10
The year 1139 was monumental for Matilda and proved to be the turning point in her bid to win the throne of England. By the summer of that year, rumours began spreading all over England that Robert of Gloucester and Empress Matilda would land an invasion at any moment. Stephen was already on edge and the rumours fueled his paranoid suspicions of those around him, fearing they may betray him and flip to Matilda. Stephen was suspicious of three bishops in particular: Roger of Salisbury and his nephews Alexander of Lincoln and Nigel of Ely. Stephen called them to Oxford in June 1139 based on a trumped-up excuse to account for a skirmish between their men. Stephen’s real intent was to arrest them and confiscate their castles, which is exactly what he did. The arrest of the bishops was shocking to everyone in England but especially to the members of the clergy. In fact, after the Oxford incident, Stephen’s own brother Henry, Bishop of Winchester, turned his back on the king. Chronicler William of Malmesbury reported that Bishop Henry and other prominent men in England then wrote to Matilda inviting her to invade England and depose King Stephen.1
Two months after the Oxford debacle, Matilda and her supporters had completed their invasion plans and were now on their way to England. They sent Baldwin de Redvers on the first ship and he succeeded at gaining possession of Corfe Castle, their planned garrison stronghold in southwest England. Shortly thereafter, on 30 September 1139 Matilda, Robert, and 3,000 soldiers landed in Arundel, about 144 kilometres east of Corfe.2 The selection of Arundel was not coincidental: it was the castle of Matilda’s stepmother, Adeliza. The two women had been in communication before Matilda’s invasion and Adeliza was willing to help her stepdaughter by providing safe harbor, even though it did put her at risk of retaliation from Stephen. After delivering Matilda to Adeliza, Robert set out with their army to his stronghold of Bristol Castle which was 225 kilometres away.
Stephen had been en route to deal with Baldwin de Redvers when he suddenly changed course after receiving the news of Matilda’s and Robert’s landing in Arundel. He arrived at Arundel Castle one week after Matilda’s arrival and considered laying a siege but decided to negotiate instead. He made a generous offer to allow Matilda safe conduct to Bristol if she agreed to leave Arundel.3 Stephen’s purpose was to put his two biggest enemies together in one location where he could fight them with all his strength. But ultimately this decision would backfire. If he would have captured Matilda rather than let her go free, it is very possible her support would have fizzled out quickly and Stephen could have avoided years of civil war.
By mid-October 1139, Matilda had arrived in Bristol and was reunited with her brother Robert, plus other prominent English barons, including Miles of Gloucester and Brian fitzCount. Miles was the sheriff of Gloucester County and had opposed Stephen’s assumption of the throne. Brian fitzCount was an old friend of Matilda’s having grown up together as children at Henry I’s court in Normandy. Henry had arranged an advantageous marriage for Brian to Matilda of Wallingford, which made Brian the lord of Wallingford.4 Wallingford was strategically important because it was the castle closest to London that was in possession of Matilda’s supporters. That is precisely why King Stephen chose Wallingford, to force the rebels into an armed confrontation by laying siege to the castle shortly after Matilda’s arrival at Bristol. Miles of Gloucester led a rescue mission to Wallingford, broke the king’s siege engines, and attacked Stephen’s soldiers, causing them to flee and give up the siege.5
The Battle of Wallingford was a huge victory for Matilda and gave more legitimacy to her cause. To set herself apart from her brother, she moved from Bristol Castle to the royal castle of Gloucester and established her own household. She then made the bold step of having her own coins minted which gave a legal significance to her claim. By December 1139, support for her cause was growing and she now had her uncle, King David of Scotland, on board. She also received a valuable defection at this time: Nigel, the bishop of Ely, whom Stephen had arrested six months earlier. Although Matilda’s support was growing more and more by the day, it was not yet large enough to mount a major offensive against the royal army. Instead, she and her allies spent the entire year of 1140 deployed in guerrilla warfare, besieging and sacking castles all over England. Events in the upcoming new year would finally bring her within grasp of the throne.
