Now of the first four, whom alone we call ‘Norman’ kings, three were wise and strong,—William I, William II, and Henry I,—and the fourth, Stephen, was foolish and weak. So, while the first sixty-nine years after the conquest were a time of increasing peace and prosperity, the next nineteen were the most dreadful period in our history.
Remember that the Norman barons were only five or six generations removed from the fierce Danish pirates who followed Rollo to France. There, as there were no strong kings to restrain them, they had been accustomed to build castles and to make their tenants fight for them in their private quarrels. When they got to England, and grew richer in lands and tenants than they had been in Normandy, they expected to play their familiar game with even greater success. Their kings, however, from the first, determined they should not do so.
The people will help the King against the barons.William found, in the slow, undisciplined old Saxon life, several things which served him to keep his barons in order. The Sheriffs.For instance, there was an officer in every county called a sheriff; he collected the King’s rents and taxes; he presided over the rude court of justice which was held in every county; he was supposed to lead to battle the free landowners of that county. William made his sherifts much more powerful, and made them responsible for the peace of their counties. Castles.In England, too, there had been few castles, and these only stockades of wood on the top of earthen mounds; whereas in France every baron had a castle. On the Welsh and Scottish borders William was obliged to allow, and even to encourage his followers to build castles, but elsewhere he forbade it. But he built a great many royal castles and filled them with faithful paid
