King Stephen – History… the interesting bits!

1141: The War of the Two Matildas

30/03/202430/03/2024Sharon Bennett Connolly2 Comments

Few periods in history have brought women to the fore, to the centre of events, as the Anarchy did in England. From 1135 to 1154, conflict raged when Stephen of Blois usurped the throne that rightfully belonged to his cousin Empress Matilda. During the lifetime of Henry I – Matilda’s father and Stephen’s uncle – Stephen had twice sworn oaths to guarantee the succession for Matilda. But when the time came, when Henry died on 1 December 1135, Stephen broke those oaths, and had himself crowned king in Westminster Abbey just 3 weeks after his uncle’s death.

If he thought Matilda would just accept losing her crown and stay at home with the children, Stephen was sorely mistaken. Pregnant with her third child at the time of her father’s death, Matilda had to bide her time, for a little while. And, as her husband Geoffrey of Anjou campaigned on her behalf in Normandy, Matilda landed in England on 30 September 1139 and her own campaign to claim the crown began.

And she nearly won.

The First Battle of Lincoln

Early in 1141, news reached King Stephen that Ranulf de Gernons, the disgruntled Earl of Chester, had captured Lincoln Castle. Disappointed in his aspirations to Carlisle and Cumberland after they were given to Prince Henry of Scotland, Ranulf had turned his sights on Lincoln Castle, which had once been held by his mother, Lucy of Bolingbroke, Countess of Chester. Countess Lucy had died around 1138, leaving her Lincolnshire lands to her son by her second marriage, William de Roumare, Ranulf’s half-brother. Her lands elsewhere had been left to Ranulf de Gernons, who was the son of her third marriage, to Ranulf le Meschin, Earl of Chester.

It seems that in late 1140 Ranulf and his brother had contrived to gain possession of Lincoln Castle by subterfuge. As the story goes, the two brothers waited until the castle garrison had gone hunting before sending their wives to visit the castellan’s wife. A short while after, Earl Ranulf appeared at the castle gates, wearing no armour and with only three attendants, supposedly to collect his wife and sister-in-law. Once allowed inside, he and his men overpowered the small number of men-at-arms left to guard the castle and opened the gates to his brother. The half-brothers took control of the castle and, with it, the city of Lincoln.

The citizens of Lincoln appealed to the king, who had promptly arrived outside the castle walls by 6 January 1141 and began his siege. Earl Ranulf somehow escaped from the castle and returned to his lands in Chester in order to raise more troops. He also took the opportunity to appeal to his father-in-law for aid. Ranulf’s father-in-law was, Robert, Earl of Gloucester, the illegitimate son of Henry I and brother of Empress Matilda. A very capable soldier, Earl Robert commanded Matilda’s military forces and his daughter, Maud of Gloucester – Ranulf’s wife – was still trapped inside Lincoln Castle. If the need to rescue his daughter was not enough motivation to persuade Robert to intercede at Lincoln, Ranulf also promised to switch his allegiance, and his considerable resources, to Empress Matilda. Robert marched to Lincoln, meeting up with his son-in-law along the way. The earls’ forces arrived on the outskirts of Lincoln on 1 February, crossed the Fossdyke and the River Witham and arrayed for battle. Their rapid approach caught Stephen unawares. Outnumbered, Stephen was advised to withdraw his forces, until he could muster enough men to make an even fight of it.

Stephen, perhaps remembering the destruction of his father’s reputation after his flight from Antioch, refused to withdraw. He would stand and fight. The next morning, 2 February 1141, before battle was joined, King Stephen attended a solemn mass in the cathedral; according to Henry of Huntingdon, who claimed Bishop Alexander of Lincoln as his patron and may well have been present, the service was replete with ill omens:

‘But when, following custom, he offered a candle fit for a king and was putting it into Bishop Alexander’s hands, it broke into pieces. This was a warning to the king that he would be crushed. In the bishop’s presence, too, the pyx above the altar, which contained the Lord’s Body, fell, its chain having snapped off. This was a sign of the king’s downfall.’

Henry of Huntingdon, The History of the English People 1000-1154

After mass, the king led his forces through Lincoln’s West Gate, deploying them either on the slope leading down to the Fossdyke or possibly at the bottom of the slope, on Carrholme. King Stephen formed his army into three divisions, with mounted troops on each flank and the infantry in the centre. On the right flank were the forces of Waleran de Meulan, William de Warenne, Simon de Senlis, Gilbert of Hertford, Alan of Richmond and Hugh Bigod, Earl of Norfolk. The left was commanded by William of Aumale and William of Ypres, Stephen’s trusted mercenary captain, who led a force of Flemish and Breton troops. The centre comprised the shire levy, which included citizens of Lincoln, and Stephen’s own men-at-arms, fighting on foot around the royal standard.

*1141 Battle of Lincoln from Historia Anglorum*

The opposing army also deployed in three divisions, with ‘the disinherited’, those deprived of their lands by King Stephen, on the left. The infantry, comprising of Earl Ranulf’s Cheshire tenants and other levies, and dismounted knights were in the centre under Earl Ranulf himself. The cavalry, under the command of Earl Robert of Gloucester formed the right flank. The Welsh mercenaries, ‘ill armed but full of spirits’ were arrayed on the wings of the army. Before the battle, Henry of Huntingdon reports, speeches were heard from both sides, exhorting the men to battle and insulting the opposing commanders.

Baldwin fitz Gilbert spoke for King Stephen, whose voice did not carry well. According to Henry of Huntingdon, the armies were mobilising before his speech ended. The rebels were the first to advance, ‘the shouts of the advancing enemy were heard, mingled with the blasts of their trumpets, and the trampling of the horses, making the ground to quake.’ The ranks of the ‘disinherited’ moved forward with swords drawn, rather than lowered lances, intent on close quarter combat. This left flank of the rebel army fell upon Stephen’s right flank, ‘in which were Earl Alan, the Earl of Mellent [Meulan], with Hugh, the Earl of East Anglia [Norfolk], and Earl Symon, and the Earl of Warenne, with so much impetuosity that it was routed in the twinkling of an eye, one part being slain, another taken prisoner and the third put to flight.’ Faced with the ferocity of the assault and the very real prospect of death, rather than being taken prisoner and held for ransom, the earls fled the field with the remnants of their men. It was every man for himself as Stephen’s right wing disintegrated in panic.²

The left wing of the royal army appeared to have greater success, at least initially. The men of William of Aumale, Earl of York and Stephen’s mercenary captain, William of Ypres, rode down the Earl of Chester’s Welsh mercenaries and sent them running, but ‘the followers of the Earl of Chester attacked this body of horse, and it was scattered in a moment like the rest.’³ Other sources suggest that William of Ypres and William of Aumale fled before coming to close quarters with the enemy.⁴ Either way, William of Ypres’ men were routed and he was in no position to support the king and so fled the field, no doubt aware that he would not be well-treated were he to be captured.

Stephen’s centre, the infantry, including the Lincolnshire levies and the king’s own men-at-arms, were left isolated and surrounded, but continued to fight. Stephen himself was prominent in the vicious hand-to-hand fighting that followed. Henry of Huntingdon vividly describes the desperate scene as ‘the battle raged terribly round this circle; helmets and swords gleamed as they clashed, and the fearful screams and shouts re-echoed from the neighbouring hill and city walls.’⁵ The rebel cavalry charged into the royal forces killing many, trampling others and capturing some. King Stephen was deep in the midst of the fighting:

‘No respite, no breathing time was allowed, except in the quarter in which the king himself had taken his stand, where the assailants recoiled from the unmatched force of his terrible arm. The Earl of Chester seeing this, and envious of the glory the king was gaining, threw himself upon him with the whole weight of his men-at-arms. Even then the king’s courage did not fail, but his heavy battle-axe gleamed like lightning, striking down some, bearing back others. At length it was shattered by repeated blows, then he drew his well-tried sword, with which he wrought wonders until that, too, was broken.’

Henry of Huntingdon, The History of the English People 1000-1154;

According to Orderic Vitalis and the Gesta Stephani, it was the king’s sword that broke first, before he was passed a battle-axe by one of the fighting citizens of Lincoln, in order to continue the fight. Whatever the order, the king’s weapons were now useless and the king ‘fell to the ground by a blow from a stone.’⁶ Stephen was stunned and a soldier named William de Cahaignes then rushed at him, seized him by his helmet and shouted, ‘Here! Here! I have taken the king!’

The king’s forces being completely surrounded, flight was impossible. All were killed or taken prisoner, including Baldwin fitz Gilbert, the man who had given the rousing pre-battle speech to the men. In the immediate aftermath of the fighting, Lincoln was sacked, buildings set alight, valuables pillaged, and its citizens slaughtered by the victorious rebels.

Lady of the English

*Empress Matilda depicted in an image from the Gospels of Henry the Lion.*

Defeated, Stephen was first taken to Empress Matilda and then to imprisonment at Bristol Castle. A victorious Matilda was recognised as sovereign by the English people.

As for Matilda, ‘the lady empress-queen, Henry’s daughter, who was staying at Gloucester, was overjoyed at this event, having now, as it appeared to her, got possession of the kingdom for which fealty had been sworn to her’. As the Gesta Stephani, always insistent on naming Matilda countess rather than empress,relates, ‘the greater part of the kingdom at once submitted to the countess and her adherents and some of the king’s men, involved in sudden disasters, were being either captured or forcibly expelled from their possessions; others, very quickly foreswearing the faith they owed to the king, were voluntarily surrendering themselves and what was theirs to the countess’.

