Cavalry Supremacy as Civilizational Trap

“It was thus arose all over Europe the idea that cavalry should be the chief and only arm; the idea that mounted service alone was honorable; the idea that the footman was a sloven and a coward.”

“When the kingdom of Charles the Great was broken up and the local counts began to acquire a semi-independence, feudalism arose, and horsemen acquired still greater importance. They had their merits. It was they who kept back the vast inroads of that era from north, east and south. Without them Christendom might have been overrun; no wonder the knight in armor won the regard of the whole earth.”