Points of View: Pros and Cons on the Principality Issue

Why become a (full) Principality?:

Adapted from The Northern Principality Committee Bulletin #2 with additions from "potential Principality" meeting notes held in the area during the fall of 2002:

Points to ponder on the positive aspects of becoming a principality:

  • The primary reason to become a Principality is that the area would have its own Prince and Princess.
  • The Proposed Principality would have a new name, a new device device, its own royalty, and a new reason for pomp and splendor.
  • Principality events like Coronet tourneys and Investitures would be held throughout the area, and would likely be closer than Kingdom events.
  • Principality events in other branches encourage the residents of different parts of the area to get to know each other, helping to unify the area.
  • Outlying areas have a greater chance to hold principality level events than they currently have to hold Kingdom events. Therefore, they will play a bigger role in the Kingdom.
  • A principality increases the chance for people to improve upon old customs and traditions (such as producing only original scrolls), or create new, unique ones (principality awards).
  • A Prince and Princess would have the authority to give Awards of Arms and principality awards to Their subjects, so those deserving of recognition would be more likely to be rewarded in a timely fashion.
  • Large events with neighbors become possible. For instance, Acorn War could become Summits vs. Proposed Principality.
  • A Prince and Princess may have a better knowledge of local people and issues and so prove to be a valuable asset to the Crown.
  • The role of the prince and princess would be to serve as a royal presence at events within this area and as representatives for the principality at the kingdom level.
  • A principality increases the chance for residents to be royalty or serve royalty.
  • More people would have an opportunity to autocrat important events and have greater responsibilities (train at Principality level for Kingdom jobs).
  • Fulfilling the somewhat less demanding position of Prince and Princess would provide an opportunity for future Kings and Queens to gain experience as royalty. In a similar way, a principality would have potential as a good training ground for future Kingdom officers.
  • A Principality removes some of the workload from The Kingdom.
  • A Principality creates a link in the chain of fealty to Their Majesties.
  • Becoming a Principality creates the possibility for future elevation to Kingdom status.

    Points to ponder on the negative aspects of becoming a principality:

  • The primary reason to not become a Principality is that the principality might eventually become a Kingdom, separate from An Tir.
  • The motives of an area voting in favor of becoming a principality may be taken as discontent/unhappiness with An Tir. Voting in favor of a status change may cause some people to feel disloyal.
  • If a significant portion of the area does not support this change, it may alienate individuals, household groups, and even entire branches.
  • Larger branches may take a major share of the big events.
  • Larger branches may have too much influence on the entire area.
  • Coronet tourneys and investitures would demand four new dates on an already busy area calendar.
  • It will become more difficult to set event dates that don't conflict with each other and Kingdom events.
  • Some branches might have to sacrifice their traditional event dates.
  • A branch's event attendance may feel the impact of a Principality event nearby.
  • Time spent on principality business (making regalia, serving on retinues, and such) would not be used for the Kingdom.
  • With so many Principality level events to attend, some people might not support kingdom-level events.
  • The attendance of the King and Queen at Proposed Principality events may decline with a Prince and Princess serving as the royal presence.
  • Higher level awards may become rarer and be given en-masse if the King and Queen tend to travel to the Proposed Principality less frequently. These awards could be given in-absentia by the prince and princess rather than the Crown. This may devalue such awards.
  • The area may not have enough people to fill required offices, jepordizing the Principality status. Losing such status would be a devastating blow to the area's morale.
  • If there were not enough people to fill such offices, people who were filling them would feel that they could not resign. This could lead to burnout of the more energetic and capable members of the area.

    Another way of looking at the pros/cons (notes gleaned from DM/3M/Stromgard meetings that occurred in 2002 by Lady Alexandria):

    A: So Crown Principality would mean another layer of royalty.

    Pros: An intermediate layer of peageantry and royalty between the local branch and the Kingdom. More heraldry, more theater, more potential fun.
    Con: More court. More work. If you don't like the current Prince and Princess, it's impossible to escape them when they are so close.

    B: And it means more officers needed.

    Pros: Step between branch level and Kingdom level to train officers up for Kingdom positions better.
    Cons: Bleeding off of branch level officers for these new jobs or worse yet of Kingdom level officers for them. This was a serious concern with all three groups.

    C: And more events per year.

    Pros: Chance for local groups to dump or combine current events to create new ones and also a chance for groups without large facilities or large funds to host something bigger than their local branch. Many non-metro areas don't have a facility big enough for a Kingdom event, but do have areas big enough for Principality level ones.
    Cons: Potentially too many events, or the loss of traditional, more intimate ones to accomodate larger Principality ones. And someone has to Autocrat them. Also there is only so much budget and time available to people. What kingdom or local events would be hurt by another round of events?

    D: Less visible branches in the area have more access to recognition.

    Pros: Smaller and fledgling groups can get more exposure for their folks to base level awards since some royalty will be closer.
    Cons: Larger groups don't gain anything here at all. Perception in 3M meeting was that there may actually be a loss in status for larger groups, though I did not get to write down the reason. In Stromgard's meeting the feeling seemed to be that larger groups would gain too in that Royalty would see deserving folks for upper level awards more regularly and so the Grants and Master level awards would be helped.

    E: Change the way we see ourselves.

    Pros: Perception of ourselves as a united group--some of the Benefits that Regions began to see? Larger pool of folks we closely identify with.
    Cons: Perception of outside groups may suffer. Perception of our place in the kingdom might suffer. Conflicts of loyalty may arise.

    F: Another Chance to fight in a tournament for Martial Arts contingent.

    Pros: More fighting! More chances to build skills before Crown tournament. And as Aleyn the Younger indicated, fighters fight. Over a crown, over a coronet, even over Dental Floss.
    Cons: Potential for less interest in Kingdom level tournaments--I know, I know, yeah right---but someone did bring it up....

    G: Potentially less visitation from Crowns.

    Pros: Well, depends on the king, might be good (grin). Visitation of the crowns depends on wether or not we put in bids and get accepted for crown level events. If we don't offer to host the Kings, we won't see them. If we do, they will come and we could have more staff working from the entire principality to host it, not just one branch...
    Cons: Crowns go to areas that don't have Royalty already. We will see them less.

    H: More Paperwork

    Pros: Actually pretty much the same amount just to closer folks.
    Cons: More Paperwork

    I: Burn out potential goes way up & Do we have enough people to fill all of the new offices, titles and such? In 2 years? In 5? What about 8?

    Pros: Not if people's efforts are being rewarded. And chance to train (with principality level) new folks better before dumping them into positions that are likely to burn them out.
    Cons: Not enough Principality level officers, etc to handle all of the new positions.

    Return to Main Page

    Created: April 25, 2003, updated: January 26, 2005.