Wilhelm von Homburg

Argent, a bend Or fimbriated and a bordure gules.

Wilhelm von Homburg (aka Wilhelm the herald; aka (in Oertha) Wilhelm Jedi) has been in the SCA since he was 18, AD 1991. However, he was a citizen of CAID originally, the Shire of Wintermist. Though he moved to the West for his education prior to the first reign of Hauoc and Ginevra, he did not really become active in the West until the Beacon' Gate Boar's Hunt and Twelfth Night Coronation of AS XXXVI (AD 2001-2).

Shortly after that coronation event, Wilhelm attended a Herald's collegium in the Sacramento area and from then up to about AS XLV he was rarely seen at event without a flag, ceremony book, or some other piece of heraldic raiment upon his person. In fact to distinguish him from the "other" Wilhelm in central kingdom, Wilhelm Zweikopfig Falke, he was sometimes referred to as "Wilhelm the herald".

Motto

Schlechte Sachen Sind Falsch - translation: Bad Things Are Wrong

This is obviously a bit of a non-statement, which is was the point for a man who is known for coining terms such as "smart-assery." "RFD - Royalty Fueled Disaster," and "Evenstar Heraldic Mafia." If he was required to choose a serious motto, or something he would like put on a heraldic achievement it would probably be: Be Useful or Be Quiet

About

Pictures of Wilhelm on the West Kingdom History Site

As far as persona goes, my favorite is Flieg's answer, "I'm a free Citizen of the West." However, in a more conventional and pragmatic sense, like most Western folk, my persona doesnt really determine anything about me. The County of Homburg was chartered @ 1330 AD. I chose it because it is really close to the modern border with France, which means that I could logically draw on resources from two awesome cultures in the high midle ages, French and German. However, I soon realized that the clothes I prefer are far more Anglo-Norman from around the time of the Norman Conquest of England anyhow. Like many Westerners, I wear what I like, or if I am part of a court or retinue and there is time and inclination, I try to make or borrow clothes to fit a look.

I do have a persona story...or rather a vague sketch in my head of who I would have liked to have been. I think it would have been pretty cool to be a court scholar/scribe/herald in the retinue of some English Noble during the earlier part of the Hundred Years War. Now, like I said, I dont really dress from that period, but its a nifty period to be from.

Interests & Offices

It's probably pretty obvious that I am interested in heraldry. More than the design of heraldic devices, though, I am interested in the study of historical heraldic designs and the uses that our ancestors put to their heraldry. I think that we ignore what our ancestors did and eschew their design asthetics in favor of more modern self-actualizing symbolism...or as we like to call it, "resumee heraldry". If you look at actual rolls of arms, that idea of "this is what I do and it here it is in my arms" really comes about for guilds and companies of artisans or in municipal arms, but not personal ones. Also, I am really fascinated by what heralds did in period, which is something I think we much more accurately represent in the SOP of heraldic functionaing at events. Running a lists, conducting the courts of nobles, identifying people of high birth and their patents, PA system, etc. Those are all more like what our heraldic ancestors did and in my opinion are more fun that playing with people's squishy inner-selfness and design ideas.

In terms of offices, as of this writing (Ocotber 2010) I am for the first time in almost 8 years without a Heraldic office. I have been officially, SeaWolf Herald of the Mists, Sable Swan Herald of Cynagua, Baldric Herald of The West, and I have co-held (with Marguerite du Royon) the position of Greencloak Herald and covered for various holders of that office to the extent that I probably have a non-sequential term in that office actually completed. In fact, there was a year or so where Marguerite and I both concurrently held down the offices of Greencloak and Seawolf Heralds...we called it the GreenSeaCloakWolf Consortium.

In addition to my heraldic offices, I have served the kingodm as a deputy kingdom chronicler and as the Cynagua Chronicler. I started serving as Deputy Chronicler to Meistara Vigdis vestfirzka and held that for about 2 years, and then served in that same cpacity to THL Flidais ni Eitigen for another 2 years. In July of AD 2008 I took over as the Principality chronicler for Cynagua. In that capacity, I think my best accomplishment was the creation fo the Cynaguan 30th Anniversary Commemorative Edition of the Vox Cynaguae, the principlaity news letter. While it was a lot of fun being chronicler, it was time to pass it on towards the end of AD 2010, and Mistress Danae FitzRoberts (called Hobbit) took over as an able successor.

