Lord Edward’s Crusade and English State Capacity: Evidence from the Close Rolls

• In Event: State Building and War in Europe since 1200

Abstract

Recent research has argued that the medieval crusades sparked state-building in the areas that sent crusaders but there is much that is not understood about this relationship. This paper examines the effects of Lord Edward's Crusade (1270-72) on the development of English state capacity. We construct a novel dataset on state capacity from the Close Rolls, extensive administrative records of royal orders and instructions sent to state officials around the kingdom. Our dataset consists of over 5,000 administrative orders and instructions spanning the period 1260 to 1280. We combine this dataset with newly coded data on almost 300 powerful nobles and royal officials who left England during the crusade. Utilizing a difference-in-differences strategy, we provide empirical evidence that areas with large numbers of crusaders experienced an increase in state capacity in the years after Lord Edward's Crusade. We also provide evidence on the mechanism driving this relationship: areas exposed to large numbers of crusaders experienced a temporary power vacuum that increased demand for royal justice and administration.

Authors

• Anders Gammelholm Wieland, Aarhus University

• Jorgen Moller, University of Aarhus