The bishops met in council to protest, but their protests and excommunications fell on deafened ears.

For the first and last time in her history England was in the hands of the baronage, and their outrages showed from what horrors the stern rule of the Norman kings had saved her.

Castles sprang up everywhere.

"They filled the land with castles," say the terrible annals of the time.

"They greatly oppressed the wretched people by making them work at these castles, and when they were finished they filled them with devils and armed men." In each of these robber-holds a petty tyrant ruled like a king.