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24-532: Historically taxes were collected directly by the King or ruler of a State . As states and administrative regions grew larger this task was outsourced to aristocrats or dedicated tax collectors. In the Roman Republic , taxes were collected from individuals based on the value of their total property. However, since it was extremely difficult to facilitate the collection of the tax, the government auctioned

48-574: A century or more and had adopted many Roman customs. They were also undergoing Christianisation and pre-Christianization practice was slowly being replaced. The Frankish state under the Merovingian dynasty had many of the characteristics of Germanic monarchy under heavy influence from secular and ecclesiastic Rome. Its kings, through their division of the territory, treated it not as a state independent of themselves, but as their patrimony, land won by conquest (theirs and their forefathers'). The king

72-481: A proposal displease, the assembly reject it by an inarticulate murmur; if it prove agreeable, they clash their javelins. Tacitus notes that as each tribe had its own customary law, the political power of the king could vary between nations. Thus, he states that the Gothones were ruled by a monarchy "somewhat more strict than that of the other German nations, yet not to a degree incompatible with liberty" while beyond

96-399: A variety of contexts. A king is an absolute monarch if he holds the powers of government without control, or the entire sovereignty over a nation ; he is a limited monarch if his power is restrained by fixed laws; and he is an absolute, when he holds the whole legislative , judicial , and executive power , or when the legislative or judicial powers, or both, are vested in other people by

120-454: Is considered equivalent to, Latin rēx and its equivalents in the various European languages . The Germanic term is notably different from the word for "King" in other Indo-European languages ( *rēks "ruler"; Latin rēx , Sanskrit rājan and Irish rí ; however, see Gothic reiks and, e.g., modern German Reich and modern Dutch rijk ). The English word is of Germanic origin, and historically refers to Germanic kingship , in

144-502: Is derived from the Common Germanic * kuningaz . The Common Germanic term was borrowed into Estonian and Finnish at an early time, surviving in these languages as kuningas . It is a derivation from the term *kunjom "kin" ( Old English cynn ) by the -inga- suffix. The literal meaning is that of a "scion of the [noble] kin", or perhaps "son or descendant of one of noble birth" ( OED ). The English term translates, and

168-722: Is used in the context of those Germanic rulers who after 476 AD and during the 6th century ruled territories formerly part of the Western Roman Empire , especially the Barbarian kings of Italy . In the same context, Germanic law is also derisively termed leges barbarorum "barbarian law" etc. The thesis of Germanic kingship appeared in the nineteenth century and was influential in the historiography of early medieval society, but has since come under criticism for drawing generalizations from limited evidence. The Germanic king originally had three main functions: The office

192-744: The King of Bahrain and the King of Eswatini . Germanic kingship Germanic kingship is a thesis regarding the role of kings among the pre-Christianized Germanic tribes of the Migration period (c. 300–700 AD) and Early Middle Ages (c. 700–1000 AD). The thesis holds that the institution of feudal monarchy developed, through contact with the Roman Empire and the Christian Church , from an earlier custom of sacral and military kingship based on both birth status and consent from subjects. The term barbarian kingdom

216-796: The Late Middle Ages there were a number of large and powerful kingdoms in Europe, which would develop into the great powers of Europe in the Early Modern period . By the end of the Middle Ages, the kings of these kingdoms would start to place arches with an orb and cross on top as an Imperial crown , which only the Holy Roman Emperor had had before. This symbolized them holding the imperium and being emperors in their own realm not subject even theoretically anymore to

240-690: The Bible (mainly in the New Testament ). They were reviled by the Jews of Jesus' day because of their perceived greed and collaboration with the Roman occupiers. Tax collectors amassed personal wealth by demanding tax payments in excess of what Rome levied and keeping the difference. They worked for tax farmers . In the Gospel of Luke , Jesus sympathizes with the tax collector Zacchaeus , causing outrage from

264-975: The Gothones, the Rugii and Lemovii (tribes placed at the far end of Magna Germania , near the Baltic Sea ) lived in "submission to regal authority". With the decline of the Roman Empire , many of its provinces came under the rule of Germanic kings: Hispania to the Visigoths , Italia to the Ostrogoths , Gallia to the Franks , Britannia to the Anglo-Saxons , and Africa to the Vandals . These nations had by then been in contact with Rome for

