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
Thanks all for the interesting responses! I expected, in part, to hear about people delivering messages by horse, but had forgotten about town criers and didn’t expect the “they didn’t give a shit”, which made me laugh. Thanks for all the high quality answers folks 🙂
Forget medieval times. The Battle of New Orleans in 1815 was fought two weeks after the peace treaty had been signed. The general who won this pointless battle later went on to become President of the United States.
sometimes peasants wouldn’t even know they are in a different country now until much later, weeks or even months after wars ended
It took about 3 weeks to a month for parts of Rome to learn that Cesar was assasinated. So even powerful empires were slow moving.
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.
Caolingian politics relied heavily on assemblies of all free men. Oaths would be renewed, criminals tried and the leading men would make announcements. The court sent out circulars and messengers. Assemblies were held quarterly at district level, six-monthly at provincial level, or as needed.
England had assizes, which had much the same purposes, quarterly in most counties.
France was more varied, but Louis XI sent out regular letters to his ‘good towns’ and ‘loyal nobles’, advising on policy and events.
Then, also, everyone attended church, and it was usual for royal announcements to be made after the service.
It might take a month or so for this kind of news to reach some remote part, but most inhabitants of France or England or the empire would have an announcement within a couple of weeks, as bishops passed it down to parish clergy.
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