11
After the failed coronation attempt in London, Empress Matilda suffered further devastating losses that would threaten her entire endeavor. In July 1141, she set up her new base at the royal castle in Winchester. She called her ally Bishop Henry to come meet with her several times but he seemed to avoid her. The two had recently been in dispute over Matilda’s refusal to recognise the rights of Stephen’s 12-year-old son, Eustace. Bishop Henry wanted her to grant the counties of Boulogne and Mortain to Eustace, but she refused to give such power to a possible rival to the throne.1 It was around this time that Bishop Henry began secretly negotiating with King Stephen’s wife, Queen Matilda, to flip back to Stephen’s side and take the English nobles with him. When Matilda learned of the bishop’s betrayal, she gathered the royal army and headed for Winchester where she planned to confront the turncoat bishop.
On 31 July 1141, Matilda, Robert of Gloucester, and King David of Scotland brought their armies to Wolvesy Castle in Winchester to confront Bishop Henry. When they arrived, they found Bishop Henry was nowhere to be seen and the castle had been left garrisoned against them.2 Empress Matilda’s army quickly overran the city and laid siege to the castle. The townspeople within the castle walls threw flaming objects of every kind at their attackers and ended up burning down almost the entire town of Winchester.3 This was very bad news for Matilda because there would be no food or shelter for her army to exist on during the siege. Since she couldn’t get food and supplies in Winchester, she had to establish a new supply route so she sent a contingent of her army to Wherwell Abbey to guard the road.
In the meantime, Bishop Henry had fled to Farnham and sent an urgent plea of help to Queen Matilda. Since King Stephen was still imprisoned, his wife Queen Matilda took charge of the royal response. She and Stephen’s favourite commander, William of Ypres, led an army to Winchester to confront the rebels. The royal army surrounded Empress Matilda’s army, essentially trapping them within the city walls and blocking all supply routes. Then William of Ypres led a force to Wherwall where he captured Queen Matilda’s men, locked them in the abbey, and set fire to the church.4
After a month into the siege, Empress Matilda and her leading nobles were at the point of desperation. Food and drink were mostly gone, all their supply routes had been cut off, and there was no hope of rescue. Rather than raise the white flag of surrender, Empress Matilda and her councillors came up with an escape plan. On the morning of 14 September 1141, Matilda’s men opened the city gates, lined up in close formation, and began marching out of the city with Matilda at the front of the vanguard for protection. Queen Matilda’s army gave chase and Empress Matilda’s frantic entourage were on the run for twelve kilometres before Robert of Gloucester and his rearguard made a stand at Stockbridge, allowing time and space for Empress Matilda to make an escape. She and what was left of her army rode as fast as they could to the nearest friendly castle which was thirty kilometres away at Ludgershall. Then Matilda travelled to Devizes and finally Gloucester where her men planned to regroup.5 The outcome was so disastrous for Matilda’s side that it became known as the ‘Rout of Winchester’.
At Gloucester, Empress Matilda observed the arrival each day of her scattered men, always on the look-out for one particular man who had so far been missing: Robert of Gloucester. She soon learned that Robert had been captured by Queen Matilda’s army at Stockbridge and was now being held prisoner. Matilda knew that her cause would be thoroughly doomed without the assistance of her brother Robert, especially with the recent loss of support from London, the church, and the treasury. In another desperate move, she decided to negotiate the release of her brother Robert in exchange for the release of King Stephen. This shocking move made it clear she was desperate. Empress Matilda obviously felt that Robert was her only chance at being crowned queen.
At this point, Empress Matilda wasn’t just fighting for her own right to the throne but also for the rights of her three sons. If she were to fail in her quest to dethrone King Stephen, the future of her sons would be made difficult and they would probably be punished for being the sons of a traitor. However, if she were to win the throne, her sons’ futures would be limitless. They would be the highest-ranking nobles in the entire kingdom and at least one of them would day inherit the throne from their mother.
Negotiations for the exchange of prisoners between Empress Matilda and Queen Matilda dragged on for weeks until they finally came to an agreement in late October 1141. On 1 November, King Stephen was released from Bristol Castle and escorted to Winchester Castle where Robert had been kept captive. After Stephen arrived there safely on 3 November, Robert of Gloucester was released from custody and returned to his sister at Bristol. Upon his release, King Stephen began rebuilding his authority as king, summoning a council meeting at Westminster for 7 December 1141. The main purpose of the meeting was to overturn all the agreements made at the spring council meeting in Winchester when Bishop Henry had support Empress Matilda. During the December meeting, Stephen greatly chastised his brother Henry for assisting the enemy and even read out loud a letter from the pope rebuking Bishop Henry’s recent behaviour. To add to the humiliation, Empress Matilda had representatives at the meeting who made it known Bishop Henry was the one who invited Matilda to invade England the previous summer.6 But in the end, Stephen forgave his brother Henry. On Christmas Day 1141, Stephen held a grand, new coronation ceremony to show he was clearly back in charge of his kingdom.
Matilda held her Christmas court at Oxford with the leading magnates who had stayed loyal to her. A few had been forced to go back to Stephen’s side in order to safekeep their own lives. Matilda’s main concern was raising an army and having experienced military commanders. In the spring of 1142, Matilda wrote to her husband Geoffrey asking for his assistance. He wrote back saying he first needed Robert of Gloucester’s assistance in Normandy and Anjou before he could consider bringing his troops across the Channel to England. Hesitantly, Robert agreed and sailed to Normandy. He was worried for Matilda’s safety in his absence, but they had no other choice at this point than to first meet Geoffrey’s demands to gain his assistance.
