The Anarchy

The Anarchy was a civil war in England and Normandy between 1138 and 1153 which resulted in a widespread breakdown in law and order. The conflict was a war of succession precipitated by the accidental death of William Adelin—the only legitimate son of King Henry I—who drowned in the White Ship disaster of 1120. Henry sought to be succeeded by his daughter, Empress Matilda, but was only partially successful in convincing the nobility to support her. On Henry's death in 1135, his nephew Stephen of Blois seized the throne with the help of Stephen's brother Henry of Blois, who was the bishop of Winchester. King Stephen's early reign saw fierce fighting with disloyal English barons, rebellious Welsh leaders, and Scottish invaders. Following a major rebellion in the southwest of England, Matilda invaded in 1139 with the help of her half-brother Robert of Gloucester.

In the initial years of civil war, neither side achieved a decisive advantage; Matilda came to control southwest England and much of the Thames Valley, while Stephen remained in control of the southeast. Barons who refused to support either side held much of the country. The castles of the period were easily defensible, so the fighting was mostly attrition warfare comprising sieges, raiding and skirmishing. Armies mainly consisted of knights and infantry, many of them mercenaries. In 1141 Stephen was captured following the Battle of Lincoln, causing a collapse in his authority over most of the country. When Matilda attempted to be crowned queen, she was forced instead to retreat from London by hostile crowds; shortly afterwards, Robert of Gloucester was captured by Stephen's wife, Matilda of Boulogne, at the rout of Winchester. The two sides agreed to a prisoner exchange, swapping the captives Stephen and Robert. Stephen then almost captured Matilda in 1142 during the Siege of Oxford, but she escaped from Oxford Castle across the frozen Thames to safety.

The war continued for another 11 years. Matilda's husband, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, conquered Normandy in her name in 1143, but in England, neither side could achieve victory. Rebel barons began to acquire ever greater power in Northern England and in East Anglia, with widespread devastation in the regions of major fighting. In 1148 Matilda returned to Normandy, leaving the campaigning in England to her eldest son, Henry FitzEmpress. In 1152 Stephen attempted to have his eldest son, Eustace, recognised by the Catholic Church as the next king of England, but the Church refused. By the early 1150s, most barons and the Church were war-weary and favoured negotiating a long-term peace.

Henry FitzEmpress invaded England in 1153, but neither faction's forces were keen to fight. After limited campaigning, the two armies faced each other at a siege of Wallingford Castle, but the Church brokered a truce, thereby preventing a pitched battle. Stephen and Henry began peace negotiations, during which Eustace died of illness, removing Stephen's immediate heir. The resulting Treaty of Wallingford allowed Stephen to retain the throne but recognised Henry as his successor. Over the following year, Stephen began to reassert his authority over the whole kingdom, but he died of disease in 1154. Henry became the first Angevin king of England, and then began a long period of reconstruction.

The conflict was considered particularly destructive, even by the standards of medieval warfare. One chronicler states that "Christ and his saints were asleep" during the period. Victorian historians coined the term "the Anarchy" because of the widespread chaos, although modern historians have questioned its accuracy.

The origins of the Anarchy lay in a succession crisis involving the Kingdom of England and the Duchy of Normandy. In the 11th and 12th centuries, north-west France was controlled by a number of dukes and counts, frequently in conflict with one another for valuable territory. In 1066 one of these men, Duke William II of Normandy, mounted an invasion to conquer England, pushing on into south Wales and northern England in the ensuing years. The division and control of these lands after William's death proved problematic, and his children fought multiple wars over the spoils. William's son Henry I seized power after the death of his elder brother William Rufus and subsequently invaded and captured Normandy, controlled by his eldest brother Robert Curthose, defeating Robert's army at the Battle of Tinchebray. Henry intended for his lands to be inherited by his only legitimate son, 17-year-old William Adelin.

In 1120, the political landscape changed dramatically when the White Ship sank en route from Barfleur in Normandy to England; around 300 passengers died, including Adelin. With Adelin dead, the inheritance to the English throne was thrown into doubt. Rules of succession in western Europe at the time were uncertain; in some parts of France, male primogeniture, in which the eldest son would inherit all titles, was becoming more popular. In other parts of Europe, including Normandy and England, the tradition was for lands to be divided up, with the eldest son taking patrimonial lands – usually considered to be the most valuable – and younger sons being given smaller, or more recently acquired, partitions or estates. The problem was further complicated by the sequence of unstable Anglo-Norman successions over the previous 60 years: there had been no peaceful, uncontested successions.

Henry had only one other legitimate child, Matilda, but female rights of inheritance were unclear during this period. Despite Henry taking a second wife, Adeliza of Louvain, it became increasingly unlikely that Henry would have another legitimate son, and instead he looked to Matilda as his intended heir. Matilda had been married to Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, from which she later claimed the title of empress. Her husband died in 1125, and she was remarried in 1128 to Geoffrey V of Anjou, whose county bordered the Duchy of Normandy. Geoffrey was unpopular with the Anglo-Norman elite: as an Angevin ruler, he was a traditional enemy of the Normans. At the same time, tensions continued to grow as a result of Henry's domestic policies, in particular the high level of revenue he was raising to pay for his various wars. Conflict was curtailed by the power of the king's personality and reputation.