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gjwftaefltojgia: €mknmwi FOURTH SERIES.—VOL. XII, NO. XLVII. JULY 1881. THE POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF CASTLES IN THE REIGN OF HENRY II. Henry II was a great builder, and especially of military works. " In muris, in propugnaculis, in munitionibus, in fossatis,......nullus subtilior, nullus magnificentior, invenitur." This, however, does not so much refer to new castles, of which he built but few, as to the com¬ pletion or addition of new keeps to the old ones, such, for example, as Dover. A few days after his arrival in England he received the fealty of the magnates of the realm at Winchester Castle, and was crowned at Westminster, 19th Decem¬ ber, immediately after which he granted to William Earl of Arundel the Castle and Honour of Arundel and the third penny of the county of Sussex. This was probably for life, for upon the Earl's death in 1176 the Castle and county reverted to the Crown, and were re- granted. Notwithstanding this beginning, Henry was fully determined to carry out the policy agreed upon at Wallingford in the face of the nation. A few days later he attended a council at Bermondsey, at which it was decided to order all foreign mercenaries to quit the kingdom on pain of death, and to raze all castles erected in the reign of Stephen. This decision was felt on all sides to be absolutely required, and it was, to a great extent, at once acted upon. Of these "castra *TH 8BR., VOL. XII. 13