Geoffrey occupied Robert’s time in Normandy with battles and sieges against the rebellious Norman and Angevin nobles. Throughout the summer and fall of 1142, Geoffrey and Robert were successful in capturing at least ten castles.7 They were still campaigning in October 1142 when news reached Robert that Matilda was under siege at Oxford by none other than King Stephen.
When Stephen received the news that Matilda had been left alone at Oxford Castle without the protection of her brother Robert, he set about to take her down once and for all. To kill the daughter of a former king of England would have been indefensible. Instead, he laid plans to capture her, just as her men had captured him. Rather than attacking her directly, he stationed his troops around the city of Oxford, encircled the town, and cut off Matilda’s supply lines. Then on 26 September 1142, King Stephen approached Oxford Castle with a very large army. Matilda’s soldiers rushed out of the castle to engage them but were quickly overpowered and the king’s army was able to penetrate the castle gates. The royal army was not able to gain complete access to the castle so they set up large siege works and continually pounded the castle walls. They also set fire to everything that would burn, levelling much of the surrounding houses, reducing the entire area to smoking rubble.
Matilda was holed up in the castle doing her best just to survive. Things were desperate as they reached the two-month mark of the siege. At that point they were out of food and water, and had no indication that help was on the way. It was probably impossible for Robert to get messages to Matilda that he was indeed working on a rescue mission. As soon as he received word of her besiegement at Oxford in October, he immediately set sail home from Normandy. He had an enormous entourage with him: fifty-two ships, 300–400 knights, and various other soldiers and mercenaries. He also had with him Matilda’s eldest son, 9-year-old Henry.8 The young boy would get to witness firsthand how a great leader like his uncle would handle a situation such as this. Robert mustered all of Matilda’s supporters at Cirencester and prepared to lead them to Oxford to rescue Matilda.
After surviving three months of the siege, Matilda decided she could wait no longer. Unaware of her brother Robert’s sailing, she orchestrated her own daring escape in mid-December 1142. She and a few companions snuck out a side door in the middle of the night and fled across the snow-blanketed grounds, undetected in their white clothing. To her benefit, the weather was so cold that the Thames was frozen solid, allowing Matilda and her party to cross on foot. After crossing the river, they walked through deep snow for ten kilometres before reaching Abingdon where they were given horses to take them to the safety of Wallingford Castle. There she met her trusty friend Brian fitzCount and they moved on to her stronghold castle of Devizes.
Robert had been on his way to Oxford when he learned of Matilda’s courageous escape. He immediately changed course and rode to Devizes to be reunited with her. The joy at the reunion was multiplied when Matilda saw her son Henry, whom she had not seen in several years. Around this time Matilda was coming to accept that she had very little chance of being crowned Queen of England, but now with her eldest son standing before her, she decided to set aside her claim to the throne. Instead, she would fight to depose King Stephen in the name of her son Henry, the closest living male heir to her father, King Henry I. She wisely sent Henry to spend the next couple of years under the tutelage of his uncle Robert. With Robert he would learn everything he needed to know about being a successful ruler.9
When the spring campaigning season of 1144 rolled around, both sides were actively besieging each other’s castles all across England. During the summer, Stephen captured Wareham from Robert, then headed to Wilton Abbey to set up a base in which to launch a siege in nearby Salisbury. Robert was hot on his heels and arrived at Wilton with his huge army on 1 July 1143. Although darkness was nearing, Robert ordered his army to attack which took Stephen’s troops by surprise.
The Battle of Wilton was the third pitched battle of the Anarchy. The royal troops, as did their leaders, gave little fight before fleeing to save their own lives. Robert and his troops razed the entire town.10 Once again, Stephen proved he did not have the ability to keep his citizens safe, which was a key tenet of kingship. For the next five years, the two sides would continually menace each other with castle sieges and minor skirmishes. Throughout this time the pendulum of power swung back and forth, with each side making gains but then suffering setbacks.
In March 1147, 15-year old Henry, eldest son of Empress Matilda and Geoffrey of Anjou, attempted to insert himself into matters by sailing to England with a small retinue and besieging several small castles. His main target was Cricklade which currently belonged to his cousin Philip, son of Robert of Gloucester. Philip had recently betrayed his family by flipping to Stephen’s side and Henry meant to make him pay for it. But the young, naïve Henry didn’t have nearly enough men to seriously consider overtaking the castles. He wisely cut his losses when he ran out of money and had no way to get back home to Normandy. He first begged his mother Matilda for money but she refused him. Next, he asked his uncle Robert for help, but he too denied him. It seems they were resolved to give Henry a dose of tough love and let him figure out how to get out of his current situation by himself. In the end, Henry requested Stephen’s support and the king was all too happy to oblige in so he could remove this threatening young man from his realm.11
The most devastating loss of all to Matilda’s cause was yet to come. In the fall of 1147, her brother Robert fell ill with a fever and suddenly died on 31 October 1147. Robert had been her most loyal supporter over the past ten years and she couldn’t imagine going on without him. She knew she couldn’t accomplish her goal of becoming queen without Robert so instead she decided it was time for a change in tactics. It was time for the next generation to take over the fight.