Lordship and the Decentralized State in Late Medieval Europe

The origins of modern European states are often traced back to the expansion of royal and princely authority in the late Middle Ages, transforming scattered power structures into centralized governments. Lordship and the Decentralized State in Late Medieval Europe rethinks state formation as a process of decentralization, exploring how these governments willingly left power to lesser political players. It challenges the assumption that the rise of states made lordship obsolete, showing instead h