>>An understandable but mistaken understanding of medieval era politics.
>>The king may've had a lot to say about things, but only as long as
>>he's there. Something like a crew of monster hunters would, in fact,
>>be hired by the local lord or by the baron.
>
>In this particular instance (Champagne in the 1200s), the King of
>Navarre and the Count of Champagne were the same person. This is
>weird, since, as I noted, Navarre is nowhere near Champagne,
>but there you go.

Not weird at all actually. Dynastic inheritance could and did cause that sort of nonsense, the full list of the titles of the King of the Netherlands includes multiple counties, baronies and lordships in Germany and France. You see something similar with things like banks and real estate moguls, especially when an inheritance or corporate takeover brings widely separated properties together under the same owner.

And again, it's likely the local lord or baron that would hire monster hunters, as that's kind of part of their job as the direct liege of the area being affected. If the local liege held a higher ranking title or was just not around he'd generally assign a reliable agent to act on his behalf.