Order of Precedence

Historical Order of Precedence

The Book of Keruynge, printed in 1508 gives the following advice to marshals and ushers regarding precedence:

The Marshall and ussher muste knowe all the estates of the chyrche and the hyghe estate of a kynge with the blode royall.

• The estate of the Pope hath no pere
• The estate of an Emperour is nexte
• The estate of a kynge
• The estate of a cardynall
• The estate of a kynges sone a prynce
• The estate of an archebysshop
• The estate of a duke
• The estate of a bysshop
• The estate of a Marques
• The estate of an erle
• The estate of a vycount
• The estate of a baron
• The estate of an abbot with a myter
• The estate of the chefe Judges and the mayre of London
• The estate of an abbot without a myter
• The estate of a knigh bacheler
• The estate of pryour dene archedeken or knyght
• The estate of the mayster of the rolles
• The estate of other Justyces & barons of the cheker
• The estate of the mayre of Calays
• The estate of a provyncyall a doctour dyvyne
• The estate of a prothonathe is above the popes collectour and a doctour of bothe lawes
• The estate of hym that hath ben mayre of London and servaunt of the lawe.
• The estate of a mayster of the chauncery and other worshypfull prechours of pardon and clerkes that ben gradewable, & all other ordres of chastyte persones and preestes worshypfull merchauntes & gentylmen all these may syt at the squyers table.

SCA Order of Precedence

In the SCA, the order of Precedence is a listing of all the people who have received awards, ordered from the highest ranking to the lowest. Ranking (or precedence) is determined by the highest level of award received, and the date an award of that level was first given to the recipient. The earlier a person received an award, the higher they appear on the order of precedence.

Generally speaking, the SCA Order of Precedence is, from highest to lowest:

• King and Queen of the Kingdom in question
• Kings and Queens of other Kingdoms
• Princes and Princessess, usually local first, then foreign
• Dukes and Duchesss
• Counts and Countesses
• Viscounts and Viscountesses
• Bestowed Peerages
• In Kingdom Grant Bearing Awards (if any)
• Grants of Arms
• In Kingdom AoA Bearing Awards (if any)
• Awards of Arms
• non-armigerous awards

Note that if person A had received a laurel and a pelican in the last year, an person B had received a laurel three years ago, person B would be ranked higher, having reached peerage level first. The fact that someone has obtained a second award at a certain level does not add to their precedence.

The sitting Royalty rank above all others on the Order of Precedence. Individual kingdoms may have additional rank gradations for Kingdom Level Awards and Baronial Level Awards. For example, An Tir has a permanent award, the Lion of An Tir, which ranks higher than a Duke or Duchess within An Tir. An Tir also includes Landed and formerly Landed Barons and Baronesses on its order of precedence.

The placement of Territorial Barons and Baronesses depends on the Kingdom and sometimes on location within a Kingdom. Often they rank below Royal Peers (ie. after Viscounts), in other places they may be placed differently. In the East Territorial Barons rank just below current Royalty , as long as they are in their own lands. So a Baron "at home" is higher on the OP than a Duke. Otherwise, they fall just after bestowed Peers.

There is also a wide variation as to the treatment of Court Baronies. For example, in the East it may be given with or without a Grant of Arms, which can affect the placement of the recipient rather dramatically.

Kingdom Officers are sometimes given a place of precedence.

Kingdom Orders of Precedence

• Kingdom of the West - http://heralds.westkingdom.org/Awards/OPMEN.HTM
• Kingdom of East - http://jducoeur.org/Prec/
• Kingdom of Middle - http://www.midrealm.org/op/
• Kingdom of Atenveldt - http://www.atenveldt.org/Heraldry/OrderofPrecedence.aspx
• Kingdom of Meridies - http://creon.dominohosting.biz/creon/Torch.nsf
• Kingdom of Caid - http://www.sca-caid.org/herald/op.html
• Kingdom of Ansteorra - http://www.ansteorra.org/regnum/herald/OP/
• Kingdom of Atlantia - http://op.atlantia.sca.org/
• Kingdom of An Tir - http://www.antirheralds.org/awards/OP/op.html
• Kingdom of Calontir - http://calontir.sca.org/herald/op/op.html
• Kingdom of Trimaris
• Kingdom of Outlands - http://www.unm.edu/~kballar/heraldry/wimble/whoswho.html
• Kingdom of Drachenwald - http://op.drachenwald.sca.org/
• Kingdom of Artemisia - http://www.dogphilosophy.net/~art/op.html
• Kingdom of �Æthelmearc - http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~grm/aethelmearc-op.html
• Kingdom of Ealdormere - http://wolfium.com/search.php
• Kingdom of Lochac - http://www.sca.org.au/canon/