Thursday, February 14, 2008

Politics

In book 5 some type of politics rears its ugly head. In the beginning of book 5, Orleans and Blois attack Chateaudun. They pillage the lands of Chateaudun and then, in retaliation, the people of CHateaudun do the same. However, before the situation coudl escalate 'counts' intervened and made peace between the warring factions.

This event shattered my thought that politics were seemingly exclusively shattered by force of arms in this time period. Clearly, there are peaceful alternatives available. As mentioned earlier, however, peaceful resolutions arn't nearly as exciting as a violent and bloody struggle. So, I imagine that politics were actually used more in order to settle disputes peacefully than as described by Gregory. On the one hand, he's a historian. On the other, he wants people to read his books, so it has to be somewhat interesting.

No comments: