St Florian de la Riviere

St Florian de la Riviere
Argent, a cross bottony within a laurel wreath purpure
Information
Founded: A.S. XXXVI In Kingdom: Lochac Baron: Giles Leabrook Baroness: Maud la Leitiere
Modern location
South Brisbane (Australia)

The Barony of St Florian de la Riviere is an SCA barony of the Kingdom of Lochac, mudanely located in south of Brisbane. It is particularly well known for its endeavours in the Arts and Sciences.

History

The Barony of St Florian de la Riviere was originally created as a proposed canton of the neighbouring Barony of River Haven. The group saw its genesis in a fighter practice run in the back yard of 10 Home St. in Fairfield (the house of Cornelius and Morwynna). Soon an additional evening devoted to the running of arts and sciences activities was being run from the same location. The Home St. location remained the epicentre of the group's activities for many years, hosting several weekly meetings, workshops and even and number of events.

Due in part of continuing cultural differences and growing personality fissions, it was decided that St Florian should constitute itself as an independent Shire. Elements of the Barony of River Haven were vehemently opposed this move. The issue was not resolved until the intervention of King Fabian, (West) who, after visiting both groups, determined that the populace of St Florian would benefit from independence. Relations between both groups remained strained for many more years.

The fledgling shire continued to expand its membership and increase the range of activities offered. The original training session was forced to move to a local sports ground to accommodate the growing numbers. The costs of this move and the ground hire were met by Morwynna for several months until the attendance numbers were sufficient to sustain the hire and running costs of the ground.

The group began to gain a reputation for running events that were a significant departure in content and style from that the other local SCA groups. St Florian aggressively promoted high achievement in the arts and sciences, leading to several of its members being admitted into the Order of the Laurel and a Kingdom-wide reputation for achievement in these fields.

St Florian also was able to build a significant group of combatants. The group supported the initial growth of the Ventbarre war unit and eventually several other liveried units. War units from St Florian have been awarded ‘Best Unit’ five times over the seven years that this competition ran during the Rowany Festival.

Barons & Baronesses

There have been two Barons & Baronesses (including the incumbents)

• Master [[Sir] Gabriel de Beaumont and Mistress Constanzia Moralez y de Zamora
• Giles Leabrook and Maud la Leitiere

Other SCA Groups in Queensland

• Barony of River Haven
• Shire of Bacchus Wood
• Shire of Willoughby Vale

External Link

• official site

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