Note 810 — Chapter VII · THE TOWNS.

Even under the Norman kings, the condition of this country seems to have been comparatively easy. Its darkest moments were during the wars of Stephen and Henry Plantagenet. The position then assumed by the seigneurs or castellans and its results are thus well described by an old chronicler:—“Sane inter partes diu certatum est, alternante fortuna; sed tunc quodammodo remissiores motus esse coeperunt: quod tamen Angliae non cessit in bonum, eo quod tot erant reges quot domini castellorum, habentes singuli numisma proprium et more regis subditos iudicantes. Et quia magnates terrae sic invicem excellere satagebant, eo quod nullus in alterum habebat imperium, mox inter se disceptantes rapinis et incendiis clarissimas regiones corruperunt, in tantum quod omne robur panis fere deperiit.” Walt. Hemingburh, vulgo Gisseburne, i. 74. “Castella quippe studio partium per singulas provincias surrexerant crebra; erantque in Anglia tot quodammodo reges, vel potius tyranni, quot castellorum domini, habentes singuli percussuram proprii numismatis, et potestatem dicendi subditis regio more iura.” Annal. Trivet. 1147, p. 25. The contemporary Saxon chronicler gives the most frightful account of the tyrannous exactions of the castellans, and the tortures they inflicted on the defenceless cultivators. And this miserable condition of the country is only too obvious in the words with which the contemporary author of the life of Stephen commences his work. Gest. Stephani, p. 1 seq. Nor can this surprise us, when we learn that at this period not less than eleven hundred and fifteen castles had been built in England. Rog. Wendov. an. 1153, Coxe’s edit. ii. 256.