The strife for the Crown had broken into a medley of feuds between baron and baron, for none could brook an equal or a superior in his fellow.

"They fought among themselves with deadly hatred, they spoiled the fairest lands with fire and rapine; in what had been the most fertile of counties they destroyed almost all the provision of bread." For fight as they might with one another, all were at one in the plunder of the land.

Towns were put to ransom.
Villages were sacked and burned.

All who were deemed to have goods, whether men or women, were carried off and flung into dungeons and tortured till they yielded up their wealth.

No ghastlier picture of a nation's misery has ever been painted than that which closes the English Chronicle whose last accents falter out amidst the horrors of the time.
"They hanged up men by their feet and smoked them with foul smoke.