By Carol Symes, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
The Viking diaspora of the late 9th and 10th centuries, which resulted in a wave of destruction but also in the establishment of new Viking settlements from the North Sea and the Baltic to the Black Sea and the Atlantic, introduced many of these communities to Viking traditions of shared governance. These were crystallized in the Þing, or Thing, with the essential meaning ‘assemblage’.
‘Things’ in Norse Society
In Norse society, ‘Thing’s were regular open-air public gatherings of free men—and, as such, also involved their entire families and households, and so were major occasions for festivity, intermarriage, and other public business. Even though women were usually not allowed a voice in decision-making, they were still present at meetings and were often explicitly represented by their male kin.
In addition to making or rearticulating laws and norms, Things were judiciary meetings at which disputes were resolved and trials held, and were governed not by a king but by the lawspeaker, sometimes the chosen member of a family or clan that had held that office for generations.
Traditionally, the lawspeaker committed the laws of the community to memory, and so could recite them at will. But he was also empowered to hear evidence, examine witnesses, and adjudicate cases. The lawspeaker thus had the de facto role of serving as the historical consciousness of the community.
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Where did these Things Happen?
Things and other assemblies were often held at sites that had special, natural, or supernatural significance, such as burial mounds, geological formations, or the convergence of land and waterways. They also needed to be as accessible as possible to as many people as possible, which is why attempts by a ruler or local family to co-opt or confine the proceedings usually met with resistance.
The famous English manor house known as Ightham Mote, for example, is built on the site of a traditional folkmoot, or central place of popular assembly. The building of the house and the enclosure of the moot by a moat was an illegitimate attempt on the part of local gentry to claim the power of lawmaking there in the 14th century.
Located Close to Natural Resources
By contrast, one can still visit the site of the original Icelandic Althing at Þingvellir, ‘Thing Vale’. The natural features of this extraordinary location make it clear why it was considered a perfect place for a large assembly. It lies in a broad valley backed by the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.
Their convergence has thrown up an impressive naturally occurring amphitheater which the Icelanders called the Law Rock, on which the lawspeaker would stand and around which discussion would occur. Moreover, the area has many sources of fresh water, as well as a glacial lake with its own abundant and unique species of fish. All the people of the island could thus camp here for weeks and still have plentiful provisions.
Big Book of Fiefs
Medieval institutions of representative government were already well established long before the emergence of independent, self-governing towns in the 12th century. Habits of collective decision-making and mechanisms for regular local assembly were thus already in place to counter the growing power of territorial monarchies in that same era.
For example, the royal archivists of Catalonia, which had become part of the Crown of Aragon under King Alfonso II at the end of the 12th century, created a Big Book of Fiefs, a lavishly illustrated codex that contained copies of more than 900 documents attesting to Alfonso’s power over Catalonia and its lords.
Even if it were a largely symbolic undertaking at the time, it’s significant that Alfonso recognized the need to buttress his claims with reference to local customs and traditions of land tenure. The frontispiece of the book, accordingly, decenters the authority of the king (who is seated to the viewer’s left) and emphasizes that of his archivist and scribe, Ramón de Caldes, who occupies the central position. Moreover, the king’s legitimacy is literally backed by assembled representatives of Catalonia’s freemen, who look on to validate the proceedings.
The Parliament of Paris
Bowing to the pressure of representative governance became necessary for medieval rulers, although the breadth of representation could be quite narrow and its effectiveness blunted.
The Parliament of Paris, for example, was an extension of the earlier Frankish king’s council, the Curia Regis, and mainly played a merely consultative role. However, many of its members and critics argued that it should have more power—that it should be legislative as well as deliberative, and that it should serve as a necessary check on the king’s power.
However, it was only in 1307 that it became a separate entity from the royal council, and it was not until after the tumultuous Hundred Years’ War with England that the Parliament of Paris began to take on a more aggressive role in governance.
At the same time, the French crown recognized the need for a separate Parliament in the Languedoc: the southern French regions that had, until recently, been part of the English empire. Hence, there was the establishment of a separate assembly in Toulouse and, in following years, the establishment of local parliaments in other major cities. Still, the story of the ensuing centuries in France is the story of the king’s struggle to free himself from all such oversight, in pursuit of an authoritarian and, eventually, absolutist agenda.
Common Questions about Medieval Institutions of Representative Government
In Norse society, Things were regular open-air public gatherings of free men—and, as such, also involved their entire families and households, and so were major occasions for festivity, intermarriage, and other public business.
The lawspeaker committed the laws of the community to memory, and could recite them at will. He was also empowered to hear evidence, examine witnesses, and adjudicate cases. The lawspeaker had the de facto role of serving as the historical consciousness of the community.
Things and other assemblies were often held at sites that had special, natural, or supernatural significance, such as burial mounds, geological formations, or the convergence of land and waterways. They also needed to be as accessible as possible to as many people as possible.
