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Originally Posted by Kuruharan
Are we supposing that the kings had greater control over the Lords?
As I said above, societies where power (in this case basically reduced to who has ultimate control over the military force) is broadly spread at the top do not generally go forth and conquer empires (at the moment I can't think of a single historical instance where such a society did so, but am open to examples).
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Following lmp's response I'm now confused. Do you mean conquering empires as in beating those empires, as lmp has interpreted or do you mean as in gaining and adding to, creating empires?
If it's the latter then the British Empire was created under democracy, albeit extremely limited democracy; either way, there was a considerable bearaucracy (I bet I've spelled that wrong again, I might stick to 'executive decision making process' in future) to be got through before wars and campaigns could happen - not just Parliament but also the Lords and the Admiralty etc. Not only that but some regiments were virtually laws unto themselves. Just to get a flavour of the machinations it's worth watching Sharpe!