9
Wn Wednesday, 4 December 1135, Stephen of Blois received urgent news from a messenger who had ridden nearly non-stop on the 200 kilometre journey from Lyons-la-Forêt to report the king’s death.1 One might think Stephen would have been devastated to hear the news that his dear uncle, King Henry I, was dead. One might also think Stephen would come together with his kinsmen to support his cousin Matilda as heir to the throne. Stephen himself had sworn to do so at the oath-taking ceremony at Westminster in 1127, but he did nothing of the sort. He did exactly the opposite.
Only one day after receiving the news of the king’s death, Stephen sailed to England. Luckily for him, he was at Wissant in Pas-de-Calais when he received news of the king’s death, which allowed him to cross the English Channel at the shortest distance to England and land in Dover just one day later. Stephen and a small retinue of knights rode to London, arriving on Sunday, 8 December 1135, and were heartily welcomed by the citizens as their new leader.2
Why would Londoners so easily accept Stephen as their new king when it was widely known that Matilda was King Henry’s choice of heir? First of all, Londoners knew Stephen from King Henry’s court and he had a reputation as one of the most honourable and knightly of all King Henry’s nobles.3 In contrast, most Londoners had never even seen the foreign-born Matilda. The only time she had ever come to England was for her father’s Christmas court of 1126. The citizens of London simply knew and liked Stephen so he seemed the logical choice. Londoners didn’t know Matilda, nor did they have any desire to be ruled by a woman.
After securing the support of London, Stephen rode straight to Winchester, the centre of the royal administration, and home of the royal treasury. Stephen had an ally at Winchester in his brother Henry who happened to be the bishop of Winchester. With Henry’s help, as well as help from Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, Stephen secured the support of the clergy, which was essential if he was to wear the crown. In order to secure their support, he had to sign an agreement in which he agreed to give the church more power in government, including the right to elect its own candidates as bishops and abbots. By early 1139, Stephen had already broken the promise by arresting the son of Bishop Roger of Salisbury and replacing him as chancellor by one of his own picks.4
Stephen did not have the backing of all the high clergymen. Archbishop William of Corbeil challenged Stephen’s claim to the throne, asserting that the clergy and nobles had all sworn oaths to Henry I to uphold his daughter Matilda as his heir. Stephen and his backers asserted that those oaths were invalid because they were made under duress. Further, Stephen asserted that Henry had a change of heart on his deathbed and named Stephen as his successor. Stephen’s claim was backed up by a rather untrustworthy baron named Hugh Bigod who claimed to hear Henry speak those words to Stephen on his deathbed.5 We do know that Henry was in dispute with Matilda and Geoffrey at the time of his death, however, it is very unlikely that Henry would have abandoned the plan he had laid out seven years prior for the succession. Henry was very calculated and thoughtful about his plans for the future. He was not the type to make impulsive and reckless decisions based on his emotions. Even so, the clergy and nobility accepted Stephen’s story, albeit somewhat hesitantly, and thus handed over the keys to the treasury to him.
The next step in Stephen’s takeover of England was to have himself crowned king as quickly as possible. In a hastily arranged and sparsely attended ceremony, Stephen was anointed as King of England by the archbishop of Canterbury at Westminster Abbey on 22 December 1135. The speed in which Stephen was coronated meant the ceremony was poorly attended by the nobility. Many of England’s noblemen were still back in Normandy, sworn to remain with King Henry I’s corpse until his burial.
