Nineteen years of anarchy

King Stephen held England from 1135 to 1154, and the chaos ran so deep that later writers gave the period its own name: the Anarchy.

One shipwreck, no heir

Henry I's only legitimate son drowned when the White Ship went down in 1120. A single night off the Norman coast emptied the English line of succession.

A daughter named heir

Henry chose his daughter Matilda, widowed empress of Germany by 1125. Naming a woman was so unheard of that he made every noble and churchman swear an oath to her, some of them grudgingly.

Stephen gets there first

Henry died in December 1135 with Matilda in Normandy, unaware for at least a fortnight. Her cousin Stephen of Blois crossed to England, seized the royal treasury and had himself crowned.

Barely a murmur

Every man who had sworn the oath let it slide, for one reason: she was a woman. An intelligent, politically experienced 33-year-old son would have walked to the throne.

“There was barely a murmur from any of those who had sworn to uphold Matilda's hereditary rights”

Pregnant, broke, then ready

Matilda was carrying her third child and short of money, so Stephen went unchallenged for years. Her rich half-brother Robert of Gloucester came over in 1138, and she landed in England in September 1139.

The kingdom splits in two

Henry I's old loyalists backed Matilda, others preferred a known male quantity, and both camps expected rewards. The families who tilled and traded paid the taxes and were called up to fight either way.

Mercy read as weakness

Stephen spent four years racing up and down the kingdom crushing small revolts, then pardoning the men who raised them. His own supporters lost confidence in him.

“he did not execute punishment on those who had betrayed him”

Tougher than anyone expected

Her campaign was supposed to fizzle out. Instead she took ground and pulled in defectors, and the longer she lasted the more sense it made for barons to be seen on her side.

Lincoln, and a captive king

In February 1141 Stephen's army lost at Lincoln and the king went into prison. His own brother, Henry of Blois, bishop of Winchester, switched sides and declared Matilda Lady of the English.

Too haughty for a woman

With the crown almost hers, hostile chroniclers attacked how she walked and spoke. Stephen's queen drove her out of London, and the coronation never happened.

“at once put on an extremely arrogant demeanour instead of the modest gait and bearing proper to the gentle sex”

The queen who fit the mould

Matilda of Boulogne took up arms and let her troops loose around London with plunder and arson, and the same writer praised her for it. She was acting for her husband, which changed everything.

“a woman of man's resolution”

A husband with no clear role

Geoffrey of Anjou was an old antagonist of the Norman barons, and nobody knew if he would be king beside Matilda or merely her commander. He went to conquer Normandy instead, which cost Stephen support across the Channel.

A boy invades at fourteen

Matilda's eldest son Henry launched his own invasion in 1147 and won almost nothing militarily. The nerve of it impressed the barons and reminded them that Henry I's direct line still had a male heir.

The earth bore no corn

Both sides ravaged the lands of the people they wanted to rule. Rents went uncollected, lords could not keep troops in the field, and English tax revenue fell by a quarter, written off as waste.

“they said openly that Christ and His saints slept”

Not who now, but who next

Years in, the barons cared less about the current king than the following one. The awkward part was that the popular answers sat in opposite camps: Stephen for now, Henry for later.

Eustace torched his own claim

Stephen's heir and his cronies relished the licence war gave them, burning houses, churches and stacked harvests. From there it was a short step to calling his claim stolen goods.

“fired the crops that had been reaped and stacked all over the fields”

The lawful heir

The pro-Stephen Gesta Stephani stopped writing about the countess of Anjou and her son and started calling Henry the lawful heir. Matilda quit England for good in 1148 and left him to it.

Nobody would fight

Stephen's queen died in 1152 and broke him. At Wallingford in 1153 the barons on both sides simply refused battle, so Stephen kept the crown for life, made Henry his successor and adopted him that Christmas.

Two deaths, then a quiet crown

Eustace died in August 1153, Stephen in October 1154. For the first time since 1066 a king's death brought no scramble: Henry was crowned on 19 December with Eleanor of Aquitaine beside him.