TILDA: DECISIVE INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH

A.D. 1135-1154

CHARLES KNIGHT

(William the Conqueror, King of England, was succeeded by his sons
William Rufus and Henry--on account of his scholarship known as
Beauclerc. Prince William, Henry's only son, was drowned when starting
from Normandy for England in 1120. In the absence of male issue Henry
settled the English and Norman crowns upon his daughter Matilda, and
demanded an oath of fidelity to her from the barons.

Matilda had been married first to Emperor Henry V of Germany, who died
in 1125, and secondly to Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou.

Stephen was the son of Adela, daughter of William the Conqueror, who had
married Stephen, Count of Blois. Stephen, with his brother Henry, had
been invited to the court of England by their uncle, and had received
honors, preferments, and riches. Henry becoming an ecclesiast was
created abbot of Glastonbury and bishop of Winchester. Stephen, among
other possessions, received the great estate forfeited by Robert Mallet
in England, and that forfeited by the Earl of Mortaigne in Normandy. By
his marriage with Matilda, daughter of the Earl of Boulogne, he had
succeeded also to the territories of his father-in-law. Stephen by
studied arts and personal qualities became a great favorite with the
English barons and the people.

The empress Matilda and her husband Geoffrey, unfortunately, were
unpopular both in England and Normandy, the English barons especially
viewing with disfavor the prospect of a woman occupying the throne.

Henry Beauclerc died in 1135 at his favorite hunting-seat, the Castle of
Lions, near Rouen, in Normandy. Stephen, ignoring the oath of fealty to
the daughter of his benefactor, hastened to England, and,
notwithstanding some opposition, with the help of his clerical brother
and other functionaries had himself proclaimed and crowned king. This
act involved England in years of civil war, anarchy, and wretchedness,
which ended only with the accession as Henry II of Empress Matilda's
son, Henry Plantagenet of Anjou.)

Of the reign of Stephen, Sir James Mackintosh has said, "It perhaps
contains the most perfect condensation of all the ills of feudality to
be found in history." He adds, "The whole narrative would have been
rejected, as devoid of all likeness to truth, if it had been hazarded in
fiction." As a picture of "all the ills of feudality," this narrative is
a picture of the entire social state--the