The book aims to demonstrate the multiplicity of types of rulers and polities that existed in medieval Europe. The contributors discuss not just kings, or even queens, but countesses, dukes, and town leadership.

Christian Raffensperger is the Kenneth E. Wray Chair in the Humanities at Wittenberg University. The focus of his scholarly work has been on connecting eastern Europe with the rest of medieval Europe. This began with his first book, Reimagining Europe: Kievan Rus' in the Medieval World (2012) and has continued through numerous other books and articles.

1. Introduction: Reimagining Medieval Rulership in the Twenty-First Century. 2. Dying by the Sword: The Many Faces of Rulership in Christian Iberia a Thousand Years Ago 3. The Rise of Administrative Queenship in the Anglo-Norman Realm? 4. Khazaria: The Exception which Proves the Rule 5. Nobility, Loyalty and Dynasty in Medieval Bosnia 6. 'Self-government at the king's command:' Towns and their sovereign in medieval Hungary 7. The Governance of Medieval Poland 8. Governing the Byzantine Empire: Politics and Administration, ca. 850-1204 9. Governing the Latin East 10. How Popes Governed Christendom? 11. The governance of medieval Norway 12. Kievan Rus': A Complicated Kingdom 13. Aristocratic Dynasties and Royal Rule in Medieval Germany 14. How Early Medieval Italy was Ruled: Land and Power 15. Rulership and Governance of Medieval Bulgaria, Seventh-Fifteenth Century