Question

how did government function during the dark ages

Answer 1

Government in the Middle Ages - Feudalism

The prevailing system of government in the Middle Ages was feudalism.  Though the actual term “feudalism” was not used during the Middle Ages, what we now recognize as a feudalist system of government was in control in Medieval Europe.  Feudalism was a way for the Kings and upper nobility to keep control over the serfs and peasants.

Definition

There is no universally accepted modern day definition of feudalism.  The word “feudal” was coined in the 17th century, some 200 years after the end of feudalism in Europe.  The term “feudalism” was coined later still, in the 19th century.

After the publication of Elizabeth A. R. Brown’s The Tyranny of a Construct, many scholars have found the term “feudalism” troubling and have wanted to drop it, not just as the title of government in the middle ages, but as a term altogether.

Feudalism is mainly used in discourse today as a comparison or analogical term applied to governmental structures in history.  This is known as “semi-feudal.”  The term has also been brought up in discussions of non-Western societies today whose governments resemble the feudal system in medieval Europe, but this use of the term is often deemed inappropriate.