Practice question · Put in order
Arrange the stages by which a Carolingian county became a heritable lordship.
- The king appoints a count to govern a district as a revocable office
- Royal envoys inspect the count on circuit
- The office passes to the count’s son as a matter of course
- Defence is organised locally around a castle the count controls
- Civil war and external raids stop the circuits
Hints
- The sequence begins with a public office and ends with private property.
- The turning point is the moment nobody comes to inspect.
Show the answer
- The king appoints a count to govern a district as a revocable office
- Royal envoys inspect the count on circuit
- Civil war and external raids stop the circuits
- Defence is organised locally around a castle the count controls
- The office passes to the count’s son as a matter of course
Why
The whole transformation is contained in step three. An office is revocable only if someone is in a position to revoke it; once the missi stop coming and defence is local, the count holds the castle, the men and the revenues, and the king’s consent to the succession becomes a formality he cannot withhold.
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