A victorious Matilda was recognised as sovereign by the English people, being named Lady of the English as Winchester in March.

Queen Matilda

And Stephen’s greatest asset now showed her mettle.

In April, Stephen’s wife, Queen Matilda, sent a letter that was read out at the Legatine Council in Winchester, presided over by Henry of Blois, papal legate and Bishop of Winchester – and brother of King Stephen. The queen pleaded with the clergy to release the king from his imprisonment and restore him to the throne. As may have been expected, Bishop Henry refused to give in to the queen’s request, but her pleas may have affected a delegation of Londoners, also present, who were still openly loyal to Stephen and would see Queen Matilda’s letter as encouragement for them to maintain their position in the face of the bishop’s persuasion. Clearly the empress had a long way to go before the Londoners would admit her into the capital for her coronation at Westminster Abbey.

However, by mid-June, the empress was at Westminster, outside the city walls of London.

Empress Matilda was now at the height of her success. Her rival was in her custody, the church was on her side, she had the keys to the royal treasury and was about to make a ceremonial entry into London, her capital: ‘The empress, as we have already said, having treated with the Londoners, lost no time in entering the city with a great attendance of bishops and nobles: and being received at Westminster with a magnificent procession, took up her abode there for some days to set in order the affairs of the kingdom.’ Her uncle David, King of Scots and her half-brothers Robert of Gloucester and Reginald de Dunstanville, now Earl of Cornwall, were by her side.

Empress versus Queen

With her husband held in chains in Bristol castle, Matilda of Boulogne, Queen of England, wife of King Stephen and cousin of Empress Matilda, stepped into the fight. She first tried to negotiate, offering to take Stephen into exile if Matilda would at least guarantee their son’s inheritance of their ancestral lands. The empress refused, perhaps remembering that no such guarantee was ever made to her son, Henry, dispossessed of his inheritance by Stephen’s usurpation of the crown. Undeterred, Queen Matilda established a secure base in Kent, from where she raised an army to march on London, burning and ravaging the countryside surrounding the capital. It was becoming apparent that the struggle was far from over. A final masterstroke was when she moved up William of Ypres and his Flemish mercenaries, to threaten London, thus inducing the Londoners to turn against the empress.

Henry, Bishop of Winchester, deserted the empress and joined the queen, promising to expend his efforts on obtaining the release of the king, his brother.

The empress’s success was turning sour.

On the eve of the empress’s ceremonial entrance into the capital, the city’s church bells rang out, a prearranged signal for the citizens to rise against the empress and open the gates to the queen’s approaching army. Empress Matilda was still at Westminster, ‘reclining at a well-cooked feast’. Westminster was an unfortified palace that was not easily defensible and ‘being, however, forewarned by some of them, she fled shamefully with her retinue, leaving all her own and their apparel behind’.

The empress had no choice. She and her supporters rode for Oxford. Although things appeared precarious, all was not lost. Queen Matilda now held London, but the empress still had Stephen in her custody and room for manoeuvre. By the end of July, the empress and her army were riding south. As she approached Winchester, the empress sent a request to Bishop Henry to meet her outside the city, at which point he promptly fled to join Queen Matilda at Guildford.

The Rout of Winchester

*Robert of Gloucester and his wife, Mabel*

Winchester had two castles: the royal castle, which held for the empress, and Wolvesey, a palatial castle in the south-eastern corner of the city that was the residence of Bishop Henry of Winchester, though he was not at home at the time. Empress Matilda arrived at the royal castle of Winchester on 31 July and began the siege of Wolvesey on 1 August 1141.

In defiance, the garrison of the bishop’s castle threw burning material from the ramparts which, in the summer heat, quickly set the whole city ablaze. The stone cathedral survived, but much of the town, built in wood with thatched roofs, was lost. The devastation meant the city’s population had lost their homes and livelihoods, and the empress’s army were deprived of shelter and provisions. Worse, Queen Matilda was now approaching with an army of her own and, in turn, besieged the empress.

The empress’s army was trapped.

Surrounded, with the city in flames and supplies running short, the empress was forced to flee for her life. In the retreat, her half-brother and leading general, Robert, Earl of Gloucester, was captured.

Queen Matilda now had her own bargaining chip. As much as she needed her husband returned to her, the empress needed her brother.

Prisoner Exchange

The practical arrangements for the exchange were rather complicated, with neither side trusting the other to hold to the bargain. On 1 November 1141, Queen Matilda surrendered at Bristol Castle, with one of her sons and two unidentified magnates, so that Stephen could be set at liberty. The king then rode to Winchester, where Earl Robert had been taken under guard, and on his arrival on 3 November the earl was freed, leaving his eldest son and heir, William of Gloucester, as surety. When the earl reached Bristol, the queen, her son and the two unnamed magnates were set at liberty and returned to Winchester. At that point, William of Gloucester was freed as well. After nine months of harsh imprisonment, Stephen was free at last.

By Christmas 1141, having endured nine months of incarceration, Stephen was back on his throne and celebrating the festive season at Canterbury, where he was symbolically re-crowned by the archbishop of Canterbury, with his queen by his side.

The empress was faced with the realisation of how close she had come to winning it all.

But lost.

At least she had her brother back and the fight was far from over.

The war would drag on until Stephen’s death in 1154, but the empress never came as close again to winning the crown. She eventually passed the baton to her son, Henry FitzEmpress, who would reign as Henry II. It was a kind of victory: it was her son who succeeded King Stephen rather than his own. Empress Matilda could ultimately claim victory as the crown returned to her line and that of her father, Henry I.

Images:

Courtesy of Wikipedia except Lincoln Castle and Oxford Castle which are ©SharonBennettConnolly FRHistS

Selected bibliography:

Gesta Stephani, translated by K. R. Potter; Henry of Huntingdon, The History of the English People 1000-1154; Marjorie Chibnall, The Empress Matilda: Queen Consort, Queen Mother and Lady of the English; Teresa Cole, The Anarchy: The Darkest Days of Medieval England; Catherine Hanley, Matilda: Empress, Queen, Warrior; Helen Castor, She-Wolves: The Women who Ruled England before Elizabeth; Robert Bartlett, England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings; J. Sharpe (trans.), The History of the Kings of England and of his Own Times by William Malmesbury; Orderici Vitalis, Historiae ecclesiasticae libri tredecem, translated by Auguste Le Prévost; Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II and Richard I; Edmund King, King Stephen; Donald Matthew, King Stephen; Matthew Lewis, Stephen and Matilda’s Civil War: Cousins of Anarchy.

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Out Now! Women of the Anarchy

Two cousins. On the one side is Empress Matilda, or Maud. The sole surviving legitimate child of Henry I, she is fighting for her birthright and that of her children. On the other side is her cousin, Queen Matilda, supporting her husband, King Stephen, and fighting to see her own son inherit the English crown. Women of the Anarchy demonstrates how these women, unable to wield a sword, were prime movers in this time of conflict and lawlessness. It show how their strengths, weaknesses, and personal ambitions swung the fortunes of war one way – and then the other.

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King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is the story of a truly remarkable lady, the hereditary constable of Lincoln Castle and the first woman in England to be appointed sheriff in her own right. It is is available from King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is the story of a truly remarkable lady, the hereditary constable of Lincoln Castle and the first woman in England to be appointed sheriff in her own right. Available from all good bookshops or direct from Pen & Sword Books, bookshop.org and Amazon. Defenders of the Norman Crown: The Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey tells the fascinating story of the Warenne dynasty, from its origins in Normandy, through the Conquest, Magna Carta, the wars and marriages that led to its ultimate demise in the reign of Edward III. Available from Pen & Sword Books, Amazon in the UK and US, and Bookshop.org.

Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England looks into the relationships of the various noble families of the 13th century, and how they were affected by the Barons’ Wars, Magna Carta and its aftermath; the bonds that were formed and those that were broken. It is now available in paperback and hardback from Pen & Sword, Amazon, and Bookshop.org. Heroines of the Medieval World tells the stories of some of the most remarkable women from Medieval history, from Eleanor of Aquitaine to Julian of Norwich. Available now from Amberley Publishing and Amazon, and Bookshop.org. Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest traces the fortunes of the women who had a significant role to play in the momentous events of 1066. Available now from Amazon, Amberley Publishing, and Bookshop.org.

Alternate Endings: An anthology of historical fiction short stories including Long Live the King… which is my take what might have happened had King John not died in October 1216. Available in paperback and kindle from Amazon.

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Matilda of Boulogne: From Countess to Queen

08/03/2024Sharon Bennett Connolly4 Comments

King Stephen’s wife, Matilda of Boulogne, was a stalwart supporter of her husband. She was arguably more capable than Stephen and often took the initiative in diplomatic negotiations. Acting as Stephen’s wife, she offered a stark contrast to the independence and authority of Empress Matilda that so infuriated the barons. Matilda of Boulogne was a little more subtle than her imperious counterpart, only ever acting in her husband’s name, not her own. Even later, when she held the command of Stephen’s forces during his captivity in 1141, she claimed to act only on behalf of her husband and sons.

Matilda of Boulogne was an example of how a woman was expected to act and comport herself: strong and confident, but subject to her husband’s will. On this last, Empress Matilda failed in the eyes of the barons; she was acting for herself. In the event, the barons of England and Normandy despised her second husband, Geoffrey of Anjou, so they would have been even less receptive to Matilda had her husband tried to assert his authority. It was a conundrum that Matilda was never able to resolve, though she would not give up trying.

According to the Gesta Stephani (The Deeds of Stephen), Stephen of Blois was ‘by far the dearest of all his nephews to King Henry the peacemaker, not only because of the close family relationship, but also because he was peculiarly eminent for many conspicuous virtues’. Born at Blois in or around 1096, Stephen was the third son of Adela and her husband, Stephen, Count of Blois and Chartres. His father was one of the leaders of the First Crusade and may well have departed for the Holy Land before – or shortly after – the younger Stephen’s birth. It is likely that young Stephen had little contact with his father; the count returned from crusade in 1198, only to depart again in 1201.

In 1125, it was King Henry who arranged for Stephen’s marriage to the daughter and sole heiress of the Count of Boulogne, Matilda. Matilda’s mother was Mary of Scotland, sister of Henry I’s first wife, Matilda of Scotland; the younger Matilda was therefore first cousin to Henry I’s daughter, Empress Matilda. The daughter of King Malcolm III Canmore and his queen Margaret of Wessex, Mary of Scotland could trace her illustrious heritage all the way back to Alfred the Great; she had been educated in England alongside her sister. Mary was married to Eustace III, Count of Boulogne, and their only child, Matilda, was probably born the following year, in 1105. The baby’s maternal aunt, Matilda of Scotland, stood as godmother. It is possible that, like her mother and aunt, young Matilda was educated at the convents of Wilton and Romsey. She was certainly a well-educated and capable woman. As we shall see, as an adult, she seems as erudite and well versed in politics as her husband, perhaps with an even better capacity for diplomacy.

Mary of Scotland died when her daughter was around ten or eleven years old, on 31 May 1116. She was buried in the wealthy Cluniac house of Bermondsey Abbey in England.

The county of Boulogne lay within the greater county of Flanders. Nominally owing fealty to France, it was largely autonomous and held extensive interests in England, particularly in Essex and the south-east. The county also controlled one of the most important Channel crossings to England at Wissant. Keeping the county onside by marrying a reliable magnate to the heir to Boulogne was of great interest to Henry. As its heiress, Matilda of Boulogne was a figure of major political significance, her marriage deserving of careful consideration. Given that she was still unmarried at the age of twenty, with such a rich inheritance, it is possible that previous but unrecorded marital arrangements had fallen through, or that her father and uncle had taken extra care in ensuring that Matilda’s hand in marriage went to the right person.

By 1125, King Henry had been married to Adeliza of Louvain for four years, but no children had been born of the union. Likewise, Henry’s daughter, Empress Matilda, had yet to produce a living child and was at this stage more likely to be envisioning a future within the empire rather than as her father’s successor. King Henry may have been looking elsewhere for an heir to his throne; his Blois nephews, Theobald and Stephen, were the obvious candidates. As a bride to Stephen, Matilda of Boulogne would strengthen his claim to the throne, both by her Saxon royal blood and by the financial backing of the county of Boulogne.

Matilda of Boulogne and Stephen were married early in 1125, though the exact date is not recorded. Shortly after the marriage, Matilda’s father, Eustace, a former crusader, abdicated in favour of his son-in-law. Eustace retired to the Cluniac priory at Romilly, taking leave of his daughter and son-in-law in a public ceremony, probably followed by a private farewell, at the priory where he died a short time later, aged about seventy-five. As Count of Boulogne and Mortain, Stephen was now a man to be reckoned with, with considerable resources on both sides of the English Channel; he was the greatest landowner in Suffolk, Essex and the north-west of England.

Rule over the strategically important county of Boulogne would be a suitable training ground for Stephen to get used to exercising significant power in his own right. Through certain charters in the latter half of the 1120s, we can see Stephen administering his cross-Channel lordship. In 1127 he founded Furness Abbey in his lordship of Lancaster. The abbey’s mother house was located at Savigny, in Stephen’s county of Mortain. In the same year, Stephen granted the monks of Canterbury Cathedral priory an exemption from tolls at Wissant, the port through which they shipped their wine.

Empress Matilda depicted at the coronation of her granddaughter, Matilda of England, as Duchess of Saxony, in an image from the Gospels of Henry the Lion.

In marrying into the county of Boulogne, Stephen had joined a family well versed in commerce. He was heavily involved in the county’s business proceedings, usually mentioned alongside his wife, Matilda of Boulogne, who appears to have been the one in charge of the day-to-day management of the county. The Essex town of Colchester was the centre of administration for Boulogne’s interests in England. In the early years of Henry I’s reign the lands in Colchester had been identified as ‘the lands of Count Eustace,’ and were built up with the addition of lands that had belonged to Eudo Dapifer, also known as Iwun al Capel, brother-in-law of William the Conqueror and a member of the de la Haye family, until his death in 1120.

Stephen and Matilda were at Canterbury in person to confirm a charter to the monks of Christ Church, which gave the monks freedom from customs duties for the port of Wissant, granted by Count Eustace. The count and countess placed their sealed charter on the high altar of the abbey church; it is still held in the abbey archives. The ceremony was presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury himself, William Corbeil. In 1131, the couple wrote to the archbishop and the Bishop of Ely to notify them that they had transferred the secular rights of the church at Gamlingay in Cambridgeshire to the Augustinian canons of Colchester, ‘for the remission of our sins and those of our ancestors and for the safe preservation of our son, Eustace, and our other offspring and for our temporal well-being.’ This is the first mention of Eustace and dates his birth to no later than August 1131, when Hervey, Bishop of Ely, died.

The fact these charters were jointly granted by both Stephen and Matilda serve to demonstrate how closely involved Matilda was in the management of the county, and how closely Stephen and Matilda worked together as a couple. The trust they developed in each other would stand them in good stead in the years to come.

In the early 1130s Matilda of Boulogne, like her counterpart Empress Matilda in Anjou, would have been occupied with a number of pregnancies. The couple’s first child, a son named Eustace, was born no later than 1131 and at least two further children, Baldwin and Matilda, were born before Stephen became king in 1135. Little Baldwin died before his father even came to the throne; he was buried beside the altar at Holy Trinity, Aldgate, the abbey founded by the countess’s aunt Matilda of Scotland, Henry I’s first queen. That Baldwin was buried in London suggests that Matilda spent time in England as well as Boulogne during this period. Two more children, William and Mary (or Marie), were probably born after Stephen seized the crown. The three older children were given names that called to mind the county of Boulogne, with both Eustace and Baldwin being the names of several former counts. William, on the other hand, was a reference to Stephen’s grandfather, William the Conqueror, King of England.

Despite henry I having his barons swear – twice – to uphold the claims of his daughter to the throne of England, Henry I left no written instruction as to the disposition of his throne and lands, which led to the chroniclers disputing exactly what the king had intended. What is certain is that in his final days, Henry did not name his heir. Unfortunately, the lack of this definitive designation at the last meant that there was enough ambiguity for Stephen to seize the initiative.

What the chronicles do agree on is that Henry’s death caused a great deal of unrest on both sides of the Channel. According to Orderic Vitalis, ‘on the very same day that the Normans heard that their firm ruler had died in the first week of Advent they rushed out hungrily like ravening wolves to plunder and ravage mercilessly’. On the other side of the Channel, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle made a similar report: ‘Then his land immediately grew dark because every man who could immediately robbed another.’

At Henry I’s death in December 1135, the major players in the drama that was about to unfold were scattered throughout the Anglo-Norman realm. Robert, Earl of Gloucester was at his father’s side; Queen Adeliza was in England; Empress Matilda was in Anjou with her husband, Geoffrey, and in the early stages of her third pregnancy; and Stephen of Blois was in Boulogne with his wife, Matilda. In the days after the king’s death, the lack of a designated heir was evident, and the barons moved to maintain peace in Normandy.

Stephen had decided his own priorities, possibly well in advance of the king’s death and perhaps in collusion with his brother, Theobald. Whether Empress Matilda had an inkling of what Stephen was planning we do not know, though it seems unlikely given her own move into Normandy and no further. Stephen was not with the king when he died. Although he had been with Henry at Rouen earlier in the year, by late November 1135 he was in his county of Boulogne and it was there that the news of the king’s demise reached him, probably two or three days later. The speed of Stephen’s response, and its organisation, shows that he had been contemplating his plan of action for some time.

It is not hard to imagine him sitting in Boulogne, surrounded by his wife and family, watching and waiting for the arrival of the news that would set his plans in motion. According to the Gesta Stephani, ‘as soon as he heard by report that King Henry had breathed his last, forming a mighty design like the famous Saul, [Stephen] made for the coast, since he was the other side of the Channel, and happening to gain a favourable wind turned his mind and his ship towards England’.

Leaving his wife and children in the relative safety of Boulogne, Stephen took what must have been the biggest gamble of his life.

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Available from Bookshop.org, Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK.

Coming on 15 June 2024: Heroines of the Tudor World

Heroines of the Tudor World is now available for pre-order from Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK.

Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

Podcast:

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Publication Day: Women of the Anarchy

15/01/202412/04/2024Sharon Bennett Connolly3 Comments

I am so happy and proud to announce that Women of the Anarchy is finally out in the world – well, in the UK, anyway. It will be released in the US, Canada and Australia in April. It has been quite a journey. Thanks to the pandemic and a backlog at the publishers, Women of the Anarchy has taken a little longer to see daylight than my other books.

I hope it was worth the wait.

About Women of the Anarchy:

In 1135, Stephen of Blois usurped the throne, stealing it from his cousin Empress Matilda and sparking a nineteen-year civil war that would become known as the Anarchy, one of the bloodiest periods in English history.

On the one side is Empress Matilda. The sole surviving legitimate child of Henry I, she is fighting for her birthright and that of her children.

On the other side is her cousin, Queen Matilda, supporting her husband, Stephen, and fighting to see her own son inherit the English crown.

Both women are granddaughters of St Margaret, Queen of Scotland, and descendants of Alfred the Great of Wessex. Empress Matilda was the first woman to claim the throne of England in her own right, but did not gain the support of the barons. When Queen Matilda’s husband King Stephen was captured by the Empress’s forces, it was down to her to keep the fight going, and to negotiate for her husband’s release.

Women of the Anarchy demonstrates how these women, unable to wield a sword, were prime movers in this time of conflict and lawlessness. It shows how their strengths, weaknesses and personal ambitions swung the fortunes of war one way – and then the other.

Reviews:

Early reviews have been amazing:

In Women of the Anarchy, Sharon Bennett Connolly tells the parallel stories of two cousins named Matilda, The first, Empress Matilda, saw her throne usurped by Stephen of Blois in 1135, an act that launched a bloody 19-year civil war known the history as the Anarchy. As she fought for the crown that was her birthright, she found herself pitted against another Matilda: this one the wife of King Stephen.

As granddaughters of a queen and descendants of Alfred the Great, the two women at the centre of this story both believed that it was the right of their own blood to rule, and both were determined to prevail. With Stephen of Blois captured by the forces of Empress Matilda, it was up to his queen to carry on the war and, she hoped, secure his eventual release. Neither of the women would ever see battle, but they made their mark in other ways. From strategy to negotiation to making the sorts of decisions that the powerful barons believed were the province of men alone, the two women altered the course of the war and also the path of history itself.

Women of the Anarchy is particularly notable for the story of Matilda of Boulogne, the queen who has often been a supporting player in her husband’s story. It’s also a reminder of the challenges unique to royal women, both at home and in the wider world. This is a fascinating story that will appeal to anyone with an interest in the power plays of the medieval world.
All About History magazine issue 138

And from Annie Whitehead, a fellow historian of medieval women:

Well now there’s a lovely new nonfiction book which covers this period, but does do by focusing on the women who played pivotal roles. And there’s none better to write such a book than Sharon Bennett Connolly, who has made it a bit of a stock-in-trade to bring medieval women out of the shadows and plonk them firmly in the limelight….

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It gives an in depth account of The Anarchy…

all in all this is a rounded study of the period, but always the emphasis is on the women and the parts they played. Couple this with the author’s readable style, and it’s a book which informs and entertains.
Annie Whitehead

Read the full review here

And one more amazing review, from the Lincolnshire Family History Society:

The author examines this period in minute detail, whilst she leads the reader through this fascinating, but convoluted series of events, through the experiences of relatively unknown women. She describes fully each participant. Her pen pictures make them more than mere names, giving them character and life, illuminated by quotations and extracts from chronicles of the time.

Like an exciting detective story, each chapter leads the reader further into the turmoil, explaining the situation from a different viewpoint. The anticipation builds as the reader follows the chapters. The deeper I got into the book, the less I wanted to put it down as it moved towards the final chapters.

Historical Books can be difficult reading by their very intensity. However, once again, Sharon Bennett Connolly excels in her presentation, choosing carefully from a maelstrom of sources, to give her reader an unusual and illuminating path through those times
Lincolnshire Family History Society

More reviews:

Women of the Anarchy is therefore a compelling read that sheds light on the overlooked yet influential women of 12th century England. It provides a fresh and gripping perspective on the part these women played in dictating the course of the Anarchy and is highly recommended.
https://www.livingmedieval.com/features/women-of-the-anarchy

Sharon Bennett Connolly avoids portraying these women as pawns or victims, but reveals complex characters, driven by ambition, love, faith, and an inspiring determination to take control of their own destinies. We see their vulnerabilities and triumphs, their moments of weakness and resilience, creating a deeply human and relatable portrait of these women’s lives.
https://tonyriches.blogspot.com/2024/02/book-review-women-of-anarchy-by-sharon.html?spref=tw

What makes Women of the Anarchy stand out is its focus on the broader spectrum of royal women impacted by the conflict. Connolly weaves a rich tapestry of characters, including grandmothers and mothers such as Matilda of Flanders, Saint Margaret of Scotland, Matilda of Scotland, and Adeliza of Louvain. These influential women served as role models, imparting invaluable lessons to the two Matildas on how to balance their roles as queens while preserving their individual identities.
https://www.medievallatin.com/post/matildas-and-matriarchs-in-england-s-epic-strife-women-of-the-anarchy-book-review

Podcast:

Have a listen to the Anarchy episode of A Slice of Medieval podcast, which I co-host with Historical fiction novelist Derek Birks, in which we discuss the empress, the queen and the wider war.

To buy Women of the Anarchy

You can order signed, dedicated copies of Women of the Anarchy through my online bookshop. Women of the Anarchy is also available in bookshops or online from Amberley Publishing, bookshop.org, and Amazon UK.

Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is the story of a truly remarkable lady, the hereditary constable of Lincoln Castle and the first woman in England to be appointed sheriff in her own right. It is is available from Pen & Sword Books, bookshop.org and Amazon. Defenders of the Norman Crown: The Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey tells the fascinating story of the Warenne dynasty, from its origins in Normandy, through the Conquest, Magna Carta, the wars and marriages that led to its ultimate demise in the reign of Edward III. Available from Pen & Sword Books, Amazon in the UK and US, and Bookshop.org.

Don’t forget! Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online bookshop.

For forthcoming online and in-person talks, please check out my Events Page.

*You can be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter and Instagram.

Article: 2024 © Sharon Bennett Connolly FRHistS

Empress Matilda’s Escape in a Snow Storm

14/01/202414/01/2024Sharon Bennett Connolly6 Comments

In the mid-12th century, England was riven by civil war as King Stephen and Empress Matilda fought for a crown that was rightfully hers. In 1141, the empress came close to realising her ambition: Stephen had been captured and she was proclaimed ‘Lady of the English’, but the crown itself eluded her. Stephen’s wife, Queen Matilda, had fought back, captured the empress’s illegitimate half-brother, Earl Robert of Gloucester and negotiated a prisoner swap.

By January 1142, everyone was back where they started, with Stephen on the throne and Empress Matilda still fighting to wrest it from his grasp. In the early months of the year, both sides spent time consolidating their resources and manoeuvring for position rather than forcing a confrontation.

Except, things were a little more desperate. Her stocks were severely depleted and only her staunchest supporters remained with her; worse still, Stephen was now free to act on his own behalf. With the defection of Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester, back to his brother’s side, the church was against her as well.

The empress needed reinforcements. Her husband, Geoffrey of Anjou, implied that he would help, but only if her brother, Earl Robert, would come to him and ask in person. The empress was against the idea and Earl Robert was reluctant to leave his sister, not that Stephen was free again. But the king was lying ill at Nottingham, with rumours circulating that he was close to death. Robert decided it would be safe enough to leave for Normandy, though not without reservations.

Empress Matilda moved to Oxford to await her brother’s return. Although Oxford was not the most secure residence. It may have strong, high walls, but it was close to enemy territory. It was close to London. Her presence there would mean that the empress could act quickly, were Stephen to die.

But then, the king unexpectedly recovered.

And went on the offensive, taking Wareham, held by Earl Robert’s eldest son, William of Gloucester. It was the castle guarding that would have been the earl’s landing place on his return from Normandy. Stephen then marched to Cirencester, the castle was abandoned by the garrison on his approach. He burned it to the ground before moving on to Bampton and Radcot, both garrisoned by the empress’s forces; one was taken by storm while the other surrendered.

By taking the nearby castles, Stephen was isolating the empress at Oxford, cutting off any possible aid. And it was only when this was done that Stephen turned his sights on the empress.

Oxford was a city protected by the surrounding Thames, guarded by a palisade on one side while the formidable castle, with its high donjon, stood sentinel on the other side. According to the Gesta Stephani, the king managed to find a deep ford by which he led his men across the river, ‘swimming rather than wading’, and launched an attack on the city’s defenders. When the defenders pulled back into the city, hoping to close the gates, the king’s forces mingled with them and made their way inside, burning buildings, killing those who resisted and capturing those who could offer a ransom. Others were ejected from the town, left to their own devices in the neighbouring countryside. While others were forced to seek shelter in the castle, with the empress.

The king encircled the castle, ordering that it be closely watched, day and night. The empress was not going to escape him again. There was slim chance of reinforcements coming to her aid. Her uncle David, King of Scots was back in Scotland, her loyal servant Miles of Gloucester, now Earl of Hereford, did not have enough men, and Brian FitzCount had to look to the defence of his own castle at Wallingford. And Earl Robert was still far away in Normandy, campaigning with Count Geoffrey while the latter made up his mind about sending reinforcements to aid his wife: over the summer and autumn of 1142, the two of them captured ten Norman castles.

On hearing of the empress’s predicament, Robert abandoned his quest for more troops and returned to England, forcing a landing at Wareham. With fifty-two ships and a force of between 300 and 400 knights in addition to foot soldiers, the earl managed to force Wareham’s surrender after a three-week siege. He then ordered a full muster of the empress’s forces at Cirencester before marching on Oxford to rescue his sister.

Charles Ricketts, ‘The Flight of Matilda from Oxford’

Shut up in the castle, with winter upon them, the empress and her forces were cold, hungry and desperate. Entirely cut off from the outside world, neither supplies nor news had been able to get past the king’s blockade since September. In the middle of December, with the ground white with snow and the river frozen, the empress made a desperate gamble.

‘Very hard pressed as she was and altogether hopeless that help would come she left the castle by night with three knights of ripe judgement to accompany her.’
Gesta Stephani

In the dark of the night, presumably dressed in white to camouflage against the blanket of snow, accompanied by just 3 men, she slipped out of a postern gate, and ‘in wondrous fashion she escaped unharmed through so many enemies, so many watchers in the silence of the night, whom the king had heedfully posted on every side of the castle.’ The empress walked 6 miles, crossing the frozen river and traversing the enemy’s pickets, to reach Wallingford Castle. The Gesta Stephani remarked that never had he ‘read of another woman so luckily rescued from so many mortal foes and from the threat of dangers so great’.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells the story slightly differently, saying that ‘in the night she was let down from the tower with ropes and stole out, and she fled and went on foot to Wallingford’.

Henry of Huntingdon added the detail that the empress was dressed in white, as camouflage: ‘Not long before Christmas, the empress fled across the frozen Thames, clothed in white garments, which reflected and resembled the snow, deceiving the eyes of the besiegers.’

Though they all tell the story slightly differently, every chronicler eagerly tells of the empress’s daring escape from Oxford Castle.

With the empress safely ensconced at Wallingford with Brian FitzCount, the garrison at Oxford could surrender. The king, deprived of his quarry, agreed easy terms with the remaining defenders.

Earl Robert, on hearing of his sister’s escape, stopped his advance on Oxford and instead made for Devizes, where brother and sister were reunited. The earl had brought a surprise for his sister. After 3 years apart, she was reunited with her eldest son, Henry of Anjou. Henry’s presence served to show England that Henry I’s heir was Empress Matilda’s nine-year-old son, Henry, rather than Stephen’s twelve-year-old son, Eustace.

Henry was placed in the household of his uncle, Earl Robert, and sent to Bristol to continue his education, alongside his cousin Roger, the earl’s younger son, who would later become Bishop of Worcester. Henry remained at Bristol until March 1144 and soon began to receive homage from his English vassals in person.

The war changed shaped at this time, with empress and earl consolidating their position in their own lands but biding their time, waiting for Henry to grow old enough to take over the reins of the struggle.

Henry’s presence changed the focus of Matilda’s campaign. She now realised that she would never sit on her father’s throne. But there was a new generation to fight for. The empress’s purpose was now to secure the throne for Henry in the next reign rather than to displace Stephen in this one.

An earlier version of this article appeared in the 4th edition of Living Medieval Magazine.

Sources:

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, edited and translated by Michael Swanton; Gesta Stephani, translated by K. R. Potter; Henry of Huntingdon, The History of the English People 1000-1154, translated by Diana Greenway; Henry of Huntingdon, The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon; Ordericus Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy; Matthew Lewis, Stephen and Matilda’s Civil War: Cousins of Anarchy; Catherine Hanely, Matilda: Empress, Queen, Warrior; Edmund King, King Stephen.

Images:

Courtesy of Wikipedia, except Oxford Castle which is used with the kind permission of Jayne Smith

My Books

Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online bookshop.

Coming 15 January 2024: Women of the Anarchy

On the one side is Empress Matilda, or Maud. The sole surviving legitimate child of Henry I, she is fighting for her birthright and that of her children. On the other side is her cousin, Queen Matilda, supporting her husband, King Stephen, and fighting to see her own son inherit the English crown. Both women are granddaughters of St Margaret, Queen of Scotland and descendants of Alfred the Great of Wessex. Women of the Anarchy demonstrates how these women, unable to wield a sword, were prime movers in this time of conflict and lawlessness. It show how their strengths, weaknesses, and personal ambitions swung the fortunes of war one way – and then the other.

Available for pre-order from Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK.

Coming on 15 June 2024: Heroines of the Tudor World

Heroines of the Tudor World tells the stories of the most remarkable women from European history in the time of the Tudor dynasty, 1485-1603. These are the women who ruled, the women who founded dynasties, the women who fought for religious freedom, their families and love. These are the women who made a difference, who influenced countries, kings and the Reformation. In the era dominated by the Renaissance and Reformation, Heroines of the Tudor World examines the threats and challenges faced by the women of the era, and how they overcame them. Some famous, some infamous, some less well known, including Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth Barton, Catherine de Medici, Bess of Hardwick and Elizabeth I. From writers to regents, from nuns to queens, Heroines of the Tudor World shines the spotlight on the women helped to shape Early Modern Europe.

Heroines of the Tudor World is now available for pre-order from Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK.

Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is the story of a truly remarkable lady, the hereditary constable of Lincoln Castle and the first woman in England to be appointed sheriff in her own right. It is is available from Pen & Sword Books, bookshop.org and Amazon. Defenders of the Norman Crown: The Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey tells the fascinating story of the Warenne dynasty, from its origins in Normandy, through the Conquest, Magna Carta, the wars and marriages that led to its ultimate demise in the reign of Edward III. Available from Pen & Sword Books, Amazon in the UK and US, and Bookshop.org.

Podcast:

Don’t forget! Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online bookshop.

For forthcoming online and in-person talks, please check out my Events Page.

*You can be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter and Instagram.

Article: 2024 © Sharon Bennett Connolly FRHistS

The Coronation of King Stephen

22/12/202321/12/2023Sharon Bennett Connolly11 Comments

In December 1135, leaving his wife and children in the relative safety of Boulogne, Stephen of Blois took what must have been the biggest gamble of his life. After landing in England, he made his way to the capital, where he was met ‘with acclamation’ as London, though ‘mourning the grievous loss of its protector Henry, it revelled in exultant joy as though it had recovered him in Stephen’. According to the Gesta Stephani, a counsel was summoned to choose Henry’s successor and ‘on their own initiative, they agreed unanimously to choose a king’. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle concurs, stating that ‘Stephen of Blois had come to England, and came to London, and the London people received him and sent for the archbishop William Corbeil and consecrated him as king on midwinter’s day’.

Henry of Huntingdon was far more critical of the accession of Stephen than the Gesta Stephani, for, although Stephen was ‘a man of great valour and boldness’, as he had ‘sworn the English realm’s oath of fealty to the daughter of King Henry, he tried God’s patience by seizing the crown of the kingdom’. Huntingdon was highly disapproving of the ease with which the leaders of the English church broke their oaths to Matilda in order to crown Stephen:

‘Roger, the great Bishop of Salisbury, who had been the second to take the oath, and had urged everyone else to do so, brought the royal crown to Stephen, as well as the strength of his support. For this reason, by the just judgement of God, he was later arrested and tormented by the very man he had made king, and pitiful ruin became his lot. In short, all those who had sworn the oath – whether bishops, earls or magnates – gave their approval to Stephen and paid homage to him. It was a bad sign that all England was subjected to him so speedily, without hindrance or difficulty, as ‘in the twinkling of an eye’.
Henry of Huntingdon: The History of the English People 1000-1154

It is, of course, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that made the most famous assessment of the years following Stephen’s seizure of the throne: ‘Wherever men tilled, the earth bore no corn because the land was all done for by such doings; and they said openly that Christ and His saints slept. Such things, and more than we know how to tell, we suffered nineteen years for our sins.’ The destruction was perhaps not as widespread as has been thought previously, however, and there is currently a reappraisal of the devastation wrought during the Anarchy. Even so, the chronicles of the time show that it was horrendous for the people living through it. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle goes into great detail, denouncing the period as ‘this evil time’ and lamenting, ‘They did not spare the land of bishops nor of abbots nor of priests, but robbed monks and clerks; and every man who was stronger [robbed] another. If two or three men came riding to a village, all the villagers fled because of them – imagined that they were robbers. The bishops and the clergy always cursed them but that was nothing to them, because they were all accursed and forsworn and lost.’

Such desolation was in the future. In December 1135, Stephen, with the backing of so many, may have thought the future was bright with possibilities. After receiving the support and acclamation of the Londoners, he hastened to Winchester to secure the royal treasury where he was reunited with his younger brother Henry, Bishop of Winchester, ‘on whom his enterprise entirely depended’. Bishop Henry, ‘overjoyed at his brother’s success, came to meet him with the Winchester citizens’. William de Pont de l’Arche, the royal treasurer, ‘on learning that the king had arrived, whether influenced by fear of him or affection for him, he came to meet him cordially, and delivered over to his disposal, together with the castle, King Henry’s very rich treasury, which the whole of England had abundantly filled from the time of the most ancient kings’.

