Crown Principality

From MiddleWiki

A Crown Principality is a principality in the last stage of gestation before it has it's own prince and princess. When a region becomes large and coherent, developing its own identity, and the members want to be a principality with their own ceremonial heads, a territorial prince and princess, and the Curia Regis agrees that it is time to begin that process, the region is made a Crown Principality. At this point, the new principality has the king and queen as prince and princess. Afterwards, when preparations are complete and the curia agrees, a Coronet Tournament is held and the winner and consort are made territorial prince and princess.

Crown Principalities seem to be a phenomenon of the Middle Kingdom. The Middle has had three principalities. The first, Calontir, became a kingdom in 1984 and transited directly from regional status to principality status. Ealdormere and Northshield, on the other hand, were named Crown Principalities first. Ealdormere had local representatives, known as a Lord and Lady Lieutenant, to represent the Crown locally. Northshield had instead a Stallari, a local body of representatives.

There is no official timeline, but Crown Principalities seem to last for about a year. Obviously, such a redesignation of an area is unlikely to occur unless the king and queen and their curia are quite sure that the new branch will be a success.