Baronial Investiture Scroll: Jean-Paul Ducasse and Lylie of Penhyll

My friends +Ben Hennessey  and +Brenda Janetsky  wanted one scroll for their Investiture as the new territorial Baron and Baroness of Concordia of the Snows.  I wanted to expand my repertoire of period text styles beyond what I've been using so far.  So I dug back into one of my favorite websites, the Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707 for a couple of the texts that I had tagged as "use later."

Baronial Investiture scrolls are some of my favorites to work on, because they allow me to use more authentic language for what is being done.  The Crown is actually giving to a landed Baron/ess the sorts of rights and privileges found in period legal documents.

There is a trend in many of the Scots documents to have a notary official sign off on the act of the Crown.  There is an introduction written by the notary, then the proclamation/charter from the Crown, then an affirmation by the notary.  I've found this style hard to adapt into more usual award scrolls, not least of which because it adds length to the text.  However, since I am the person responsible for running Court for Their Majesties Edward & Thyra, and I knew I would be at the Investiture, this style seemed ideal for Jean Paul and Lylie's Investiture text.  

And here we go, based on several 14th century Scottish charters with notary attestations:

On 8 November in the forty-ninth year of the Society, sitting in their Court in the Barony of Concordia of the Snows, Edward, most excellent King of the Easterners and Thyra, his Queen, issued and caused to be issued the following charter:

Edward, by the right of arms, King, and Thyra, by agency of the same right, Queen, to the justiciars, sheriffs, provosts and their bailies and the rest of our ministers and faithful men to whom these present letters shall come, greetings.  Know that it is our will that our good and faithful Jean Paul Ducasse and Lylie of Penhyll shall be and hereby are invested, endowed and exalted as Baron and Baroness of the Barony of Concordia of the Snows, and that they shall hold the aforesaid lands from us and our heirs in fee and heritage by all their rightful boundaries and divisions as freely and peacefully, fully, integrally and honourably with all their liberties, profits, easements and lawful pertinents.  And we do further declare that the said Jean Paul and Lylie shall from this day henceforth enjoy all and singular their lands, rents, goods and possessions appertaining thereto, existing at our fealty and peace, as freely, fully and peacefully as any and all such Barons have enjoyed them at any time of our predecessors kings of the East, and they shall dispose freely from their said lands, rents, goods and possessions according as seems to be most expedient to them without any impediment.  So we order you, and each of you, firmly and under threat of the appropriate penalty, that you should not inflict any evil, annoyance, injustice or impose any impediment or aggravation on the said Jean-Paul and Lylie , or permit these things to be inflicted on them, by whatever means you can resist that, contrary to the tenor of our grant and intention declared above. In testimony of which matter we ordered these our letters to be affirmed by our signs manual and to be read aloud in our Court and to be placed in the keeping of the said Jean-Paul and Lylie as perpetual record.

And I, Alys Mackyntoich, Eastern Crown Herald, while all the foregoing was being so conducted and done, was present in person, and I saw and heard these things done in this way, and have rendered them in this public form, and I signed it with my usual and customary sign, having been asked and required, in faith and testimony of all the foregoing.


My attestation  is based off of this document:  http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/1391/5