inner workings of a kingdom

[kaida]

hi there! so, as the title suggests, i'm having some trouble figuring out the inner workings of a kingdom. can anyone help or give a few important tidbits? in my story, i'm not focusing too heavily on the palace/inner "circle" of the kingdom itself but rather the geographical and world-building aspect of it. does a kingdom contain cities or provinces/city-states? i am doing my own research but would like the advice of some of you guys too.

 

[Ununique]

The size of the kingdom and its population should be some of the first questions to answer when thinking about that. Also if this is more fantasy than historical then a lot of this will be decided by how you'd like the standards of kingdoms and cities to function; will a 'kingdom' geographically be a fantastically large wall surrounding the entire land occupied by its citizens and owned by the king(or queen), are the cities large towering pyramids of inner homes filled with hundreds of thousands or even millions of people. In general european historical Kingdoms would be made up of multiple vassals who protect over certain lands which meant there were many, many castles for each territory and mostly right next to cities, albeit the castle came before the city.

 

[Silv]

Geography is going to be one of your first main foci.

Think about where you want your national borders to be. Are they established by magic? Mountain ranges? Rivers? Are you bordering the sea, large mass of water or ocean?

Now that you have a general idea what kind of geography you have, think about your natural resources. Do you have endless fields of wheat(or the land to do it with?), are your mines full of iron or perhaps leaning more towards gems and precious metals? (Even just putting down ‘Mine’ will help rather than every single natural resource, keep it to what your kingdom has currently developed)

Now you can work on population. Remember, people need shelter, food and water. Are the cities or towns situated as such? What kind of infrastructure do you need to feed x amount of people? Were there many trees when the town was built? Or perhaps not, maybe you needed clay and stone as it was in a large abundance. Your resources will have “job nodes” for your regular folk. If you do not work you do not eat after all!

Now that you have an idea about population (Or you might not since I am semi long winded and may not be getting to the point) Look at what lands seem the most attractive. Your higher nobility/royalty likely own those (If you have that system).

Just start large even with a map randomizer! So you can get a good idea. Once you do that you can keep going smaller and smaller. A kingdom itself is something that lives and breathes by its people as minor as the background characters might be.

 

[atgongumerki]

There are many other possibilities but the following is what I perceive as the most kingdom-like structure:

There is one person above the law: the ruler of the land (in your case either a King or Queen).
How strong a ruler is in comparison to their fief-owners, depends on relative military power and relative political influence.

Then there are politicians (e.g. ministers and generals) working for the ruler. They are the main source of information for the ruler, or the ruler has a dedicated spy network.
Generals are not a must, this role can be taken by the fief-owners.

Then next step down are the fiefdoms. Nobles owning part of the kingdom. In most cases, the ruler has their own fief.
The ruler may be above the law but if they go against the wishes of too many fiefdoms, the ruler will have a short life and be exchanged for someone else. In many cases, this someone is relatively high in the line of succession and becomes a puppet for the nobles who removed the previous ruler.
Or a fief-owner may just change allegiance changing from belonging to one kingdom to belonging to another.
Even if a fief-owner belongs to one kingdom they may be allied to other kingdoms, for example, due to a marriage contract.

The fiefdoms have their own vassals, ministers, soldiers and so on.

Generally speaking everything above this line is festering with nepotism.

Next, we have the landowners: wealthy farmers or craftsmen. If the kingdom relies on peasant levies these or their servants make up the bulk of the military.
Either the merchants make up their own class or they work for the landowners.

Then there are the servants, maids, apprentices and slaves. These do all the physical labour and menial tasks for the landowners.

In general, succession is regulated as all or nothing: the heir becomes all of their parents' possessions and every other child will either become a servant, a vassal or a soldier. Knights are mostly highly trained second and third children of nobles and wealthy landowners.

The whole thing becomes a lot more complicated if you have a strong church.
Any of these steps can be skipped or reshuffled. (in the Hanseatic League the merchants were the ruling class)


As for cities and villages: wealthy farmers can own their own village. Everything that needs a lot of space can become a village.
For example, there can be a horse breeder village owned by a horse-breeder. He/She will peddle their wares in the closest city. Warhorses for soldiers and knights; carthorses for merchants and farmers; workhorses for farmers (e.g. pulling a plough); ...

Cities are trade hubs; craftsmen live and work here; farmers peddle their wares; wealthy farmers and merchants may have their own estate; fief-owners and their retainers live here.


And you may want to think about the local culture. Derived from the geography, history and economy of the region.

 

[Deleted member 29316]

Depends on the culture and technological advancement of the kingdom. My explanation deals with the historical side of the inner workings of kingdoms.

