Part II
8
The story of King Stephen is really the story of Empress Matilda, the woman who was very nearly crowned as the first ruling queen of England. Matilda was the only legitimate living child of King Henry I and although he had proclaimed her as his heir to England and Normandy, there was a monumental struggle over the crown after Henry’s death in 1087, causing an eighteen-year civil war known as the Anarchy.
King Henry I was the youngest son of William the Conqueror. Having had three older brothers, Henry never expected that he himself would one day become king of England. Henry’s eldest brother, Robert Curthose, had always been expected to be William’s heir, however, King William had a change of heart on his deathbed. Robert Curthose was a difficult son. He complained bitterly about sharing his father’s titles and lands with his brothers. On several occasions he led rebellions against his father and even recruited the help of foreign monarchs.1 William feared Robert would lead the kingdom into chaos, so he took the bold move of excluding Robert from the line of succession and granting him the duchy of Normandy instead.
William the Conqueror’s next eldest son was Richard of Normandy. Richard died in 1075 during a hunting accident in the New Forest during his teenage years.2 William’s next eldest son, William Rufus, is who he chose to be heir to the throne of England. William Rufus and his little brother Henry were present at their father’s deathbed in Rouen, Normandy on 9 September 1087, while their brother Robert Curthose was away with his army leading a campaign against their dying father. As he lay dying, William the Conqueror named William Rufus as his heir and gave him detailed instructions for the succession. William was to depart immediately for London to claim the throne before his riotous brother Robert could try to interfere. King William sent his son with a letter to give to Archbishop Lanfranc in England confirming the king’s selection of William Rufus as heir to the throne. Then with little trouble, William Rufus was crowned King William II at Westminster Abbey by the archbishop of Canterbury on 26 September 1087.3 Unsurprisingly, when Robert Curthose found out that his brother William ascended the throne, he was outraged. In retaliation, Robert attempted to launch several invasions against his brother William, all of which ultimately failed.
With William on the throne and Robert as duke of Normandy, there wasn’t much left for the youngest son Henry to inherit. He was given nothing of substance, only the promise that he might receive his mother’s English land holdings one day, which never actually happened.4 Chronicler Order Vitalis recorded Henry as asking, ‘And what, Father, do you give to me?’ to which the king responded, ‘I give you five thousand pounds of silver from my treasure’, Henry snidely pointed out to his father ‘What shall I do with treasure if I have no place to make my home?’5 No doubt Henry was disappointed that his brothers had received so much and he so little.
William II’s reign was not nearly as successful as his father’s as he was not very well liked by his subjects or the nobility. He was vain, unscrupulous, and worst of all, he had made enemies of the clergy, an essential group to have on your side if you wanted to hold on to the throne.6 He was also widely disliked because of his shockingly promiscuous behaviour at court. Orderic Vitalis wrote that William II ‘never took a lawful wife, but gave himself up insatiably to obscene fornications and repeated adulteries’.7 William hadn’t taken a wife because he preferred homosexual relationships and surrounded himself with men of similar mind who would dress and behave more like girls than men.8
After reigning as the king of England for only thirteen years, William II died in a hunting accident in the New Forest on 2 August 1100. This was the same location and manner of death that his brother Richard had suffered nearly thirty years earlier. It was said that King William II was stricken in the chest by a stray arrow loosed by a companion in his hunting party.9 In fact, the death of King William seemed a little too convenient to some, especially after his younger brother Henry, who was present at the hunt, immediately sped off to claim the throne for himself before Robert Curthose could find out. After William’s death, Henry first raced to Winchester, the location of the royal treasury, and took possession of it. Then he called together as many magnates as he could gather and had himself ‘elected’ as their successor. Next, Henry travelled over 100 kilometres to Westminster and was coronated as King Henry I of England on 5 August 1100.10
As expected, Henry’s brother Robert Curthose was irate at Henry’s actions and mounted an invasion the next summer to fight for the throne of England. King Henry’s army marched out to meet Robert’s army but instead of fighting, the brothers negotiated a deal. Robert agreed to give up his claim to the throne of England in exchange for 3,000 marks per year and a share of Henry’s land holdings in Normandy. This agreement, known as the Treaty of Alton was ratified on 2 August 1101, the anniversary of King William II’s death, but the peace between brothers would not last long. Many of Henry’s leading magnates held land in both England and Normandy, therefore a schism developed among the barons as to which liege to follow: King Henry or Duke Robert. For the next several years, Normandy descended into chaos until the definitive Battle of Tinchebray on 28 September 1106 in which Henry was victorious and Robert was taken prisoner.11 Clearly there would be no reconciliation this time. Henry imprisoned his brother Robert for the next thirty years until he died in his early eighties.
