Abstract
Consider the standard layout for the game of chess. The king is placed at the center of the back row protected from the left by his queen. His bishops stand next in place beside both monarchs. His knights stand beside his bishops. His castles stand at the board’s edge beside his knights. Protecting all these major players are the lowly pawns, few of which can expect to rise to higher orders, most of which are expendable in defense of the nobility. The chess board reflects very precisely the organizational form of medieval England, though the game itself ultimately fails to do so.
Charles K. Rowley is deceased.
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Rowley, C., Wu, B. (2014). A Public Choice Model of Absolutism in Medieval England: 1066–1485. In: Britannia 1066-1884. Studies in Public Choice, vol 30. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04684-6_1
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