What was Matilda doing during Stephen’s coup? At the time of her father’s death, Matilda was living in Anjou, over 600 kilometres away from Lyons-la-foret.6 She wouldn’t have even received the news of her father’s death until Stephen had secured the crown in England. To complicate her position further, she was in the early stages of her third pregnancy and may have been too unwell to travel such distance and across the English Channel to get to London. She was well enough, however, to travel through Normandy with Geoffrey to the disputed border castles that had been part of her dowry and took them unto her possession. They were also given possession of a number of other castles, including Ambrières, Gorron, and Châtillon-sur-Colmont in Maine.7
Obviously the first and foremost concern for Geoffrey and Matilda was securing Normandy before the rebellious barons could stir up trouble. They made no immediate moves to secure Matilda’s inheritance across the Channel. In the case of England, Matilda quite naively believed that her father’s barons, having sworn an oath to uphold her rights, would soon come to her rescue. In this she seriously miscalculated. They had all been swept up in Stephen’s usurpation and the lack of opposition from Matilda’s party. Their priority was to secure their own positions, lands, and titles and in order to do this, most thought it would be easier to go with the flow and make friends with their newly anointed king.
The only person who did take action on her behalf was her uncle David, King of Scotland. In January 1136, he launched border raids with England and overtook several castles, including Norham, Alnwick, Wark, Carlisle, and Newcastle. Stephen took decisive action and led the royal army north to deal with the Scottish rebel. Rather than fight, Stephen paid him off to leave. It was a tactic used for hundreds of years to keep the Vikings out, and it was successful for a short time in keeping Scotland at bay. The two kings signed the Treaty of Durham on 5 February 1136.8
Just two months later, Stephen was back in England playing the part of king by hosting a large court at Oxford for the Easter celebrations of 1136 ‘which was more splendid for its throng and size, for gold, silver, jewels, robes, and every kind of sumptuousness, than any that had ever been held in England’.9 In a perfect stroke of timing, Stephen happened to have with him a letter from Pope Innocent II endorsing his accession to the throne. If the pope had not endorsed his claim, Stephen and anyone who followed him would have been excommunicated from the church. With full approval from the pope, Stephen the final ammunition he needed to secure his position as king of England.
Most of England’s barons were present at Stephen’s Easter court in Oxford and gave their pledges of fealty to the new king. One person reluctant to do so was Robert, Duke of Gloucester. Robert was the illegitimate son of Henry I and therefore Matilda’s half-brother. If Robert would have been born legitimately, he would have undoubtedly been Henry I’s heir and he would have made an outstanding king. Although he was a bastard, Robert was well-educated and extremely wealthy by way of his duchy of Gloucester. He was also said to have been very charismatic and was a well-respected knight and military strategist.10 But for now, it seems Robert found himself stuck in an untenable position. Was he to support his own sister, thus honouring his father’s will, or play the part of willing accomplice to Stephen’s usurpation?
Stephen had summoned Robert to London several times after his coronation but Robert had made excuses not to come. Robert did not want to take an oath to Stephen because he knew he could not keep it and he didn’t want to break the oath he had made to his father. Finally, he could resist Stephen no longer without placing himself in immediate danger, so he came late to Stephen’s Easter court and reluctantly pledged his allegiance to the new king.11
Unrest in England and abroad would occupy Stephen for the early years of his reign. The first baron to rebel was Baldwin de Redvers, the earl of Devon. He was one of the few magnates who refused to attend the Easter celebrations to swear fealty to Stephen. In the summer of 1136, Baldwin garrisoned the royal castle of Exeter with his own men and held out against King Stephen’s siege for several months but then had to surrender because they had run out of food and water. Stephen made his first serious misstep as a king by allowing the rebels at Exeter to leave unpunished. Baldwin went on to stir up further rebellions and then left England to join Matilda’s party in Normandy.12 She was happy to be a magnet for disaffected nobles and gladly welcomed them to her side. Also that summer, she was safely delivered of her third and final son whom she named William after her grandfather William the Conqueror.
