Grande March

Trditionally, Grande March preceded Opening Court as a procession of the populace at events during which a herald announced people as they came forward to pay their respects to the Crown. The heralds maintaned box of 3x5 index cards for this purpose, although on occasion, the heralds has to call the names from memory, or ask people to announce themself. Each person had a card on which the wrote their name, and as they came forward they handed the card(s) to the herald.

The populace lined up in order of precedence, with peers and great officers at the beginning, and non-armigerous members of the populace marching at the end of the line in groups. Baronies marched behind their Baron and/or Baroness. In cases where two people marched together as a pair, their place in the line was determined by the higher-ranking person. From time to time, there have been Caidans who claimed the right to march last, in particular, Duke Jason Griffiths of Shadowhyrst who took great delight in being the last person in line.

As Mistress Mary Taran of Glastonbury recently noted, "Long ago, in a kingdom not at all far away, we used to do Grand Marches, with everyone at the event lining up in Order of Precedence. Taking a page from the acts of Duke Richard of Mont Royal, called the Short, Mistress (then Lady) Su of the Silver Horn felt that no one should be relegated to the end of the line. She created the unofficial title of "Lady Populace", and insisted on marching last. She certainly outranked many people ahead of her in line, but last is last. No one need be dead last, except by choice. The other group has saved us from last place. I wouldn't have objected to last place, but here is a nod to Lady Populace."

Those people who had crafted difficult-to-pronounce Gaelic or Celtic names (sometimes, the legends go, simply to stymie and annoy the heralds), sometimes ran the risk of being announced at the herald's discretion with a more whimsical (and easier to pronounce) name like Lord Bob of Murfle. The heralds were always happy when people were kind enough to write a phonetical pronunciation on the aforementioned index card.

This West Kingdom tradition was carried on in Caid for many years, until it was discontinued due to time constraints (and increased populace). These days it is usually only seen at the Olde Timers Tournies held in Altavia.