PROTOCOL FOR TENDER OF THE GIFT OF AGNES OF_NAVARRE
WITHIN THE ORDER OF SERVICE OF A WEDDING

After the bridegroom has placed the ring on the bride's left-hand
ring-finger -- or immediately after the exchange of rings if it is a
double-ring ceremony -- the Officiant, whether clergyman or registrar,
instructs bride and groom to face one another and the groom to kneel on his
right knee only (in exact imitation of the recipient's posture for
investiture in Knighthood or nobilitation in higher rank). This done,the
bride brings forth The Key, on a neck chain (such as is customarily used
for Roman Catholic religious medals), places it over the groom's head
around his neck and, while so doing, pronounces the verbal formula below.

Ceste clef porterez,
Carry this key,
Amys, et bien la garderez,
Beloved, and guard it well,
Car c'est la clef de mon tresor.
For it is the key of my treasure.
Je vous en fais siegnieur des or,
I make you lord of it henceforth,
Et desseur tous en serez mestre,
And above all you shall be master of it,
Et si l'aim plus que mon oeil destre.
And therefore I love it more than my right eye.
Car c'est m'onneur, c'est ma richesse,
For it is my honour, it is my wealth,
Et ce dont puis faire largesse.
And 'tis with which I can be generous.

That done, the Officiant now instructs the groom to rise, and tells the
groom he may now kiss the bride.

This verbal formula comes from the Livre du Voir-Dit (1380) of Guillaume de
Machaut. The above eight lines are the words the poet's Lady Beloved
addressed to him, in the act of handing over The Key of a chastity belt
which she had assumed at her own initiative. Most commentators believe that
Lady Beloved to have been Agnes of Navarre. Whoever the Lady was, she gave
him that most highly honorific of all possible gifts, bar none, that a
woman can give to a man -- possibly the highest honor a man can receive
from any human source. So it is fully proper for the recipient hereof, to
go to bended knee to receive it: For by it he is nobilitated, if only
within the micro-polis (miniature city-state) of their household.

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