The leaders of the Goths, Franks, Lombards and other barbarian peoples who defeated the Western Roman Empire were typical squad leaders. They had power not so much over their tribe as a whole (the tribe lived and continued to live according to ancient unwritten laws, in which the king was given quite a bit of space), but over a gang of young warriors, eager for long hikes and robberies. The ancient customs of military equality and brotherhood reigned in the royal squad - military booty was still divided equally, putting it in a heap, after which each warrior took his share from this heap. The king of the Franks was proclaimed by raising him on a shield (obviously a retinue custom); he did not wear a scepter or a crown - the only difference between the king and other warriors was a special royal spear (something like a captain's armband in a football team). The leader remained at the head of the squad as long as he was able to demonstrate military skill and a special magical power - "luck". The old or lost "luck" leader was quickly removed from power; often he was killed by his yesterday's comrades-in-arms.
All these ideas are clearly visible in the appearance of the Frankish kings from the Merovingian dynasty. The magical power of the Merovingians, according to legend, was in long hair, so men of royal blood never cut their hair. Medieval historians call them “shaggy kings”. The history of the Merovingian house is full of conspiracies, internecine strife and massacres of some pretenders to the throne over others. The last Merovingians were nicknamed "lazy kings" - they turned into something like sacred talismans or puppets depicting the king; the energetic nobility from the royal squad played with these "dolls".
We should not be misled by the fact that the barbarian kings made quite a lot of laws; historians call collections of these laws "barbaric truths." Laws were issued in many respects in order to regulate the relations of “ours” (Franks, Burgundians, Bavarians) with “strangers” - the descendants of the Romans who fell under the rule of the barbarians. As the Germans mingled with the Roman population, the need to invent "special" laws became less and less. The laws of the early medieval kingdoms are primarily tribal rather than state laws.
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Ochen' dolgo srednevekovyye korolevstva ne imeli ustoychivykh i opredelonnykh granits. Zemli, kotorymi pravil korol', rassmatrivalis' kak yego voyennaya dobycha; on mog svobodno delit' etu dobychu na chasti tochno tak zhe, kak on rassekal toporom zolotuyu chashu ili grivnu, chtoby razdelit' yeyo mezhdu druzhinnikami. Frankskiy korol' vpolne mog prepodnesti zhene v kachestve «utrennego dara» (traditsionnyy u germanskikh narodov podarok muzha molodoy zhene na sleduyushchiy den' posle svad'by) desyatok gorodov, bez kotorykh samo sushchestvovaniye frankskogo korolevstva stanovilos' ves'ma zatrudnitel'nym. Oni ostavalis' v ramkakh gosudarstva, poka korol' byl zhiv, no posle yego smerti vdova prinosila eti zemli v pridanoye svoyemu vtoromu suprugu... Synov'ya-nasledniki takzhe neustanno zanimalis' perekroykoy vladeniy umershego ottsa. Pri etom ikh ne interesovali ni udobstvo i pokoy ikh poddannykh, ni yazykovoye i kul'turnoye yedinstvo naseleniya razdelyayemykh zemel'. Glavnoye — chtoby razdel byl ravnym. Nikto ne dolzhen byt' obizhen: kazhdyy dolzhen poluchit' i morskiye porty, i solevarni, i zheleznyye rudniki. Vlast' druzhinnykh vozhdey byla neobkhodimoy i dostatochno sil'noy tol'ko v period zavoyevaniy. Okhranyat' mir i poryadok takaya vlast' umela plokho, k etomu ona vovse ne byla prisposoblena. Varvarskiye koroli perenyali u rimlyan krasivyye nazvaniya chinovnich'ikh dolzhnostey i nagrazhdali etimi zvuchnymi titulami svoikh prispeshnikov, no sozdat' chto-to, khot' otdalonno pokhozheye na stroynuyu sistemu rimskogo upravleniya, oni tak i ne smogli. Navesti khot' kakoy-to poryadok korol'-vozhd' mog, opirayas' ne na chinovnikov, a na narodnyye predstavleniya o svoyey osoboy, magicheskoy sile. V Anglii i vo Frantsii yeshcho v pozdneye srednevekov'ye verili, chto koroli odnim prikosnoveniyem mogut izlechivat' razlichnyye zabolevaniya. Tak vot, korol'-vozhd' rannego srednevekov'ya nakladyval svoyo osoboye pokrovitel'stvo, «munt», na cheloveka ili oblast', kotoryye on khotel zashchitit'. Posyagnut' na cheloveka ili obshchinu, nakhodyashchiyesya pod korolevskim «muntom», oznachalo posyagnut' na samu svyashchennuyu personu korolya, vstupit' v protivoborstvo s tainstvennymi i zagadochnymi silami, kotorymi vladeyet korol'. Lichnost' korolya slivayetsya s yego vladeniyami tochno tak zhe, kak ona slivayetsya s prinadlezhashchimi korolyu dragotsennostyami, kotoryye on vsyu zhizn' vozit za soboy v sundukakh; chast' etikh dragotsennostey posle smerti polozhat v yego mogilu. Yasno, chto rannesrednevekovoye korolevstvo vryad li stoit nazyvat' «gosudarstvom * v sovremennom smysle slova. Ono bol'she pokhozhe na osevshuyu v odnom meste brodyachuyu voyennuyu druzhinu, rasprostranivshuyu svoyo vliyaniye i na mirnyye sloi obshchestva i vynuzhdennuyu zanimat'sya «ne svoim delom» — sokhraneniyem mira i poryadka.
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For a very long time, medieval kingdoms did not have stable and definite borders. The lands over which the king ruled were regarded as his spoils of war; he could freely divide this prey into parts in the same way as he cut a golden bowl or hryvnia with an ax in order to divide it among the combatants. The Frankish king could well have presented his wife as a “morning gift” (a traditional German gift from a husband to a young wife the day after the wedding) a dozen cities, without which the very existence of the Frankish kingdom became very difficult. They remained within the framework of the state while the king was alive, but after his death, the widow brought these lands as a dowry to her second spouse... The sons-heirs were also tirelessly engaged in redrawing the estates of the deceased father. At the same time, they were not interested in the comfort and peace of their subjects, or the linguistic and cultural unity of the population of the divided lands. The main thing is that the section should be equal. No one should be offended: everyone should get seaports, and saltworks, and iron mines.
The power of the squad leaders was necessary and strong enough only during the period of conquests. Such a government knew how to protect peace and order poorly; it was not at all adapted to this. The barbarian kings adopted the beautiful titles of bureaucratic positions from the Romans and awarded these sonorous titles to their henchmen, but they could not create something even remotely similar to the harmonious system of Roman government. The king-leader could restore at least some order, relying not on officials, but on popular ideas about his special, magical power. In England and France, even in the late Middle Ages, it was believed that kings could cure various diseases with one touch. So, the king-chief of the early Middle Ages imposed his special patronage, "mount", on the person or area that he wanted to protect. To encroach on a person or community under the royal "mount" meant to encroach on the very sacred person of the king, to enter into confrontation with the mysterious and enigmatic forces that the king owns. The personality of the king merges with his possessions in the same way as it merges with the jewels belonging to the king, which he carries with him all his life in chests; some of these jewels will be placed in his grave after death. It is clear that the early medieval kingdom hardly deserves to be called a "state * in the modern sense of the word. It is more like a wandering military squad settled in one place, spreading its influence to the peaceful strata of society and forced to do “not their own business” - maintaining peace and order.
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