Intro
Geo affected pol organisation and rulership |
Poor roads + forests = limited contact to communities |
Family units→political units |
Counts
Great Euro fams invested in fam history, traditions, records |
c800-1000 New fams won power thru warfare |
Warfare + marriage = 🗝 expansion and consolidation of pwr |
Genealogical rolls v popular |
Family legend for others' perception of fam |
ie Song of Roland (Charlemagne's reign) |
→abt Roland & other Frankish warriors at Battle of Roncevaux 778 |
Literary re-imagining incl. Muslims as enemy |
Probably composed between c.1040-1115 |
Royal admin
Personnel involved in running kingdom |
Start of 12th century: small admin |
Differed kingdom to kingdom: |
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→England: closely governed |
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→Less governed - admin issues charters & collect small tax |
Even Eng had small perm admins in early 12th cent |
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Case study: County of Anjou
Count Fulk Rechin (end of 11th cent) recorded achvmnts of ancestor Fulk Nerra |
Military expans continued in Anjou late 10th cent and first half of 11th |
Process of encroachment: |
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1. secure foothold (marriage, warfare, purchase, force/fraud) |
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2. good rship w/ church |
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3. establish castle |
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4. wait for opportunity (victory in battle, enemy away, minority rule) |
Counts (cont.)
Change by mid-11th cent. |
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territorial units of counties establshd |
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small pwr blocs abutting each other |
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dvlpmnt of law & stable pol rather than expans |
Counts needed admin & staff to gvrn + exploit resources |
By end of 11th cent. more docs requiring standing staff rather than ad hoc emplymnt |
From early 12th cent, sec powers employed masters from great schools (like uni) |
abut - (v.) to be adjacent; touch or join at the edge or border
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Kingship
Violence→comital authority |
God→royal authority |
Coronation rites degraded position of count (though counts were often more powerful than king of France) |
Ecclesiastical rites by clergy: |
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Anointed with holy oil |
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Invested w/ ring and staff |
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Invested w/ sword and sceptre |
10th century kings could style selves as Vicars of Christ |
Derived right to rule from lineage - recounted memories of predecessors for legitimacy |
Model for German emps: Charlemagne |
comital: of, belonging to, or befitting a count or earl
Key roles of kings
1. Defend the people |
2. Keep the peace |
3. Protect the Church |
4. Enforce justice, punish criminals |
5. Lead (and win) military campaigns |
6. Display military prowess and valour |
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Means of political pursuit
Warfare🗝noble identity |
Pre10th cent warriors:$ thru plundering |
Post10th century, other ways to get $ |
Warfare unreliable for pol policy |
Marriage🗝method pol policy |
Henry I married English princess |
Strategic marriages good! |
A king's power
Rested on |
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→ability to recruit & lead armies |
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→role as supreme judge |
John of England failed |
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→lost most of Angevin and exploited his barons |
Rulers bound by old law |
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→subjects could rebel and force king to obey law |
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→Right of resistance couldn't be repealed |
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→invoked against King John |
Despite hallowed status of old law, new law was created |
Announcement of new law codes: |
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→Roger II of Sicily |
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→Frederick II |
Kings of Sicily - peak royal auth |
English kings - control of court |
German kings delegated auth to bishops - power to princes |
French kings: justice in royal domain, not outside |
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