields: Bishop William of the Woodlands, Viscount Elrond Blacksabre, and the then Seneschal of An Tir, Master Duncan of Chisholm.

Speeches were written by these three. Bishop William's speech, so he told me, began “Your Highness, I would like to call you Your Majesty.”

Sir Elrond's speech, in a more serious vein, started with “When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the bonds… ” (Sir Elrond's speech was largely adapted from the US Declaration of Independence. Many of the same causes for separation listed in the original Declaration were very apt to describing the problems that the An Tirians were having with the West and the Board of Directors.)

Representing the rebel populace, these leaders of the three estates were to present a petition to Prince Edward in his supposedly final court that he declare An Tir a free and independent Kingdom, crown himself King and his lady Queen, and declare a date a short while later at which Manfred and Koressa would be crowned An Tir's second King and Queen.

And after all, what could the West do? The Rebel Alliance had already prepared for the possibility that the SCA, Inc. would disavow such a declaration, and alternate corporation documents and a corporate name were ready and waiting to be filed should such be needed.

In this atmosphere of excitement and anticipation, someone told Baron [[Gerhard Kendal of Westmoreland|Gerhard Kendal}} and Baroness Amanda Kendal, rulers of Lions Gate, what was being planned and when. And the Kendals, vassals of the West for An Tir's newest Barony (at that time Lions Gate had been a Barony for less than a year) were appalled, for they took their vows of fealty very seriously, as they do even to this very day. Independence, they thought, as Her Excellency Amanda has since told me, was a fine idea, but not yet, not like this! They told their neighbors to the south, Baron Theodulf and Baroness Anne of Madrone, and called the King of the West, Paul of Bellatrix, and the members of the Board of Directors.

King Paul, when he heard of the Twelfth Night Plot, was so angry that he almost went berserk. Some of the leading rebels had been intimates of his. Paul, so Grane the Golden told me, had long been a champion of independence for An Tir, and was not fully aware of the difficulties and hardship being caused by West Kingdom officers and the Board of Directors. King Paul took the rebellion very personally; he felt that the problems with various offices that were starting to be uncovered during his reign were an affront to his longstanding support of An Tir, and did not understand why the rebels had not brought their complaints to him to resolve.

(That the rebellion was specifically timed to take place during the reign of the despised King Terrence, a week after all fealty lapsed as King Paul left his throne, appears to have escaped the notice of royalty and royalists alike.)

Panic and chaos ensued among many of the Western officers and directors, so I have been told by a Western peer who shall, at her own request, remain nameless. The Board of Directors immediately called Prince Edward at work, at daytime rates across two state lines, and chewed him out royally.

It was rumored that the Board of Directors had threatened to remove all the rebels from their offices and forbid any of the rebels ever to hold office again, that the rebels would be stripped of all honors for life. But most of the officers of An Tir were rebels; and competent officers, then as now, are not easy to replace. In the end none of those threats was carried out.

An Tir was declared to be in a state of rebellion. Barons Gerhard and Theodulf, who were royalists, were appointed Viceroys. It quickly became obvious that there was a considerable schism within An Tir, some being royalists and some being rebels.

Ugly things happened. Some of the rebels were harassed and threatened, usually anonymously. And the feeling of excitement and anticipation turned into feelings of anger and frustration and dread.

Twelfth Night AS XII came. Both Viceroys were present, bearing black and white striped staves of office. Baron Gerhard, with characteristic talent and energy and considerable tact, had embroidered a needlepoint cover for his Viceroy's staff of office, so that the staff itself was not directly in view, so I was told by Andre Lessard and Melissa Kendal. (I've seen it; it's a beautiful piece of work, in gold and black and white.)

The Rebel Alliance had determined that gray, being the color of An Tir skies "proper," was obviously the right color for rebels. In a display of solidarity among those who stood for freedom, the rebels, determined to salvage what they could of the disaster, wore gray armbands on Rebellion Twelfth Night, that their Prince could look out among them and see how many supported the cause of freedom.

Royalists, having heard of this plan, wore purple ribbons to display their allegiance to the West.

And Prince Edward and Princess Alma Tea and their heirs Manfred and Koressa looked out upon their people and saw division, and no clear mandate.

The speeches were made. The petitions for a declaration of independence were presented. But neither Edward nor Manfred felt that he could declare An Tir a kingdom in the face of the vast rift within An Tir herself. Prince Edward received the royal crowns that had been prepared for him and his consort and declared he would keep them in trust for the day when An Tir would become a kingdom. The Rebel Alliance was a bit put out at the failure of their plot, but they bowed to the will of their prince with what grace they could muster.

End of Part One.

Read Part Two: A Rebel's Eye View of the An Tir Rebellion, Part the Second: Free At Last!