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HISTORY OF ENGLAND [1135-5 
have a claim to the throne were three young men, sons 
of one of the daughters of William the Conqueror. These 
young men were in Normandy, and in the midst of, the 
general lawlessness that followed the death of Henry, 
Stephen, the second son, made his way to London, and was 
veceived by the Londoners as their king. 
Three weeks after Henry’s death Stephen was crowned, and 
at once he gave the pcople two excellent charters, promising 
to treat them fairly and to do his best to be a good ruler. 
If he had been as strong as he was agrecable, England 
would have been saved 
many years of trouble, 
but his reign was nothing 
but turmoil from be- 
ginning to end. Matilda 
would not abandon her 
claim to the crown, and 
Stephen was neither 
powerful nor wise enough 
to oppose her success- 
fully. 
44. Behaviour of the 
English barons.—The 
barons supported now 
one and now the other. 
In faet, they did not care 
much who was on the 
throne, if they were only 
free to do what they 
chose. More and more 
castles were built, as Stephen was too weak to prevent 
their erection. Every baron was a king over the district 
around him, and most of these barons were tyrants. 
l’he “Anglo-Saxon Chroniele,” which stops with the reign 
of Stephen, says. “very rich man built castles and 
defended them against all, and they filled the land 
with censtles. "They greatly oppressed the wretched 
pcople by making them work at these ecastles, and when 
the castles were finished, thev filled them with devils 
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