Lewis, Matthew Stephen and Mathilda's Civil War. Cousins of Anarchy

The Anarchy was the first civil war in England after the Conquest and lasted throughout the reign of King Stephen from 1135 to 1154, ultimately leading to the end of the Norman dynasty and the rise of the powerful Plantagenet kings. When Henry I died after losing his only legitimate son in a shipwreck, he made all his barons swear to recognise his daughter Matilda, the widow of the Holy Roman Emperor, as his heir and remarried her to Geoffrey, Count of Anjou. When she hesitated to move to England after the death of her father, Henry's favourite nephew Stephen of Blois hastened to have himself crowned, as Henry himself had done after the death of his brother William Rufus. Supported by his brother Henry, the Bishop of Winchester, Stephen got off to a promising start, but Matilda refused to give up her birthright and tried to bind the English barons to her oaths. The result was more than ten years of civil war that divided England. Empress Matilda is often remembered as aloof and overbearing, Stephen as ineffective and indecisive. By following both sides of the argument and trying to understand their actions and motivations, Matthew Lewis attempts to gain a fuller understanding of this crucial period in English history and asks to what extent anarchy actually existed.