Currently, a new area of historical interests has come up for Me. I have recently started to become really interested in the Holy Orders of the times. I think they were a very important part of life, the monks, nuns, and friars, and I think that the catholic church in general is a bit underplayed in the SCA. I have heard and agree to an extent that the heralds take the place of church beauracracy, and the cult of the consort takes the place of the medieval cult of the virgin, but still, I think with our modern sensibilities and our (correct) decision to try and keep the game religion free (which turns out in practice generally to only mean free of Christianity, instead of "religion") we lose something in the translation. The more I look into the medieval church, the more I am fascinated, especially by the Holy Orders.

SCA Philosophies

I have lots of ideas on how things "ought" to be in the SCA. I don't expect everyone, or anyone to neccesarily agree with me, but at the same time, there is no need to be threatened by my ideas, its not like I am the high pontiff of all things SCA, or even West Kingdom.

One of my firm ideas is about what times and cultures should be included in our game. A friend and I recently were having a dabate about including the samauri culutre of Japan, and he predicated his argumement on the similarity of the feudal relationships in medieval Japan and those of medieval Europe. This was my response:

"By your argument, our end date then should be 1868 as that is when Japanese feudalism was truly ended, with the close of the Edo period. The mere fact of similarity alone is not and should not be grounds for inclusion in the SCA. Similarly, analogous socio-legal constructs to Anglo-Norman feudalism in Europe did not exist in the Islamic and Scandanavian worlds at the time, so are you with the same hand excluding those cultures/nations?

Similarities notwithstanding, I have yet to see any literature that can point to any major contact between medieval Europe and Japan of the same era (c.500AD - 1600) to the point of influence either mutual or unilateral in terms of culture, economics, or religious institutions. They may have had similar cultures but they didn't necessarily know of each others existence. Mongols, yes. Chinese, yes. But those have been less glorified in pop culture and are therefore less popular in the SCA. Additionally, no one I have ever heard of has tried to draw analogies between mongol cavalry and european knights.

GIVEN the big-tent nature of the SCA it seems difficult to come up with a consistent criteria for in/exclusion of epochs and cultures. To me, we should be strictly European because we know for certain that generally speaking from Norway to Greece they were all aware of each other and had intercourse if only through regular trade and raiding. These lands are also tied together for most of the era I think we should include by what was regularly used as a uniting force, the Roman Catholic church. As for time period, trying to be consistent with what I have stated above I think we should restrict ourselves to Europe from c. 500AD to 1485. I choose 1485 for a few reasons: 1-before Columbus' discovery--so no new world, 2-well before Luther and the reformation in 1517, but mostly importantly, 1485 is the battle of Bosworth Field, where Richard III was killed and is the end of the Plantagenet line in England. To me, that is the end of the middle ages.

Awards & Honors

The Listing of My awards on the West Kingdom Awards List

• Pelican - Jan 5, AS XLII
• Grant of Arms - Jul 9, AS XL
• Leaf of Merit - Oct 5, AS XXXVII
• Rose Leaf - Dec 10, AS XL
• Baron - Sep 1, AS XLII
• Award of Arms - Jul 2, AS XXIX
• Queen's Order of Grace - May 1, AS XXXIX - Ivone
  
• Queen's Cypher - Jan 5, AS XLII - Ginevra
• Queen's Cypher - Aug 23, AS XLIII - Eilis
• Queen's Cypher - Jan 9, AS XLIV - Eilis
• Crown's Favor - Jun 21, AS XLIII - Titus & Eilis
• Corolla Aulica - Nov 16, AS XXXVII
• Princess' Favor - Nov 13, AS XXXIX - Eona (Mists)
• Scutiferus Cynaguae - May 24, AS XXXVIII
• La Courtesia - May 29, AS XL
• Princess' Token - Jul 13, AS XXXVII - Mari (Cynagua)
• Princess' Token - Jul 10, AS XXXIX - Keisha (Cynagua)
• Princess' Token - Jan 29, AS XXXIX - Ellisif (Cynagua)
• Princess' Token - Jul 14, AS XLII - Juliana (Cynagua)
• Princess' Token - Jul 12, AS XLIII - Constantina (Cynagua)
• Princess' Token - Jan 30, AS XLIV - Annora (Cynagua)
• Den Grimme Aeling - Jan 24, AS XXXVIII
• Black Wing - May 27, AS XLII
• Princess' Riband - Jan 14, AS XL - Esperanza (Oertha)
• -- Honors --
• Cynaguan Guard Mar 3, AS XLI