As continental legal practice developed sophisticated mechanisms for extracting confessions or facilitating ‘discovery’, and as Scandinavian outposts like Iceland resisted that corrupting influence in sagas, often by allying themselves with the good rule of Anglo-Saxon kings, few medieval societies had such an uneasy relationship with torture as England. Balanced on the edge of the medieval world, England could resist the cultural and legal developments on the Continent. But by the thirteenth century, it was in danger of succumbing to political pressures as Angevin kings pressed their claims in France and the two cultures seemed destined to meld into one. Matthew Paris (c. 1200–1259) complained in his Chronica Majora that the presence of so many outsiders was causing problems in England. Coming over at the invitation of the king, they had taken over all the best positions, growing fat on the country's wealth and ‘trampling native born Englishmen under their heels’. The pope gave preference to non-English speakers, placing them in key offices in the English church, and outside influence was felt throughout the country.