One of the things I really like about our Kingdom is that it is one of the few kingdoms in the Knowne World that still holds an open Crown List. By an open Crown List, I mean one in which any qualified fighter who wishes to be king may enter. Most other kingdoms try to hold down the size of the field through the use of various formulas, usually based on the number of knights in the kingdom. The net result of this is that the crown quickly becomes something that the knights trade amongst themselves: non-belts need not apply.
The requirements for entering the Meridies Crown List are that you must be a member of the Society, reside within Meridies for six months, and send a letter of intent signed by you and your consort to their Majesties. The requirement of a letter of intent came about in an interesting way.
At one time, an entrant on the Crown List, unless he won the tournament, did not have to declare in whose honor he was fighting. In these days of required heraldic display and presentation of the fighters and consorts before their Majesties, it is impossible to fight for an anonymous consort. In a Crown Tourney held in the early days of the Kingdom there was a young lord, I was not told his name, who entered the list and kept his consort unnamed.
This young lord fought very well and made it to the final four before he was eliminated. After his second defeat, the young lord was asked in whose honor he had been fighting. "I was fighting for Lady So-and-so," the young lord replied. (I was not told the lady's name either.)
The friends of Lady so-and-so went to her and said, "You must be very happy with how the young lord fought for you, he did quite well."
"What do you mean?" said Lady So-and-so, "He did not fight for me. I gave him no favor."
It turned out that the young lord was seeking to win the heart of Lady So-and-so. He thought it would be very romantic and really impress her if he made her queen. The trouble was, Lady So-and-so not only had no interest in the young lord, she also had no interest in being queen! It was after this turn of events that the requirement of a letter of intent signed by both fighter and consort was established.
When Baron Beorn of Axemoor fought in Crown List, he did not declare who he was fighting for, but the folk of Axemoor knew that he fought for his lady wife, Megan of the Shore. However, it seems that some other folk on the Kingdom did not know this.
At the Crown List that Sir Beorn won, there was a certain young woman I shall refer to as Lady D. Lady D hung around, over, and if we had let her, on Sir Beorn all day. After the list was over and we remarked on what good monarchs we thought Beorn and Megan would make, several of the people we said this to asked us, "You mean, he wasn't fighting for lady D?"
Lady D had been the bane of Beorn's existence for several years. In their early days in the Society, when Beorn and Megan's children were small, Megan chose not to make long trips outside of Axemoor. At these times, Beorn usually traveled with Squire Esteban as his companion. Because Beorn was good looking, chivalrous, a knight, and apparently single, there was more then one young lady who tried to hitch her wagon to his star. Lady D was the worst of the lot.
In light of how devoted a husband Beorn is, Lady D's behavior at the Crown List would have been laughable, except that we feared she might cause a scene at Beorn and Megan's coronation. Squire Esteban had a word with Lady D's Seneschal who then sat her down and talked to her like a Viking uncle.
Lady D chose not to attend the coronation.