Chapter 10 is entitled The Flowering of the Middle Ages. The main subject of this chapter is that in contrast to the Eastern Empire, Western Europe governments began to coalesce into more “centralized” administrations with paid officials who acted on behalf of the king enabling the nobility to support new forms of art and literature. The authors’ purpose in this chapter is to argue that the power of the nobility in Western Europe changed from a personal to territorial perspective allowing for the beginning of a more unified government administration to rule over large areas of land.1 One piece of key evidence that the authors’ use to support their case is the formation of the exchequer, or financial bureau, of England, where all fines and
