49. At last, it was settled that Stephen should keep the crown as long as he lived; but that Matilda’s son, Henry Plantagenet, should succeed him; and, soon after this arrangement, he died, having reigned nineteen years. QUESTIONS. 1. How did the Normans improve the country? 3. What is the origin of the game laws? 5. How was the New Forest made? 8. Which reigns are called the Norman period? 15. When a baron died, how were his lands disposed of? 18. How did the lesser barons become vassals of the great ones? 21. What new feudal customs were brought here by the Normans? 23. Who succeeded William the Conqueror? 28. What was chivalry? 31. Give some account of the Crusades. 35. Who succeeded William Rufus? 36. How did he gain popularity? 43. What was the first manufacture in England? 45. To whom did Henry leave the crown? 46. Who usurped the throne? CHAPTER IX. HENRY THE SECOND, RICHARD THE FIRST, AND JOHN.--1154 TO 1216. [Illustration: JOHN SIGNING THE MAGNA CHARTA.] 1. As soon as Henry the Second came to the throne, he began to set things to rights again. He had all the new castles pulled down, and made the bad men who had lived in them, leave the country; then he set people to work to rebuild the towns that had been burned down in the late wars; and ordered that the judges should go on circuits; that is, travel to all the cities, and hold assizes, two or three times a year, as they do now, to see that justice is done to everybody. 2. But it was not quite so easy to do justice then; for, as long as the feudal laws lasted, the rich could always oppress the poor, and every great man had an army of his own vassals, who would do any thing he bade them, whether it was lawful or not. 3. Now the king wisely thought that the best thing in the world for the country would be to give more freedom to the people, so that the Barons might not have quite so much power. 4. He, therefore, granted charters to some of the cities, which made them a little more independent; but it was by very slow degrees that the people of England became free, although this happy change was beginning to take place. 5. Another thing the king wanted to do, was to make the clergy answerable to the judges for any bad acts they might commit, instead of having particular laws and judges for themselves; and, I am sorry to say, they sometimes did very wicked things, for which they were not punished half so severely as other people would have been for similar offences, which certainly was unjust. 6. But the bishops were unwilling to let the king have any thing to do with church affairs, and the Pope encouraged them to oppose him, in this respect; for the Pope, in those days, had more power over all Europe than the kings themselves, who seldom dared to disobey him.