=Source.=--Eadmer, _Historia Novorum in Anglia_, ed. Rule, p. 192.
(Rolls Series.)
Meanwhile king Henry, noting that wellnigh the whole of the realm had
sunk for many causes into deep misery, began to consider, by the advice
of Anselm and the chief men of the realm, how to palliate in some way
the evils by which especially the poor were weighed down. He wisely
began this good work with his own court. In the time of the king, his
brother, a great number of the company that followed his court were in
the habit of destroying and plundering indiscriminately, and without
any check or restraint, of wasting the whole of the land through which
the king passed. Another evil supervened. Most of them, drunk with
their own malice, when they could not altogether consume all that they
found in the houses into which they forced their way, used to have the
residue taken to the market place by the very possessors and sold for
their private profit, or to light a fire and destroy it, or, if it were
drink, to wash their horses’ feet with it and pour the remainder on the
ground, or at any rate make away with it in some other manner.... For
these causes all men, on hearing of the king’s coming, used to fly from
their dwellings, in their anxiety for themselves and their households,
and make for the woods or other places where they hoped to secure
protection. King Henry, eager to do away with this curse, published a
prohibition, and with stern and steady justice punished all who could
be convicted of any of the practices I have spoken of, by causing
their eyes to be plucked out, or their hands or feet or other members
to be cut off. This justice was suffered by many and proved a visible
deterrent to the rest from inflicting injury on others, if they would
save whole their own persons.