House Strongbow
| Photo | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 ' | ||||
| Information | ||||
| ||||
| Heraldry | ||||
 Fieldless, a sheaf of a sword inverted between four arrows argent bound with a garter sable |
History
House Strongbow was established as an archery based household in Caid by THLord Garrett O'Doherty circa 2002. The household was seen as a need for archers not in households or other groups in order for therm to have a place to camp at events, to learn from other archers, to have access to loaner equipment, to promote archery within the Kingdom, and to generally belong. It originally began as a target archery group but was later expanded to combat archers as well, as combat archery had reached a nadir in the kingdom at the time. The household was originally based in Lyondemere. Garrett O'Doherty originally began the household as called The Damned Archers of Lyondemere: however he was asked by Kingdom Heralds to not use that name. The name House Strongbow was then chosen. The first camp of House Strongbow took place at May Potrero War circa 2003. The camp was placed alongside CRAC in order for it to be relatively close to both the archery range and the battlefield. 12 members attended.
Over the years House Strongbow grew and over time was joined by more combat archers than target archers. Garrett O'Doherty stopped participating and the household operations was taken over by THLady Ingilborg Sigmundardottir. The house also became aligned with the Caidan Royal Artillery Corps (CRAC) as siege and combat archery had a lot in common.
Around 2009 House Strongbow came into focus as a proponent for the integration and inclusion of siege and combat archery as an integrated weapons form in SCA combat and an historical proponent as well. House Strongbow began participating in standardization of missile construction and education, including Thrust and Throw Javelins and throwing maces made from tennis balls. House Strongbow also provided combat archery marshalls, taught how to properly inspect combat archery equipment, and maintained a stock of loaner equipment that warbands and novices could borrow. The House Strongbow website also contained a library on these subjects. Members from kingdoms outside of Caid began to join and membership swelled.
However, beginning around 2005 a small movement began within Atenveldt and areas around Calafia, Caid, to ban combat archery. The rationale for dong so began to collectively be called there "Un-Un-Un" arguments (UNfair, UNsafe, UNchivalrous). The movement gained some traction primarily due to the activities of a few Knights, Dukes, and a large "cheering section: within their respective households. Combat archers, and even a few target archers, were threatened with assault and in one instance rape, if they "dared" to show up. Unnecessary and illegal restrictions were placed on combat archery participation in several Estrella Wars and Great Western Wars, including one Duke's proclamation of Plate is Proof, and others. House Strongbow members across the Known World were very instrumental at working within the Society level to put a stop to this. Their efforts were ultimately successful, and several of the offenders were subject to Revocation and Denial for this and other reasons.
In subsequent years combat archery began to rapidly grow in popularity among warbands and other groups. As a result the primary missions of House Strongbow being 1. providing training and loaner equipment to novices and 2. providing a dedicated camp for combat archers, began to diminish. The last House Strongbow camp took place around 2015.
NOTES ON HERALDRY: A blanket permission to conflict is in place for the House Strongbow badge, since the household is no longer active. The badge of House Strongbow is based on actual historical heraldry, namely that of Arthur Prince of Wales (1486-1502), brother to King Henry VIII. Since the badge was based on actual heraldry, a decision had to be made by the SCA about this. That decision can be viewed here in its entirety: https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2006/06/06-06ar.html
