Unto the members of the College of Arms and all others who may read this missive do Dame Elsbeth Anne Roth, Laurel Queen of Arms, and Master Pietari Pentipoika, Pelican King of Arms, send greetings.
The December Laurel meeting was held Sunday, December 10, 2000, and considered the following letters of intent: Atenveldt (August 1), Caid (August 1), Æthelmearc (August 6), Drachenwald (August 9), Artemisia (August 13), Atlantia (August 13), Nebuly's Letter of Intent to Protect (August 16), Middle (August 20), Lochac (August 23), Atlantia (August 25), An Tir (August 29), Atlantia (August 29), Meridies (August 30), and Ansteorra (August 31).
The January Laurel meeting was held Sunday, January 14, 2001, and considered the following letters of intent: Outlands (July 29) (delayed due to lack of paperwork), Outlands (August 30) (redated to September 6 based on postmark), Middle (September 10), Caid (September 17), Atlantia (September 20), Drachenwald (September 25), Trimaris (September 28), An Tir (September 29), Ansteorra (September 30), and Meridies (September 30). The January Pelican meeting was held Sunday, January 21, 2001.
The February Laurel meeting was held Saturday, February 10, 2001, and considered the following letters of intent: Atenveldt (September 1) (redated to October based on postmark), Atlantia (October 19), Drachenwald (October 19), Outlands (October 19), Middle (October 25), An Tir (October 30), Artemisia (October 31), and Meridies (October 31). Pelican's meeting was held Sunday, February 18, 2001. The Meridies letter of intent was considered at a Laurel road show held at Estrella War February 18. The Atenveldt letter of intent was considers at a Laurel road show held at Æthelmearc Academy February 24.
The March Laurel meeting was held Saturday, March 10, 2001, and considered the following letters of intent: Atenveldt (October 1) (delayed due to lack of paperwork), East (October 22) (delayed due to lack of paperwork), Atenveldt (November 1), Caid (November 10), Caid (November 15), West (November 15), Middle (November 18), Trimaris (November 28), An Tir (November 30), and Meridies (November 30). The Pelican meeting was held Sunday, March 11, 2001.
The April Laurel meeting is scheduled for Saturday, April 14, 2001, and will consider the following letters of intent: Drachenwald (November 16) (redated to December 28 based on postmark), Atlantia (November 25) (redated to December 28 based on postmark), Atenveldt (December 1), Caid (December 6), Æthelmearc (December 16), Drachenwald (December 18), Lochac (December 18), Middle (December 19), Atlantia (December 21), Outlands (December 27), An Tir (December 30), and Ansteorra (December 31). The Pelican meeting is scheduled for Sunday, April 8. A Laurel road show is scheduled for Sunday, April 29, 2001, in An Tir. Responses and rebuttals to commentary must be in the College's hands no later than March 31, 2001.
The May Laurel meeting is scheduled for Saturday, May 5, 2001 (which affects the dates of commentary — see below), and will consider the following letters of intent: Artemisia (December 31) (redated to January 2 by kingdom), Atenveldt (January 1), West (January 15), Atlantia (January 21), Lochac (January 21), Middle (January 23), Drachenwald (January 27), Trimaris (January 28), An Tir (January 29), Meridies (January 30), and Ansteorra (January 31). Original commentary on these LoIs must be in the College's hands no later than March 31, 2001. Responses and rebuttals to commentary must be in the College's hands no later than April 28, 2001.
The June Laurel meeting is scheduled for Saturday, June 16, 2001, and will consider the letters of intent from February. A Laurel road show is scheduled for Sunday, June 3, 2001, at the Knowne World Heraldic Symposium in Northshield.
Not all letters of intent may be considered when they are originally scheduled on this cover letter. The date of mailing of the LoI, date of receipt of the Laurel packet, or other factors may delay consideration of certain letters of intent. Additionally, some letters of intent received may not have been scheduled because the administrative requirements (receipt of the forms packet, receipt of the necessary fees, etc.) have not yet been met.
