‘Political’ organization in medieval Europe, in summary, was complex, and ‘political’ power highly fragmented and decentralized. Allegiances were multiple and largely personal, and no clear hierarchy of political authority was discernible. Governance was not territorial; it was largely rule over persons, qua individuals or qua Christians. The complexity of relations of authority meant that rule was mediated and not, for the most part, ‘direct’ and institutions did not ‘penetrate’ society in the ways characteristic of our states. There were no ‘self-sufficient’ polities and consequently no ‘international relations’. The modern state did not yet exist.