[MR] Re: [AtlantianHeralds] Triton Speaks on the GoA of the OHM

[Michael Houghton]

Howdy!

On Wed, Apr 23, 2003 at 03:23:55PM -0400, David W. James wrote:
> On Tuesday, April 22, 2003, at 05:45 PM, Michael Houghton wrote:
> >I think that the Patent of Arms and the Order of the Laurel, while
> >simultaneous
> >in bestowal, are separable. Resigning from the Order should not, per
> >se, mean
> >resigning the Patent of Arms.
>
> I don't think so.  Several years ago a case in Meridies prompted the
> Board to rule that the Crown cannot give a 'naked' Patent.  If my
> memory of the case is correct, no one even tried to argue that the
> Crown could because of the reasoning you are using here (working
> backwards, as it were, from the actual problem, but still a related
> case.)  I am pretty sure that the ruling is available, if you would
> like to check the exact wording.
>
> But if you can only give a patent with an award, then I don't see how
> they could be separable after the fact any more than before.
>
The Patent of Arms and the Royal Peerage/Bestowed Peerage are not
inextricably coupled. Consider the holder of more than one Patent-bearing
honor -- say a Laurel later made a Pelican. The Laurel would have come
with a Patent, but the Pelican was "naked". Now suppose the person
desires to resign from the Order of the Laurel. Does this mean that they
then implicitly resign their Patent? Their Pelican?

The Board ruling addressed the bestowal of a naked Patent. They said
that you can't give just a Patent. Its bestowal *must* be in the context
of an honor that carries a Patent if the recipient does not already
have one.

Corpora (VIII.B.3) says "An armiger may resign any award or order."

My scenario only depends on being able to characterize the Patent of
Arms as "an award". As I said, I am not aware of this particular path
being tested.

yours,
Herveus

--
Michael and MJ Houghton   | Herveus d'Ormonde and Megan O'Donnelly
herveus at radix.net         | White Wolf and the Phoenix
Bowie, MD, USA            | Tablet and Inkle bands, and other stuff
                          | http://www.radix.net/~herveus/