of the lord, whose newly-built castle towered over the wretched hovels
of his tenants, and the peasants came for justice to the baron's court,
and paid their fees to the baron's treasury. The right of private
coinage added to his wealth, as the multitude of retainers bound to
follow them in war added to his power. The barons were naturally roused
to a passion of revolt when the new administrative system threatened to
cut them off from all share in the rights of government, which in other
feudal countries were held to go along with the possession of land. They
hated the "new men" who were taking their places at the council-board;
and they revolted against the new order which cut them off from useful
sources of revenue, from unchecked plunder, from fines at will in their
courts of hundred and manor, from the possibility of returning fancy
accounts, and of profitable "farming" of the shires; they were jealous
of the clergy, who played so great a part in the administration, and
who threatened to surpass them in the greatness of their wealth, their
towns and their castles; and they only waited for a favourable moment to
declare open war on the government of the court.

In this uncertain balance of forces in the State order rested ultimately
on the personal character of the king; no sooner did a ruler appear who
was without the sense of government than the whole administration was at
once shattered to pieces. The only son of Henry I. had perished in the
wreck of the _White Ship_; and his daughter Matilda had been sent to
Germany as a child of eight years old, to become the wife of the Emperor
Henry V. On his death in 1125 her father summoned her back to receive
the homage of the English people as heiress of the kingdom. The homage
was given with as little warmth as it was received. Matilda was a mere
stranger and a foreigner in England, and the rule of a woman was
resented by the baronage. Two years later, in 1128, Henry sought by
means of a marriage between the Empress Matilda and Geoffrey, the son of