There has been a lot of interest in Hrodir and Yehudah, the Heirs of Northshield, who are the first same-sex couple in the SCA to win a Crown Tournament.
Hrodir is a Duke, Knight, and Laurel; this will be his fourth time on the throne of Northshield. Yehudah was Northshield’s first Polaris Kingdom Herald, and is a Court Baron and Master of the Pelican. They are friends, rather than romantic partners. As Heirs, They are using the titles “Hrodir Fyrste” and “Yehudah Tarkhan.” Once crowned, They will be “Hrodir Bek” and “Yehudah Khagan.”
The Heirs have created a website for Their Reign that includes some fascinating information about Their plans, which Yehudah Tarkhan has described as being in many ways an A&S project. They will be basing Their reign on the precedents of the Turkic land of Khazaria, during the time period from 750 to 1050. Their website describes the ruling structure of Khazaria this way:
Khazaria was ruled under a dual-king system common in Turkic kingdoms, derived from Mongol practice, in which a Khagan was the spiritual and cultural leader while the Bek evolved to be the military and administrative leader. In historical practice, the distinction was somewhat akin to that of the Japanese Emperor and Shogun.
For more information on this innovative approach to SCA monarchy, see Their website, most especially the page on “Information for Heralds and Scribes” which includes a great deal of historical information at the bottom.
Japan could be much more complicated with simultaneously a mikado, an imperial regent, a senior retired emperor, a shogun, and a shogunal regent. During the early Muromachi period there were competing imperial courts. Incidentally, the mikado could be female. One woman was emperor twice. Pretty much every Japanese position (including emperor) was technically appointive. In the imperial government both the minister of the left and the minister of the right tended to be powerful positions. There was also an office of chancellor (daijodaijin), but that was often vacant. As I recall, it was also possible to be a “retired regent” and that Hideyoshi held that title for a while.
Yes, this is all a bit off-topic, but mention of Japan is pretty much guaranteed to excite my interest.
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Fascinating. Thank you for this article.
It would have been nice if you’d included the link to their page that you mentioned so we could explore this further.
The link is in the article in the bottom paragraph.