Stephen of Blois of England

• General Notes
  •  [Pullen010502.FTW]
    
    REF: British Monarchy Official Website: Henry I was succeeded by his nephew Stephen of Blois (reigned 1135-54), his only legitimate son having drowned in the wreck of the White Ship which sank in the English Channel in 1120. Although widely preferred in England and Normandy as Henry's successor, Stephen lacked ruthlessness and failed to inspire loyalty. Henry's daughter, Matilda, invaded England in 1139 to claim the throne and the country was plunged into civil war. Neither side was strong enough to win and the war ended only in 1153 when Matilda's son, Henry, Count of Anjou, was recognised as heir to the throne.
    
    
    Stephen (1096 - October 25, 1154), the last Norman King of England, reigned from 1135 to 1154, when he was succeeded by his cousin (or, as the gossip of the time had it, his natural son) Henry II, the first of the Angevin or Plantagenet Kings.
    
    Stephen was born at Blois in France, the son of Stephen, Count of Blois, and Adela of Normandy daughter of King William I of England, and thus the brother of Henry of Blois, bishop of Winchester. He became Count of Mortain in about 1115, and married Matilda, daughter of the Count of Boulogne, in about 1125.
    
    Before the death of King Henry I of England in 1135, the majority of the barons of England swore to support Matilda (Empress Maud), Henry's daughter, and her claim to the throne. Stephen of Blois however, who claimed descent from William the Conqueror through his mother, Adela, and had been raised at Henry's court, laid claim to the throne. Once Stephen was crowned, he gained the support of the majority of the barons as well as Pope Innocent II. The first few years of his reign were peaceful, but by 1139 he was seen as weak and indecisive, setting the country up for a civil war, commonly called The Anarchy.
    
    In April, 1141, Stephen was defeated and imprisoned at Bristol. His wife, Matilda, kept faith, and Empress Matilda was forced out of London. With the capture of her most able lieutenant, her illegitimate half-brother, Robert of Gloucester, Matilda was obliged to release Stephen from captivity, and he was restored to the throne in November of the same year. In December 1142, Empress Matilda was besieged at Oxford, but she managed to escape.
    
    Stephen maintained his precarious hold on the throne for the remainder of his lifetime. However, following the death of his son and heir, Eustace, in 1153, he was persuaded to reach a compromise with Matilda whereby her son, Henry (from her second marriage to Geoffrey of Anjou), would succeed Stephen on the English throne.
    
    Stephen died at Dover, and was buried in Faversham Abbey, which he had founded with Matilda in 1147.
    
    Besides Eustace, Stephen and Matilda had two other sons, Baldwin (d. before 1135), and William of Blois, Count of Mortain and Boulogne and Earl of Surrey or Warenne. They also had two daughters, Matilda and Mary. As well as these children, Stephen fathered at least three bastards, one of whom, Gervase, bacame Abbot of Westminister.
    
    The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (the Peterborough Chronicle second continuation) provides a moving and succint appraisal of Stephen's reign: "In the days of this King there was nothing but strife, evil, and robbery, for quickly the great men who were traitors rose against him. When the traitors saw that Stephen was a good-humoured, kindly, and easy-going man who inflicted no punishment, then they committed all manner of horrible crimes . . . And so it lasted for nineteen years while Stephen was King, till the land was all undone and darkened with such deeds, and men said openly that Christ and his angels slept".
    
    The monastic author says, of The Anarchy, "this and more we suffered nineteen winters for our sins."
    
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    Sources:
    
       1. Abbrev: Pullen010502.FTW
          Title: Pullen010502.FTW
          Note:
          Call number:
          Text: Date of Import: Jan 5, 2002
       2. Abbrev: World Family Tree Volume 2 Tree # 1822
          Title: World Family Tree Volume 2 Tree # 1822 (Brøderbund BannerBlue Division)

Click here for details of Stephen's family with Matilda de Boulogne

¹ http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=arciek&id=I00958
² http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=PED&db=jdp-fam&id=I9517&style=TABLE
Source/Citation http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jdp-fam&id=I6381

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