PROCLAMATION! Whereas the Barony Beyond the Mountain invaded the Barony of Carolingia on 12 January and encountered no opposition, indeed being the first to occupy the field, the Barony of Carolingia is hereby declared a conquered and subject people. An annual tribute of one (1) virgin per year is hereby demanded, to be awarded to the best unattached fighter of the barony. (Subject must be female and over twelve (12) years of age.) Being aware of the scarcity of such valuable commodities in Carolingia, an appropriate monetary substitute will be acceptable. Lest any complain of our actions, the good people of Carolingia are reminded of the conduct of Ostgardr, which chivalrous and exemplary conduct we merely seek to imitate.
-- Balin the Fairheaded,
Baron Beyond the Mountain
"Apparently the folks from Barony Beyond the Mountain showed up early, before any Carolingians were on the field, and they declared that they had taken the field because there weren't any Carolingians to defend it from them. They didn't tell anyone about this. There were some single combats fought, but no combat for the field. At dinner they announced that they had conquered Carolingia because they had claimed the field and no one had taken it from them. Carolingia's reaction was sort of, 'Oh? We didn't know about this.' Later on they demanded tribute from Carolingia. It consisted of this, that, and the other, and one virgin a year. Patri's answer was, 'That's all right. After all, it's Barony Beyond the Mountain - we can send them the same virgin every year!'"
"The question of whether or not John of Isleway should remain Baron of Carolingia came up during the same year as the Watergate scandal, which was especially interesting since Richard Nixon was a personal idol of John of Isleway...this is not a joke, this is serious, he admired the man greatly.
"We didn't have autocrats of events. The Baron was automatically autocrat of everything. Ma Bell disconnected his phone, and he discovered he liked it, so there was no way to reach him except by letter.
"King Aonghais and Baron John did not get along too well. For anyone who knew the two gentlemen, this was very easy to see... Aonghais got a letter from the Imperium [the SCA board of directors] saying, 'What's going on in Carolingia? We're hearing all kinds of things.' Now Aonghais had a way of starting out with something that was the truth, and then he'd be talking to somebody, and it would be more convenient for him to bend it just a little. So he'd bend it, but then he was so good at bending it that he convinced himself that what he was saying was true. Then he'd talk to a second person and bend what he thought was the truth a little more...
"The whole thing started [at the Valentine's Event] when an ambassadress - a very attractive ambassadress - from the West Kingdom was being introduced to the King at high table, and John's man, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was collecting last- minute fees for the feast at the same time. Aonghais felt that his discussion was interfering with the King's communication with the ambassadress and hit the roof. A full-volume argument followed, which climaxed when Aonghais said that he had a letter in his possession at this moment from the Imperium empowering him to take John's title away from him, which was not true. Immediately Patri du Chat Gris, Lioslieth of Donnelly, and several others of us stood, and Lioslieth screamed at the King at the top of her lungs, 'Nobody has the right to take our Baron away from us, least of all YOU!' And then the Kingdom Seneschal, El of the Two Knives, stood up and said in a very quiet voice that nobody had the right to take the Baron except for him perhaps and certainly the Imperium and that everybody should sit down... El is a big man, and he is also a man of unquestioned integrity, even after all these years in the East Kingdom.
"It should be mentioned that Carolingia clung tenaciously to its Baron until Aonghais left the throne; then the campaign to dump John continued. On the event after Richard Nixon made his resignation speech, Isleway resigned, to the complete surprise of the barony - I mean, we'd been trying to get rid of him, but we never thought he'd go!"