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.