Michael Fitzgeoffrey

Name: Lord Michael Fitzgeoffrey, O.L.M.

Arms: Vert, a Latin cross and on a chief potenty argent, three mullets of eight points pierced gules.

Citizen of: Barony of Aquaterra

Persona

Lord Michael Fitzgeoffrey is from southern England in the end of the Twelth Century. He was a natural (illegitimate) son of an Anglo-Saxon barwench, by whom he was raised, and a Norman royal traveling from London to Normandy. Lord Michael's mother raised him telling him that his father was none other than Geoffrey, son of King Henry II. Of course, neither Geoffrey nor any of the other Normans were even aware of Michael's birth, much less acknowledged any kinship to him.

Michael joined the Third Crusade with the King Richard's army, not as a soldier, but as a herald. Upon his return to England, Michael met and fell in love with a lord's daughter, named Éibhleann, who had grown up in County Wicklow, Ireland and came to England with her Norman father.

Interests

Lord Michael's interests are spread across a variety of areas including:

• the making of chain mail
• the making of basic garb
• calligraphy, particularly Blackletter and Carolingian Miniscule
• illumination
• heraldry of all sorts, especially protocol and voice heraldry
• dance
• singing
• drumming
• spear throwing
• stained-glass

Affiliations

When Michael first became involved with the Society for Creative Anachronism, his mundane alter ego was serving in the United States Navy, and was stationed in Okinawa, Japan. In the Society, this was a part of the Palatine Barony of the Far West (West Kingdom) called Canton of the Isle of Blue Mists. (Incidentally, this name was never registered, and since that time the canton has been renamed Canton of Battle Rock.)

While living and participating there, He developed an interest in heraldry, and was graciously instructed by the Barony's heraldic officer (known as the Golden Peach Pursuivant), Lady Serra da Estrella. Lady Serra's husband, Lord Robert de Fecamp, organized a household called Oyasumi Nasai, and because of Michael's student relationship to Lady Serra, Lord Robert invited Michael to affiliate himself with it, which he did until he moved from the Far West. (Incidentally, oyasumi nasai is a Japanese phrase meaning, "good night," which Lord Robert chose because of it's being a homonym for "good knight".)

Oddly enough, the place to which Michael moved was still in the Marches of the West Kingdom. It was the Shire of Ravenshore, which corresponds to the Counties of Lake and Mendocino in northern California. While there, Michael was designated a Pursuivant Extraordinary at Large by the West Kingdom College of Heralds, before becoming the Pursuivant Extraordinary for Ravenshore.

After a while, his mundane employment necessitated yet another though much nearer move, where he spent a very brief time in the Barony of Vinhold (Principality of the Mists, Kingdom of the West - mundanely, Napa County and southern Solano County, still in northern California) before becoming completely inactive in the SCA for some thirteen years.

During that interval, Lord Michael's mundane alter ego got married and subsequently moved to Snohomish County, Washington, which corresponds to the Barony of Aquaterra. Eventually, in the summer of A.S. XLIII, he brought his lady wife, Éibhleann, and his sister, Findabhair, to their first event, Hot Summer Lights, and then to the monthly social meeting of the Barony of Aquaterra.

Awards

In about June of 1992 (A.S. XXVII), Michael was awarded the Order of the Empty Shell by the Coronet of the Palatine Barony of the Far West. This award is given to recognize the service and contributions of those who have been active participants in the Barony, and is normally awarded to them in connection with their moving away from it.

At the final court of King Rolf & Queen Mari, held at the Twelth Night coronation on January 9, 1993 (A.S. XXVII), the Crown of the West inducted Michael into the Order of the Leaf of Merit. The Leaf of Merit is a West Kingdom award for service, and when given to a non-armiger, carries with it an Award of Arms. This was the situation in Lord Michael's case.