I keep hearing excuses like “but your highness the entire crop was destroyed and we’re starving” or “but my lord I’m dying of the plague”. Like ok? That sounds like a you problem. Someone has to do all the work around here and that someone’s not going to be me.
You should trample some of their crops and collect fines for marrying without permission to motivate them.
Why would I have men trample my own crops? It is only ‘theirs’ in that they do require food to continue living.
I will wish to meet with the rabblerouser that has started this mess. Hear his complaints so that I might judge their worth.
And then kill the man regardless. Even if his argument had merit he still insight unproductive waste and discord while giving threat to his fellow men. There are proper ways of levying grievance. If his cause be just and his words true then the Lord will receive him gladly and I will mark a local day of remembrance for him. If his cause is foul and his words laced with treasonous venom? Well, the execution will be more a show of sport than a solemn balancing of books.
What? I am not without compassion for these simple people. using the Rod to beat compliance into a beast only works for so long without a reprieve.