very heavy, and men often found it hard to pay them. The king's wars in Normandy cost large sums, and the English people had to pay for them. The chief object of the king in his govern

Character of the Norman rule.

ment of England was to keep the people contented and get plenty of money out of them. In this he succeeded, for they never tried to go against him. But he had to give them the liberties, or forms of liberties, which afterwards helped them to govern themselves.

This account of the Norman government may perhaps seem very dry and hard to understand. But it is not hard to see why it should interest every Englishman. It tells us about the way in which the government we now have came to exist. Our English constitution has grown up gradually and naturally out of the mixture of the old English and the Norman customs. We have traced how the Normans made use of the forms of government they found in the land: they added order and strength to what they found, and put new life into it by their great energy; so that the whole nation grew stronger through them.

Death of

mandy struck on a rock and sank, and all in it were lost. After this terrible blow, the story tells us, Henry never smiled again. William was his only son, to whom he had hoped to leave his strong power. The only child now left him was Matilda, who had been married to the Emperor 1120. Henry V., King of Germany. Henry I. hoped that she would succeed him, but in those days it seemed a strange thing that a woman should rule over the lawless barons.

Prince
William.

Henry did all in his power to make her sure of the crown. He made all the barons and clergy swear to be faithful to her, and he married her after the emperor's death to Geoffrey of Anjou, the son of the man he most feared, Fulk, Count of Anjou. You will remember that the Counts of Anjou had always been foes of the Normans, and so the Norman barons hated this marriage.

No

Stephen of Boulogne becomes king.

2. When Henry died in Normandy, in 1135, all seemed uncertain. There was an end to the peace and order which the king loved, for the strong hand which kept the barons quiet was gone. one remembered the oaths which they had sworn to Matilda In the midst of the confusion Stephen, Count of Boulogne, son of the Conqueror's daughter, Adela, persuaded the English to choose him to be their king.

Stephen was a brave soldier, very generous and affable, so that men readily loved him. He swore to give the land peace and good government, and all England took him for her king, whilst no one took up Matilda's

cause.

3. Stephen was nothing but a soldier; he had no idea how to govern the country. All was disorder

Stephen's in the land. The barons built strong castles, misgovernand plundered the poor at their pleasure.

ment.

Stephen, who wished to make firm friends for himself,

made many new earls. He took no care, as the Norman kings before him had done, to keep the barons from growing too powerful. For once feudalism got the upper hand in England, and the disorder and suffering that followed showed how wise had been the government of the Conqueror and his sons. The clergy alone tried to make peace in the land. But Stephen managed to make them his enemies.

Stephen's quarrel with the Church.

4. Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, the great minister of Henry I., had gone on being Justiciar under Stephen. He, too, that he might be safe in those lawless times, had built and fortified castles. His nephews, who were bishops too, had done the same, and they came to court with long trains of servants as if they were princes. Stephen was afraid of such a powerful subject as Roger, so he seized him and made him give up his castles. This made the clergy very angry. Soon afterwards the Empress Matilda landed in England, and war began again. Even Stephen's brother Henry, Bishop of Winchester, a rich and powerful man, went over to Matilda's side, because Stephen had done wrong to the Church.

Civil war.

5. The disgrace of Bishop Roger put the whole country in disorder, for he alone had looked after the government. The laws were no longer carried out, and justice was not done in the land. For fourteen years there was war between Stephen and Matilda. First one side met with success, then the other. Once Stephen was taken prisoner, but was let go again in return for other prisoners. Once Matilda was so hard-pressed in Oxford by Stephen, that she had to flee over the frozen floods clad all in white, so that she might not be seen against the snow.

The barons fought first on one side, and then on the other. They did not care either for Stephen or Matilda,

but only wanted to get power for themselves. The clergy spoke up for peace, but they were not strong enough to do much.

In the meanwhile the misery of the people was very great. One chronicler says: 'Some did what was right in their own eyes, but many did what they knew to be wrong all the more readily, now that the fear of the law and the king was taken away.' Another says: 'The barons greatly oppressed the wretched people by making them work at their castles. They took, by night and by day, those whom they thought to have any goods; seizing both men and women, they put them in prison for their gold and silver, and tortured them with pains unspeakable. Many thousands they exhausted with hunger. Then was corn dear, and cheese and butter, for there was none in the land. Wretched men starved with hunger; some lived on alms who before were rich some

fled the country. Never was more misery, and never acted heathens worse than these. . . . Men said openly that Christ slept and his saints.'

CHAPTER II.

SETTLEMENT OF THE DISORDER.

I. THE Country at last wearied of the struggle, and there came to England a man who seemed fitted to bring it to an end. This was Matilda's son, Henry of End of the Anjou, who had now grown to manhood.

war.

Already he held many lands in France. His father's death had given him Anjou. From his mother he had Normandy, which Stephen had never been able to hold. He had married Eleanor of Guienne, the heiress of the county of Poitou and the great duchy of Guienne. In

this way he was lord of a greater part of France than was the French king himself.

Henry began by making war on Stephen. But the misery of the country stirred up the clergy to try and make peace. Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, was sincerely moved by a wish to help the people, and Henry Bishop of Winchester aided him in persuading Stephen and Henry to come to terms.

Peace of

1153.

2. By the Peace of Wallingford it was agreed that Stephen should keep the crown as long as he lived, on condition that it went to Henry on his death. A Wallingford, plan of reform was also made, most likely by Henry, so that means might be taken to bring back order and lessen the people's sufferings. Stephen did not live to carry out this plan, and probably would have been too weak to do so. He died the year after the Peace of Wallingford, and the crown passed quietly to Henry.

3. With Henry II. came in a new race of kings-the Angevin Kings, as they were called, because of their descent from Geoffrey of Anjou. From Geoffrey too they got their surname of Plantagenet, because he had a habit of wearing in his hat a piece of broom called in Latin, Planta Genista.

The Angevin kings, 1154.

Under the Angevin kings England made great progress. First of all Henry II. by his wisdom made her strong, for he knew how to make use of what the Norman kings had done, and how to make their work better. Afterwards the weakness and bad government of John did as much for the people as Henry II.'s wisdom had done, for it taught them their own strength, and led them to make it felt.

It was under these kings that England became one. She learnt to feel that she was one country, under one government. The Normans and the English too became