Prince Chief Commissioner's right to nobility and 'fons honorum'

Fons honorum through the Principality of Sealand:

When the UK banned pirate radio station, UK Army veteran retired Major Roy Paddy Bates, who was himself an operator of a pirate radio station, in an act of defiance, sailed out to Roughs Tower, an abandoned military seafort designed to house 300 troops and fire antiaircraft artillery at passing enemy airplanes during World War Two. The UK had built Roughs Tower out in international waters, beyond its territorial waters, so when Major Bates set up his radio station there, he was beyond the jurisdiction and legal reach of the UK, and when he declared Roughs Tower as a sovereign state and the Principality of Sealand, there was nothing stopping him from doing so. Through legal loopholes in International and UK law, Prince Roy established his state and its governance, and the UK Supreme Court ruled that Sealand was outside of their jurisdiction and laws. Both the UK and German had since tried to take Sealand by force, however, and the Sealand royal family have defended it stoutly, even taking prisoners, resulting in Germany sending an ambassador to plead for their German citizen’s release on behalf of Germany’s government. This diplomatic act cemented Sealand’s standing as a state, though it is still unrecognized as such. As a sovereign entity, the current Prince of Sealand, Prince Michael is fons honorum, and as head of state and fount of honours, has made HRE Dr Chase Neil, a Duke of Sealand. As a Duke, HRE Chase Neil in turn possesses the power to knight an ennoble others to his service.

Fons honorum through the Grand Dukedom of Pomerania and Livonia:

The ancient Duchy of Pomerania was a Duke-ruled vassal state of the Roman Empire located between Poland and Germany, which existed from the 12th to 17th centuries and was made up of northern parts of Germany and Southern parts of Poland before being absorbed into both countries. The ancient Duchy of Livonia was also an independent Duke-ruled state made up of the northern parts and most of present-day Latvia, the southern parts of present-day Estonia and western parts of present-day Russia, existing from the 16th to 17th centuries, and now absorbed into Estonia, Latvia and the westernmost fringes of Russia, with most of its former territories in Estonia and Latvia. Many wars and conquests over the centuries resulted in the conquering and assimilation of Pomerania and Livonia into present-day Poland, Germany, Latvia, Estonia and Russia, and the royal noble families were stripped of their titles and status. However, according to international and chivalric law, a previous sovereign ruling house still retains symbolic rights to their office, titles and styles, even if unrecognized by their present-day governing republics which replaced them. This is why, for example, Prince Zera Yacob Amha Selassie is still Emperor-in-Exile of Ethiopia and Head of the Imperial House of Ethiopia. This has no legal standing in present-day Ethiopia, which banished its monarchy, but Prince Emperor Selassie nevertheless retains the right to use his ceremonial and symbolic titles and the right of fons honorum – to create knights and nobles in his name. This was the same right exercised by His Royal Highness Prince David Mann, who discovered he was the legal descendant of the last King of Mann and used his royal prerogative to reinstitute the Sovereign Magistral Order of the Temple of Solomon as the modern-day reincarnation of the historical Knights Templar. 

Similarly, Prince Ludwig I, a descendant of the last ruling houses of both the historical Duchy of Pomerania and Duchy of Livonia, exercises his fons honorum rights to grant knighthoods and nobiliary titles to others. He has joined the legacy of his ancestral houses into a micronation – the Grand Dukedom of Pomerania and Livonia – symbolically, culturally and ceremonially claiming the former territories of parts of Poland, Germany, Estonia, Latvia and Russia as a government-in-exile. In addition, he retains ownership of an extensive forest reserve through his company Royaltitles.net, through which he grants miniscule ‘nobiliary plots’ of landholdings to people who purchase noble titles and thus become subjects of the Grand Dukedom – thus fulfilling the state/micronation requirements of territory, citizenship and government. As a descendant of royal ruling dukes and as a sovereign of a modern-day micronation, Prince Ludwig I has made HRE Dr Chase Neil a Prince-Elector and Margrave (equal to a modern-day Sovereign Prince and Marquess/Marquis) of the Grand Dukedom of Pomerania and Livonia. As a Prince-Elector and Margrave (a reigning Prince and Marquess), HRE Chase Neil, in turn possesses the power to knight and ennoble others to his service.

Expert Analysis of Fons honorum Claim: