The History of England, Volume I Stephen Insurrection in favour of Matilda
by David Hume
Adelais, who had expected that
her daughter-in-law would have invaded the kingdom with a much greater
force, became apprehensive of danger; and Matilda, to ease her of her
fears, removed, first to Bristol, which belonged to her brother
Robert, thence to Gloucester, where she remained under the protection
of Milo, a gallant nobleman in those parts, who had embraced her
cause. Soon after Geoffrey Talbot, William Mohun, Ralph Lovel,
William Fitz-John, William Fitz-Alan, Paganell, and many other barons,
declared for her; and her party, which was generally favoured in the
kingdom, seemed every day to gain ground upon that of her antagonist.
Were we to relate all the military events transmitted to us by
contemporary and authentic historians, it would be easy to swell our
accounts of this reign into a large volume: but those incidents, so
little memorable in themselves, and so confused both in time and
place, could afford neither instruction nor entertainment to the
reader. It suffices to say, that the war was spread into every
quarter, and that those turbulent barons, who had already shaken off,
in a great measure, the restraint of government, having now obtained
the pretence of a public cause, carried on their devastations with
redoubled fury, exercised implacable vengeance on each other, and set
no bounds to their oppressions over the people. The castles of the
nobility were become receptacles of licensed robbers; who, sallying
forth day and night, committed spoil on the open country, on the
villages, and even on the cities, put the captives to torture, in
order to make them reveal their treasures; sold their persons to
slavery; and set fire to their houses, after they had pillaged them of
every thing valuable. The fierceness of their disposition, leading
them to commit wanton destruction, frustrated their rapacity of its
purpose; and the property and persons even of the ecclesiastics,
generally so much revered, were at last, from necessity, exposed to
the same outrage which had laid waste the rest of the kingdom. The
land was left untilled; the instruments of husbandry were destroyed or
abandoned; and a grievous famine, the natural result of those
disorders, affected equally both parties, and reduced the spoilers as
well as the defenceless people to the most extreme want and indigence
[z].
[ [z] Chron. Sax. p. 238. W. Malmes. p. 185. Gest. Steph p. 961.]
[MN 1140.] After several fruitless negotiations and treaties of
peace, which never interrupted these destructive hostilities, there
happened at last an event, which seemed to promise some end of the
public calamities. Ralph, Earl of Chester, and his half-brother,
William de Roumara, partisans of Matilda, had surprised the castle of
Lincoln; but the citizens, who were better affected to Stephen, having
invited him to their aid, that prince laid close siege to the castle,
in hopes of soon rendering himself master of the place, either by
assault or by famine. The Earl of Gloucester hastened with an army to
the relief of his friends; and Stephen, informed of his approach, took
the field with a resolution of giving him battle. [MN 1141. 2d Feb.]
After a violent shock, the two wings of the royalists were put to
flight; and Stephen himself, surrounded by the enemy, was at last,
after exerting great efforts of valour, borne down by numbers, and
taken prisoner. He was conducted to
Gloucester; and though at first treated with humanity was soon after,
on some suspicion, thrown into prison and loaded with irons.
Stephen's party was entirely broken by the captivity of their leader,
and the barons came in daily from all quarters, and did homage to
Matilda. The princess, however, amidst all her prosperity, knew that
she was not secure of success unless she could gain the confidence of
the clergy; and as the conduct of the legate had been of late very
ambiguous, and shown his intentions to have rather aimed at humbling
his brother than totally ruining him, she employed every endeavour to
fix him in her interests. [MN 2d March.] She held a conference with
him in an open plain near Winchester, where she promised, upon oath,
that if he would acknowledge her for sovereign, would recognize her
title as the sole descendant of the late king, and would again submit
to the allegiance which he, as well as the rest of the kingdom, had
sworn to her, he should in return be entire master of the
administration, and, in particular, should, at his pleasure, dispose
of all vacant bishoprics and abbeys. Earl Robert, her brother, Brian
Fitz-Count, Milo of Gloucester, and other great men, became guarantees
for her observing these engagements [a]; and the prelate was at last
induced to promise her allegiance, but that still burdened with the
express condition, that she should, on her part, fulfil her promises.
He then conducted her to Winchester, led her in procession to the
cathedral, and with great solemnity, in the presence of many bishops
and abbots, denounced curses against all those who cursed her, poured
out blessings on those who blessed her, granted absolution to such as
were obedient to her, and excommunicated such as were rebellious [b].
Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, soon after came also to court, and
swore allegiance to the empress [c].
[ [a] W. Malm. p. 187. [b] Chron. Sax. p. 242. Contin. Flor. Wig.
p. 676. [c] W. Malmes p. 187.]
