took away all its security, and at the same time brought the country to
extreme misery, and to the brink of utter ruin.

At the Conquest there were very few fortifications in the kingdom.
William found it necessary for his security to erect several. During the
struggles of the English, the Norman nobility were permitted (as in
reason it could not be refused) to fortify their own houses. It was,
however, still understood that no new fortress could be erected without
the king's special license. These private castles began very early to
embarrass the government. The royal castles were scarcely less
troublesome: for, as everything was then in tenure, the governor held
his place by the tenure of castle-guard; and thus, instead of a simple
officer, subject to his pleasure, the king had to deal with a feudal
tenant, secure against him by law, if he performed his services, and by
force, if he was unwilling to perform them. Every resolution of
government required a sort of civil war to put it in execution. The two
last kings had taken, and demolished several of these castles; but when
they found the reduction, of any of them difficult, their custom
frequently was, to erect another close by it, tower against tower, ditch
against ditch: these were called Malvoisins, from their purpose and
situation. Thus, instead of removing, they in fact doubled the mischief.
Stephen, perceiving the passion of the barons for these castles, among
other popular acts in the beginning of his reign, gave a general license
for erecting them. Then was seen to arise in every corner of the
kingdom, in every petty seigniory, an inconceivable multitude of
strongholds, the seats of violence, and the receptacles of murderers,
felons, debasers of the coin, and all manner of desperate and abandoned
villains. Eleven hundred and fifteen of these castles were built in this
single reign. The barons, having thus shut out the law, made continual
inroads upon each other, and spread war, rapine, burning, and desolation