The work of death had been fearful. But it was better that England
should suffer from these pitiless measures than that it should sink
into anarchy, or into subjection to hordes of Northmen (S53). For
those fierce barbarians destroyed not because they desired to build
something better, but because they hated civilization and all its
works.
Whatever William's faults may have been, his great object was to build
up a government better than any England had yet seen. Hence his
severity, hence his castles and forts, by which he made sure of
retaining his hold upon whatever he had gained.