R2R Essay

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During the central Middle Ages, territories were expanding greatly. In previous centuries, smaller territorial united had been much more prevalent, thus making control easier. However, with the advent of larger territorial units as time went on, challenges to rulers began to emerge. This were mainly centred around the conflict between the central power and the regions, as was seen in both France and England, which posed a substantial threat to the stability of government. Therefore, rulers saw that they needed to take steps in order to combat this situation. Most importantly, they saw that they needed to created a shared national identity in order unite the mass of people who were now in their territory. As argued by Bernard Guenée, the stability of the state was enhanced during the medieval period when its people were aware of a common identity that they wanted to sustain; control relied upon the population’s love for the country. The main ways in which this was achieved included created a shared national history, a shared religious identity, and shared enemies, as well as through the use of language. But inciting patriotism was not the only way in which rulers coped with the challenges of larger territorial units; they also took active steps towards the centralisation of power. The methods used to achieve this included the creation of representative bodies such as parliament, capital cities, and law. It was these steps taken by rulers that allowed the challenges of the larger territorial units to be met.
Due to the vast and varied populations under the jurisdiction of these much larger territorial units, such as Britain and France, rulers needed to unite the population with a sense of shared national identity in order to conso...

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... widely recognised as the protector of the nation and the monarchy. This position had been directly bolstered by the rulers of the period, such as Louis VI, who announced him as the protector of the crown in 1120, and raised the oriflamme of St Denis in 1124, which was the sacred banner of the kings at the head of his army. When this was combined with the increasingly nationalistic traditions surrounding the Saint, especially by the monks at the abbey of Saint-Denis in Paris, it ingrained the idea of the Saint into the minds of the whole population, therefore boosting national pride and sentiment, which helped to bring the previously fractious population under the control of the ruler.
On a similar note, during the period under question, rulers often tried to solve the problems of controlling larger territorial units by uniting their people against a common enemy.

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