Geoffrey de Mandeville: A study of the Anarchy

by John Horace Round

I would urge that in the charters I have given above we find the key to this allusion, and that they, in their turn, are explained, and at the same time confirmed, by the existence of this concerted plot. We have now to trace the failure of the scheme, and to learn how it was that all came to nought.

Stephen's illness, to which, it may be remembered, I had attributed in part the inception of the scheme, only lasted till the middle of June. By the time that Robert of Gloucester had set forth to cross the Channel, Stephen was restored to health, and ready and eager for action.[603] Swift to seize on such an opportunity as he had never before obtained, he burst into the heart of the enemy's country and marched straight on Wareham. He found its defenders off their guard; the town was sacked and burnt, and the castle was quickly his.[604] The precautions of the Earl of Gloucester had thus been taken in vain, and the port he had secured for his return was now garrisoned by the king.

The effect of this brilliant stroke was to paralyze the party of the Empress. Her brother, who had left her with great reluctance, dreading the fickleness of the nobles, had made her assembled supporters swear that they would defend her in his absence, and had further taken with him hostages for their faithful behaviour.[605] He had also so strengthened her defences at Oxford that the city seemed almost impregnable.[606] Lastly, a series of outlying posts secured the communications of its defenders with the districts friendly to their cause.[607]

But Stephen, in the words of his panegyrist, had "awaked as one out of sleep." Summoning to his standard his friends and supporters, he marched on Gloucestershire itself, and appeared unexpectedly at Cirencester on the line of the enemy's communications. Its castle, taken by surprise, was burnt and razed to the ground. Then, completing the isolation of the Empress, by storming, as he advanced, other of her posts,[608] he arrived before the walls of Oxford on the 26th of September.[609] The forces of the Empress at once deployed on the left bank of the river. The action which followed was a curious anticipation of the struggle at Boyne Water (1690). The king, informed of the existence of a ford, boldly plunged into the water, and, half fording, half swimming, was one of the first to reach the shore. Instantly charging the enemy's line, he forced the portion opposed to him back towards the walls of the city, and when the bulk of his forces had followed him across, the whole line was put to flight, his victorious troops entering the gates pell-mell with the routed fugitives. The torch was as familiar as the sword to the soldier of the Norman age, and Oxford was quickly buried in a sheet of smoke and fire.[610] The castle, then of great strength, alone held out. From the summit of its mound the Empress must have witnessed the rout of her followers; within its walls she was now destined to stand a weary siege.

It is probable that Stephen's success at Oxford was in part owing to the desertion of the Empress by those who had sworn to defend her. For we read that they were led by shame to talk of advancing to her relief.[611] The project, however, came to nothing, and Earl Robert, hearing of the critical state of affairs, became eager to return to the assistance of his sister and her beleaguered followers.

Geoffrey of Anjou had, on various pretences, detained the earl in Normandy, instead of accepting his invitation and returning with him to England. But Robert's patience was now exhausted, and, bringing with him, instead of Geoffrey, the youthful Henry "fitz Empress," he sailed for England with a fleet of more than fifty ships. Such was the first visit to this land of the future Henry II., being then nine years and a half, not (as stated by Dr. Stubbs) eight years old.[612]

The earl made it a point of honour to recapture Wareham as his first step. He also hoped to create a diversion which might draw off the king from Oxford.[613] This was not bad strategy, for Stephen was deemed to be stronger behind the walls of Oxford than he would be in the open country. The position of affairs resembled, in fact, that at Winchester, the year before. But the two sides had changed places. As the Empress, in Winchester, had besieged Wolvesey, so now, in Oxford, Stephen did the same. It would, therefore, have been necessary to besiege him in turn as the Empress was besieged the year before. Well aware of the advantage he enjoyed, Stephen refused to be decoyed away, and allowed the castle of Wareham to fall into Robert's hands. The other posts in the neighbourhood were also secured by the earl, who then advanced to Cirencester, where he had summoned his friends to meet him. Thus strengthened, he was already marching to the relief of Oxford, when he received the news of his sister's perilous escape and flight. A close siege of three months had brought her to the extremity of want, and Stephen was pressing the attack with all the artillery of the time. A few days before Christmas, in a long and hard frost, when the snow was thick upon the ground, she was let down by ropes from the grim Norman tower, which commanded the approach to the castle on the side of the river. Clad in white from head to foot, and escorted by only three knights, she succeeded under cover of the darkness of night, and by the connivance of one of the besiegers' sentries, in passing through their lines undetected and crossing the frozen river. After journeying on foot for six miles, she reached the spot where horses were in waiting, and rode for Wallingford Castle, her still unconquered stronghold.[614]

On receiving the news of this event Robert changed his course, and proceeded to join his sister. In her joy at the return of her brother and the safe arrival of her son, the Empress forgot all her troubles. She was also in safety now, herself, behind the walls of Wallingford, the support of that town and its fidelity to her cause being gratefully acknowledged by her son on his eventual accession to the throne.[615]

But her husband had declined to come to her help; her city of Oxford was lost; her prestige had suffered a final blow; the great combination scheme was at an end.

[504] He states that the Earl of Gloucester, on his release, "circa germanam sedulo apud Oxeneford mansitabat; quo loco, ut præfatus sum, illa sedem sibi constituens, curiam fecerat" (p. 754).