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288-468: The Holy Roman Emperor. Philosophers Works Currently (as of 2023 ), seventeen kings are recognized as the heads of state of sovereign states (i.e. English king is used as official translation of the respective native titles held by the monarchs). Most of these are heads of state of constitutional monarchies ; kings ruling over absolute monarchies are the King of Saudi Arabia ,

312-542: The chiefs consult; on those of greater importance, the whole community; yet with this circumstance, that what is referred to the decision of the people, is first maturely discussed by the chiefs. [...] When they all think fit, they sit down armed. Silence is proclaimed by the priests, who have on this occasion a coercive power. Then the king, or chief, and such others as are conspicuous for age, birth, military renown, or eloquence, are heard; and gain attention rather from their ability to persuade, than their authority to command. If

336-445: The collection of taxes every year. The winning tax farmers (called publicani ) paid the tax revenue to the government in advance and then kept the taxes collected from individuals. The publicani paid the tax revenue in coins, but collected the taxes using other exchange media, thus relieving the government of the work to carry out the currency conversion themselves. Tax collectors, also known as publicans , are mentioned many times in

360-521: The crowds that Jesus would rather be the guest of a sinner than of a more respectable or " righteous " person. Matthew the Apostle in the New Testament was a tax collector. In modern times, collection is done by a dedicated government tax collection agency known as a revenue services, a revenue agency or a taxation authority. King King is the title given to a male monarch in

384-702: The intermediate positions of counts (or earls ) and dukes . The core of European feudal manorialism in the High Middle Ages were the territories of the former Carolingian Empire , i.e. the kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire (centered on the nominal kingdoms of Germany and Italy ). In the course of the European Middle Ages, the European kingdoms underwent a general trend of centralisation of power, so that by

408-487: The king. Kings are hereditary sovereigns when they hold the powers of government by right of birth or inheritance, and elective when raised to the throne by choice. The term king may also refer to a king consort , a title that is sometimes given to the husband of a queen regnant , but the title of prince consort is more common. The English term king is derived from the Anglo-Saxon cyning , which in turn

432-559: The kingdom of the Franks developed into the Carolingian Empire by the 8th century, and the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England were unified into the kingdom of England by the 10th century. With the breakup of the Carolingian Empire in the 9th century, the system of feudalism places kings at the head of a pyramid of relationships between liege lords and vassals, dependent on the regional rule of barons , and

456-590: The kings could claim ownership of lands beyond their de facto rule. As a sort of pre-Christianization high priest, the king often claimed descent from some deity. In the Scandinavian nations, he administered pagan sacrifices ( blóts ) at important cult sites, such as the Temple at Uppsala . Refusal to administer the blóts could lead to the king losing power (see Haakon the Good and Anund Gårdske ). According to

480-489: The pre-Christian period a type of tribal kingship . The monarchies of Europe in the Christian Middle Ages derived their claim from Christianisation and the divine right of kings , partly influenced by the notion of sacral kingship inherited from Germanic antiquity . The Early Middle Ages begin with a fragmentation of the former Western Roman Empire into barbarian kingdoms . In Western Europe,

504-448: The testimony of Tacitus ( Germania ), some early Germanic peoples had an elective monarchy already in the 1st century. In the election of kings they have regard to birth; in that of generals, to valor. Germanic pre-Christianization society had three levels, the king, the nobility and the free men. Their respective political influence was negotiated at the thing . According to the testimony of Tacitus, On affairs of smaller moment,

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528-469: Was abandoned in those states under the heaviest influence from the papacy, such as Merovingian Gaul, where hereditary succession and the divine right of the reigning dynasty was recognised. In Anglo-Saxon Britain, the principle survived until the Norman Conquest removed it. Anglo-Saxon kings were elected by the witena gemót . Finally, the principle survived in some form or other for centuries after

552-469: Was primarily a war leader and a judge. There are many theories to explain the collapse of Merovingian power, most of which blame the inability of later Merovingians in war as an important factor. The commonly cited occasion of Sigebert III sobbing in his saddle after a defeat (the king was then only ten years old) highlights the importance of victory in battle for a king who is chiefly a warrior. The principle of election, which determined Germanic succession,

576-407: Was received hereditarily, but a new king required the consent of the people before assuming the throne. All sons of the king had the right to claim the throne, which often led to co-rulership ( diarchy ) where two brothers were elected kings at the same time. This evolved into the territories being considered the hereditary property of the kings, patrimonies , a system which fueled feudal wars, because

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