es, and supported the discipline of
the church.[*] The barons, in return for their submission, exacted terms
still more destructive of public peace, as well as of royal authority.
Many of them required the right of fortifying their castles, and of
putting themselves in a posture of defence; and the king found himself
totally unable to refuse his consent to this exorbitant demand.[**] All
England was immediately filled with those fortresses, which the noblemen
garrisoned either with their vassals, or with licentious soldiers, who
flocked to them from all quarters. Unbounded rapine was exercised upon
the people for the maintenance of these troops; and private animosities,
which had with difficulty been restrained by law, now breaking out
without control, rendered England a scene of uninterrupted violence and
devastation. Wars between the nobles were carried on with the utmost
fury in every quarter; the barons even assumed the right of coining
money, and of exercising, without appeal, every act of jurisdiction;
[***] and the inferior gentry, as well as the people, finding no defence
from the laws during this total dissolution of sovereign authority, were
obliged, for their immediate safety, to pay court to some neighboring
chieftain, and to purchase his protection, both by submitting to his
exactions, and by assisting him in his rapine upon others. The erection
of one castle proved the immediate cause of building many others; and
even those who obtained not the king's permission, thought that they
were entitled, by the great principle of self-preservation, to put
themselves on an equal footing with their neighbors, who commonly
were also their enemies and rivals. The aristocratical power, which is
usually so oppressive in the Feudal governments, had now risen to its
utmost height, during the reign of a prince who, though endowed with
vigor and abilities, had usurped the throne without the pretence of a
title, and who was necessitated to tolerate in others the same violence
to which he himself had been holden for his sovereignty.

[* W. Malms, p. 179.]

[** W. Malms, p, 180]

[*** Trivet, p, 19 Gul Neub. p. 372. W. Heming. p.
487. Brompton, p. 1035.]

But Stephen was not of a disposition to submit long to these
usurpations, without making some effort for the recovery of royal
authority. Finding that the legal prerogatives of the crown were
resisted and abridged, he was also tempted to make his power