In January 1141, trouble at Lincoln Castle would again draw the two sides together into an armed confrontation. Sometime in 1140, King Stephen verbally promised the earldom of Lincoln to William de Roumare.6 When the existing holder, William d’Aubigny, refused to hand it over, Roumare and his half-brother Ranulf, Earl of Chester, decided to take it by force. They captured Lincoln Castle, expelled its inhabitants, and barred the town gates.
King Stephen was at Windsor celebrating Christmas when he received the news of the situation at Lincoln. He swiftly gathered his army and traveled over 200 kilometres to Lincoln in a matter of days.7 Although King Stephen besieged Lincoln Castle, Ranulf managed to escape and send an urgent plea for help to his father-in-law, Robert of Gloucester. This was the justification Robert and Matilda needed to show how King Stephen was incapable of controlling his unruly barons.
When Robert received Ranulf’s plea for help, he gathered up a large group of soldiers and immediately set out for Lincoln, not only with the purpose of relieving King Stephen’s siege but also because he saw an opportunity to take out King Stephen. The first pitched battle of civil war known as the Anarchy took place on 2 February 1141 at the Battle of Lincoln. The royal army was prepared for a siege, not a battle, and were quickly overtaken on the battlefield by Robert’s men. Stephen himself fought until the end, until he was hit in the head with a rock and knocked unconscious.8 He was taken prisoner and held at Robert’s Bristol Castle, at first honourably but then after some misbehaviour, he was confined to shackles.9
Matilda was thrilled when she learned King Stephen was now her prisoner. She finally gained the upper hand and knew she had to make a calculated choice what to do next to move herself closer to the throne. She certainly needed the support of the church if she were to have any chance of winning her throne so she started there first. Matilda convinced Bishop Henry of Winchester, the papal legate for England and brother of King Stephen, to meet with her at Wherwell near Winchester on 2 March 1141. There she convinced him to flip to her side and work on her behalf to overturn the pope’s decision and get support from the leading land barons in England.10
On 7 April 1141, Bishop Henry convened a council meeting at Winchester to put forth his argument for setting aside Stephen and making Matilda the new ruler of England. He reminded them of the oaths they had sworn to King Henry I, how Stephen had failed to establish law and order, and how Stephen had broken every promise he had made to the clergy. They were all in agreeance. The decision was made to formally accept Empress Matilda as the rightful heir to the throne, proclaiming her ‘Lady of the English’ and the royal treasury was put into her possession.11 The path to her coronation was almost cleared. There was just one last hurdle in the way.
Matilda’s final challenge was the most difficult: she would have to get the support of Londoners if she were to wear the crown. The population of London at that time numbered around 30,000 and the citizens had their own militia ready at any moment to defend themselves. Due to their potential military strength, Matilda would have been wise to approach them gently and cordially in order to win them over to her side. Instead, as soon as she arrived in London she began alienating the citizens with her haughty and dismissive nature. Adding insult to injury, she demanded that Londoners pay an extra tax to support her. When they responded that they had no money left because it had all gone to support Stephen, she flew into a fury.12
Matilda was so confident in her position that she underestimated the activities of Queen Matilda, Stephen’s wife. Along with Stephen’s main military commander, William of Ypres, Queen Matilda had been keeping Stephen’s cause alive by raising an army in his defence. Just days before Empress Matilda’s coronation, Queen Matilda’s army was outside of London harrying the countryside and Empress Matilda did nothing to stop them.
On 24 June 1141, the evening prior to her scheduled coronation, Empress Matilda was sitting down to dinner with her leading barons when bells began ringing throughout the city. Then all hell broke loose. The bells were a signal to Londoners that they were being invaded and they should take up arms to defend the city. Londoners opened the outside gates and let Queen Matilda’s army in, allowing them to take complete control of the city. Empress Matilda had to flee the city immediately. When the London mob broke into her quarters, it was reported that her food was still lukewarm. She and her party made it to the safety of Oxford but her army somehow broke up and became scattered.13 Matilda was devastated that she was so close to her goal of being queen but then had it snatched out of her hands. She may have been temporarily disheartened, but she was in no way ready to give up her claim to the throne of England.