A History of England, Period I. Mediæval Monarchy

by J. Franck Bright

Appearance of Prince Henry.

Death of Robert of Gloucester. 1148.

Of decided successes on either side there were none. In 1142, the Empress, hard pressed at Oxford, barely made her escape with two knights, all clothed in white, across the snow. In the following year Stephen, on the other hand, suffered a defeat at Wilton. The same struggle for individual liberty on the part of the barons was apparent everywhere. Thus the Cathedral of Coventry was changed into a fortress by a baron of the name of Marmion, the Abbey of Ramsey by Mandeville. Nor did the retirement of several of the hotter spirits from the contest to join in a crusade which St. Bernard was then preaching materially change the aspect of affairs. But, in 1147, new actors begin to appear upon the scene. Wearied with the long useless struggle, Matilda withdrew to France. But to take her place her son Prince Henry came over to England. As it were to match him, Stephen brought his son Eustace prominently forward. This change of persons is still more clearly marked by the death of the great Earl of Gloucester, a man to whom many acts of cruelty in accordance with the temper of the time could be attributed, but who, if we may judge from the testimony of William of Malmesbury, was far superior in character and civilization to most of those by whom he was surrounded.

Henry’s marriage and increased power.

Church sides with him.

The withdrawal of the Empress and the appearance of Henry made a considerable difference in the views of those barons in England who were not wholly selfish. Stephen had been tried and failed. They had no longer to fear the rule of a woman. And thus we find Robert of Leicester, second son of the great Earl of Mellent, who had hitherto served Stephen and done him good service in Normandy against the Angevins, giving in his adherence to the young prince. In company with his cousin Roger of Warwick, he held the town and castle of Worcester for him, and succeeded in driving off the royal army. Henry’s accession to the county of Anjou upon the death of his father Geoffrey, in 1151, and still more his marriage with Eleanor, the divorced wife of Louis, heiress of Poitiers and Guienne, changed the character of the war. He was no longer a poor claimant, at best the son of a count, but had been suddenly transformed into one of the most powerful princes in Europe. In addition to this, since the death of Pope Innocent in 1144, the Papal See had been taking a more decided course against Stephen. The legatine authority had been withdrawn from Henry of Winchester, whose relationship with Stephen made his action always doubtful, and been given to Theobald the Archbishop, but Stephen, with his usual want of address, contrived to quarrel with him, and he therefore threw his whole weight upon the side of Henry.

Meeting of the armies at Wallingford. 1153.

Church mediates a compromise. 1153.

Death of Stephen. 1154.

Thus, when Henry contrived to form a truce with his rival the French King, and to enter England with a considerable army, the country was much disposed to receive him. Many of the nobility began to declare for him. The Beaumonts, as we have seen, were already his friends. The Countess of Warwick placed her castle in his hands. Robert of Leicester supplied him with provisions, and he marched in good hope to relieve Wallingford, which, defended by Brian Fitz-Count, Stephen was now besieging. There the two armies met; but the desire for peace was so general, that they both demanded that negotiations should be opened. Nothing was then settled, but the armies separated. Stephen proceeded to besiege Ipswich, where Bigot had declared for Henry, and Henry, taking Nottingham on the way, was marching to relieve it, when the heads of the Church saw their opportunity, and Theobald and Henry of Winchester combined to mediate a peace. This was the more easy on account of the death of the young Prince Eustace. On the 7th of November the Treaty of Pacification was concluded at Winchester. It was a compromise. Stephen was to remain King of England during his life; Henry was to be accepted as his son and heir; Stephen’s son William was to do homage to Henry for all his large possessions in England and in Normandy. There then followed an arrangement for restoring the administration which the war had ruined. The castles were to be razed, the coinage reformed, the sheriffs replaced, the crown lands resumed, the new earldoms extinguished, foreigners banished, and administration of justice restored.[19] After this treaty Henry’s duties summoned him chiefly to France; and Stephen, for the short remnant of his life, remained undisputed King of England. He died on the 25th of October 1154.