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Government Types in the Middle Ages?
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<blockquote data-quote="Dr. Strangemonkey" data-source="post: 1350959" data-attributes="member: 6533"><p>A bigger question than titles here is what exactly you mean by rule or government.</p><p></p><p>A lot of the ideas we have about clarity, hierarchy, and purpose to power and organization derived from medieval systems that later periods found confusing/inconvenient and simplified and codified. It should be noted that most of this codification came about in a manner that did not benefit the people lower down in the social hierarchy.</p><p></p><p>When the unified nation of Italy, for instance, attempted to modernize the medieval property systems large areas of the land become unworkable and unliveable. All of the inhabitants were forced to emmigrate and now the area is going through the slow process of being reclaimed by wolves.</p><p></p><p>I would guess that the important thing to recognize is that by the high middle ages all European governments are extremely legalized. In the modern understanding the government creates the law, but this doesn't have to be the case in a culture that recognizes a universal church and a universal history. </p><p></p><p>As a result most governments were brought about in accordance with the laws and most laws were brought about inaccordance with the prior claims of powerful local institutions, guilds, nobles, peasant practices and associations, monastaries, and powerful universal institutions, Roman law, the various emperors, the church, larger cultural tropes such as royalty and nobility, and realities such as agricultural systems and armed men.</p><p></p><p>I mean in one area you might have trial by combat and in another you might have orderly jury trials and in another you might have the right to appear before your king when he sits underneath a certain tree and he will then be obligated to give your answer before the week is out. And all of these systems might apply not only to different areas but to different people and to different degrees and to settle the same or different questions. And all of that is perfectly rational and ok as long as its properly recorded, precendented, justified, and remembered and a group of people are willing to do it.</p><p></p><p>That's why kings were important. It had very little to do with power, they were simply specified by law.</p><p></p><p>Even Republics such as Venice, who didn't need to cobble together laws in order to keep local institutions in line since they self formed from relatively equal parts and rudely conquered everything else they owned, preferred to rely on laws to create institutions rather than vice versa. Thus all the insane regulations on how Venetian governmental institutions and families are allowed to act and present themselves.</p><p></p><p>So in most places you are going to find a mix of a wide variety of incredibly different systems, structures, powers, and rights united by one overriding idea of legality.</p><p></p><p>Mind you, one of the reasons this idea of legality didn't last is because it has an odd idea of enforcement, which makes random looters working in the right cause happy, and involves way too much negotiation, which makes clergy and intellectuals happy.</p><p></p><p>Even if it is very good about contracts and property.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dr. Strangemonkey, post: 1350959, member: 6533"] A bigger question than titles here is what exactly you mean by rule or government. A lot of the ideas we have about clarity, hierarchy, and purpose to power and organization derived from medieval systems that later periods found confusing/inconvenient and simplified and codified. It should be noted that most of this codification came about in a manner that did not benefit the people lower down in the social hierarchy. When the unified nation of Italy, for instance, attempted to modernize the medieval property systems large areas of the land become unworkable and unliveable. All of the inhabitants were forced to emmigrate and now the area is going through the slow process of being reclaimed by wolves. I would guess that the important thing to recognize is that by the high middle ages all European governments are extremely legalized. In the modern understanding the government creates the law, but this doesn't have to be the case in a culture that recognizes a universal church and a universal history. As a result most governments were brought about in accordance with the laws and most laws were brought about inaccordance with the prior claims of powerful local institutions, guilds, nobles, peasant practices and associations, monastaries, and powerful universal institutions, Roman law, the various emperors, the church, larger cultural tropes such as royalty and nobility, and realities such as agricultural systems and armed men. I mean in one area you might have trial by combat and in another you might have orderly jury trials and in another you might have the right to appear before your king when he sits underneath a certain tree and he will then be obligated to give your answer before the week is out. And all of these systems might apply not only to different areas but to different people and to different degrees and to settle the same or different questions. And all of that is perfectly rational and ok as long as its properly recorded, precendented, justified, and remembered and a group of people are willing to do it. That's why kings were important. It had very little to do with power, they were simply specified by law. Even Republics such as Venice, who didn't need to cobble together laws in order to keep local institutions in line since they self formed from relatively equal parts and rudely conquered everything else they owned, preferred to rely on laws to create institutions rather than vice versa. Thus all the insane regulations on how Venetian governmental institutions and families are allowed to act and present themselves. So in most places you are going to find a mix of a wide variety of incredibly different systems, structures, powers, and rights united by one overriding idea of legality. Mind you, one of the reasons this idea of legality didn't last is because it has an odd idea of enforcement, which makes random looters working in the right cause happy, and involves way too much negotiation, which makes clergy and intellectuals happy. Even if it is very good about contracts and property. [/QUOTE]
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