Those Who Live by the Sword…
The History of St. Michael’s Guild
Compiled by Michael Foster
The Guild of St.
Michael – South was formed in
1988, the year after the Southern California Renaissance Pleasure Faire’s Silver
Anniversary held at the original faire site in Agoura. A similar guild, St. Michael’s North, was
formed in the early 1980s by Gordon Frye and Carl Ontis, members of the
Renaissance Military Society (RMS), itself created in November 1982 which
comprised German Landsknechts (mercenaries) from the Black Point/Novato faire
dating back to 1980 (and once members of the Guild of St. Helens, peasants),
English company of foot soldiers (including gunners), and a later-dissolved
company of mariners.
During the ‘80s, several
guilds were started, grouping volunteer performers into class or trade
categories so that they could be centrally coordinated and that a more common
look could be maintained to easily identify who belonged to what part of their
Renaissance society.
1988
Up until 1988, there were
numerous military and fighting groups “roaming” around the Agoura site of
Southern Faire – except for the Scottish Highlanders. These were gathered, lumped, crunched, pushed and folded into a
single package. Inside this “box”, the
larger components – or companies – were allowed a measure of independent
identity. two separate groups of German
Landsknechts or mercenaries, the Queen’s Chair Bearers and various English
soldiers (squads of pikemen, gunners and fighting sailors) were fitted into this
new guild.
Now considered an “umbrella”
organization for the military companies, this was unique among the rest of the
faire’s guilds and it set the standard for St. Michael’s Guild structure to
this day.
The original leaders of
the German companies were Conn MacLir and Tim Finkas. The new Guildmaster was Kevin Brown (formerly Lord Burleigh from
the Queen’s Royal Court). Brown
portrayed the Captain-General, “Sir John Norris (or Norrys)”. The Chair Bearers, also known as the “Yeoman
of the Guard” or “Queen’s Guard” mostly carried the Queen in her platform chair
and was one of the oldest groups, started in 1980 by Gereg Jones Muller who
departed faire after 1988, when it left Agoura.
1989
The Living History Centre
(LHC), parent of the Renaissance Pleasure Faires (RPF), moved Southern Faire
(RPFS) to Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino in 1989 and the Guild of
St. Michael went with them. They
established a military encampment along the side of the lake where each of the
groups/companies set up a main tent and some peripheral, personal tents to give
the look-and-feel of a battle camp.
Each faire day, the combined military units marched to the peninsula in
the middle of the lake to “take English land back from the enemy” which
Scottish highlanders and Irish cohorts of St. Andrew’s Guild had overrun
earlier. There, the huge, “live-steel”
Battle Pageant took place about noon.
Also that year, Tim
Finkas, Assistant Guildmaster and former German leader, started a new group
called the “Company of Mariners” who, while on land, set up and ran the
“Drunken Soldier Inn”. The Inn served
both English sailors with nautical costume and props, and as a somewhat open
forum for all military men (and women) to do some improvisation (similar to the
Faire’s “Green Man Inne”). The gunners
in the Guild became a small company known as “Shotte”. The English Company of Foote was known as
“Cromwell’s Company” for its captain, Thomas Cromwell. The Queen’s Guard grew
and Morgan was its Captain. The Company
of Shotte was run by Walter Nelson who also acted as the Guild’s
Sergeant-Major. St. Michael’s now had five companies.
1990
“This is the story of Peter Rabbit
and Dominatrix Potter.” – as told by Kevin Brown (after hours), Guildmaster
The second year at Glen
Helen, Kevin Brown, as Guildmaster, sanctioned a new group of Lowland Scottish
mercenaries called “Blair’s Company”.
These folk represented the families living along the border between
England and Scotland. The Guard was
now commanded by “Captain Bryce”, Bruce Henry.
The Company of Foote became dominated by an outside-faire group called
“Blackshire’s Company of the Sword” and changed to be “Stoddard’s Company” for
its London-trained band Captain, “Nicholas Stoddard”. (David Wine was the first Captain Stoddard which character, as
will be seen, became much like the famed “Dread Pirate Robert” of “Princess
Bride” fame.) This was the year that
many in the Guild participated in a pseudo-plot to take over the Queen’s Glade
to demand better pay and conditions for the soldiers and mercenaries. Dropped maps, notes and hints of battle
plans along with possible kidnappings and a heavy presence of military folk in
and around the Court, led to some interesting byplay throughout the whole
run-of-faire, but no more gold. A tradition was begun where the Guildmaster would sit with all of the members around him at end-of-the-day “Notes” and succumb to their demand, “Tell us a story!”
