Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season One/@comment-5102537-20130316141226/@comment-5102537-20130323154154

Yes, from our modern point of view, the differences in status only are stupid and discriminating. From Uther or other royal's point of view in medieval times, it made sense. What our today's educational system is - and we still differentiate highly sophisticated people from those whose sophistication/education is rather average or low in regard to status and job - was the royal system in medieval times.

Unfortunately, those of noble blood had the privilege of sophistication whereas most peasants and commoners couldn't even read and write and knew nothing of running a kingdom. Most of the time, nobles/royals were educated to be good fighters and knights and to serve the monarchs the way they were supposed to be with loyalty and obedience, not to mention the necessary insight and manners. I doubt that it was enough to simply be a good fighter. And given that Uther's knights, the ones we were introduced to, were all noble and far from being bigoted "whoring scums", his system seemed to work quite well. He also had to trust those who he knew or whose parents/relatives he knew. Moreover, royals had a background that was documented in the libraries which was some sort of insurance too. He could have never been sure about strangers who had no written background and no necessary education.