[MR] A question of Protocol

[Kelly Tessena]

On 5/16/06, jbrmm266 at aol.com <jbrmm266 at aol.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> To my eyes, it would appear unseemly of a Royal or Baronial to take one to
> task for such things, but if one of the Guard or a herald or someone in an
> official capacity of that kind were to quietly remind the person . . .


I agree with you. When the person with the title makes the comment, it's far
too easy for it to seem like arrogance.  (How dare you not
bow/curtsey/recognize how important I am?)  Even if the correction is made
in the most courteous fashion imaginable, it could still appear unseemly.
If it comes from someone else, whether it's part of the entourage or someone
who knows the individual who made the protocol "goof," that softens it a
great deal.

I think the same thing holds through all the different levels of awards,
right down to the AoA (from curtseying to His Majesty to calling someone
who's been awarded arms Lord or Lady).   The person pointing out the lapse
in protocol should be someone other than whoever was addressed improperly.

A long (and probably rambling) story to illustrate what I mean:

When I lived in the East Kingdom, I was asked by a friend to tell another
friend that what she was  wearing was probably assuming a rank she didn't
have.  (In the East, you're supposed to have an Award of Arms to wear a
circlet.)

I didn't really want to do this, so I asked the person who told me why she
didn't deal with this herself.  The answer was that, as she *had* her AoA
(and was the only one of our group of friends who did at the time), she
didn't want to appear as though she had an attitude about the award she'd
been given.  The correction had a whole different (and better) tone coming
from me than it would had it come from her.

Adriana Michaels