and a breach of his oath to
Matilda: to refuse giving this pledge of his fidelity, was to banish
himself from England, and be totally incapacitated from serving the
royal family, or contributing to their restoration [l]. He offered
Stephen to do him homage, and to take the oath of fealty; but with an
express condition, that the king should maintain all his stipulations,
and should never invade any of Robert's rights or dignities: and
Stephen, though sensible that this reserve, so unusual in itself, and
so unbefitting the duty of a subject, was meant only to afford Robert
a pretence for a revolt on the first favourable opportunity, was
obliged, by the numerous friends and retainers of that nobleman, to
receive him on those terms [m]. The clergy, who could scarcely, at
this time, be deemed subjects to the crown, imitated that dangerous
example: they annexed to their oaths of allegiance this condition,
that they were only bound so long as the king defended the
ecclesiastical liberties, and supported the discipline of the church
[n]. The barons, in return for their submission, exacted terms still
more destructive of public peace, as well as of royal authority: many
of them required the right of fortifying their castles, and of putting
themselves in a posture of defence; and the king found himself totally
unable to refuse his consent to this exorbitant demand [o]. All
England was immediately filled with those fortresses, which the
noblemen garrisoned either with their vassals, or with licentious
soldiers, who flocked to them from all quarters. Unbounded rapine was
exercised upon the people for the maintenance of these troops; and
private animosities, which had with difficulty been restrained by law,
now breaking out without control, rendered England a scene of
uninterrupted violence and devastation. Wars between the nobles were
carried on with the utmost fury in every quarter; the barons even
assumed the right of coining money, and of exercising, without appeal,
every act of jurisdiction [p]; and the inferior gentry, as well as the
people, finding no defence from the laws during this total dissolution
of sovereign authority, were obliged for their immediate safety, to
pay court to some neighbouring chieftain, and to purchase his
protection, both by submitting to his exactions, and by assisting him
in his rapine upon others. The erection of one castle proved the
immediate cause of building many others; and even those wh