For medieval-style kingdoms, the feudalistic manor system is often used. It meant that the king is the protector of his subjects, which includes the nobles, and commoners (free men). In return, the nobles give military service to their overlord (king). Commoners do likewise (nobles). Honor is highly-valued, and your oath of fealty could make or break you.

Also, kingdoms can be ruled by a king, or queen. Principalities function like a kingdom, only difference is, the title of its ruler is a Prince. Same in duchies (dukes), and counties (count). An Empire is ruled by an emperor, and is a combination of multiple nationalities and races under one sovereign.

As for the titles, one cannot assume the title of a king or emperor so easily. One must be able to convince the other rulers of other kingdoms or states to recognize the title of being a king/emperor, before one can claim legitimacy to the title. Remember, titles have a hierarchy too. Emperors are considered the highest title holders, followed by kings, then princes, grand dukes, and dukes. Counts, viscounts, margraves, etc., are lower-tier nobles in medieval era...though in Victorian Europe, these became merely titles.

Also, you have to consider the court. In medieval era, the court serves as the kingdom's capital, so it meant that if the court is in Munich, the present capital is Munich. If it is moved to Berlin, then it is Berlin. There's also the thing called 'court politics' where various factions inside the king's court fight over the right to influence the king in his decisions. Court politics can make or break a kingdom, such as the case of Imperial China. The court may consist of ministers, wives, concubines, eunuchs, ladies- and men-in-waiting, and/or priests, depending on the culture of your kingdom.

Now if we talk about villages, towns and cities, usually, a village is the community that grew beside a lord's manor. Serfs or commoners farm or render service to their local lord in return for his protection. As car transport is non-existent during those times, it's easier to live nearby a lord's manor than to travel from a faraway town just to work in a day.

Towns and cities are usually born out of trade necessities. The first towns are stopovers of merchant caravans trading in-between kingdoms, and these towns eventually grew into cities. If I remember, to become a city, one has to have a charter to be recognized as such.

A kingdom may contain a province, but this is prevalent in early modern kingdoms. Medieval kingdoms often are subdivided into fiefs, ruled by a lord that is (ideally) loyal to his sovereign.

That's why when a local lord rebels against his king and transfers his allegiance to another king, it could result to wars.

 

[Tejoka]

In general, things changed a lot depending on the time period and location, even in the middle ages (I mean, those lasted a long time). I would advise you to do some research and focus on those that correspond to what you want the geography and technological level of your country to be, then take those as inspiration. There are lot of different examples of how kingdoms worked. Actually, even modern countries like the UK are kingdoms, just parliamentary monarchies. Of course, the culture and history of your world plays an important role, too.

One important thing to consider is the kingdom's history, or how things came to be the way they are now. Geography is an important part of that, but so are other things, like previous or other nations in the region. Was there a large migration of people, and as a consequence your current population is a mix of several that formed into something new? (That happened more often than you might think.) Was there some old civilization that colonized the area, or part of it, and left traces in their culture, language, or technology, like e.g. the Romans in Europe?

What about religion, how did your kingdom's religion develop, is there a state religion, is it shared with neighboring countries, and what does it mean for everyday life? This can influence a lot of things, for example how the church had a lot of power in Europe in the middle ages and propped up the social order (with the three estates).
There are a lot of questions like this you should try to answer for yourself, also relating to the culture, e.g. gender and family norms, how important the military is, or how much contact there is with other cultures.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that who has the power on paper and who really has a lot of power in practice isn't always the same. Typically, it relates to who has a lot of money and social influence, though.

 

[kaida]

The size of the kingdom and its population should be some of the first questions to answer when thinking about that. Also if this is more fantasy than historical then a lot of this will be decided by how you'd like the standards of kingdoms and cities to function; will a 'kingdom' geographically be a fantastically large wall surrounding the entire land occupied by its citizens and owned by the king(or queen), are the cities large towering pyramids of inner homes filled with hundreds of thousands or even millions of people. In general european historical Kingdoms would be made up of multiple vassals who protect over certain lands which meant there were many, many castles for each territory and mostly right next to cities, albeit the castle came before the city.

Interesting. Thank you for the response! I am indeed aiming more for what you said at the end of your response. A very large kingdom that needs vassals and such to look over individual lands, with a more fantasy-like approach. This was very helpful! Thanks again.

 

[kaida]

Geography is going to be one of your first main foci.

Think about where you want your national borders to be. Are they established by magic? Mountain ranges? Rivers? Are you bordering the sea, large mass of water or ocean?

Now that you have a general idea what kind of geography you have, think about your natural resources. Do you have endless fields of wheat(or the land to do it with?), are your mines full of iron or perhaps leaning more towards gems and precious metals? (Even just putting down ‘Mine’ will help rather than every single natural resource, keep it to what your kingdom has currently developed)

Now you can work on population. Remember, people need shelter, food and water. Are the cities or towns situated as such? What kind of infrastructure do you need to feed x amount of people? Were there many trees when the town was built? Or perhaps not, maybe you needed clay and stone as it was in a large abundance. Your resources will have “job nodes” for your regular folk. If you do not work you do not eat after all!

