Family and the system of inheritance in medieval Europe

In Europe, the creation of unified, centralised and administratively capable countries began during the Middle Ages. One of the main purposes that lead to the creation of administrative apparatuses was tax-income generation to fund large and expensive armies deemed necessary to fight against other rulers. The goal was simple: increase landholdings which also brought more prestige and income. A peaceful alternative consists in marrying the heirs of two countries. In this paper, we explore how inheritance rules, which determine the gender of the heir, affect the creation and development of centralised administrations. Despite the focus we place on Europe, the results we obtain are extensible to any society in which power is transmitted by inheritance. For instance, one can think about Imperial China or Japanese shogunates. European countries mostly applied one inheritance rule. That choice over other possible rules might have obeyed to different criteria and these need not include the development of a centralised country. Therefore, there is scope for some other inheritance system to outperform the chosen one in terms of facilitating and encouraging the creation of a bureaucratic apparatus. In this article we develop a theoretical model that will allow us to assess whether it is the case or not comparing two inheritance rules. In the model we will build, multiple land-based societies are populated by two classes: a ruling aristocracy and commoners. Each society represents a different political entity controlled by different governing elites. We call these entities counties. A ruler cares about the future ownership of the lands he controls, preferring them to belong to his own family. Social norms about the role of women made marriages a potential cause of lineage disappearance. Indeed, historically, men owned lands regardless of whom brought them into a family. From a noble’s perspective, entitling a daughter as heiress implied exactly this: a transmission of his lands to his son-in-law’s family. One can easily forestall such a ___ ____ _____ _______ ______ __________ ___ ______ ____ __________.
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