When there are military elites writing about how battle is important and joyful and “[N]o man is worth a thing till he has given and gotten blow on blow”, closing with “Barons, pawn your castles, and your villages, and your cities before you stop making war on one another” and how his Lord “has lived in peace too long”, without particularly sticking out from the spirit of his times, you just know they were the most peaceful and civilised people ever.