THE MYTH OF PETTY KINGSHIP AND A NEW PERIODIZATION OF FEUDALISM (*)

Medieval civilization has often been depreciated with the stock observation that its notion of reality was essentially metaphorical. But the repeated abuse of this trueism should not force the abandonment of medieval symbolism and mythology to the discredited realm of reverie and chimera. To be sure, it has always figured among the working assumptions of both students of Christian iconography and legal symbolism. Even institutional historians can be well-served by its prudent application. The actual state of primitive institutions is not irretrievably buried beneath popular tradition. Recently, an appreciation of political emblems and myths has been used effectively in the investigation of medieval kingship. One would immediately think of Marc Bloch's Les rois thaumaturges, Ernst Kan- torowitz's The King's Two Bodies, and P. E. Schramm's studies on coronation and Staatssymbolik. The product of this method can be a reconstruction of the past on its own terms along with a contemporary's insight into its institutions.

The subject of this article is the related and no less significant concept of petty kingship, which has received regrettably scant attention from modern historians despite its currency in the Middle Ages. Since the twelfth century jurists have suggested that certain units of feudal government resembled kingdoms. An early and influential expression of this belief is found in the Lombard Consuetudines feudorum, according to which duchies, marquisates, and counties were regal offices {regales dignitates) held in fief from the em-