1991
“We’re going back to London
We’re going back tonight.
We’re going back to London,
Get Norris from our sight!” –
Stoddard’s Company of Foote, 1591 (1991)
Year
Three at Glen Helen, 1991, saw the introduction of a few Gentleman Adventurers joining the Guild staff, un-attached to any of the
separate companies. These semi-noble
characters included Tim Finkas portraying “Sir Walter Raliegh”, David
Springhorn as “Capt. Courage”, Bryan Norton playing “Maximillian Norris”, the
Captain-Generals trouble-making, younger brother, and “Lt. Loveless”, played by
Jeff Bissiri (later Guildmaster of St. George, the Queen’s Court). The Barber-Surgeon from the Company of Foote
also became a “Guild” character instead of being solely attached to an
individual company (“Magnus Maxwell”, a fictional character, played by Michael
Foster.). The camp layout was changed
and the Germans set up a “Military Museum” of weaponry and other displays in a
large tent. The Company of Mariners
actually had a boat to use on the lake.
Some of the Queen’s Guard rode on the Queen’s Royal Barge across the
lake while most of the able-bodied men in the Guild pulled on the ropes to tow
Her Majesty and entourage over the water.
Allan Treas became the Innkeeper of the Drunken Soldier Inn and Margaret
Miller was the Mariner’s group leader (or “captain”). The Company of Foote staged a “walkout” and marched, singing,
back to London where they could return to their civilian occupations as
mercers, grocers, tailors, etc.
1992
“Cows know what fences are for,
why don’t you?” – Danny McGee, Assistant Guildmaster
By 1992, Kevin Brown had
moved on, out of faire on a regular basis, and Chris Cook, former head of the
Germans, became the new Guildmaster.
His Assistant, Danny McGee, now a German called “Erasmus”, had started
in the Company of Shotte as a master gunner.
The Gentleman Adventurers was all but gone, and only the Barber-Surgeon
remained as the one, non-aligned character in the Guild. Danny, as Assistant had a personal “pet
peeve” of guests and other participants climbing over the ropes to walk through
the military encampment.
1993
“Put your nose on that nail
sticking out of the tower.” – Danny McGee, Guildmaster
Chris Cook left the Guild
before 1993, after serving just one year as Guildmaster and his Assistant,
Danny McGee, took over. This year, his
“pet peeve” was one errant English pikeman, Rick Sullivan, who had to take some
time outs. The assembled Captains of
the Companies (now six strong) began to exercise some say in Guild
administration and they suggested (selected) Michael Foster, the Guild
Barber-Surgeon, to be his Assistant Guildmaster, being someone recognized as
“independent of individual companies and their politics” (according to notes
from the 1993 Captains’ Meetings.) Bill
Pearson was then the Captain of the Queen’s Guard. Jerry Wood, “Elwin Brookshire”, was the administrator of Foote,
although David Wine continued to portray “Nicholas Stoddard”, the Foote’s
theatrical Captain. Margaret Miller was
still in charge of the Mariners and their Inn became known as the “Serpent’s
Nest”, named for their “ship”, the “HMS Serpent” and their small boat, the
“Serpent’s Tongue”.
1994
“It was the best party that I
never went to!” – Anonymous English Pikeman
The next year, 1994, saw
Michael Foster as Guildmaster – Danny moved to Northern Faire and joined the
Schwartz Fahnlein there. Michael chose
two Assistant Guildmasters, approved by the Captains: Gary Kephart (the Lieutenant of the Company of Foote) and Kim
Meyer (the Head Woman from the Queen’s Guard).
This began a trend or tradition of having one Assistant for each 60
Guild members, reaching a peak of 185 in 1999, the first “year of three
Assistant Guildmasters”.