It was the support of Pont de l’Arche that ensured Stephen’s success, along with the help of Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, Henry I’s Lord Chancellor and, after the king, the most powerful man in the kingdom. The role of Stephen’s brother, Bishop Henry of Winchester, was also seen as critical, especially by the Gesta Stephani. Stephen was then crowned at Westminster Abbey by Archbishop William Corbeil on 22 December 1135, according to the same rites used in the coronation of Henry I, providing a sense of continuity in the monarchy. Before the coronation, Stephen made promises to ensure that he would be accepted by the lay and clerical magnates alike. To the church, he agreed to follow what it defined as best practice in church–state relations, including the guarantee of canonical election to senior church offices. The compromises made to the lay barons were not as significant, but Stephen did make a limited concession on the extent of the royal forest (lands over which the king held exclusive hunting rights), and was reported to have promised wider reforms, including the abolition of geld.

The coronation was a religious ceremony, giving the king power and sacramental authority for the rest of his life. During the proceedings, Stephen promised to maintain ‘all the liberties and good laws of King Henry’. Following this, those present, standing for the community of the realm, accepted Stephen as their king. There then came the ceremonial anointing and investing with the symbols of royal power. He was then crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, followed by High mass and the kiss of peace. News of Stephen’s coronation spread throughout the kingdom and, according to the Gesta Stephani,

‘When at last these things were known and spread over England freely by word of mouth almost all the chief men of the kingdom accepted him gladly and respectfully, and having received very many gifts from him and likewise enlargement of their lands they devoted themselves wholly to his service by a voluntary oath, after paying homage.’
Gesta Stephani

The coronation of King Stephen, as depicted by Matthew Paris, 13th century

After the coronation, the king had to get down to the actual business of ruling and establishing his authority over his dominions. The first document issued by the chancery was a charter in which Stephen granted ‘to all his barons and men of England’ all the liberties and good laws of his uncle, King Henry, along with ‘the laws of Edward the Confessor’. The Liber Eliensis at Ely recorded a version of Stephen’s accession in which he was supported by King Henry I. Though the provenance of the information within it has been lost, it seems entirely possible that it is copied from an official narrative sent out by Stephen’s administration:

‘While King Henry sickened unto death, a great number of powerful and noble men gathered about him, sorrowfully contemplating the last hours of their lord, and increasingly concerned about what dispositions he would make about himself and the kingdom. To them at the last he indicated what ought to happen. ‘To you,’ he said, ‘great and wise men, I give as king the worthy knight Stephen, my count, my most dear kinsman, a virtuous nobleman, yet firm in his faith in the Lord, for you to receive from me by right of inheritance, and you are all to be witness of this.’ Immediately thereafter the king breathed his last. The count took up his commission, and having gathered a large body of knights, he hastened to England and came before the Londoners. Since he was a renowned count and valiant knight, of proven integrity and greatly loved, and was descended from the stock of kings, and with the great men and the citizens won over by rewards and promises and the clergy fearing great disorder should he be turned away, he was received by the English as king of England. It greatly aided him in achieving this outcome that, just as the king his uncle had ordered, Hugh Bigod swore on the holy gospels before the clergy and people that he had been present at the king’s deathbed, and had heard him conceding the kingdom to Stephen his nephew, and had been sent by him to witness this within England.’18
Liber Eliensis

Hugh Bigod’s claim that Henry had changed his mind at the last, and left the throne to Stephen, was enough to satisfy those who had sworn the oath to Matilda but were afraid of a future ruled by a woman. No one seems to have looked deeply into the suggestion that, after all Henry had done to secure his daughter’s accession, the wars he had fought and oaths he had extracted, he would just pass her – and his grandson, little Henry of Anjou – over at the last moment and leave everything to his favourite nephew. It seems more likely that it was not that Bigod’s statement was believed to be true but that it was hoped that it was – that was all the barons needed to turn their backs on their oaths to Matilda.

Henry II and his mother, Empress Matilda, from a 12th century manuscript

Stephen’s coronation was immediately followed by his Christmas court, which was held in London. One of his first acts in the New Year was to attend the funeral of his predecessor, Henry I, who was laid to rest at his own foundation of Reading Abbey on 5 January 1136. According to Henry of Huntingdon, ‘King Stephen came there from his court, which he had held in London at Christmas itself, to meet his uncle’s body, together with William, Archbishop of Canterbury, and many bishops and nobles, and they buried King Henry with the respect due to so great a man.’

It was the beginning of a period of great instability for England. Richard of Hexham gives a clear impression of the unrest and uncertainty that Stephen’s accession caused, and the challenges it presented: ‘The beginning and course of his reign was overwhelmed by so many and such violent commotions, that how to describe them, or how they may be concluded, no one yet knows.’ Stephen had stolen the march on his cousin, Empress Matilda, but she was not going to simply accept that he had won…

Sources:

Donald Matthew, King Stephen; Robert Bartlett, England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings; David Williamson, Brewer’s British Royalty; the History Today Companion to British History; Dan Jones, the Plantagenets; englishmonarchs.co.uk; The Oxford Companion to British History; Mike Ashley, The Mammoth Book of British Kings & Queens; Alison Weir, Britain’s Royal Families, the Complete Genealogy; S.P. Thompson, Oxforddnb.com, Mary [Mary of Blois], suo jure countess of Boulogne (d. 1182), princess and abbess of Romsey; Anglo_Saxon Chronicles, edited by Michael Swanton; Gesta Stephani; Liber Eliensis; Henry of Huntingdon: The History of the English People 1000-1154; William of Malmesbury, Chronicles of the Kings of England, From the Earliest Period to the Reign of King Stephen c. 1090-1143; The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy by Ordericus Vitalis.

Images:

Courtesy of Wikipedia

My Books

Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online bookshop.

Coming 15 January 2024: Women of the Anarchy

Available for pre-order from Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK.

Coming on 15 June 2024: Heroines of the Tudor World

Heroines of the Tudor World is now available for pre-order from Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK.

Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is the story of a truly remarkable lady. Nicholaa de la Haye was the hereditary constable of Lincoln Castle and the first woman in England to be appointed sheriff in her own right. Her strength and tenacity saved England at one of the lowest points in its history. Nicholaa de la Haye is one woman in English history whose story needs to be told… King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is now available from Pen & Sword Books, bookshop.org and Amazon.

Defenders of the Norman Crown: The Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey tells the fascinating story of the Warenne dynasty, of the successes and failures of one of the most powerful families in England, from its origins in Normandy, through the Conquest, Magna Carta, the wars and marriages that led to its ultimate demise in the reign of Edward III. Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey is now available from Pen & Sword Books, Amazon in the UK and US, and Bookshop.org.

Heroines of the Medieval World tells the stories of some of the most remarkable women from Medieval history, from Eleanor of Aquitaine to Julian of Norwich. Available now from Amberley Publishing and Amazon, and Bookshop.org.

Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest traces the fortunes of the women who had a significant role to play in the momentous events of 1066. Available now from Amazon, Amberley Publishing, and Bookshop.org.

Podcast:

Don’t forget! Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online bookshop.

For forthcoming online and in-person talks, please check out my Events Page.

You can be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter and Instagram.

Isabel and Hamelin de Warenne: Marriage and Partnership

14/01/202327/01/2024Sharon Bennett Connolly5 Comments

Seal of Isabel de Warenne, Conisbrough Castle

Isabel de Warenne was the only surviving child of William de Warenne, 3rd Earl of Warenne and Surrey, and his wife Adela, or Ela, de Talvas, daughter of William III of Ponthieu. When her father died on the Second Crusade to the Holy Land, in around 1148, Isabel became 4th Countess of Surrey in her own right and one of the most prized heiresses in England and Normandy, with large estates in Yorkshire, Norfolk and Sussex.

Isabel was born during a period of civil war in England, a time known as The Anarchy (c.1135-54), when King Stephen fought against Empress Matilda, the daughter of Henry I, for the right to rule England. Isabel’s father, William, was a staunch supporter of the king and had fought at the Battle of Lincoln in February 1141, though without distinction; his men were routed early on in the battle and William was among a number of earls who fled the field. He later redeemed himself that summer by capturing Empress Matilda’s brother and senior general, Robert Earl of Gloucester, at Winchester.

The earl appears to have tired of the civil war in 1147 and departed on Crusade with his half-brother, Waleran de Beaumont, Count of Meulan, and their cousin, King Louis VII of France. In the same year, as part of King Stephen’s attempts to control the vast de Warenne lands during a crucial time in the Anarchy, Earl Warenne’s only daughter, Isabel, was married to Stephen’s younger son, William of Blois, who would become Earl by right of his wife, following the 3rd earl’s death on Crusade in 1148; he was killed fighting in the doomed rearguard at the Battle of Mount Cadmus near Laodicea in January 1148.

It has been suggested that William of Blois was some 7 or 8 years younger than his wife, Isabel. However, this seems improbable and it appears more likely that the young couple were of similar ages. Isabel’s father had been born in 1119 and was no older than 29 when he died; his wife, Ela de Talvas, was a few years younger than her husband. This means that, even if the couple married as soon as they reached the ages allowed by the church to marry, 12 for a girl and 14 for a boy, and Ela fell pregnant on her wedding night, Isabel could have been no older 13 in 1147. Given the danger associated with girls giving birth before their teens, it seems plausible that Isabel was not born until the late 1130s and may have been between 10 and 12, or younger when she married William of Blois.

