For fifteen years following, the country was torn by civil war. While
it raged, fortified castles, which, under William the Conqueror, had
been built and occupied by the King only, or by those whom he could
trust, now arose on every side. These strongholds became, as the
"Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" (S99) declares, "very nests of devils and dens
of thieves." More than a thousand of these castles, it is said, were
built. The armed bands who inhavited them levied tribute on the whole
country around.
Not satisfied with that, these miscreants seized those who were
suspected of having property, and, in the words of the "Chronicle,"
"tortured them with pains unspeakable; for some they hung up by the
feet and smoked with foul smoke; others they crushed in a narrow chest
with sharp stones. About the heads of others they bound knotted cords
until they went into the brain." "Thousands died of hunger, the towns
were burned, and the soil left untilled. By such deeds the land was
ruined, and men said openly that Christ and his saints were asleep."
The sleep, however, was not always to last; for in the next reign,
Justice, in the person of Henry II, effectually vindicated her power.
The strife for the crown continued till the last year of Stephen's
reign. Then the Church came to the rescue, and through its powerful
influence the Treaty of Wallingford (in Berkshire) was made. By that
treaty it was agreed that Matilda's son Henry should succeed Stephen.