This year also saw two
other major changes in administering the Guild. First, the entire camp, still by the lakeside, turned inward or
side-by-side instead of outward. There
was still stage frontage for each group, but the idea was to get the separate
Companies working together and getting along with each other, during and after
hours. The second change was for the
Guildmaster to delegate several duties to the “best and most experienced” as
agreed on by the Assistants and the Captains.
Such positions in the Guild staff now included Battle Pageant Coordinator
(Lloyd Winter, “Ulrich van Baden”, German group leader), Black Powder Safety
Officer (Alan Hughes, “Wat Utley”, Shotte group leader), Site Manager (Michael
Cravens, “Heinrich Schultz the Engineer”, former Queen’s Guard Knight, now a German),
etc. John Hawakaya took over as Captain
of the Queen’s Guard.
And, speaking of “after
hours”, 1994 became the first “official” year of both the St. Michael’s “USO
Party” (aka “Choir Practice”) held on the Sunday night of Memorial, three-day,
weekend, and the Memorial Service involving all of the military, members of the
Queen’s Court, Friends of Faire, St. Andrew’s Clan MacColin and other faire
participants. The latter was a Memorial
Day presentation and remembrance for fallen military and for faire friends who
had passed on. These two events
continued until the Faire once again moved to a new location and no longer
encompassed Memorial Weekend.
1995
For 1995, there was more
progression towards a friendly and cohesive working environment along with a
change in title from the Lowland Scots to the “Border Horse”. This company was still made of English and
Scottish border families and “reivers” working as mercenaries (either for pay
or punishment) as part of the Queen’s armies.
The Border Horse began building their famous “Scots’ Tower”, a two-story
structure with a rock façade that allowed both for theatrical presentations –
outside and on top – and storage – inside.
Their Captain was “Stewart”, played by Jeff Cupernell.
1996
In 1996, the
Barber-Surgeon dug a grave, outfitted it with bones and the famous German
Lutheran Minister, Father Anders Gambolputy, played by Andy Bradshaw, would
conduct daily services over it. While
weeping friends and family members knelt around the grave, a shroud-covered
soldier would climb out and walk away whenever the Danse Macabre (“Dance of
Death”) paraded by the site. Only
audience members saw this as the mourners continued “unaware” of the
departure. The Company of Foote had its
only leader who wasn’t named Stoddard.
Gary Kephart portrayed “William Bond” as captain. Gary also remained Assistant Guildmaster,
but Kim Meyer left and was replaced by Angela Phillips from the Germans.
1997
“Oh, yay. We did escort the goodly Magnus Maxwell, the
barber-surgeon, to… er… uh… Carlisle!” – Kinmont Willie, Border Horse Captain
The next “dread” Captain
Stoddard, John Tiffany, took over Stoddard’s Company of Foote and the parent
organization for the Foote, Blackshires, brought its “Living Chess Match” to
faire and it was set up in the middle of a “U” shaped military camp and staff
by mostly St. Michael’s Guild members.
Also, in 1997, the Guild USO party was held in and around the Living
Chess Match playing board/stage which made a HUGE dance floor. Justin Kocher takes over the group
leadership of the Queen’s Guard (until that company leaves after 2000).
A new Barber-Surgeon was
assigned to the companies, :”William Clowes”, portrayed by Michael Foster,
after his predecessor mysteriously disappeared while being escorted to the
North Country. His escorts, the Company
of Border Horse returned with much of his equipment apparently given to them as
“… thank you gifts for the ‘safe’ journey”.
The new Border Horse leader was John Holmes, known as “Kinmont Willie”,
a famous border reiver.
1998
In 1998, the Faire was
shifted within Glen Helen Park and St. Michael’s was given the entire
peninsula, formerly site of the Battle Pageant. The BP was moved to the Horse Tourney arena, now at the “back” of
the Faire and it became more of a pageant, in truth, with members of St.
Michael’s acting as narrators and Col. Sir Charles Blount, Gary Kephart, giving
a rousing opening speech taken from Shakespeare’s “Henry the V”
introduction. The camp was visible 360
degrees, so care had to be taken to hide “backstage” areas in between or in the
middle of tents and structures. Jill
Wood took Angie Phillip’s place as the second Assistant Guildmaster. The next Captain Stoddard, Jerry Wood, was
in charge of the Company of Foote. The
Guild’s Memorial Weekend USO Party took place on the “Island” which was a great
venue for an after-hours dance and mixer.
