idelity to
the king. Again he broke away from his allegiance and planned a revolt in
favour of the empress who recompensed him with still greater dignities and
possessions than any yet bestowed. This second charter of the
empress,(130) is remarkable for a clause in which she promises never to
make terms with the Londoners without the earl's consent, "because they
are his mortal foes."(131) But the plans of the earl were doomed to be
frustrated. The empress, tired of the struggle, soon ceased to be
dangerous, and eventually withdrew to the continent, and Stephen was left
free to deal with the rebel earl alone. With the assistance of the
Londoners, who throughout the long period of civil dissension, were
generally to be found on the winning side, and held as it were the balance
between the rival powers, Stephen managed after considerable bloodshed to
capture the fortifications erected by the Earl at Farringdon.(132)

(M89)

The earl was subsequently treacherously arrested and made to give up his
castles. Thenceforth his life was that of a marauding freebooter, until,
fatally wounded at the siege of Burwell, he expired in September, 1143.

(M90)

Notwithstanding the absence of the empress and the death of the faithless
earl, a desultory kind of war continued to be carried on for the next ten
years on behalf of Henry of Anjou, son of the empress. In 1153 that prince
arrived in England to fight his own battles and maintain his right to the
crown, which the king had already attempted to transfer to the head of his
own son Eustace. This attempt had been foiled by the refusal of the
bishops, at the instigation of the pope, to perform the ceremony. The
sudden death of Eustace made the king more ready to enter into
negotiations for effecting a peaceful settlement.

(M91) (M92)

A compromise was accordingly effected at Winchester,(133) whereby Stephen
was to remain in undisputed possession of the throne for life, and after
his death was to be succeeded by Henry. The news that at last an end had
come to the troubles which for nineteen years had disturbed the country,
was received with universal joy, and Henry, conducted to London by the
king himself, was welcomed in a manner befitting one who was now the
recognised heir to the crown.(134)

CHAPTER III.

(M93)

Both London and Winchester had been laid in ashes during Stephen's reign,
the former by a conflagration--which took place in 1136, again destroying