Power, and the desirability of power, are things quite unchanged today from what they were in the twelfth century. To command and influence others has been the aim of many men in centuries before and after the Beaumont twins lived, but for the likes of the Beaumont twins this power was more easily attained than in our more proletarian age. In their case it meant being born to the right parents. Waleran and Robert were lucky enough to inherit the capacity for power from their father. They were the heirs of generations of powerful men, and from their forbears they acquired the accumulated estates and wealth which gave them the wherewithal to acquire power. Nonetheless, although they had a considerable head start on, say, today's Soviet party official or Latin-American general, they still had to climb part of the same ladder before they could reach the heights reserved for the statesmen and power-mongers.

What I have done in the previous chapters is to analyse the roots of the twins' influence – their leg-up on the rungs of power. These roots tapped raw wealth, the riches generated by wide lands, thriving towns and growing trade. Wealth financed fortresses but most importantly it attracted people, and it was on these people, the honorial barons, that the twins had to rely for their weight in society.