To put on the garment of legitimacy is the first aim of every coup. - Barbara W. Tuchman

Against men habituated to lawless force, violent punishment failed to bring the violence under control.

What is government but an arrangement by which the many accept the authority of the few?

Vainglory, however, no matter how much medieval Christianity insisted it was a sin, is a motor of mankind, no more eradicable than sex. As long as combat was desirable as the source of honor and glory, the knight had no wish to share it with the commoner, even for the sake of success.