A part of the new policy, though not at once enforced, was the introduction, to a certain extent, of a money commutation for personal military service. The new payment, under the name of “scutage,” became an important branch of the revenue of the Crown. A rule was also established, which, if not always acted upon, was well understood, that no man should build a castle, or convert his dwelling into a “domus defensabilis,” without a licence from the King.
In 1156 Henry went, by way of Dover, to the Continent, where he took Mirabeau and Chinon, one of his charters being dated “Mirabel in obsidione,” and another, “apud Chinon in exercitu”; nor did he return to England till 1157, when he was at Southampton Castle, and went thence to Ongar, Richard de Lacy’s Essex castle, and received from William Count of Mortaine, King Stephen’s son, Pevensey and the Warenne castles, which had fallen to him with the name and estates of that family. Hugh Bigot also gave up Norwich, and made a general submission. Henry then visited Colchester and other Essex castles, and thence proceeded to Northampton. Malcolm of Scotland was fain to follow the example of his English friends, and gave up Carlisle, Bamborough, and Newcastle, together with the three northern counties. His personal submission was made to Henry at Peveril’s Castle in the Peak, on which occasion the sheriff’s expenses on his behalf were considerable. Malcolm was allowed to retain his grandmother’s honour and castle of Huntingdon.
The destruction of so many smaller and later castles restored to their former prominence those of greater strength and older date, which, being for the most part necessary for the defence of the kingdom, were preserved and strengthened, and entrusted to castellans of approved fidelity. Becket, before his ecclesiastical promotion, thus received the castles of the Tower and of Berkhampstead, and the castle and honour of Eye.
One of Henry’s chief difficulties arose out of the position of the marcher-lords, such as the De Clares and the Mareschals, whose almost regal powers, granted originally to enable them to hold the frontier against the Welsh, were more frequently used, in conjunction with the Welsh, to coerce the sovereign.
In 1157 Henry invaded North Wales, and while traversing Counsyth, a Flintshire pass, was for a moment in great personal peril. It was on this occasion that Henry de Essex threw down the standard and fled, and thus forfeited his castle of Raleigh. On his way back Henry repaired the castles of Basingwerk and Rhuddlan, and probably directed the construction of Bere Castle, a very curious fortress with some ornamental details in the Early English style, built upon a detached rock in a valley west of Cader Idris.
In 1158 Henry visited various parts of England. At Carlisle, in January, he knighted Earl Warenne, but refused that honour to Malcolm King of Scotland. While there he fortified Wark Castle, the sheriff’s charge for which was £21. 8s. 11d. At Nottingham he gave to Richard de Haia the custody “castelli mei de Lincoln,” showing that he claimed it for the Crown. In August he embarked at Portsmouth or Southampton for Normandy; and while abroad took the castles of Thouars, Amboise, Fretevel, Moulins, and Bon-Moulins. In 1159 he was occupied three months at the siege of Thoulouse, which he failed to take. Other castles in Normandy he took and repaired; others, again, he destroyed; and he built a few altogether new.
In January, 1163, Becket came to England with the King, and gave great offence to the baronage by claiming Tonbridge Castle for his see. Towards the close of the year Henry deprived him of the charge of the castles of Eye and Berkhampstead; and in December admitted him to a personal interview at Oxford Castle. In this year Henry was again at Peak Castle, and in March, 1164, at Porchester. Soon afterwards the strong castle of Tickhill fell to the Crown by escheat; and Henry spent Christmas at Marlborough, a royal castle.
In 1165, after a short visit to Normandy, during which the Queen visited Sherborne Castle, Henry was at Rhuddlan, and caused Basingwerk and the Flintshire castles to be again put in order. This was fortunate, for the campaign was unsuccessful. Expenses on that occasion were allowed at Oswestry (then called Blancmont), Shrawardine, and Chirk Castles. This was an assertion of ownership on the part of the Crown, although Oswestry was part of the private estate of William Fitz-Alan, then a minor. Henry retired to Shrewsbury, and soldiers were brought up from Worcester and Abergavenny, some of whom were quartered in the Corbet Castle at Caus. Grosmont, Llantilio or White Castle, and Scenfrith, the Monmouthshire trilateral, also contributed soldiers. From Shrewsbury, Henry, reinforced, advanced into Powis-land, and encamped on the Berwyn Mountain, where he was near being cut off by the Welsh, and had to take refuge at Shotwick Castle, a small fortress on the root of the peninsula of Wirrall, whence he retired to Chester, and returned to London.
In February or March, 1166, was compiled the return of military fiefs and tenants in chief, known as the Liber Niger, and which professes to represent the feudal military force of the kingdom, though so far only as the division of the land into military fees was then completed. The Liber Ruber states the fees, in the reign of Richard I., to have been 32,000. Orderic gives them at nearly double this, or 60,000. But there are no data for estimating, with any approach to correctness, the force that the King could bring into the field. Under Henry I. and Stephen, mercenaries were largely employed, drawn mainly from Flanders. The Liber Niger has received very valuable attention at the hands of Mr. Eyton and Professor Stubbs.
Early in Lent in this year Henry embarked at Southampton for Normandy, where he reduced the castles of Alençon and La Roche Mabile, and received a visit from the King of Scotland. Late in the year Geoffrey de Mandeville and Richard de Lacy engaged in an unsuccessful expedition into North Wales, and again strengthened Basingwerk Castle, during which they were attacked by the Welsh. Henry remained absent in Normandy, Gascony, and Brittany about four years, landing at Portsmouth in March, 1170; but he returned to Normandy in June. In October he wrote to Prince Henry, directing him to restore the honour of Saltwood to the Archbishop. On the 29th of December, Becket was murdered, the assassins having rested at Saltwood the preceding night. After the murder they went to Knaresborough Castle, then held by Hugh de Morville as castellan.