But no one saw him do it, and it is quite as likely that the murderer was one of the many sufferers, who had been driven from their homes when the New Forest was made.

10. Henry I.-Henry I., the youngest son of the Conqueror, was chosen to succeed him.

THE DEATH OF WILLIAM RUFUS.

He married an English wife, a great granddaughter of Edmund Ironside. Through her, the kings of England are descended not merely from William the Conqueror, but also from Alfred and Egbert. Henry, like William, had a quarrel with Anselm; but, after a time, the two men were reconciled. Henry, too, put down the great Norman landowners with a

heavy hand. His English subjects did not love him. His rule was too stern, and his taxation too heavy for that. But they preferred a stern King to the tyranny of the Norman landowners. They called him the Lion of

MILITARY, CIVIL, AND ECCLESIASTICAL COSTUME.
TIME, HENRY I.

Justice, and they served him faithfully for thirty-five years. With their help he overcame his brother Robert, took Normandy from him, and shut him up in Cardiff Castle as a prisoner for life.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ANARCHY OF STEPHEN'S REIGN AND THE RESTORATION OF ORDER BY HENRY II.

(STEPHEN, 1135. HENRY II 1154.)

Queen, they

They chose Stephen was

1. King Stephen.-When Henry died, Englishmen discovered what was the misery from which his hard rule had saved them. Henry's son, William, had been drowned in passing from Normandy to England; and, though the barons,-that is to say, the great landowners in England,-had sworn to accept his daughter Matilda as their refused to do so after his death. instead his nephew Stephen. not in any way a usurper, as he is sometimes called. There was then no law or custom giving the crown to the eldest son of the last King. The great men had always chosen some one of the royal family. There had never been a Queen in England before; and, at a time when the King was accustomed to go to battle, most men would think that there ought not to be a Queen. Stephen was the man who was the nearest related to Henry. He was a generous and well-disposed man;

but he had not the strong will of the three Kings before him. He could not keep the barons in order. Soon Matilda came to England and claimed the throne. Some of the barons fought for her, and some for Stephen. In reality very few of them cared either for her or for Stephen. They knew that, as long as there were two persons fighting for the crown, they themselves could do as they pleased.

2. Tyranny of the Nobles.-What they pleased to do, was ruinous for the English people. They built strong castles, and filled them with armed men. From these they rode out as robbers, as a wild beast goes forth from its den. 'They fought among themselves with deadly hatred; they spoiled the fairest lands with fire and rapine; in what had been the most fertile of counties, they destroyed almost all the provision of bread.' Whatever money or valuable goods, they found they carried off. They burnt houses, and sacked towns. If they suspected any one of concealing his wealth, they carried him off to their castle; and there they tortured him, to make him confess where his money was. 'They hanged up men by their feet, and smoked them with foul smoke. Some were hanged up by

their thumbs, others by the head; and burning things were hung on to their feet. They put knotted strings about men's heads, and twisted them till they went to the brain. They put

A NOBLE RIDING OUT FROM HIS CASTLE.

men into prisons, where adders, and snakes, and toads were crawling; and so they tormented them. Some they put into a chest, short and narrow and not deep, and that had sharp stones within; and forced men therein,