Impact of Roads. Any overland travel presumes that roads or ways, at least, were passable, which was certainly not always the case. The crux of the problem of land transportation during the Middle Ages was the extent to which the Roman road system had survived in Europe. Where the Empire's roads still existed, they formed a ready-made grid for the movement of any type of traveler, but most of the European portion of them fell into grave disrepair in the early Middle Ages. There was a lack of an overriding political authority in Europe and often an inability or, perhaps, desire to maintain transportation routes. Stretches of road in good condition tended to be a reflection of private maintenance, whether by a lord as part of his domain or by the citizens of a town. The Castilian king Alfonso the Wise stated...