King Henry I had proven himself a much more able leader than any of his brothers in his dealings with Robert Curthose and the ongoing civil unrest in Normandy. Not only was he turning out to be a great warrior king, he was also considered an intellectual for his time. Previous kings had not been educated on much besides how to rule and how to fight, so a king like Henry who was an avid reader and collector of books was quite revolutionary for England.
Shortly after his coronation in 1100, Henry made an advantageous marriage to Edith of Scotland (later nicknamed Matilda), who was the daughter of King Malcolm of Scotland. Not only would the marriage bring about peace with Scotland, it also elevated Henry’s own status by marrying such a high-born lady who was directly descended from Edward the Confessor, Edmund Ironside, and Alfred the Great. This would ensure that the king’s children were from Norman royalty and Old English blood. Over their eighteen-year marriage, Henry and Edith only managed to have two children: daughter Matilda was born in 1102 and son William Adelin was born in 1103. In addition, Henry set the record for illegitimate children born to a king of England with at least twenty bastards that we know of through a multitude of mistresses.12
King Henry’s first-born child, Matilda, was not the male heir he wished for, however, she could still be a valuable asset to him. Such a high-born daughter would bring a prestigious foreign marriage, one that would help King Henry build valuable alliances for England. Henry considered many suitors carefully and then chose Henry V, the most powerful ruler in Europe, who was to become both the king of Germany and the Holy Roman Emperor. At the age of only 8 years old, Matilda was escorted to Germany where she was to spend the next sixteen years as ‘Queen of the Romans’.
Although Matilda was the eldest born child of King Henry I, it was usually the eldest born son who inherited, not the daughter.13 William Adelin was King Henry’s only legitimate son, therefore, the king took special efforts to secure his son’s future succession. In 1113 when William was only 9 years old, King Henry arranged his betrothal to the daughter of Fulk V of Anjou which would strengthen England’s position in France. At the Christmas court of 1114, King Henry gathered his Norman nobles and made them swear fealty to his son William Adelin and promise to uphold him as the rightful heir to England and Normandy.14
Henry I achieved a huge diplomatic victory in mid-1120 when he negotiated a Franco-Norman peace treaty, which put an end to years of fighting between the two kingdoms, but it came at a huge price. In the agreement, King Louis of France acknowledged William Adelin as the rightful duke of Normandy and in return William did homage to Louis.15 After the conclusion of the peace negotiations, the English delegation was in the mood to celebrate. Henry, William, and hundreds of English noblemen who had accompanied them to France gathered at the port of Barfleur on 25 November 1120 to make their triumphant return to England. King Henry’s fleet set sail first, followed by 18-year-old William Adelin, who was travelling in the newly outfitted White Ship. There was apparently riotous partying in celebration of their victory in France, not only by the passengers of the White Ship but also by the crew.16 The inebriated partygoers urged the drunken rowers to go as fast as possible so they could catch up with King Henry’s ship but in their carelessness, they hit a large rock and capsized. The White Ship sank that night and with it, so did Henry I’s plans for the future. His heir, William Adelin, was dead and the peace treaty with France would be declared void because the marriage contract could not be fulfilled. Most importantly, Henry now had no heir to England and Normandy.
Although Henry had many illegitimate children, it was not customary in England for bastards to inherit from their royal fathers. Henry now had an urgent need for a new male heir but his first wife, Edith, had died two years prior to the White Ship disaster. Henry moved swiftly to negotiate a new marriage to Adeliza, the daughter of the count of Louvain. They were married in January 1121, just two months after the death of William Adelin. After several years of marriage, the royal couple failed to produce any children. Although he still held out hope that they would eventually conceive a male heir, he had to come up with a backup plan.
Henry’s ambitious backup plan for his succession began to take shape in the summer of 1125 when the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V died, leaving his daughter Matilda a young widow. Henry I recalled his daughter from Germany to join him back in Normandy. They had not seen each other in sixteen years and Henry spent a considerable amount of time sizing her up, seeing what she had learned about ruling Germany and the Holy Roman Empire. In the autumn of 1126 Henry called together his most trusted advisors to debate and decide upon Henry’s heir. By Christmas 1126 Henry had made up his mind to try something quite extraordinary: he declared his daughter Matilda as his heir to England and Normandy.17
Why was this a problem? There had never been a female monarch in England, much less Europe at this point in history. There was no law or rule established at that time stating that women could not rule but they were widely considered to be the weaker sex and did not have the strong constitution needed to rule a kingdom.18 Plus, medieval kings had to continually fight off enemies and lead armies, something a woman had never done.
