Everything about Stephen Of England totally explained
Stephen, often referred to in history as
Stephen of Blois, (c.
1096 –
25 October,
1154), was the last
Norman King of England. He reigned from
1135 to
1154 and was succeeded by his cousin
Henry II, the first of the
Angevin or
Plantagenet kings. Stephen was also the
Count of Boulogne jure uxoris.
Early life
Stephen was born at
Blois in
France, the son of
Stephen,
Count of Blois, and
Adela of England, (daughter of
William the Conqueror). His brothers were Count
Theobald II of Champagne and
Henry of Blois,
bishop of Winchester.
Stephen was sent to be reared at the English court of his uncle, King
Henry I, in
1106. He became
Count of Mortain in about
1115, and married
Matilda, daughter of the
Count of Boulogne, in about
1125, who shortly after became Countess of Boulogne. Their marriage was a happy one and his wife was his chief supporter during the struggle for the English crown. Stephen became joint ruler of Boulogne in
1128.
Reign
King of England
There were three principal contenders for the succession of Henry I and one 'fancied outsider'. The least popular of these being
Empress Matilda, not only because she was a woman, but also because her husband
Geoffrey Count of Anjou was an enemy of the Normans. The other contenders were two men of royal birth,
Robert, Earl of Gloucester and Stephen himself. The 'outsider' was the elder brother of Stephen,
Theobald, Count of Blois. However, Theobald didn't want the kingdom, at least not badly enough to contend for it. Before the death of King
Henry I of England in
1135, the majority of the barons of England swore to support Henry's daughter Empress Matilda, (granddaughter of
William the Conqueror), and her claim to the throne. However, upon the king's death, Stephen—also a grandchild of The Conqueror—laid claim to the throne, stating that Henry had changed his mind on his deathbed and named Stephen as his heir. Once crowned, Stephen gained the support of the majority of the barons as well as
Pope Innocent II and the first few years of his reign were peaceful.
The Anarchy: War with Matilda
By
1139 Stephen had lost much support and the country sank into a
civil war, commonly called
The Anarchy. Stephen faced the forces of Empress Matilda at several locations throughout the Kingdom including the Battle of
Beverston Castle and the
Battle of Lincoln. Bad omens haunted him before the Battle of Lincoln where Stephen was facing the powerful Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester (the Empress' illegitimate half-brother) and Ranulph, the
Earl of Chester. According to chroniclers Stephen fought bravely in the battle but was captured by a knight named William de Cahaignes (a relative of Ranulph, ancestor of the
Keynes family). Stephen was defeated and he was brought before his cousin, the Empress Matilda. He was imprisoned at
Bristol.
Stephen's wife rallied support amongst the people from London and the barons. The Empress Matilda was, in turn, forced out of
London. With the capture of her most able lieutenant, the Earl of Gloucester, she was eventually obliged to release Stephen from captivity, and he was restored to the throne in November of the same year.
In December
1142, the Empress was besieged at
Oxford, but she managed to escape, dressed in white, across the snow to
Wallingford Castle, held by her supporter
Brien FitzCount.
In 1147, Empress Matilda's adolescent son,
Henry (the eventual King Henry II), decided to assist in the war effort by raising a small army of mercenaries and invading England. Rumours of this army's size terrified Stephen's retainers, although in truth the force was very small. Having been defeated twice in battle, and with no money to pay his mercenaries, the young Henry appealed to his uncle
Robert for aid but was turned away. Desperately, and in secret, the boy then asked Stephen for help. According to the
Gesta Stephani, "
On receiving the message, the king...hearkened to the young man..." and bestowed upon him money and other support.
Reconciliation and death
Stephen maintained his precarious hold on the throne for the remainder of his lifetime. However, after a military standoff at
Wallingford with Henry, and following the death of his son and heir,
Eustace, in
1153, he was persuaded to reach a compromise with Empress Matilda (known as the
Treaty of Wallingford or Winchester), whereby her son would succeed Stephen to the English throne as King Henry II.
Stephen died in
Dover, at
Dover Priory, and was buried in
Faversham Abbey, which he'd founded with Countess Matilda in
1147.
Besides Eustace, Stephen and Queen Matilda had two other sons, Baldwin (d. before
1135), and
William of Blois (Count of
Mortain and Boulogne, and
Earl of Surrey or Warenne). They also had two daughters, Matilda and
Marie of Boulogne. In addition to these children, Stephen fathered at least three
illegitimate children, one of whom, Gervase, became Abbot of Westminster.
An unfavourable thumbnail sketch of Stephen is given by
Walter Map (who wrote during the reign of Matilda's son Henry II): "A man of a certain age, remarkably hard-working but otherwise a nonentity [
idiota] or perhaps rather inclined to evil."
The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (the
Peterborough Chronicle, second continuation) provides a more favourable picture of Stephen, but depicts a turbulent reign:-
» "In the days of this King there was nothing but strife, evil, and robbery, for quickly the great men who were traitors rose against him. When the traitors saw that Stephen was a good-humoured, kindly, and easy-going man who inflicted no punishment, then they committed all manner of horrible crimes . . . And so it lasted for nineteen years while Stephen was King, till the land was all undone and darkened with such deeds, and men said openly that Christ and his angels slept".
The monastic author said, of The Anarchy, "this and more we suffered nineteen winters for our sins."
Ancestors
Fictional portrayals
Stephen has rarely been portrayed on screen. He was played by
Frederick Treves in the
BBC TV series
The Devil's Crown (1978) and by
Michael Grandage in
One Corpse Too Many, the first episode of the television adaptation of the
Cadfael novels by
Ellis Peters (1994).
He was also portrayed in
Ken Follett's
Pillars of the Earth.
English Royal descendents
Through his granddaughter Maud of Boulogne, who married
Henry I of Brabant, Stephen is the ancestor of some English royals. Through a marriage of
Louis d'Évreux, a descendent of the Brabant line, to the Queen of Navarre, Stephen is an ancestor of some monarchs of
France and
Navarre, including
Marguerite of France, second wife of King
Edward I of England; however,
Edward's heir was already born to a previous wife. Edward and Marguerite's descendents include
Joan of Kent, first
Princess of Wales and mother of King
Richard II of England; Richard was also descended from Stephen through his parternal grandmother,
Philippa of Hainault, the wife of
Edward III. Since all later English monarchs are direct descendents of Edward III and Philippa, all kings and queens of England since 1377 could claim King Stephen as an ancestor.
The Navarrese monarchs also became
Kings of France when Henri III of Navarre became King
Henry IV of France.
This is the descent of the English royal line from Stephen:
- Stephen
- Marie of Boulogne
- Maud of Boulogne
- Matilde of Brabant
- Adelaide of Holland
- John II, Count of Holland
- William I, Count of Hainault
- Philippa of Hainault, married King Edward III of England
The monarchs of Navarre also became
Kings of France when Henri III of Navarre became King
Henry IV of France, so all
Bourbon Kings of France and subsequent pretenders to the defunct throne from 1589 are descended from Stephen too.
Further Information
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