In order that this one man might stale his palate with dainties, thousands of other men—"serfs," "churls," "villeins," "hinds," "peasants," etc.—were deprived of all but the smallest amount of coarse food that would enable them to live, labor, and reproduce their kind! In order that he might clothe himself in piled velvet, and his lady "walk in silk attire," they and their wives were confined to a single coarse garment. In order that he might sleep on down in marble halls, they were restricted to a couch of rushes in a fireless and windowless hovel.
Now, how did this man on the hill-top "so get the start of the majestic world" that all the kernels and sweetmeats in the lives of thousands were his, while only the rinds, the husks, and the shells, were thrown to them?
The answer is easy: It came about through the adaptation of the horse to warfare, and the development of defensive armor. Improvements in armor made the aggressive, domineering man invulnerable to spear and dagger in the hands of those whom he would oppress. Ensconced in tempered steel, and moved by a horse's mighty motive power, he was irresistible to those who could only oppose to him their own unprotected thews and sinews.
It is significant to notice how constantly the idea of the horse is associated with the elevation of the few and the degradation of the many under feudalism. In all the tongues of Europe it is the "Man on Horseback" who is the lord and despoiler of the people. The Germans called him "Der Ritter" (the rider), and cognate words designated him in all the divisions of the Teutonic speech. In French the horse is un cheval, and the tyrant of fields and people a chevalier. The Portuguese called him a cavalleiro, the Spaniards a caballero, and the Italians a cavalliere—all direct derivatives of the Greek and Latin kaballus, a horse. In England, where, for reasons that shall be given presently, the people were not crushed down to anything like the extent of their class on the Continent, the name given the Man on Horseback shows that he never acquired any such arrogant supremacy. There he was merely a knight (Anglo-Saxon cniht, a youth, an attendant, a military follower).
In the far-off days, ere the centuries had entered their teens, the gentleman who was burning with enthusiasm to earn his bread by the sweat of some one else's brows proceeded differently from what he would now. Contrasted with the neat finish of an "operation" in stocks or produce, or the Louisiana Lottery, his methods seem crude and clumsy. Nevertheless, like the methods of most of the processes of primitive people, they were quite effective.
He provided himself with a stout horse and a suit of armor combining all the latest improvements. He then set himself up as the lord and "protector" of as large a collection of land-tillers as he could cajole or force into accepting his "protection." Sydney Smith wittily
