A short history of England . da at one time and for Stephen atanother, according as their interests or their feelings might dic-tate. In fact, the barons made use oi the disputed claim to thethrone to live in practical independence of any king. They for-tified their castles by permission of one or other of the contestants,or without permission. They led their armed knights and theirtenants to take part on either side in the war or to fight against ENGLAND UNDER THE NORMANS 131 other nobles with whom they had private quarrels. They coinedmoney and forced the people on their estates and in the t
A short history of England . da at one time and for Stephen atanother, according as their interests or their feelings might dic-tate. In fact, the barons made use oi the disputed claim to thethrone to live in practical independence of any king. They for-tified their castles by permission of one or other of the contestants,or without permission. They led their armed knights and theirtenants to take part on either side in the war or to fight against ENGLAND UNDER THE NORMANS 131 other nobles with whom they had private quarrels. They coinedmoney and forced the people on their estates and in the townsunder their control to accept it. They refused to acknowledgethe kings court or the decisions of the county and hundred killed the kings game in defiance of the forest laws. In fact, instead of England being ruled by one government,there were hundreds of lords of higher or lower degree eachacting as if he had no government above him whatsoever. Thisperiod is therefore often described as the period of ?s~-S ?foti^,**^- tJiU-:y ^.A Castle Rising, one of the Baronial Castles fortified in Stephens Time Men were brutal and cruel at best in those times. Blinding wasa common punishment for political prisoners of high rank, andthe cutting off of hands and feet for culprits of lower of a castle, when they had made its master or somemember of his family prisoner, frequently kept him withoutfood, and displayed him to the besieged daily before the walls,so that the sight of his increasing misery might lead those in thecastle to surrender. There were frequent instances of churchesfilled with men, women, and children being burned down withall that were in them. I 3 J A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLAND When the weakness of Stephen and the confusion o( the civilwar reduced the regular government to powerlessness, this ten-dency to reckless brutality ami outrage became vastly narrative which has come down from that time describes the killing, burni
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherbosto, bookyear1904
