or the present, to the jealousy and inquietude of Henry.
[FN [h] Chron. Sax. p. 215. W. Malm. p. 166. Order. Vital. p. 83.
[i] See note [M], at the end of the volume. [k] Chron. Sax. p. 223.
W. Malm. p. 165. [l] W. Malm. p. 175. The annals of Waverly, p. 150,
say, that the king asked and obtained the consent of all the barons.]

The chief merit of this monarch's government consists in the profound
tranquillity which he established and maintained throughout all his
dominions during the greater part of his reign. The mutinous barons
were retained in subjection; and his neighbours, in every attempt
which they made upon him, found him so well prepared, that they were
discouraged from continung or renewing their enterprises. In order to
repress the incursions of the Welsh, he brought over some Flemings, in
the year 1111, and settled them in Pembrokeshire, where they long
maintained a different language, and customs, and manners, from their
neighbours. Though his government seems to have been arbitrary in
England, it was judicious and prudent; and was as little oppressive as
the necessity of his affairs would permit. He wanted not attention to
the redress of grievances; and historians mention in particular the
levying of purveyance, which he endeavoured to moderate and restrain.
The tenants in the king's demesne lands were at that time obliged to
supply, GRATIS, the court with provisions, and to furnish carriages on
the same hard terms, when the king made a progress, as he did
frequently, into any of the counties. These exactions were so
grievous, and levied in so licentious a manner, that the farmers, when
they heard of the approach of the court, often deserted their houses
as if an enemy had invaded the country [m], and sheltered their
persons and families in the woods from the insults of the king's
retinue. Henry prohibited those enormities, and punished the persons
guilty of them by cutting off their hands, legs, or other members [n].
But the prerogative was perpetual; the remedy applied by Henry was
temporary; and the violence itself of this remedy, so far from giving
security to the people, was only a proof of the ferocity of the
government, and threatened a quick return of like abuses.
[FN [m] Eadmer, p. 94. Chron. Sax. p. 212. [n] Eadmer, p. 94.]

One great and difficult object of the king's prudence was, the
guarding against the encroachments of the court of Rome, and
protecting the liberties of the chu