Claudia Gold - King of the North Wind

The situation had reached a stalemate, with neither side able to gain a decisive advantage. But unexpectedly, everything changed in Matilda’s favour. On 2 February 1141 at Lincoln, in a stellar coup engineered by her half-brother Robert and his son-in-law, Ranulf earl of Chester, who brought with them ‘a dreadful and unendurable number of Welsh’, Stephen was captured and imprisoned at Bristol Castle.79 (It was one of the very few pitched battles of the war – battles were dangerous and their outcomes uncertain; most of the fighting was marked instead by castle sieges.) Stephen had fought bravely, deserted by many of his supporters, with a double-headed axe. But he had lost. Robert placed him in the care of his wife Mabel, at Bristol Castle. It was not a comfortable imprisonment; Stephen would eventually be shackled in irons in his cell.

It looked like the endgame. Matilda was recognised by the church as ‘Lady of England and Normandy’, took possession of the treasury and was given the crown – although as yet she remained uncrowned. She embarked on a progress around the country and was recognised as queen at Winchester. Meanwhile Stephen’s wife, Matilda of Boulogne, frantically attempted to secure her husband’s release, promising he would leave the country and live quietly. Matilda however refused, as she refused Matilda of Boulogne’s pleas to grant their son, Eustace, his inheritance – the lands Stephen had owned before he stole her crown.80 She carried on to London, expecting to be crowned. She was even joined by Stephen’s disaffected brother Henry, bishop of Winchester and now papal legate, who had welcomed her at his cathedral. The bishop had tired of his brother’s hollow promises to uphold the integrity of church freedoms, and was bitter that Stephen had not created him archbishop of Canterbury after William de Corbeil, Stephen’s advocate and the man who had placed the crown upon his head, died in 1136. Stephen dithered for two years, while Bishop Henry lobbied the pope for it. Ultimately however, fearing his brother’s increasing power, Stephen ignored his requests, and instead invited Theobald, prior of Bec in Normandy, to England. It was Theobald, and not Henry, who was consecrated archbishop on 8 January 1139.

But in the capital, Matilda antagonised Londoners, who resented her appointment of earls and levying of taxes. She was heavy-handed where she could have been conciliatory. Meanwhile Stephen’s wife, losing patience with the fruitless negotiations, raised an army and camped on the south bank of the River Thames, just outside the city of London. Londoners, besieged by two Matildas – one threatening pernicious taxes and assaults on their unique rights, and the other threatening them with battle – now decided for Stephen’s queen instead of their ‘Lady of the English’. On 24 June, while Matilda and her followers were celebrating with a feast at Westminster, Londoners declared for Stephen’s queen and attacked. They rang the city’s bells which notified its citizens to strike, and the queen presumptive abandoned her banquet and fled for her life to Oxford. Gerald of Wales left us with a damning comment on her failure: ‘She was swollen with insufferable pride by her success in war, and alienated the affections of nearly everyone. She was driven out of London.’ She was condemned for her pursuit of independent female power, no longer ‘Matilda the Good’.

Meanwhile Bishop Henry oscillated, disgusted at Matilda’s harsh treatment of Eustace. In the end, he did little to win the pope over for Matilda. When Innocent II ordered him to return to his erstwhile support for his brother, he deserted Matilda for Stephen’s queen.

Matilda retaliated with an army, which she took to Winchester, to besiege the bishop’s castle. But she was defeated. She fled, riding astride for speed, with her half-brother Reginald and Brian Fitz Count, while Robert stayed to cover her flight. Disaster ensued; Robert was caught by Flemish mercenaries loyal to the royalist William of Warenne, earl of Surrey, and was sent, a prisoner, by Stephen’s wife to Rochester Castle.

Had Matilda not estranged Londoners, but instead mollified them, pressing the claim of her young son, she might have been queen. Now, however, she was in a dreadful predicament. She had lost her most powerful ally.

Matilda determined to get him back, and although Robert begged his sister not to make a bargain, she insisted on swapping prisoners. On 1 November Stephen was released, in exchange for Robert’s freedom two days later. He hurried to his sister at Oxford where she had, once more, established her court.

Stephen’s capture at Lincoln, although it ultimately did nothing for Matilda in England, had an enormous impact on Geoffrey’s war to conquer Normandy. Orderic Vitalis wrote ‘when he had news that his wife had won the day’, Geoffrey and his armies hurled themselves into Normandy once more. This time, they would win.

But the war in England, with Stephen’s release, was yet again at a stalemate. Matilda begged Geoffrey to come to her aid, reminding him that it was ‘his duty to maintain the inheritance of his wife and children in England’.81 But he refused: he had nothing to offer her. All his resources were concentrated on the subjugation of Normandy, where he was in the process of triumphing through a combination of force and diplomacy, luring the magnates over to his side. He insisted, instead, that Robert of Gloucester join him in Normandy to aid his fight there: ‘If the earl would cross the sea and come to him he would meet his wishes as far as he could; if not, it would merely be a waste of time for anyone else to come and go.’82 Robert was reluctant to leave Matilda – he was aware how integral he was to her campaign – but he answered Geoffrey’s summons.

Around 24 June 1142, Robert left England for Normandy, from the port of Wareham, held by his son William, on the Dorset coast. When they met, Robert tried to convince Geoffrey to send aid to Matilda, but he refused, claiming that ‘he feared the rebellion of the Angevins and his other men’.83 Nevertheless, William of Malmesbury recorded that Robert’s visit was successful, and that together he and Geoffrey captured ten castles in the north-west of Normandy. However, perhaps aided by discussion with Geoffrey, Robert had a change of heart over the direction of the war for England. Matilda, he believed, had no hope of becoming queen. It was time to bring in her eldest son, Henry.

Robert returned to England in September with between 300 and 400 men, fifty-two ships, and the nine-year-old Henry.84

He immediately set out to save Matilda from disaster. Stephen’s forces had surrounded her at Oxford Castle that month; Robert did not have the men to bring an army to confront the king directly, so instead he attacked Wareham, which Stephen had captured earlier, hoping to draw the king away from Matilda. Stephen did not respond to the ruse, and Matilda found herself in terrible personal danger. After a three-month siege, the castle was about to fall, and Matilda’s capture and imprisonment seemed certain. The weather, and her bravery, saved her.

At the beginning of December, the land covered with snow and ice, Matilda escaped. She and the four men who accompanied her camouflaged themselves in white cloaks which made them invisible against the snow, and escaped, walking across the frozen Thames. She fled to Brian Fitz Count at Wallingford, fifteen miles to the south, who took her on to Devizes.

Matilda had not yet seen her son. Sometime before Christmas, while Brian Fitz Count offered her refuge at Wallingford, Robert was able to bring Henry to her there, where they were ‘delighted’ to be reunited. In her joy at seeing her firstborn, Matilda had a brief respite from the hopelessness of her situation.85 It was from this point, when Matilda saw Henry, that she realised the futility of her pursuit of the crown of England. By 1144, while Geoffrey had achieved complete success with the conquest of Normandy, Matilda had failed. Even Robert, having spent three years and a vast amount of money on his sister’s campaign, realised she could never be queen. It was Robert who fashioned the move to bring young Henry from Anjou as the new figurehead of the Angevin party.