Anselm, for example), faded out, they became more and more mere
landlords, although from the conditions of their landlordism, living
as they did on their land and amidst of their tenants, they were less
oppressive than the lay landlords.

The order and progress of Henry I.'s reign, which marks the
transition from the mere military camp of the Conqueror to the
mediaeval England I have to dwell upon, was followed by the period of
mere confusion and misery which accompanied the accession of the
princes of Anjou to the throne of England. In this period the barons
widely became mere violent and illegal robbers; and the castles with
which the land was dotted, and which were begun under the auspices of
the Conqueror as military posts, became mere dens of strong-thieves.

No doubt this made the business of the next able king, Henry II., the
easier. He was a staunch man of business, and turned himself with
his whole soul towards the establishment of order and the
consolidation of the monarchy, which accordingly took a great stride
under him towards its ultimate goal of bureaucracy. He would
probably have carried the business still farther, since in his
contest with the Church, in spite of the canonization of Beckett and
the king's formal penance at his tomb, he had in fact gained a
victory for the Crown which it never really lost again; but in his
days England was only a part of the vast dominion of his House, which
included more than half of France, and his struggle with his
feudatories and the French king, which sowed the seed of the loss of
that dominion to the English Crown, took up much of his life, and
finally beat him.

His two immediate successors, Richard I. and John, were good