The other criticism of the German kings' methods is that by avoiding feudal arrangements and the cultivation of a feudal hierarchy of nobles in support of the king, German rulers prevented the development of a political glue, or political technology, able to hold together a monarchical state when reliance on the Church was no longer an option. The argument is that while German kings could have established themselves as feudal monarchs of a much stronger sort than their French counterparts, their failure to take advantage of a system deemed legitimate by German nobles stunted political development, and would make German kings from the 1060s to 1120s much weaker, after the post-Investiture Controversy process of feudalization had taken place.

Popular pages: High Middle Ages (1000-1200)