The Development of Kingship in the Middle Ages

Before modern technology, and the advent of cars, there were missles, catapults, and horse drawn carts. There were also officedoms, and with superpowerdoms came world powers, and with kings came politics, conflict, war, and regicide. The King, throughout history, and in modern dates, was believed to be the sole ruler of a country, having the final r wholeying cry on altogether that happened within the bounds of their kingdom. This has indeed been true since Cain was cast out of his home, and he established the city of Chanoch, all the way to the antediluvian patriarch rulers of Babylon.The rulers, emperors, and kings reigned with s all overeignty, and their forget was rarely questi atomic number 53d, heretofore while some of them reigned fire and native sulphur on their people, murdering them, and pillaging their homes. This was the power of a king, unquestioning loyalty from servants, guards, and broad amounts of infantrymen and calvary. Whether they ruled through terro r, or did terrible things for the good of their country, was a content of the personality bearing the cr witness.There have been times in history, as illustrious in numerous books, where those who are held to be honorable have been strained to perform a seemingly distasteful act for the considerableer good, even if the true motives arent with the good of his people, such as Blan digestdrins, a knight as noned in the Song of Roland 2, who spoke these words Stand abide by bound, and do him fealty. Send hostages, should he demand surety, Ten or a score, our loyal oath to bind Send him our sons, the first-born of our wives An he be slain, Ill sure as shooting furnish mine.Better by far they go, though doomed to die, Than that we lose keep an eye on and dignity, And be ourselves brought down to beggary. 3 In the previous paragraph, an excerpt from a major literary work written in the time, we see that in those times, the welfare of a nation outweighed the welfare of a few wide- eyed farmers or peasants, which lies in great contrast to the world of today. This is not an index number of evil as evil today is defined by laws and morals that have been put in place by modern men, or better men as some would believe.However the morality in that time was a completely different story, and right or wrong plain cannot be applied. The general public would not mind such a give oneself up, as it is for the greater good, and a good king get out do anything for his country, to get wind that everything and everyone manages to survive. A good king will maintain dealings with foreign nations to bring in supplies, and trade. Such was demonstrated by Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, the king of France from the year 768, till he died in 814, and was widely regarded as The Father of Europe.Throughout his reign, with his diplomacy toward new(prenominal) nations, and his generous treatment of foreigners4. It is not especial(prenominal) for a king, should he care about his people, to build great structures, and to expire to the poor, as St. Louis of France did, noted if the Life of St. Louis He began then to build and appoint hospitals or houses for poor people to lie in, edified minsters of religion, and gave yearly to other poor sufferers in divers places in the realm much money, pecunies or silver. He founded many convents of the hostel of friars preachers, and to many otherpoor religious builded churches, cloisters, dortoirs, and other edifices convenable, gave for perfection largely alms to the blind, beguines, daughters of God, and releved the minster of many a poor nunnery.. 5 The king of a nation will be highly educated, his language, and articulation will be high above that of a normal peasant, and as such he will be seen as an extremely intelligent person, worthy of popular opinion a kingdom, though if he is a good king, he will concern himself more with the people, giving them food, clothing, and shelter, the basic necessities abo ve all else.He will also hold true to the religion of the land, ensuring that he follows the laws, and demands that others do as well. Whereof it befell that a citizen of Paris who loathly swearing had blasphemed Jesus Christ, against the act or statute royal, which Saint Louis by the counsel of the prelates and princes had ordained and made for the swearers and blasphemers, at the commandment of the said saint he was marked or tokened, at the lips of him with a hotand burning iron, in sign of punition of his sin, and terror and dreadfulness to all others 7 The role of a king can change greatly over the years, in times of peace caring for the people would be as simple as building structures, proving clothing, and making sure all are fed. In times of war the job becomes dangerous, as the king must see to it that the country is defended, and that all are safe, even if that promoter making sacrifices.As fate would have it, the role of the king changed dramatically in France, around t he time of Childeric III, of the Merovingian family among whom the French chose their kings for generations, when Childerics position was taken over by Pepin the Short, son of Charles Martel, who became Mayor of the Palace, making all the vital decisions of the king, who precisely when sat on the throne and made no real decisions, only saying what he was told to say, even to dignitaries and ambassadors who came from near and far to seek his counsel.This lasted until the papist Pontiff, Stephen II deposed Childeric, and Pepin took over the matters of the palace, both home and abroad7. These are the events that led up to the era of Charlemagne, a golden era for the European continent. This is but one example of the extreme measures one must go to, in order to ensure the safety of a kingdom, even at the risk of ones own life. So what does all this conceive? In short, the role of a king is more than being comfortable in the position, and simply ruling.A king, being totally in charg e of a nation, in most cases, must not only care for the people, he must also witness his back, and ensure everything is being done properly, lest someone steal the throne from him, and the title of king takes on an entirely new meaning. As new technology becomes easy, in the areas of plumbing, food, aqua ducts, lighting, and especially architecture, the king should do his best, if possible, to make sure that it is available to his people in some form or another.New architecture could mean safer buildings, or more stable foundations, which translates into less structural collapses, and therefore fewer deaths. After all, while a king may resolve to sacrifice men for the sake of peace, a king shouldnt be eager to watch his citizens die needlessly The role of the king is complicated, and our only means of appreciation it, is the stories, and documents which have been passed down, to give us a glimpse into the past, but what we can ascertain, is that the role itself implied danger, and that the world survived such as it is now, is to be credited to those great men.