General Notes

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Note:
Miles of Gloucester was a leading protagonist in Matilda's attempt to win the English throne. Sometimes regarded as one of Henry I's 'new men', Miles was the hereditary sheriff of Gloucestershire and castellan of Gloucester, the position first acquired by his grandfather, Roger of Pitres, in the reign of William the Conqueror. Miles succeeded his father, Walter, sometime before 1126. By marriage, he secured the Welsh lordship of Brecknock and from Matilda in 1141-2 the sub-tenancy of Abergavenny. His power in the west was consolidated by his acting as local justiciar. Loyal to Henry I, he nevertheless soon recognised Stephen and by Easter 1136 was acting as his constable. Miles remained close to Stephen in the early years of the reign, playing an important role in the suppression of the Welsh rising of 1136.

In 1139, however, he joined Matilda almost as soon as she landed. Given the adherence to Matilda of Miles's more powerful neighbor, Robert of Gloucester, this change of allegiance may have been prompted by self-preservation as much as legitimist devotion. Whatever his motives, Miles proved one of Matilda's most effective commanders: in 1139 alone he secured Gloucester and Hereford; relieved Wallingford and sacked Worcester. In 1141, however, he only managed to flee the Rout of Winchester by abandoning his weapons and stripping off all his armour so that he arrived at Gloucester 'weary, half-naked and alone.' Earlier that year, at the height of her power, Matilda had created Miles earl of Hereford, confirming his position as a sort of military viceroy in the southern Marches. One of his duties was to raise finances for Matilda's campaigns, but he encountered stern opposition when he attempted to tax the church. Even though supported by Gilbert Foliot, then abbot of Gloucester and his protégé, Miles was placed under an interdict by Robert of Béthune, bishop of Hereford. Such fiscal expedients, common to both sides in a civil war, no doubt played a part in colouring the gloomy and hostile tone of ecclesiastical commentators on the conflict. Few issues aroused the moral indignation of established medieval clergy more certainly than heavy financial exactions levied on their institutions. Miles himself came to an unfortunate end, accidentally shot dead by one of his companions while out hunting in the Forest of Dean, an accident eerily reminiscent of the death of William II.

Despite his apparent fickleness, Miles was far from being a representative of any so-called 'feudal anarchy.' His local authority depended on his maintenance of a combination of public justice, royal favour, and private acquisition of land; thus did he calculate his political advantage. Once decided, he seems to have acted with conspicuous loyalty. Nearly the last thing he, or his fellow magnates, wanted was a baronial free-for-all with its promise of the last thing they wanted: loss of estates and titles. [Who's Who in Early Medieval England, Christopher Tyerman, Shepheard-Walwyn, Ltd., London, 1996]