effective fall of the Brienne dynasty, the rest of the Hundred Years’War
continued to shape the future of the one remaining line of the family, the
Beaumonts, both in England and in France. All of this can serve to show
that the Briennes’much-vaunted‘exceptionalism’should not be over-
stated. In many ways, they present a telling and rather apposite picture of
their times.
This brings us back to the central question of how we are to under-
stand the nature, let alone the expansive dynamic, of Latin Christendom
in the‘age of the Crusades’. It is clearly inadequate to regard this period
solely, or even primarily, from a state-centric perspective, and especially
with a teleological eye on the‘nations’that would come to dominate
Western history. The reality that lies underneath this narrative (or, to be
precise, that is partly occluded by it) is a far richer, much more complex,
internationalworld–and, what is more, one that would do an enormous
amount to shape the parameters of the European political system that
eventually succeeded it. In other words, families and dynasticism should
be regarded as the fundamental building blocks, as much–if not more–
than realms and state structures.
Thefinal word on the Briennes themselves can be safely left to their
kinsman, Joinville. The Briennes more than earned the accolade that he
bestowed on a mere part of the family, and it is worth remembering that
he did this whilst the dynasty was still strung out across Latin Christen-
dom, with so many of its greatest adventures yet to come. They were, as
Joinville said, a very‘great lineage’.^11
(^11) Joinville,‘Life’, section 78.
Conclusion 191