Order of Precedence Of the Populace Of Caer Anterth Mawr

So what is an "Order Of Precedence", or "O.P."? It's a list of the honors that people have received, and it is not a unique concept to the S.C.A. O.P.s are maintained in several countries around the world, particularly in Europe, and have been since various points in the Middle Ages. In the case of the S.C.A., the O.P. lists the awards that have been given to individuals, orders in which they have membership, and some other recognitions that may have been granted by a kingdom's royalty or landed nobility (or local groups).

The term "Order Of Precedence" refers to the fact that such lists were/are used to determine who has "precedence" over whom, in terms of rank, station, importance, or whatever you'd like to call it. And that ranking of importance, or order of precedence, could be used to determine the order in which people might be allowed (or made) to enter a hall or present themselves in Court to Their Majesties, or to determine seating at a feast, or to determine who has to show more deference to whom, or all kinds of things.

In practice, the O.P. is used ocasionally in the SCA to add to the fun and medieval flavor of the club. Different awards, orders, and honors confer different places in the O.P., different statuses, if you will. Some even confer no change in precedence at all!

Different Lists Of O.P.s

• CAM Order of Precedence (O.P.) [PDF format] - last update 12/19/2011
  Note that awards in that file are de facto old, and are not automatically updated. Up-to-date Kingdom awards can be found through Northshield's O.P., and you can search there by individuals' names and by award. However, this file's listing is already pared down to only Baronial populace, and contains Baronial award listings that are not in the Kingdom O.P.
• Other O.P.s -- listing awards for groups other than CAM -- can be reached through links from the Herald's page (see next point for link).

Please contact the Baronial Herald for any corrections to this information.