I've learned something from the English this semester that I guess I already knew. Power really is tenuous. It is all about who has the bigger stick, the stronger sons and the bigger cock.
I didn't fully realize this until until I was reading the chapters on Henry the VIII (1509-1547) when he, along with Thomas Cromwell (Wrong Cromwell, don't get ahead of yourself) started to disband the monastic communities located in England. This came after Parliamentary action against the Catholic church, and Henry already saw himself as the supreme head of the Church of England, so there's that. But this land, that he was "dissolving" into the holdings of the English state didn't ever really belong to the church. It had been willed to the individual monastic communities by Lords upon their deaths in exchange for the monks and nuns that lived there saying prayers to help the lords souls on the heaven or some such nonsense.
Henry paid them a visit, said "oooo, such a nice tapestry you have there" and took it all away. There was a rebellion, called the Pilgrimage of Grace, but that just meant Henry killed people. Some of the Monks didn't want to leave (obviously, they had no where else to go) and Henry starved then out, then killed them as traitors.
Similarly, the reigning King of england awarded titles and power, and took them away again almost fluidly. As I read this book, it amazing to me how many people lose favor, titles power, lands, or their lives based on a difference of opinion with the king.
What really makes any government so different?
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