Matilda and Geoffrey still had no plans at this time to go to England to stake her claim to the throne. They were far too busy putting down rebellions in Anjou and fighting to take away Normandy from King Stephen’s possession. In the fall of 1136, Geoffrey launched a major invasion into Normandy which was countered by Stephen’s man Waleran of Meulan. Although he made some initial gains, Geoffrey lost ground and had to send for Matilda to bring him fresh troops in October for the siege of Le Sap. Geoffrey had to retreat shortly thereafter when he was wounded in the foot and his troops were ill with dysentery.13
When the next spring rolled around, Stephen felt secure enough in his position to travel to Normandy. There were several important items on his itinerary: show himself to the people he now ruled, gain Norman allies, create a partnership with King Louis of France, and make amends with his brother Theobald, Count of Blois. Stephen sailed to Normandy in March 1137 and progressed through Normandy, arriving at the capital city of Rouen, where he met his brother. Theobald was much aggrieved that his younger brother, Stephen, had taken the throne right from under him. If their branch of the family tree was to carry on the royal line, surely Theobald would be the first heir since he was the oldest brother. He was satisfied, however, with Stephen’s offer to pay him 2,000 marks a year, a huge amount, as restitution. Next, Stephen met with King Louis VI of France and made a pact to support each other, with Louis recognising Stephen’s right to Normandy and Stephen accepting Louis as his liege.14
During Stephen’s short time in Normandy, Geoffrey and Matilda worked to stir up trouble and draw him into an armed conflict on their home base. In May 1137, Geoffrey launched a new invasion of Normandy, this time with a very large army, including up to 400 knights, which caused widespread damage as it moved through Normandy. King Stephen and his Flemish commander William of Ypres took the royal army to Lisieux to confront the Angevins. His army was so unruly and disorganised that internal fighting tore it at apart and caused mass desertions. Humiliatingly, Stephen had to come to terms with Geoffrey and Matilda, agreeing to a three-year truce and annual payments of 2,000 marks.15
By the winter of 1137, Stephen had sailed back to England to deal with new threats of rebellions. At Christmas he was leading his army north to deal with a new insurgence of Scots as their peace treaty had just expired. Along the way north, Stephen stopped at the town of Bedford to settle a dispute over the castle there. Miles de Beauchamp held the castle for Stephen but now refused to hand it over so the king besieged the castle. The castle did not fall as quickly as he expected, therefore he left a small garrison of men there and headed north to confront the Scottish invaders. Stephen arrived in Northumbria on 2 February 1138 with an enormous army. Instead of engaging the Scottish army in a pitched battle, he bypassed them and travelled into Scottish territory, laying waste to the land. King David knew he could not win against the king’s army and so he withdrew his forces back into Scotland for the time being. Next Stephen went west to Hereford castle where rebels were setting up fortifications against him. The king laid siege to the castle and the inhabitants surrendered in three weeks. Just as he had at Exeter, he allowed the rebels to leave unharmed and unpunished.
Stephen may have felt that he was doing a reasonable job putting out the flames of rebellion across his dominions but in May 1138 he was confronted with something wholly different: the defection of one of the leading magnates in England and Normandy, Robert of Gloucester. Robert sent messengers to Stephen declaring his change of allegiance to his sister Matilda and claimed Stephen was plotting to assassinate him.16 In retaliation, King Stephen attempted to confiscate all of Robert’s castles in England, including his stronghold of Bristol, but his siege was unsuccessful against Robert’s strong garrison. With the mighty Robert of Gloucester now on her side, Matilda saw a sudden surge in support for her cause. Many of Stephen’s discontented vassals followed Robert, bringing with them soldiers and lots of money. With this sudden turn of fortune, Matilda decided the time was right to make her big move.
By fall 1138, Matilda joined her brother Robert in Normandy and they began planning an invasion of England. Aside from allocating ships, weapons, food, soldiers, and all the other supplies needed for a large army, Matilda also took the formal step of issuing a complaint to the pope accusing Stephen of usurping her crown.17 The matter was heard during the second Lateran Council in Rome which began on 4 April 1139, but Pope Innocent would not overturn his previous decision to support Stephen’s right to the throne. Undeterred, Matilda and Robert continued war preparations, hoping that the next pope could be persuaded to see her side.