REMINDER: Until the packet containing the paperwork is received, the letter may not be scheduled.
This month, we considered a Letter of Intent to Protect submitted by Nebuly, which proposed that we protect the arms of the provinces of the Low Countries, among other things.
The Administrative Handbook specifies that the arms of a nation are by definition sufficiently significant to protect. In addition, Laurel has registered provincial arms, with the following statement:
Therefore we are registering as important non-SCA heraldry provincial arms. At this time the arms being registered are those of the provinces of Canada. If similar coats from other nations are brought to our attention on a letter of intent we will likely register those as well. This ruling applies only to coats of arms of analogous regions: not to designs which happen to have an armorial appearance, and not to the arms of smaller regions than provinces. (Cover Letter, 1/98)
The difficulty in implementing this standard is the absence of a clear definition of "province." The legal and geographical associations vary widely from nation to nation. It is insufficient to merely define it as the highest level of subdivision within a nation. The highest level of a large country is typically vastly larger, more populous, or more autonomous that that of a small country. The sovereign nation Principality of Liechtenstein is divided into eleven districts. Making no cultural judgements, it is implausible to equate the commune of Schellenberg in Liechtenstein with the state of New York in terms of importance to the Society.
Until this time, this standard had been used only to protect the arms of the states of the United States of America and the provinces of Canada. These entities were considered important enough to protect for two reasons, one explicit and one implicit. The explicit reason was that they were arms, as opposed to flags, belonging to quasi-sovereign entities with powers often reserved to nations; the implicit reason was that these entities are highly familiar to most members of the Society. We are, therefore, making the second condition explicit and requiring that sub-national entities and their arms be important or familiar to most members of the Society for their arms to be protected.
Most of the provinces of the Low Countries do not meet these standards. No evidence was given that they ever were independent nations, whose arms we automatically protect. Evidence was presented that they had legal status comparable to the Canadian provinces, although it is unclear whether they continue to have such a status. Nevertheless, most of the provinces and their arms were not familiar to either the commenting members of the College of Arms or the general populace of the Society. The ones that we currently protect, such as Flanders or Luxembourg, are especially important or well known relative to the other provinces. The ones that we decided to protect are similarly familiar (Holland) or important (Celje).
There is a new Triton Principal Herald (Atlantia): Michael Batcok (Michael Brindle, 612 Jewell Ave, Portsmouth, VA, 23701, 757-488-3597, batcok@aol.com). The former Triton, Rhiannon Ui Neill, remains on the roster but not the mailing list as Azure Decrescent Herald.
Peter Hawkyns (Richard Durham, P.O. Box 8243, Asheville, NC, 28814) has been added to the roster but not the mailing list as Ibis Herald (Atlantia).
Paul Wickenden of Thanet, Escutcheon Herald (Middle) has asked to be removed from the mailing list although he remains on the roster.
Thomas Flamanc of Kelsale, Baryl Pursuivant (Lochac, West) has a new address: PO Box 222, Melbourne 8009, AUSTRALIA. He also now lists an e-mail address: john.sawyer@worley.com.au.
A copy of the latest roster is included with this letter. Please check it for accuracy.
Send roster changes, roster corrections, to Lord Symond Bayard le Gris, Bruce R. Nevins, 2527 E. 3rd St., Tucson, AZ, 85716-4114, (520) 795-6000, (520) 795-0158 (fax), bnevins@nexiliscom.com. College of Arms members can also request a copy of the current roster from Symond. Send all other administrative requests or payments to Laurel.
For subscriptions to the paper copy of the LoAR, please contact Symond, above. The cost for an LoAR subscription is $25.00 a year. Please make all checks or money orders payable to "SCA Inc. – College of Arms." For subscriptions to the electronic copy of the LoAR, please contact Laurel at herald@sca.org. The electronic copy is available free of charge.
Until then, I remain
In service
Elsbeth Anne Roth
Laurel Queen of Arms
Created at 2001-03-14T15:15:18