Re: [MR] Any conceivable principality

[clevin@ripco.com (Craig Levin)]

Poster: clevin@ripco.com (Craig Levin)

Alfredo:

> Are there examples in the Period of Kingdoms that consisted entirely
> of Principalities?

If by that you mean regions ruled by someone with the title of
either (if I may use the Latin, so as to be universal) _princeps_
or _principessa_, who were under no law but the Lord's, then I
would say yes: the dissolution of Imperial power in Italy and
Germany left several people with such titles with essentially
sovereign powers. Also, one must not leave out the Prince of
Antioch (true, he was in theory subject to the King of Jerusalem,
but this overlordship was all but nonexistent) and the princes of
pre-Mongol Russia.

If, however, you mean a land subject to a king, divided into
lands ruled by _principes_ or _principessae_, and subinfeudated
from there, I can't think of any particular place, with the
possible exception of the Empire in Italy and Germany, but even
there one had free towns and imperial vassals with titles lesser
than _princeps_/_principessa_ who had sovereign powers. I doubt
that such a country could exist without fissioning into several
fractious kingdoms or the crushing of the princely powers by the
king, therefore ending the existence of those principalities.
-- 
http://pages.ripco.com:8080/~clevin/index.html 
clevin@ripco.com
Craig Levin
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