Now that you have an idea about population (Or you might not since I am semi long winded and may not be getting to the point) Look at what lands seem the most attractive. Your higher nobility/royalty likely own those (If you have that system).

Just start large even with a map randomizer! So you can get a good idea. Once you do that you can keep going smaller and smaller. A kingdom itself is something that lives and breathes by its people as minor as the background characters might be.

Thank you SO much! This was extremely helpful!! I did not think about building my kingdom from the "outside in" (so to speak), that's an excellent idea. Like you said, I also had to bring to light how a city would look due to the environment around it. Does it cut across a landscape or move with its shape? Again thank you tons. I really need to focus on the minute details of a city that breathe life into it. A map randomizer is a good idea too! I'll definitely try that out.

 

[kaida]

There are many other possibilities but the following is what I perceive as the most kingdom-like structure:

There is one person above the law: the ruler of the land (in your case either a King or Queen).
How strong a ruler is in comparison to their fief-owners, depends on relative military power and relative political influence.

Then there are politicians (e.g. ministers and generals) working for the ruler. They are the main source of information for the ruler, or the ruler has a dedicated spy network.
Generals are not a must, this role can be taken by the fief-owners.

Then next step down are the fiefdoms. Nobles owning part of the kingdom. In most cases, the ruler has their own fief.
The ruler may be above the law but if they go against the wishes of too many fiefdoms, the ruler will have a short life and be exchanged for someone else. In many cases, this someone is relatively high in the line of succession and becomes a puppet for the nobles who removed the previous ruler.
Or a fief-owner may just change allegiance changing from belonging to one kingdom to belonging to another.
Even if a fief-owner belongs to one kingdom they may be allied to other kingdoms, for example, due to a marriage contract.

The fiefdoms have their own vassals, ministers, soldiers and so on.

Generally speaking everything above this line is festering with nepotism.

Next, we have the landowners: wealthy farmers or craftsmen. If the kingdom relies on peasant levies these or their servants make up the bulk of the military.
Either the merchants make up their own class or they work for the landowners.

Then there are the servants, maids, apprentices and slaves. These do all the physical labour and menial tasks for the landowners.

In general, succession is regulated as all or nothing: the heir becomes all of their parents' possessions and every other child will either become a servant, a vassal or a soldier. Knights are mostly highly trained second and third children of nobles and wealthy landowners.

The whole thing becomes a lot more complicated if you have a strong church.
Any of these steps can be skipped or reshuffled. (in the Hanseatic League the merchants were the ruling class)


As for cities and villages: wealthy farmers can own their own village. Everything that needs a lot of space can become a village.
For example, there can be a horse breeder village owned by a horse-breeder. He/She will peddle their wares in the closest city. Warhorses for soldiers and knights; carthorses for merchants and farmers; workhorses for farmers (e.g. pulling a plough); ...

Cities are trade hubs; craftsmen live and work here; farmers peddle their wares; wealthy farmers and merchants may have their own estate; fief-owners and their retainers live here.


And you may want to think about the local culture. Derived from the geography, history and economy of the region.

You're a lifesaver! I appreciate your input, thank you so much. I will definitely be taking these into account, I didn't realize it extended as far as wealthy farmers owning their own village. As of yet I haven't started to develop a culture since I wanted to focus on the hierarchal/geographical/size aspect of the kingdom but I realize I should probably be doing that as I go lol. Thanks again :)

 

[kaida]

Depends on the culture and technological advancement of the kingdom. My explanation deals with the historical side of the inner workings of kingdoms.

For medieval-style kingdoms, the feudalistic manor system is often used. It meant that the king is the protector of his subjects, which includes the nobles, and commoners (free men). In return, the nobles give military service to their overlord (king). Commoners do likewise (nobles). Honor is highly-valued, and your oath of fealty could make or break you.

Also, kingdoms can be ruled by a king, or queen. Principalities function like a kingdom, only difference is, the title of its ruler is a Prince. Same in duchies (dukes), and counties (count). An Empire is ruled by an emperor, and is a combination of multiple nationalities and races under one sovereign.

As for the titles, one cannot assume the title of a king or emperor so easily. One must be able to convince the other rulers of other kingdoms or states to recognize the title of being a king/emperor, before one can claim legitimacy to the title. Remember, titles have a hierarchy too. Emperors are considered the highest title holders, followed by kings, then princes, grand dukes, and dukes. Counts, viscounts, margraves, etc., are lower-tier nobles in medieval era...though in Victorian Europe, these became merely titles.

