monarchy, the Church, the
aristocracy, the people--and appears to us, therefore, to demand a more
careful examination than if the historical interest were chiefly centred
in the battles and adventures belonging to a disputed succession, and in
the personal characters of a courageous princess and her knightly rival.

Stephen, Earl of Boulogne, the nephew of King Henry I, was no stranger
to the country which he aspired to rule. He had lived much in England
and was a universal favorite. "From his complacency of manners, and his
readiness to joke, and sit and regale even with low people, he had
gained so much on their affections as is hardly to be conceived." This
popular man was at the death-bed of his uncle; but before the royal body
was borne on the shoulders of nobles from the Castle of Lions to Rouen,
Stephen was on his road to England. He embarked at Whitsand, undeterred
by boisterous weather, and landed during a winter storm of thunder and
lightning. It was a more evil omen when Dover and Canterbury shut their
gates against him. But he went boldly on to London. There can be no
doubt that his proceedings were not the result of a sudden impulse, and
that his usurpation of the crown was successful through a very powerful
organization. His brother Henry was Bishop of Winchester; and his
influence with the other dignitaries of the Church was mainly
instrumental in the election of Stephen to be king, in open disregard of
the oaths taken a few years before to recognize the succession of
Matilda and of her son. Between the death of a king and the coronation
of his successor there was usually a short interval, in which the form
of election was gone through. But it is held that during that suspension
of the royal functions there was usually a proclamation of "the king's
peace," under which all violations of law were punished as if the head
of the law were in the full exercise of his functions and dignities.
King Henry I died on the 1st of December, 1135. Stephen was crowned on
the 26th of December. The death of Henry would probably have been
generally known in England in a week after the event. There is a
sufficient proof that this succession was considered doubtful, and,
consequently, that there was an unusual delay in the proclamation of
"the king's peace." The Forest Laws were the great grievance of Henry's
reign. His death was the signal for their violation by the whole body of
the people. "It was wonderful how so many myr