Further, given the author's recognition of the important place of the extended Laval family among the affinity, the role of the affinities of the counts' brothers and close female relations in advancing
comital interests is presumably pertinent to the wider discussion.
The story of how the Etichonids, who had been dukes of Alsace going back to the seventh century, came to identify themselves by the eleventh merely as a local
comital family is a revealing case study in the transformation of post-Carolingian Europe.
The family, who became the Counts of Barcelona, moved from a
comital power that was considered "private, heritable, and divisible property" (138) to primogeniture and consolidation.
His
comital title (that is, his earldom) had been given to him by Matilda, Henry II's mother, and for this reason he may have expected some degree of latitude from her son.
12), coupled with
comital rewards to Reconquest campaigners, caused an upsurge of violent local lordship.
