s quieted in 1074,
and Robert of Bellème, with Robert Mowbray and Prince Robert, were
beaten in 1078. Similarly, when Rufus reigned, the same Robert Mowbray,
with Odo of Bayeux and others, held their castles as rebels until they
were stormed in 1095.

The Celts of both Wales and Scotland proved troublesome, so to hold the
latter frowning Norman castles were erected at each end of the neck
between North Britain and England at Carlisle and Newcastle, while the
former were shut in by a chain of similar fortresses from Cheshire to
the Severn valley, along which hostilities continued for many a year,
to the territorial aggrandisement of the defenders of the “Marches.”

Henry I.’s marriage, uniting the old royal race with the new, much
pacified matters, or at anyrate gave the king still more aid from the
English people as distinct from the Norman barons. Again Robert of
Bellème on the Welsh border revolted, but was driven into exile by the
sovereign: in the claim of Robert to the throne, Englishmen sided with
Henry, and for the first time served abroad to defeat the pretender at
Tenchebrai. But Henry left no male successor, and Matilda his daughter
was distasteful to the barons, who chose Stephen, grandson of the
Conqueror, as king. This created two factions--that of Stephen and that
of Matilda, the first of the great Civil Wars (for now the “English”
counted for much more than heretofore), and the king, unlike his
predecessors, unwisely allowing the barons to build castles on their
own lands, paid for his over-confidence. For Matilda’s party, led first
by the Earl of Gloucester, formed in the west of England, assisted by
David King of Scots in the north. Stephen advanced against the latter,
defeating the former at Northallerton, and after many vicissitudes on
both sides, the war ceased by the retirement of Matilda to Normandy.

So in anarchy and suffering--suffering so great that it was said “that
God and His saints were asleep,” so terrible were the wrongs done in
the land--the Norman power as such 