The Warenne coat of arms at Trinity Church, Southover

Even before it was known that Earl Warenne had died on crusade, William of Blois was already being referred to as earl in a number of charters relating to Warenne lands, one such charter, dated to c.1148, was issued by the earl’s brother with the proviso ‘that if God should bring back the earl [from the crusade] he would do his best to obtain the earl’s confirmation, or otherwise that of his lord earl William, the king’s son.’¹During the 3rd earl’s absence, and while the new earl and countess were still only children, the vast Warenne lands were administered by the 3rd earl’s youngest brother, Reginald de Warenne, Baron Wormegay, who was a renowned and accomplished administrator and estate manager. We do not know when news reached England of the earl’s death, the tidings may have arrived before the return of the earl’s half-brother, Waleran, later in the year. However, the future of the earldom was already secure with the succession of Isabel and her young husband, carefully watched over by Isabel’s uncle, Reginald.

In 1154 the young couple’s future prospects could have changed drastically when William’s elder brother Eustace, their father’s heir, died. As a consequence, William inherited his mother’s County of Boulogne from his brother, adding to his already substantial domains. He may also have expected to inherit his brother’s position as heir to the throne – or not. It seems that William’s ambitions did not extend to the lofty heights of the throne, or he was not considered suitable for the crown. Either way, the young man was removed from the succession by his own father. Stephen made a deal with Empress Matilda’s son, Henry of Anjou, that the crown would go to him on Stephen’s death, thus returning the crown to the rightful line of succession.

William seems to have accepted this, on the whole. Although there is some suggestion of his involvement in a plot against Henry later in 1154, during which William suffered a broken leg. William served Henry loyally, once he became king, until his own death, returning from the king’s campaign in Toulouse, in 1159.

Now in her mid-20s, and as their marriage had been childless, Isabel was once again a prize heiress. Although she seems to have had a little respite from the marriage market, by 1162 Henry II’s youngest brother, William X, Count of Poitou, was seeking a dispensation to marry her. The dispensation was refused by Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, on the grounds of consanguinity; the archbishop’s objection was not that Isabel and William were too closely related, but that William and Isabel’s first husband had been cousins. William died shortly after the archbishop refused to sanction the marriage – it is said, of a broken heart.

Contemporary illustration of the murder of Thomas Becket

King Henry was not to be thwarted so easily in his plans to bring the Warenne lands into the royal family, and his illegitimate half-brother, Hamelin, was married to Isabel in 1164. The illegitimate son of Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, Hamelin was born sometime around 1130, when Geoffrey was estranged from his wife, Empress Matilda. His mother was, possibly, Adelaide of Angers, though this is by no means certain. Geoffrey had a second illegitimate child, Emma, who was possibly Hamelin’s full sister. Emma married the Welsh prince, Davydd ap Owain of Gwynedd. Geoffrey of Anjou was the second husband to Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I of England and would be the mother of the future Henry II, Hamelin’s half-brother.

In an unusual step, Hamelin took his wife’s surname and bore the titles Earl of Warenne and Surrey in her right. Hamelin was incredibly loyal to Henry and his marriage to an heiress was reward for his support, whilst at the same time giving him position and influence within England. Hamelin and Isabel married in April 1164, Hamelin even taking the de Warenne surname after the marriage; Isabel’s trousseau cost an impressive £41 10s 8d. Hamelin became Earl of Surrey by right of his wife, though was more habitually called Earl Warenne. In some references, he is named as the 5th Earl of Surrey and in others the 4th: this confusion arises from the fact that the earldom belonged to Isabel, and her two husbands both held the earldom, sometimes being numbered the 4th and 5th earls to avoid confusion. They were, in fact, both, the 4th Earl of Surrey.

Hamelin supported his brother the king in the contest of wills that Henry was engaged in with his archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket. When Henry called for the archbishop to appear at a great council at Northampton Castle on 12 October 1164, to answer to the charges laid against him, Hamelin was at the trial and spoke in support of his brother. Indeed, the new earl and the archbishop appear to have started a war of words; Hamelin defended Henry’s dignity and called Becket a traitor. The archbishop’s retort was ‘Were I a knight instead of a priest, my fist would prove you a liar!’ Ironically, it is thought that Hamelin’s denunciation of Becket was motivated by the injury caused to the royal family in Becket’s refusal to allow Henry’s brother, William – Hamelin’s half-brother – to marry Isabel de Warenne; who was now Hamelin’s wife.

Hamelin’s animosity to Becket was not to survive the archbishop’s martyrdom and he actively participated in the cult that grew up around Thomas Becket after his violent death. In later life, the earl claimed that the cloth covering Becket’s tomb had cured his blindness, caused by a cataract, in one eye.

Hamelin was an influential and active member of the English barony. He supported Henry during his sons’ rebellion in 1173 and formed part of the entourage which escorted Princess Joanna (daughter of Henry and Eleanor of Aquitaine) to Sicily for her marriage to King William. Joanna’s escort was ordered not to return home until they had seen ‘the King of Sicily and Joanna crowned in wedlock’. Hamelin remained close to the crown even after Henry’s death, supporting his nephew, Richard I. Hamelin was among the earls present at Richard’s first coronation in September 1189; and carried one of the three swords at his second coronation in April 1194.

During Richard’s absence on Crusade, Hamelin sided with the Regent, William Longchamp, against the intrigues of Richard’s brother John. Hamelin held great store in the rule of law, attested by the legend on his seal, ‘pro lege, per lege’. This adherence to the law explains Hamelin’s support for Longchamp against that of his own nephew, John, and even as the justiciar’s overzealous actions alienated others. Hamelin was one of only two magnates entrusted with the collection and storage of the king’s ransom, when he was held captive by Duke Leopold of Austria, appointed by Eleanor of Aquitaine; the other was William d’Aubigny, Earl of Arundel. Hamelin’s involvement with the court continued into the reign of King John; he was present at John’s coronation and at Lincoln when William, King of Scots, Isabel’s cousin, gave his oath of homage in November 1200.

Away from court, Hamelin appears to have been an avid builder; he built a cylindrical keep at his manor of Mortemer in Normandy. He then constructed a larger and improved version, using all the latest techniques of castle design, at his manor of Conisbrough, South Yorkshire. He may also have been the one to build Peel Castle at Thorne, a hunting lodge which had a 3-sided donjon that was of smaller, but similar, design to Conisbrough. Hamelin spent a lot of time and money on Conisbrough Castle, which took almost 10 years to complete, and it appears to have been a favourite family residence. King John visited there in 1201, and two of Hamelin’s daughters married landowners from the nearby manors of Tickhill and Sprotborough. His son, William de Warenne, the 5th earl, would complete the castle, rebuilding the curtain wall in stone.

Hamelin was also involved in a famous dispute with Hugh, abbot of Cluny, over the appointment of a new prior to St Pancras Priory, Lewes. Abbot Hugh was known as a man of great piety and honour; he had been prior of Lewes but was elected as abbot of Reading in 1186 and became abbot of Cluny in 1199. In 1200, Abbot Hugh appointed one Alexander to the vacant position of prior of Lewes, but Hamelin refused to accept the nomination. In establishing the priory at Lewes, the abbots of Cluny had apparently reserved the right to appoint the prior, and to admit all monks seeking entry into the order; however, Hamelin claimed that the patronage of the priory belonged to him, and it was his right to appoint the prior.

The dispute dragged on, and it was only after intervention from King John that agreement was eventually reached whereby, should the position of prior become vacant, the earl and the monks should send representatives to the abbot, who would nominate two candidates, of whom the earl’s proctors should choose one to be appointed prior.

The marriage of Hamelin and Isabel appears to have been highly successful. They had four surviving children. Their son and heir, William, would become the 5th Earl of Surrey and married Maud Marshal, daughter of the great William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke and regent for King Henry III. Ela married twice, firstly to a Robert de Newburn, of whom nothing else is known, and secondly to William Fitzwilliam of Sprotborough, a village just a few miles from Conisbrough. Isabel was married, firstly, to Robert de Lascy, who died in 1193, and secondly, no later than the spring of 1196, to Gilbert de Laigle, Lord of Pevensey.

Matilda, or Maud, married Henry, Count of Eu, who died around 1190; by Henry, she was the mother of Alice de Lusignan, who struggled to maintain her inheritance during the reign of King John. Matilda then married Henry d’Estouteville, a Norman lord. It was once thought that Matilda was the daughter of Hamelin by an earlier relationship, due to the supposed death date of Matilda’s husband, Henry, Count of Eu. There was a mistaken belief that Henry had died in 1172, which would mean that Matilda could not have been a daughter of the marriage of Isabel and Hamelin, who were married in 1164, as she would have been too young to have married and borne children with Henry. The Chronicle of the Counts of Eu records Henry’s death as 1183, which also appears to be an error as Henry was assessed for scutage for Wales at Michaelmas 1190; with this later death date it was entirely possible, and indeed likely, that Matilda was the legitimate daughter of both Hamelin and Countess Isabel.

One of the daughters – although it is not clear which – bore an illegitimate son, Richard Fitzroy, Baron Chilham, who was born, possibly, around 1190, by her cousin, John (the future King John). This must have caused considerable family tensions!

