Compared with the provinces directly under the Inner Palace, the non-directly governed provinces under the jurisdiction of the Outer Court had greater powers, and these provinces not only had a provincial governor, three deputy governors, a chief justice, and other officials, but also a provincial military governor who was responsible for commanding the military forces in the provinces, including the local militia and the armies of the noble lords.

As a rule, the provincial officials, with the exception of the governor, who were directly delegated by Paris, were appointed from among the local nobility.

Some people may wonder, doesn't this give those nobles more power and give them more opportunities to divide their territories?

William, of course, would not give them a chance at all, and when appointing these positions, he would give preference to those nobles with lower titles to hold these important positions, such as the baron and viscount, who were lowly and powerful, and those who were high-ranking nobles generally did not have the opportunity to hold these positions.

In addition, William also appointed his immediate barons as inspectors general of the provinces, and could report lawlessness and undertake nobles, for the sake of light and heavy, and subordinate to the system.

The role of the province was to suppress the power of the local nobles and to take over the ruling power to the provinces, so that the power of the local nobles would be greatly reduced.

But will they really willingly do so? The answer, of course, is no.

In this regard, William also made two preparations, one hand was iron and blood, using autocracy and force to subdue the disobedient nobles, and the other was the exchange of interests.

But when it comes to politics, it is inseparable from the exchange of interests, and in order to make up for the drastic reduction of the nobles' ruling power in their own territories, William prepared the stage of the outer court for them.

The importance of the Outer Court as a central government agency that administers the general affairs of the kingdom and the non-directly administered provinces is self-evident.

William freed up many important positions in the foreign court government to the nobles, many of which had previously been held by William's personal advisers.

However, since the Inner Court had been established, it was not important to vacate some of the positions of the Outer Court to the nobles, because without the approval and cooperation of the Inner Palace, the decrees of the Outer Court could not be adopted and implemented smoothly.

In addition to the inner government and the outer court, William also set up two extremely important decision-making bodies, one is the Privy Council, which is responsible for advising on military aircraft, governing major affairs, and providing decision-making advice to William, and the other is the Imperial Council, which is responsible for formulating laws and regulations and deciding on major matters, which is the prototype of the later parliament.

The Privy Council, as the decision-making body of the Inner Council, not only has a highly respected noble Grand Duke like Prime Minister Ladolph, Duke Hubert, and Duke Richard, but also William's personal subordinates, like Osborne's butler, this institution is somewhat like the Ming Dynasty's cabinet, dedicated to serving the king, and some like the Qing Dynasty's military aircraft department, because it has the right to make recommendations but only has very little decision-making power.

Compared with the Privy Council, the scale of the Council was many times larger, and its attendees numbered at least hundreds of nobles above the rank of baron, parish priests, bishops, members of the royal family, etc.

Generally, the Imperial Council is not permanent, and only when there is a major event that requires all the nobles to work together, or when laws are made and passed, William will choose to convene the Imperial Council to reach an agreement with the nobles.

William did not convene many councils, he was a power-loving king, and he thought it would be more efficient to convene the Privy Council to advise him on decision-making than to convene inefficient councils.

Moreover, even if William convened the Imperial Council, in general, his noble vassals always looked submissive when facing the powerful William, which made him find it very boring and despise the small role that the Imperial Council could play.

William's attribution of the Imperial Council as a decision-making body to the outer court, with noble vassals holding honorable positions, was also regarded as an exchange for the nobles to hand over some of their powers, although it was not of much use at the moment, and he could produce countless titles from such royal councils.

In addition to the outer court and the Imperial Council, the army was another stage that William provided to the nobility.

Usually the nobles in the army are held by nobles, the low-ranking legions are at least a knight, and the highest-ranking legion commanders are mostly noble dukes and counts, such as the five standing legions in the kingdom.

Each of these five legions had a station, which William named the military district, and the commander of each military district was also the commander of the regiment stationed there.

At present, the Norman Kingdom has a total of six military districts, including the Capital Guards Military District, which is directly under William, the Normandy Military District, where the First Army is located, the North England Military District, where the Second Army is located, the Belgian Military District, where the Third Army is located, the East French Military District, where the Fourth Army is located, and the South England Military District, where the Fifth Army is located.

William would then form five standing regiments, one of which would guard the London Order, and the remaining four would be stationed in the other new divisions of the five armies.

The military commanders of the military districts, i.e., the commanders of the regiments, had no subordinate relationship with the local governors, they were equals, and in some cases, the provinces were even required to obey the orders of the military commanders and were responsible for providing troops and supplies to the garrisons.

For example, Duke Rodrigo's Second Legion in the English Military Region, where the territory of Duke Rodrigo was not in Northern England at all, but in Southern Ireland and the Spanish Pyrenees.

William's arrangement, in addition to deterring the local nobles, is also to prevent the commanders of their respective legions from plotting against each other when they are stationed in their own territories, and if the legions led by the other party are no longer in their own territory, it can at least increase the difficulty of the other party to launch a rebellion.

The army was so important that William had to be cautious, and more importantly, it even took on an important role in assimilating other peoples.

In the case of ancient Rome, the military played an important role in the Romanization of the empire.

As an important disseminator of Roman civilization, the military accelerated the cultural exchange and integration between Rome and the relatively backward provinces and imperial border areas.

The army was an important tool in the conquest, pacification and romanization of the western provinces. Wherever the army went, Latin, Roman law, Roman food habits, naming methods, religious beliefs, funeral customs, etc., were disseminated and promoted. The local conscription system, the intermarriage of Roman soldiers with local foreign women, and the establishment of veteran colonies also promoted the integration of Rome and the local culture.

It can be said that the army was an important medium for provincial and barbarian soldiers to come into contact with Roman civilization and gradually achieve Romanization.

William couldn't have taken this more seriously, and he intended to emulate the military district system in ancient Rome, arranging for each legion to be stationed in the territory to speed up the assimilation of other peoples in the region.