Hello and welcome back to Podcastles!
After a brief break (brought to you by technical difficulties), we’re rounding off our look at the castles of Oxfordshire with another theme episode.
This week? The Anarchy.
So, what is the Anarchy? We heard a lot of you ask.
Well, the Anarchy is the term a lot of historians have used for England’s 12th century Civil War, an 18-year battle for the throne that began on the death of Henry I in 1135.
On one side (the right side, in Nikita’s opinion), we’ve got Empress Matilda. She was the only surviving legitimate child of Henry I and, by all rights, really should have been England’s first female ruler.
But on the other side, we have Stephen. Stephen was Henry I’s nephew and the second son of Stephen, Count of Blois.
On Henry I’s death, Stephen raced across to Winchester and London, to secure the Treasury and the Crown.
It did probably help that his brother was Bishop of Winchester, to be honest.
Meanwhile, news of her father’s death hadn’t even reached Matilda, who was heavily pregnant and living in Anjou with her husband and children.
By the time she found out, Stephen had already made his move.
In the years that followed, Matilda and Stephen battled for the throne. In this episode, we looked at how this unfolded through the key castles involved.
Have a listen and tell us which castle’s your favourite over on Twitter!
And, as always, don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe.
P.S: Whose side are you on? Stephen’s or Matilda’s?
Sources:
Anon, Gesta Stephani
Henry of Huntingdon, History of England, Internet History Source Books https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/henry-hunt1.asp
William Malmesbury, William of Malmesbury’s Chronicles of the Kings of England, ed. John Allen Giles, 1847 http://www.gutenberg.org/files/50778/50778-h/50778-h.htm
Helen Castor, She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth, Faber and Faber, 2011, pp39-131
Catherine Hanley, Matilda: Empress, Queen, Warrior, Yale University Press, 2019
Marjorie Chibnell, “The Empress Matilda and Church Reform”, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Vol. 38, 1988, pp107-130
Robert B. Patterson, “Anarchy in England, 1135-54: The Theory of the Constitution”, Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, Vol. 6, No. 3 (Autumn, 1974), pp. 189-200
Edmund King, “The Anarchy of King Stephen’s Reign”, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Vol. 34, 1984, pp134-153
Edmund King, “Stephen”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/26365
Matthew Lewis, Stephen and Matilda’s Civil War, Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 2019
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