The frogs of our Shire, of which we seem to have an overabundance, have been taking me to task for expending so much ink on Sir Beorn Collenfehrth, a Briton. All right you leapers of lily pads, I shall now tell you some anecdotes from Sir Francois DuVent's coronation.
In the early days of the Kingdom of Meridies the area known mundanely as Baton Rouge, Louisiana was the Barony of Draconia. It was here that the coronation of Sir Francois was held at the site of the old state capital.
The capital was built in the form of a Gothic castle which made it an excellent site for a coronation. It did seem a bit strange, however, to pitch our tents only a few dozen yards from the whiz of downtown traffic. As the number of tents increased Friday night their guy ropes became a veritable jungle and these hemp vines proved snares to several good gentles including my faire lady wife.
Isolde had gone to the showers to perform her evening ablutions and had forgotten to take along her glasses. Having removed her contact lenses, she tried to navigate back to our tent in the dark. When your uncorrected vision is as poor as my lady’s, you learn how to navigate by the Braille method but in this case it seemed that every direction in which Isolde tried to move she encountered a tent rope. At last, a gentle saw her standing in the midst of the ropes like a rabbit in a snare and guided her out of the jungle back to our tent.
Saturday morning dawned bright and clear and Isolde arose early; I chose to sleep in a bit longer. When I emerged from the tent, I was greatly surprised to see Isolde cavorting in the sun without her veils. "Dear, shouldn't you be covered up?", I asked.
"It's October, I'll be all right," she replied.
"It's October, but we're in southern Louisiana," I thought.
I should have given voice to my thoughts for during the feast, Isolde had an allergy attack. The chirurgeon on site didn't have any antihistamine in his chirurgeon kit but he thought he would help Isolde to get her mind off her symptoms. To do this, he started walking Isolde around the foyer.
We were doing all right until the chirurgeon decided to take Isolde down the grand stair case. We got about three steps down when Isolde started to feel faint. We had to carry her back up the stairs and lay her out on a couch. By this time, an antihistamine had been found and we promptly gave it to her.
Most coronations are marked by firsts; in the case of Sir Francois' coronation, there were some notable lasts. For instance, it was the last time that the pre-registration fee was the same as the "at the door" fee. Nearly twice the folk showed up as had pre-registered and the cooks were hard pressed to make the feast stretch.
One of the reasons for the large attendance, aside from Sir Francois' popularity, was the fact that the event was attended by Mistress Bevan, Steward of the Society. Mistress Bevan is mundanely Katherine Kurtz, author of the Deryni series, which is quite popular throughout the imperium.
Sir Francois' coronation was also the last time in a long time that a tournament was held as part of the festivities. The tournament ran more than two hours over the allotted time and pushed everything else back. These days, if there is a tournament at coronation, it is a William Marshal list which runs for a set amount of time.
As a result of the tournament running late, the first court of His Majesty Francois was cut short to prevent the feast from being spoiled. The court was continued at curia the following morning. It was at that court that Isolde die Graue aus dem Lebendhertz was given her award of arms. All in all, it was a very memorable event for Isolde.