Maybe a weird/stupid question. Today we have mass media, and any new law/political scandal that happens reaches almost everyone instantly. Previously, radio broadcasts. Before telecommunications, information could go around presumably by letters, word of mouth, etc. Before even any of that, how would entire populations in, for example, the 11th century find out about new laws that were passed in their country, or if their country was going to war, and was it ever possible to communicate this fairly quickly (that is, within a week or two?)
In: 1822
Short answer, they didn’t.
Long answer:
Prior to telecommunications, local authorities had a lot more autonomy. If the king implemented a new law, the process might look something like, he writes the law, he sends letters to all his dukes and earls. All the dukes send out communications to any earls that report to them rather than the king. The earls then send this out to the barons. The barons then send the communication out to any landed knights and aldermen who lived within their borders. And then the knights and aldermen would arrange for town criers to share the news with the locals. Each step here probably took days if not weeks.
Going to war in particular was NOT a quick process. If you wanted a sustained campaign you needed to start planning YEARS in advance. Before modern food preservation, it was a herculean effort to preserve enough food or arrange for food deliveries in sufficient quantities to sustain an army. It was an early espionage trick to just figure out where all the salt was going. Salt was the primary food preservation method back then. If some other country started buying up a lot of salt, you knew they were getting ready for war. But if a king wanted to wage war, he’d tell all his lords, start storing and preserving food. Train your men at arms. Go do a census on your land. Tell me how many able bodied fighters you have. They would do this at a minimum two years before going on campaign.
Latest Answers