Western Europe: A Medley of Kingdoms

In contrast to Byzantium—where an emperor still ruled as the successor to Augustus and Constantine—western Europe saw a dispersal of political power. With the end of Roman imperial government there, independent monarchs ruled in Spain, Italy, England, and Gaul. The European kings relied on kinship networks, the support of powerful men who attended them at court, the prestige that came from church patronage, and wealth derived from land and plunder.

In some places churchmen and rich magnates were even more powerful than royalty. So were saintly relics, which represented and were believed to wield the divine forces of God. Icons existed but were not very important in the West.