"Stark he was to men that withstood him," says the Chronicler of his English system of government; "so harsh and cruel was he that none dared withstand his will.

Earls that did aught against his bidding he cast into bonds; bishops he stripped of their bishopricks, abbots of their abbacies.

He spared not his own brother: first he was in the land, but the King cast him into bondage.

If a man would live and hold his lands, need it were he followed the King's will." Stern as such a rule was, its sternness gave rest to the land.

Even amidst the sufferings which necessarily sprang from the circumstances of the Conquest itself, from the erection of castles or the enclosure of forests or the exactions which built up William's hoard at Winchester, Englishmen were unable to forget "the good peace he made in the land, so that a man might fare over his realm with a bosom full of gold." Strange touches too of a humanity far in advance of his age contrasted with this general temper of the Conqueror's government.