Conclusion

Abstract

Historians have often seen the thirteenth century in terms of a series of conflicts. The political events are depicted as crisis succeeding crisis: king versus barons, church versus state — this has been a staple diet. A valuable corrective to such an approach to medieval history has been inspired by the work of K. B. McFarlane. It has come to be appreciated that what most men wanted was to obtain good government, not the collapse of the system. They wanted to avoid conflict, not provoke it.