1999
Still on the peninsula,
in 1999, the Guildmaster allowed Andy Bradshaw to put his long-time, dream
proposal into reality: an Academy of
Military Science which grew from two people to several and became one of the
most visible, and well-liked spots in the St. Michael’s encampment. The Academy eventually showcased
representatives of a “College of War”, and “Department of Engineering” and
“School of Medicine” with participants giving internal and public presentations
about their chosen, historical specialties.
A third Assistant Guildmaster, Frank Licata, the Lieutenant from the
Company of Foote, was added as the Guild population surpassed 180 (keeping the
60-to-1 ratio first decided in 1994). The new Border Horse leader was John
Holmes, known as “Kinmont Willie”, a famous border reiveer.
2000
The year 2000 found the
County once more moving the faire to the far side of the lake and St. Michael’s
lost its most visual encampment.
However, there were several advantages to now being at the back of the
faire, next to the new Horse Tournament arena.
First and foremost, the amount of space given to the Guild increased
greatly and continued to increase until the last year at Glen Helen found the
military encamped on both sides of the Tourney and wrapped around the corner
onto the main roadway. Another great
advantage, especially to a guild that has a lot of group- and personally-owned
props and equipment, the new site was right next to the main participant
entrance gate. This also gave quick and
easy access to backstage, faire administration, security, restrooms, showers,
the parking lot, and the participant campground. So, although the Guild site was no longer visible from
front-to-back, side-to-side as on the peninsula, it had an extremely long stage
front with performance, demonstration, eating, working and sleeping room for
each of the companies.
2001
During the second year of
the faire’s newest configuration, Patricia Foster, German Fraulein "Genoviva Fuger", was brought in to replace
Jill Wood as an Assistant Guildmaster along with Frank Licata and Gary
Kephart. In 2001, a small group of
Gentlemen Adventurers was again attempted with Bill Watters, “Giovanni”,
Patricia Foster, “Breanna”, and a few others acting independently of the other
companies. This only lasted one
year. Also that year, on Memorial
Weekend, a winged apparition of “St. Michael, the Archangel” (Michael Foster)
appeared during the Battle Pageant and wandered the faire in honor of “St.
Michael’s Apparition Day”. This year,
the Queen’s Guard became an independent “troupe” at Southern Faire, the “Yeomen
of the Guard” while an outside-faire Irish mercenary group, “Clan O’Neil” or
“The O’Neils”, joined St. Michael’s.
2003
In 2003, the next
incarnation of St. Michael’s Gentlemen Adventurers was brought into the Guild
headed by Steve Leon. With the Academy,
this made eight separate groups within the Guild. Gary Kephart took over as the Guild Database manager and Aaron
Johnson was appointed Assistant Guildmaster.
During the off-season, Guild members did cleanup and gardening almost
monthly.
2004
The year 2004 saw several
more semi-permanent additions to the Guild site: trees were planted, grass over-seeded, small walls and structures
erected or left from the run-of-faire.
The Gentlemen Adventurers convinced the Faire to let them be their own
troupe, so St. Michael’s was back to seven groups or companies.
2005
At the beginning of 2005,
the newer Faire owners, Renaissance Entertainment Corporation (REC), moved the
entire operation to the Sante Fe Dam Park in Irwindale.
2006
In 2006, Michael Foster
announced his retirement ending 12 years as Guildmaster and the faire’s
“director of military operations”. His
Assistant Guildmaster, Aaron Johnson was to take the reins at the end of the
year.
2007
In 2007, Aaron Johnson as
the new Guildmaster, had Patricia Foster and Frank Licata as his Assistant
Guildmasters. The Irish were dissolved
so the Guild was back to six companies (counting the Academy).
2008
In 2008, Aaron Johnson appointed
all new Guild staff including Lynn Dekker, from Border Horse, and Alden Pelayo,
from the Mariners, as his new Assistant Guildmasters. Scott Gayman, German, was replaced as the Site Manager with Joe
Hawkins.