BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW

INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL and international contacts were commonplace for the ruling élites of medieval Europe, and inherent dangers and risks were accepted hazards. The first years of the twelfth century saw thousands of returning crusaders bringing back what they had learnt from the east, while thousands more went in the opposite direction.

This enhanced exchange of experiences between east and west was accompanied by various important fundamental changes taking place in society, some of which would have long-term consequences for the map and history of Europe. National identities were slowly becoming established, apparent in the comments of the chroniclers. It may not have been clear what was meant by “French”, but it was increasingly used to distinguish subjects of the Capetians from the Germans and English. The westerners were all Franks to the Muslims, but English, Germans and Netherlanders certainly understood the differences, defined by more than different vernacular languages. The attribution of offensive “national characteristics” to other peoples had its forerunners in the abusive characterisations of other peoples by twelfth-century monks. It is still premature to talk of evolving “nation-states” across Europe, but the process was underway and was accompanied by a consolidation of royal governments relying on bureaucracies to collect taxes and administer justice, rather than the personal rule of the monarch. This process would be of paramount importance in the history of fortifications, because control of fortifications had almost everywhere and at all times been an attribute of royalty, even where it could not be exercised in practice.

During this century, the unusually highly-centralised government of Norman England was emulated as the French monarchy successfully extended its control across the vast land that theoretically acknowledged it as king. German kings, instead, had to recognise the division of their even larger territory into semiindependent principalities. This did not prevent emperors such as Frederick i Barbarossa bestriding the second half of the century as monarchs of awesome authority and reputation, but it did place a far greater emphasis on the personal qualities of the ruler to mobilise resources over which the crown did not possess direct control.