Was a medieval European monarch expected to travel around their territory visiting with people the way a modern head of state is? Or was doing things like that, even for appearance's sake, considered beneath them?
They would certainly be expected to travel around the territory, in fact early mediaeval kingship is often described as (semi-)itinerant. I can recommend this answer by u/BRIStoneman and thesetwo by u/y-sengaku if you want to learn about this