Conclusion

Abstract This chapter draws together material from throughout the book to derive a comparative model explaining why Christian kingship emerged where and when it did. It argues for the continual importance of a sacred kingship dependent on cult to deliver political success throughout late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Conditions of internal political competition inevitably led to increased attempts at sacralization. Such processes in the Eastern Roman Empire led to a close identification of the political community with the Christian people that in turn came to have a major influence on how political discourse in the Latin west worked. In societies where alternative ways of discussing the relationship between rulers and their subjects existed (such as in Ireland) Christian kingship never became particularly important, but in societies shaped by these processes it became a particularly useful way of negotiating between kings and the wider political community.