College Essay on King Ship: Ancient and
Medieval
To understand the development of kingship in ancient times we have to look at
the development of the civilization in the Nile Valley. Religion and religious
ceremony was necessary to hold together the primitive civilizations and cultures
that were beginning form some 7,000 years ago or more. The great fear of the
time was death and the blackness that this brought. The promise of life after
death for those that believed and followed the ‘true’ teachings was a big
incentive to conform.
Originally the nomadic tribes were hunter-gatherers while the climate was
suitable for the growth of woody grassland. As it dried out tribes tended to
migrate to oases and flowing rivers. These tribes gradually grew in size. With
the growing influence of the tribe, the influence of the leader also grew. The
leader would mostly be male and aggressive because the means of choosing a
leader was usually by fighting between challengers. The leader would then gather
a powerful group around him, consisting of other aggressive males, to strengthen
his leadership. The leader would remain in power so long as he could command the
loyalty of his men, which he did by giving them special privileges such as the
best food and the choice of the women.
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In parallel with the growth of the tribe and warlord/king, ancient forms of
religion were developing, at first worshiping in some form the sun, the moon,
particular star formations and even dangerous animals. This was an important
step in the development of the state. Somewhere in all this it became a ritual
to thank the god/s for their support against their enemies, then thank them for
the harvest and the rain. If there were continual victories or good harvests
this would have been followed by the king saying that the gods looked favorably
on him and his kingdom. The more influential kings obviously said that they had
the support of the gods so no one could depose them or they would incur the
god’s anger.
The Pharaoh was vital to Egyptian life. He encompassed both, the worldly and the
holy, which to Egyptians were one and the same. He settled legal disputes and
led the religious rituals that sustained Egypt. The Pharaoh was not only a
god-king but was responsible for holding the balance of ma’at, that was the rule
of order over the chaos that was waiting to envelope the world. As long as king
and commoner alike honored the gods and obeyed the laws set down by them the
balance was maintained and all would be well. Should the Pharaoh fail all the
world would suffer and slide down into the unimaginable state of mayhem. As each
kingdom grew each king had to be as great as the king of his neighboring state
otherwise his followers would defect to the superior king and overthrow the
worldly human. No one would want to be governed by an inferior king. So slowly
this idea of divine kingship was developed. This was aided by the priests who
found it to be in their own interest to support the king, who supported them in
return, rather than risk getting the blame and being slaughtered for not
appeasing the gods when things went wrong.
The significance of this was recognized by all the pharaohs up to Roman times
and each new king continued the myth of divine conception as a means of
legitimizing his (and sometimes her) claim to the throne.
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Medieval
In the chaos of the Fall of Rome, people were distressed for security, and
rulers needed protection from their enemies. It was out of these needs, the
feudal system of society was formed. The structure was this: Each king divided
his vast and uncontrollable kingdom amongst a few faithful lords, keeping a
large portion for his own private use. The ‘payment’ for this land was that the
lords would be required to fight beside the king in time of war, and provide a
certain number of soldiers to aid him as well. As the land was still quite
enormous in size, these lords, in turn, divided their portions amongst lesser
lords in a similar arrangement as they had made with their king. The lesser
lords were in charge of supervising the peasants who would do the actual work on
the land, farming it and producing useful items. The peasants were allowed to
farm some of the land and use the food for themselves in exchange for doing work
for their lord.
Peasants had few rights. Actually, by law they did not even own their clothing,
land or food. Even their bodies were not their own. They had to work at least 3
days a week wholly for their lord, and even in the days after that, from food
they gathered for themselves was taken a percentage to give to the lord. A
peasant was not paid in any way except that he could stay on the land, which he
worked, and could grow food for himself, if he worked for the lord. In order to
grow enough to stay alive, the peasant had to work 6 days a week. The peasants
actually were the foundation of the whole medieval society, for noblemen did no
useful work. It was seen as un-sophisticated and below a lord to do any physical
labor.
The noblemen who received their land directly from the king were known as
barons. They were the most powerful and rich lords in Europe second to the king.
Each barony made it’s own laws, and often had it’s own huge army. Even though
the king was at the top of the Medieval social structure, he often had to bow to
the barons’ demands in order to keep them happy. A baron’s army was generally a
strong enough match for the king’s own. In the Medieval times, kings were
thought to have been chosen by God. This gave them a great advantage over their
subjects, for to rebel against one of the kings would be to rebel against God.
His court was the grandest in the land, with exotic gardens, strange and
beautiful animals, constant entertainment and banquets and feasts at least once
a month, there was always something fabulous to be experienced in the royal
court.
Sometimes the king would give out portions of land to bishops of the Catholic
Church. The bishops often became just as powerful, or perhaps even more powerful
than the barons who had a similar arrangement with the king. The taxes that they
collected as well as the tithes from the churches contained within the land made
bishops very wealthy men. The Catholic Church had the power to make it’s own
laws and taxes, and often its word was accepted above the king’s own.
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