Eli5 How did ancient and medieval borders work?
In: 7
ok, so the modern concept of a hard border you couldn’t cross basically didn’t exist back then. Borders were much more porous, with access control generally limited to the cites and towns. their wasn’t anythng generally stopping a frenchmen going into the Holy Roman Empire, beyond things like cash and security concerns
generally, the borders would tend to follow the line of control at end the end of the last round of fighting. towns and local lords owed allegiance to the current ruling king, and the villagers would pay taxes to whichever group of armed retainers turned up in the kings name to collect them. Often, some significant landmark would mark a border, like a major river, or the high point of a mountain range, etc.
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