In practice lords were interested primarily in matters relating to
their feudal dues – the equivalent of modern taxation and rents
originally primarily payable in labour services. The lord might quite
frequently originate from a different part of Europe, linguistically and
culturally isolated from his serfs – so that they would often prefer to
seek justice through informal community channels. Amongst lords,
appeals to judgement by legalistic tribunals were often avoided in
favour of trial by combat or through the pursuit of feuds or vendettas
which could operate in very similar ways to the system described
earlier in relation to the Tiv (Bloch, 1961).
Thus it is clear that in the feudal period, as in tribal stateless
societies, conflicts over the allocation of resources could be resolved;
communities could make decisions about their defence and economic
welfare; but no effective and centralised state machinery existed to
carry this out.
States without nations: kingdoms
At a later stage in European history, some individual feudal terri-
tories evolved over several centuries into something much more like
a modern state. Kingdoms emerged with distinct boundaries within
which central authorities claimed exclusive jurisdiction, sophisticated
judicial systems with rights of appeal from local courts up to the
centre, a taxation system divorced from the rents payable to the
owners of land, and, in some cases, representative legislative assemb-
lies. Part of the attraction of the Protestant Reformation for princes
was the opportunity both to assert legal control over matters such as
family law which had previously been Church matters and to
reassign extensive Church property holdings to themselves and their
supporters. Henry VIII’s example in these matters was accompanied
by similar phenomena in countries such as Sweden, whilst even
Catholic monarchs such as Louis XIV began to assert control over
religious orders, and to negotiate greater influence over the Church in
their territory.
In essence similar political institutions to these kingdoms were also
found in many other parts of the world. For instance, in what is now
Nigeria at about the same period it seems likely that sizeable
kingdoms existed in Benin, Yorubaland (Oyo) and in Hausaland
SYSTEMS 33