>>20517789Within Celtic society there was a binding system where powerful individuals undertook to look after others - that is provide food, shelter, legal and military protection - in return for some sort of service, much like in the lord and vassal relationship of medieval feudalism. For the Celts, such a person was an ambactus, and the result was ties of loyalty were established to their lord and the wider ruling class and status quo. Some lords commanded the loyalty of thousands of kinsmen, retainers, and vassals. However, these are generalisations, and as with other areas of Celtic culture, it is important to stress that there were great variations both as the Iron Age period developed in Europe and in terms of geography. In short, Celtic societies in one part of Europe in 700 BCE were perhaps very different from those in another part of the continent, never mind compared to Celtic societies in 400 CE.
Celtic communities were divided into tribes led by a monarch or a small aristocratic group. Some tribes, such as those in modern Belgium, may have had two monarchs ruling at the same time. Over time, this system of monarchy gave way to a more complex government consisting of confederations of tribal chiefs and individual tribes run by councils of elders.