Also, you have to consider the court. In medieval era, the court serves as the kingdom's capital, so it meant that if the court is in Munich, the present capital is Munich. If it is moved to Berlin, then it is Berlin. There's also the thing called 'court politics' where various factions inside the king's court fight over the right to influence the king in his decisions. Court politics can make or break a kingdom, such as the case of Imperial China. The court may consist of ministers, wives, concubines, eunuchs, ladies- and men-in-waiting, and/or priests, depending on the culture of your kingdom.

Now if we talk about villages, towns and cities, usually, a village is the community that grew beside a lord's manor. Serfs or commoners farm or render service to their local lord in return for his protection. As car transport is non-existent during those times, it's easier to live nearby a lord's manor than to travel from a faraway town just to work in a day.

Towns and cities are usually born out of trade necessities. The first towns are stopovers of merchant caravans trading in-between kingdoms, and these towns eventually grew into cities. If I remember, to become a city, one has to have a charter to be recognized as such.

A kingdom may contain a province, but this is prevalent in early modern kingdoms. Medieval kingdoms often are subdivided into fiefs, ruled by a lord that is (ideally) loyal to his sovereign.

That's why when a local lord rebels against his king and transfers his allegiance to another king, it could result to wars.

I really appreciate the amount of detail and information you put into your response. Thank you! I'll definitely be taking these into account. Thank you for emphasizing the importance of titles, I find it easy to forget the weight that they carry.

 

[kaida]

In general, things changed a lot depending on the time period and location, even in the middle ages (I mean, those lasted a long time). I would advise you to do some research and focus on those that correspond to what you want the geography and technological level of your country to be, then take those as inspiration. There are lot of different examples of how kingdoms worked. Actually, even modern countries like the UK are kingdoms, just parliamentary monarchies. Of course, the culture and history of your world plays an important role, too.

One important thing to consider is the kingdom's history, or how things came to be the way they are now. Geography is an important part of that, but so are other things, like previous or other nations in the region. Was there a large migration of people, and as a consequence your current population is a mix of several that formed into something new? (That happened more often than you might think.) Was there some old civilization that colonized the area, or part of it, and left traces in their culture, language, or technology, like e.g. the Romans in Europe?

What about religion, how did your kingdom's religion develop, is there a state religion, is it shared with neighboring countries, and what does it mean for everyday life? This can influence a lot of things, for example how the church had a lot of power in Europe in the middle ages and propped up the social order (with the three estates).
There are a lot of questions like this you should try to answer for yourself, also relating to the culture, e.g. gender and family norms, how important the military is, or how much contact there is with other cultures.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that who has the power on paper and who really has a lot of power in practice isn't always the same. Typically, it relates to who has a lot of money and social influence, though.

Thank you SOOOO much! I definitely didn't think of some of the things you listed such as traces of another culture or large events like a large-scale migration. I'm going to start putting more thought into my kingdom's history and how it shaped the culture and other aspects. I have been using multiple outside sources as well intended for inspiration and research. Recently I finished a book series heavily focused on court politics/kingdom cultures/hierarchy and military customs and I think it helped clear a lot of stuff up and inspire me. Thank you again for your response!

 

[Deleted member 29316]

I really appreciate the amount of detail and information you put into your response. Thank you! I'll definitely be taking these into account. Thank you for emphasizing the importance of titles, I find it easy to forget the weight that they carry.

Always happy to help with history and stuff.

 

[Friend]

... if it's not too late to add ... you did mention 'inner workings' so assuming you had meant not inside the castle but inner workings adjacent-

Probably want maybe ministers of various activities within and without the kingdom.

• someone to watch the treasury and royal mint of coinage
• someone to be the protocol officer
• someone to be the official diplomat
• someone to handle matters of law/jurisprudence
• someone to handle the martial aspects (armies, mercenaries, retained soldiers/slaves)
• someone to represent the kingdom's stance on magic (if present) etc.
• someone to represent the civil/civilian issues ("ombudsman" type responsibility) or sheriff

Just brainstorm stuff. Maybe it'll be of interest, maybe not.

 

[kaida]

... if it's not too late to add ... you did mention 'inner workings' so assuming you had meant not inside the castle but inner workings adjacent-

Probably want maybe ministers of various activities within and without the kingdom.

• someone to watch the treasury and royal mint of coinage
• someone to be the protocol officer
• someone to be the official diplomat
• someone to handle matters of law/jurisprudence
• someone to handle the martial aspects (armies, mercenaries, retained soldiers/slaves)
• someone to represent the kingdom's stance on magic (if present) etc.
• someone to represent the civil/civilian issues ("ombudsman" type responsibility) or sheriff

Just brainstorm stuff. Maybe it'll be of interest, maybe not.

Not late at all! Thank you for the info, that is what I meant :) I'll definitely note these down.