"Nearly everywhere monarchs raised themselves further above the level of the greatest nobles and buttressed their new pretensions to respect and authority with cannons and taxation"
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Power doesn’t just concentrate; it armors itself. Roberts compresses centuries of European state-building into a single, blunt mechanism: monarchs didn’t become “absolute” by divine glow or courtroom theory, but by outgunning their rivals and making everyone pay for it. The phrasing is doing quiet demolition work. “Raised themselves” signals self-invention, not destiny. “New pretensions” punctures the idea that royal authority was natural; it was a claim that needed reinforcement. And the tools of reinforcement are tellingly modern: cannons and taxation, hardware and paperwork, violence and ledgers.
The subtext is that hierarchy shifted from a feudal pecking order to a more centralized, bureaucratic machine. The “greatest nobles” are the key foil: the old power brokers who could once field private armies, dispense local justice, and bargain with the crown. Cannon makes castles obsolete; taxation makes noble independence fiscally irrelevant. Roberts is pointing at the historical hinge where legitimacy starts to look less like inherited prestige and more like administrative capacity: the ability to extract revenue, maintain standing forces, and project force beyond a patchwork of personal loyalties.
Contextually, this is the early modern story: the military revolution, expanding commerce, rising costs of war, and the slow invention of institutions that can sustain continuous conflict. Roberts’ sly implication is darker: respect and authority are often retrospective decorations pinned onto successful coercion. The state doesn’t just ask to be believed; it proves itself by surviving, collecting, and firing.
The subtext is that hierarchy shifted from a feudal pecking order to a more centralized, bureaucratic machine. The “greatest nobles” are the key foil: the old power brokers who could once field private armies, dispense local justice, and bargain with the crown. Cannon makes castles obsolete; taxation makes noble independence fiscally irrelevant. Roberts is pointing at the historical hinge where legitimacy starts to look less like inherited prestige and more like administrative capacity: the ability to extract revenue, maintain standing forces, and project force beyond a patchwork of personal loyalties.
Contextually, this is the early modern story: the military revolution, expanding commerce, rising costs of war, and the slow invention of institutions that can sustain continuous conflict. Roberts’ sly implication is darker: respect and authority are often retrospective decorations pinned onto successful coercion. The state doesn’t just ask to be believed; it proves itself by surviving, collecting, and firing.
Quote Details
| Topic | War |
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