sily be induced to depart at
once from her hereditary right, and from their own reiterated oaths
and engagements. But the irregular manner in which he himself had
acquired the crown might have instructed him, that neither his Norman
nor English subjects were as yet capable of adhering to a strict rule
of government; and as every precedent of this kind seems to give
authority to new usurpations, he had reason to dread, even from his
own family, some invasion of his daughter's title which he had taken
such pains to establish.

Adela, daughter of William the Conqueror, had been married to Stephen,
Count of Blois, and had brought him several sons, among whom Stephen
and Henry, the two youngest, had been invited over to England by the
late king, and had received great honours, riches, and preferment,
from the zealous friendship which that prince bore to every one that
had been so fortunate as to acquire his favour and good opinion.
Henry, who had betaken himself to the ecclesiastical profession, was
created Abbot of Glastonbury and Bishop of Winchester; and though
these dignities were considerable, Stephen had, from his uncle's
liberality, attained establishments still more solid and durable [a].
The king had married him to Matilda, who was daughter and heir of
Eustace Count of Boulogne, and who brought him, besides that feudal
sovereignty in France, an immense property in England, which, in the
distribution of lands, had been conferred by the Conqueror on the
family of Boulogne. Stephen also by this marriage acquired a new
connexion with the royal family of England; as Mary, his wife's
mother, was sister to David the reigning King of Scotland, and to
Matilda, the first wife of Henry, and mother of the empress. The
king, still imagining that he strengthened the interests of his family
by the aggrandizement of Stephen, took pleasure in enriching him by
the grant of new possessions; and he conferred on him the great estate
forfeited by Robert Mallet in England, and that forfeited by the Earl
of Mortaigne in Normandy. Stephen, in return, professed great
attachment to his uncle; and appeared so zealous for the succession of
Matilda, that when the barons swore fealty to that princess, he
contended with Robert, Earl of Gloucester, the king's natural son, who
should first be admitted to give her this testimony of devoted zeal
and fidelity [b]. Meanwhile he continued to cultivate, by every art
of popularity, the friendship of