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. Medieval England differs from the game of chess in that the king, in reality, cannot depend on the unquestioning loyalty of his people in the way that a skilled chess master can guarantee. The bishops generally could be trusted in their loyalty to the Crown, at least once the Divine Right notion became embedded within the nation, except where the king was at odds with the pope, and especially when he was living under the damnation of a papal excommunication. The knights were less reliably loyal, typically looking out for themselves, and available to the highest bidder. His castles would be only as safe as his knights proved loyal, as the king alone could not defend every fortress against attack, and as divine intervention could not always be relied upon in the absence of sufficient force of arms. Even his queen might occasionally display disloyalty, especially when the king and their first-born son became estranged. In England, the early medieval period began in 600 A