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The Medieval World: Government |
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Note: The "Medieval World" pages were originally written for a friend of mine who was (and still is)
writing a fantasy novel, to provide some background information on how pre-industrial societies actually work. The
text remains unchanged from the original document.
The history of government is, very broadly speaking, a development from the tribal and personal to the national and institutional. However, for the purposes of a fantasy novel it can generally be assumed that the government will revolve around the person of the monarch. For example, when the Anglo-Saxons began to colonise Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries, they arrived in small, separate groups. Each of these conquered their own small area, and after a time small kingdoms began to emerge. Over the next few centuries, these fought each other and merged into a small number of large, stable kingdoms. Thus the origin of English kingship is in the king as the leader of a small war band. His court consists of his personal followers, amongst whom the spoils of victory are divided. Although by the middle ages the structure of the royal household is much more complex and sophisticated than this simple early model, government remains highly personal. The king is the ultimate authority, and can, if he chooses, take personal control of most aspects of the government. How much of the details of administration the king leaves to his advisers depends very much on his personal temperament. Henry VIII, for example, was much more interested in singing, dancing, drinking, and generally having a good time. His predecessor Henry VII controlled everything personally, as did Philip II of Spain in the 16th century. Philip presided over a huge empire, and spent each day shut away in his study, going through the endless flow of papers from all corners of his realm, much like a modern government minister. However, those who are given responsibility for the various tasks of government do not derive their influence from any position that they hold but rather from the fact that they have the favour of the king, who has picked them to do certain things for him. There is no government in the modern sense of the word. Rather, it is the king and his personal retinue. There is some development of a bureaucracy in the middle ages, particularly in the Exchequer (which looked after the royal finances), but those professional administrators that there are remain functionaries rather than makers of policy. So, government consists of the king's household, which is the king and his family, servants, and followers. There are no actual government posts, merely individuals with power. Titles within the household, such as Chamberlain, originally belonged to followers of the king who carried out some practical household tasks for him, like taking charge of the stables, having responsibility for the king's bed-chamber, and so on. In time these evolved into honorific titles, which were awarded as signs of royal favour, but no longer implied any very precise set of duties. The king's household generally moves around. How often it moves varies greatly, and generally the more sophisticated and centralised the apparatus of government is, the less it needs to do so. However, there are two reasons for the household to travel around the country. Firstly, for the king to assert his authority. Communications between the various parts of the kingdom are poor, so the only way the king can make his presence felt in the outlying regions is to visit them personally. Secondly, the household consumes a great deal of food and drink, which it is often the duty of the local nobles (e.g. in Anglo-Saxon times) to supply - if it stayed there too long, the king's retinue could literally eat them out of house and home. |
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Last Updated: 1 Oct 07 |  |
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