Emphatically not "Prowess." Of the Nine Knightly Virtues, Prowess in my opinion is the least important, and "Franchise" the most. Of the other seven (Courage, Honesty, Loyalty, Largesse, Faith, Courtesy, Modesty), I could not seperate out one that best defines a knight, as I believe that anyone who would be Knightly should be all these.

There are those that believe that since religion is prohibited in the SCA that Faith (or Piety) has no place on the list of Virtues. I disagree most vigorously. In our Society, Piety is not Faith in any God(s), but faith in the SCA itself. It is a belief that the rules of the game matter. It is a belief that the Oaths we swear mean exactly the words we swore, and are not merely words we mouth to get our regalia and title. For damned good reason the Crown of the King of Caid is ingraved on the inside with, where only someone putting it on will be able to read, the words "You rule because they believe". That belief is the Faith I discuss. That faith is what makes construction workers Kings, and makes our whole society work. Without that Faith, we're a bunch of idiots drinking and camping out in funny clothes.

So, perhaps it is in fact Faith that makes us knights, but it is not just the Faith we hold in the game, but that Faith that everyone else in the Society holds in us that we will live and be like the Knights they read about in their story-books, the Galahads and Lancelots who are just as prepared to carry a lady's basket to her feast table as to lay our very lives on the line to save that same lady from a fire-breathing Dragon. As the King of Caid rules because they believe, we are knights because they have Faith in us. Let us live our every day earning that Faith, repaying it by living by the Virtues, and striving to be worthy of the admiration of a child.

Earl Cathyn Fitzgerald, KSCA

p.s. By the by, I define Franchise as practicing the other eight Virtues without thought of personal gain, for no other reason than they are the right things to do.