Henry did have three other royal male relatives that he could have chosen as his heir. His sister Adela had two sons, Theobald, Count of Blois, and Stephen of Blois, Count of Boulogne. Stephen had grown up in Henry’s court and was said to be Henry’s favourite nephew so he would have been a logical choice.19 Then there was William Clito, the son of Henry’s wayward brother Robert Curthose. Clito was the last living legitimate grandson of William the Conqueror and many considered his hereditary claim to be above that of Henry I’s.20 With his father Robert Curthose still in prison, William Clito became the new figurehead of the resistance against King Henry. All those disaffected with the imprisonment of Curthose now flocked to Clito, including the kings of France and the dukes of Anjou and Flanders. William Clito did have the best hereditary claim to the throne but he was Henry’s last choice because of the rebellious behaviour of his imprisoned father.
A fourth male option existed with Henry’s illegitimate son Robert of Gloucester. Robert would have made an excellent king. He was well respected, trustworthy, a great warrior, extremely rich, and hugely influential in both Normandy and England. However, bastards were rarely chosen to lead kingdoms, although there had been instances when a bastard conquered a kingdom, including Robert’s own grandfather, William the Conqueror.
With his mind made up, King Henry called all his magnates together at Windsor for Christmas 1126 and told them of his decision. On 1 January 1127, the king held a glittering ceremony at Westminster Abbey to officially declare Matilda as his heir and to collect oaths of fealty from his bishops and barons. Each man was called out by name individually and had to promise to uphold Matilda’s claim upon the king’s death. Henry intentionally did this one by one so in the future none in attendance could claim that they had been silent and not taken the oath.21 Not everyone would uphold their promise though, especially Stephen of Blois who was present at the oath-taking ceremony but would soon have a change of heart.
After the public oath-taking, King Henry then set about to find his widowed daughter a new husband. For a high-born woman such as herself who was the daughter of a king and a former queen consort of the Holy Roman Emperor, she expected her father to arrange a marriage to a high-ranking nobleman, perhaps to a foreign king or prince. What she got instead was 13-year-old Geoffrey of Anjou, the son of Count Fulk V of Anjou. Matilda was greatly offended by this marriage prospect as she felt herself much above his status, not to mention their eleven-year age difference.22 Her father Henry had chosen Geoffrey in order to make peace between Normandy and Anjou. She knew that to strengthen her position as future queen of England, she must have a husband, but this was far too low below her station and at first she protested. Eventually, she gave in to her father and agreed to marry Geoffrey.
The marriage between Matilda and Geoffrey of Anjou took place at Le Mans on 17 June 1128. The honeymoon, if there ever was one, was over quickly. Geoffrey was young, brash, and overly confident. Matilda was head-strong, independent, and refused to call herself the Countess of Anjou. Instead, she preferred to be addressed as Empress Matilda.23 The marriage was so rocky that they split up only a year after the wedding. Matilda moved back to Normandy to be near her father and it was three years later that King Henry finally convinced her to return to her husband and reconcile for the good of Normandy and England. To drive home the point, Henry held a great council at Northampton in September 1131 in which the king’s vassals decided she must be sent back to her husband and in turn those in attendance repeated their pledges of fealty to Matilda.
Somehow Matilda and Geoffrey managed to make their marriage work. They apparently found some common ground because shortly after their reunion, Matilda became pregnant. She gave birth to her first child, a son, in March 1133 in Le Mans. She named him Henry after his grandfather. Fourteen months later, Matilda gave birth to their second son, named Geoffrey for his father. The birth did not go well and Matilda was deathly sick afterwards, so much so that she planned for her burial. But luckily for the new Plantagenet dynasty, she recovered completely.
Emboldened by the birth of their sons and future heirs, Matilda and Geoffrey began pressing their claims in Normandy. As part of her dowry, Henry agreed to grant Geoffrey and Matilda several Norman castles near the border of Anjou, including Argentan, Exmes, and Domfront. Yet, after more than five years of marriage, King Henry still refused to turn over the castles, not trusting his son-in-law. He was worried that Geoffrey might try to overpower him and take control of the whole of Normandy. In 1134 or 1135, Geoffrey angrily confronted the king and demanded he hand over the castles at once. Henry doggedly refused. From that point until King Henry’s death, the relationship was strained to say the least, as they disputed back and forth, neither side willing to give an inch. It’s unfortunate because unbeknownst to them, there was little time left for a reconciliation.
On the evening of 1 December 1135, King Henry I died at the castle of Lyons-la-Forêt in Normandy after taking to his bed the week before with a sudden illness. Chronicler Henry of Huntingdon, who tends to be rather imaginative, says the king died after eating too many lampreys (eels).24 No other chronicler mentions the lampreys so Henry of Huntingdon may have embellished that part of the story. We do know that the illness lingered for a week, enough time to gather his leading magnates and clergymen to his bedside. William of Malmesbury wrote that the king ‘assigned all lands on both sides of the sea to his daughter in lawful and lasting succession’.25 But that’s not what ended up happening. As soon as the news of Henry’s death got out, all hell broke loose, and disorder once again descended upon the kingdom of England.