trusted, by the promotion of two persons so near him in blood, and so bound by benefits, that he had formed an impenetrable fence about the succession; but he only inspired into Stephen the design of seizing on the crown by bringing him so near it.  The opportunity was favorable.  The king died abroad; Matilda was absent with her husband; and the Bishop of Winchester, by his universal credit, disposed the churchmen to elect his brother, with the concurrence of the greatest part of the nobility, who forgot their oaths, and vainly hoped that a bad title would necessarily produce a good government.  Stephen, in the flower of youth, bold, active, and courageous, full of generosity and a noble affability, that seemed to reproach the state and avarice of the preceding kings, was not wanting to his fortune.  He seized immediately the immense treasures of Henry, and by distributing them with a judicious profusion removed all doubts concerning his title to them.  He did not spare even the royal demesne, but secured himself a vast number of adherents by involving their guilt and interest in his own.  He raised a considerable army of Flemings, in order to strengthen himself against another turn of the same instability which had raised him to the throne; and, in imitation of the measures of the late king, he concluded all by giving a charter of liberties as ample as the people at that time aspired to.  This charter contained a renunciation of the forests made by his predecessor, a grant to the ecclesiastics of a jurisdiction over their own vassals, and to the people in general an immunity from unjust tallages and exactions.  It is remarkable, that the oath of allegiance taken by the nobility on this occasion was conditional:  it was to be observed so long as the king observed the terms of his charter,—­a condition which added no real security to the rights of the subject, but which proved a fruitful source of dissension, tumult, and civil violence.

The measures which the king hitherto pursued were dictated by sound policy; but he took another step to secure his throne, which in fact took away all its security, and at the same time brought the country to extreme misery, and to the brink of utter ruin.

At the Conquest there were very few fortifications in the kingdom.  William found it necessary for his security to erect several.  During the struggles of the English, the Norman nobility were permitted (as in reason it could not be refused) to fortify their own houses.  It was, however, still understood that no new fortress could be erected without the king’s special license.  These private castles began very early to embarrass the government.  The royal castles were scarcely less troublesome:  for, as everything was then in tenure, the governor held his place by the tenure of castle-guard; and thus, instead of a simple officer, subject to his pleasure, the king had to deal with a feudal tenant, secure against him by law, if he performed his services,