ABSTRACT
One has only to study a chronicle of the eleventh or twelfth century to find oneself driven to the footnotes for identifications of obscure barons living in castles that have long since crumbled into anonymity. For a century the counts pursued a relatively unambitious policy. In close alliance with the Church, which they endowed on many occasions, they provided their due quota of bishops from their younger sons, and the eldest son regularly followed his father in the countship. From the end of the eleventh century a more assertive attitude begins to be noticeable. French kings from Philip I onwards were, in short, anxious to rule their vassals. In this connection, one must also recall that the kings of England never formally renounced their position as vassals of the Capetians for their French feofs, vast though these sometimes were. England since 1066 had also demonstrated how feudalism could be employed to strengthen the hands of kings.