Hamelin died on 7th May 1202, in his early 70s and was buried in the chapter house at Lewes Priory, in Sussex. Isabel died in her mid-60s, in 1203, and was buried at Lewes Priory, alongside Hamelin. In 1202, Countess Isabel had granted ‘for the soul of her husband earl Hamelin, to the priory of St Katherine, Lincoln, of similar easements for 60 beasts, namely for 40 as of his gift and 20 as of hers.² Together, Hamelin and Isabel had played important roles in English politics for almost 40 years, whilst raising a family and, literally, building a home at Conisbrough Castle.

Footnotes:

¹Farrer, William and Charles Travis Clay, editors, Early Yorkshire Charters, Volume 8: The Honour of Warenne; ²ibid

Sources:

Robert Batlett, England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings; Dan Jones, The Plantagenets; Donald Matthew, King Stephen; Medieval Lands Project on the Earls of Surrey, Conisbrough Castle; Farrer, William and Charles Travis Clay, editors, Early Yorkshire Charters, Volume 8: The Honour of Warenne; Morris, Marc King John: Treachery, Tyranny and the Road to Magna Carta; Church, Stephen, King John: England, Magna Carta and the Making of a Tyrant; doncasterhistory.co.uk; A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 2 edited by William Page; W.H. Blaauw, On the Early History of Lewes Priory, and its Seals, with extracts from a MS. Chronicle, Sussex Archaeological Collections; Rev. John Watson, Memoirs of the Ancient Earls of Warren and Surrey, and Their Descendants to the Present Time, Volume I; Odo of Deuil, De Profectione Ludovici VII in Orientem; magnacharta.com; Cokayne, G.E., The Complete Peerage, Vol. XII; Henry of Huntingdon, The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon.

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All images ©Sharon Bennett Connolly except Henry II and the illustration of Becket’s murder which is courtesy of Wikipedia.

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King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is the story of a truly remarkable lady, the hereditary constable of Lincoln Castle and the first woman in England to be appointed sheriff in her own right. It is is available from Pen & Sword Books, bookshop.org and Amazon. Defenders of the Norman Crown: The Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey tells the fascinating story of the Warenne dynasty, from its origins in Normandy, through the Conquest, Magna Carta, the wars and marriages that led to its ultimate demise in the reign of Edward III. Available from Pen & Sword Books, Amazon in the UK and US, and Bookshop.org.

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Earl Warenne and the Second Crusade

30/10/202106/01/2024Sharon Bennett Connolly11 Comments

Coat of arms of the Warenne earls of Surrey, in the Gundrada Chapel of Trinity Church, Southover

When looking at a particular period or event in history, it can be easy to assume that it was all-consuming for those involved. The rest of the world blurs into the background as a country is consumed by war. Or does it? Even in medieval times, countries were not unaffected by the others around them. I almost got swept into the idea that the period known in English history as the Anarchy was a time when people thought of little else but who should be king – or queen. Even those fighting in the war were not so blinkered. Nor ignorant of events outside of England’s borders.

Did you know, for instance, that not one, but two, contingents of crusaders left England’s shores in the midst of the Anarchy? One force was headed to Portugal, and the other to the Holy Land, to join the Second Crusade. One of those crusaders was William de Warenne, 3rd Earl of Warenne and Surrey.

William (III) de Warenne was the son of William (II) de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Warenne and Surrey, and Isabel de Vermandois, a granddaughter of King Henry I of France. William was born in 1119, a year after his parents’ marriage. He was the eldest of five children. His two brothers, Reginald and Ralph, appear frequently in his story, suggesting a close family bond. Of his sisters, Ada married Prince Henry of Scotland, and was the mother of two Scottish kings, Malcolm IV and William the Lion. Gundreda de Warenne married Roger de Beaumont, Earl of Warwick, who was a cousin of Gundreda’s half-brothers, the famous Beaumont twins, Waleran and Robert.

Waleran and Robert de Beaumont were the eldest sons of Isabel de Vermandois by her first husband, Robert de Beaumont, Count of Meulan and Earl of Leicester. Isabel had nine children with her first husband and five more with Earl Warenne. Interestingly, the two families appear to have got on rather well together. William (III) can often be found in the company of one or both of his older, twin, half-brothers, such as at the deathbed of Henry I, at Lyons-la-Forêt in 1135; William was there alongside his father, the second earl, and his brothers Waleran de Beaumont, Count of Meulan, and Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester.

Following his father’s death in 1138, William (III) inherited the lands and titles of the earl of Warenne and Surrey. As such, he was heavily involved in that period of history known as the Anarchy, the contest between King Stephen and Empress Matilda for Stephen’s crown. As his father had done, the 3rd earl supported King Stephen, fighting at both the First Battle of Lincoln and the siege of Winchester in 1141. By the late 1140s, although the conflict between Stephen and Matilda was still unresolved, Earl Warenne and his half-brother, Waleran de Beaumont, appear to have wanted to get away from the constant unrest of the cousins’ war and looked to join a more noble enterprise.

On 24 March 1146, Palm Sunday, near Vézélay, and perhaps motivated by the example of his royal cousin, Louis VII of France, William de Warenne took the cross and committed himself to the Second Crusade. From this moment on, the earl’s time was taken up with preparations for the expedition and making arrangements to ensure the security and administration of his earldom during his absence. Among others, he confirmed grants to Castle Acre Priory of the land of Thexton in Norfolk which Osmoda de Candos had given with the consent of her husband Philip: William’s brother Reginald is named in the charter and his brother Ralph, as well as his wife, Countess Ela, are all listed among the witnesses. He also confirmed a gift made to his brother Reginald whereby William son of Philip, gave his land of Harpley in Norfolk. During the winter of 1146–47, the earl granted to the monks of Castle Acre, a confirmation of any acquisitions which they might make, ‘from my fee of whatever tenancy within my tenseria [authority], whether by way of gift or purchase.’¹

In 1147, before leaving England’s shores, the earl, his family and leading magnates congregated at Lewes Priory for the dedication of the new priory church. Most of the royal court were present, as were Ralph and Reginald de Warenne, the earl’s brothers; four leading church prelates attended, including Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury and Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester as well as the bishops of Rochester and Bath. Also present were the abbots of Reading and Battle, the prior of Canterbury and William d’Aubigny, Earl of Sussex. Earl Warenne appears to have used the occasion to set his affairs in order and guarantee the security of his earldom during his absence.

The most significant charter issued on this occasion added to the endowment of Lewes’ priory church and promised that the earl would pay the taxes that the priory would ordinarily owe to the king. In it, the earl confirmed ‘all its lands of his fee, undertaking to acquit it of danegeld and all other services due to the king; and gift of tithe of corn, etc., from all his demesne lands and a full tenth penny of all his rents in England. He issued the charter when he caused the priory church to be dedicated and endowed it with the tenth penny of his rents, giving it seisin thereof by hair from his own head and that of Ralph de Warenne his brother, cut with a knife by Henry, bishop of Winchester, before the altar.’² The locks of hair of Earl William and his brother Ralph, ceremoniously cut off by Bishop Henry before the altar, would afterwards have been placed on the altar, alongside the knife used in the ceremony, and may have later been ‘filed’ within the charter when it was sealed. This is the last reference to Ralph de Warenne that I could find in the historical record. Given that only Ralph and William stored locks of their hair, and not Reginald, who we know stayed in England, I think it highly likely that Ralph accompanied his older brother on crusade.

His affairs in order, the earldom was placed under the supervision of his very capable brother, Reginald de Warenne. The pope stipulated that church sanctions should not be invoked, ‘in respect of those men whom our beloved son Stephen the illustrious king of the English or his adversaries disinherited on the occasion of the war held for the realm before they took the cross.’³ In a time of continued civil war, this guaranteed protection of a crusader’s lands was a necessity. Earl William was now able to depart on crusade, secure in the knowledge that the family and lands he left behind were well protected from anyone wishing to take advantage of his absence:

At Whitsuntide Lewis [Louis], king of France, and Theodorie, earl of Flanders, and the count of St Egidius, with an immense multitude from every part of France, and numbers of the English, assumed the cross and journeyed to Jerusalem, intending to expel the Infidels who had taken the city of Rohen. A still greater number accompanied Conrad, emperor of Germany; and both armies passed through the territories of the emperor of Constantinople, who afterwards betrayed them.
Henry of Huntingdon

There were, in fact, two crusades that departed England’s shores in 1147. Some of the crusaders, an Anglo-Flemish force, went to Portugal and successfully captured Lisbon from the Muslims. Earl William de Warenne and his older half-brother, Waleran de Beaumont, joined their cousin King Louis VII of France and set out for the Holy Land. Taking the overland route, they followed in the footsteps of the German emperor, Conrad III, who had left Germany in May and arrived in Constantinople in September. Louis, accompanied by his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, arrived in Constantinople with his army, on 4 October. Tensions ran high from the start. On initially hearing of the proposed crusade, Byzantine emperor Manuel Comnenus, afraid of losing local trading connections, made a truce with the Turkish sultan of Rum in 1146 to protect Constantinople’s Asian lands from attack. To the Western crusaders, this was more proof of the apostasy of the Eastern church. The more fervent of Louis’ followers accused Emperor Manuel of treason and urged Louis to attack the emperor. Louis, on the other hand, was persuaded to appease the emperor by his less volatile advisers and the king promised to restore any imperial lands they may capture.

The German and French contingents met at Nicaea in November, with the Germans having already suffered a defeat at Dorylaeum on 25 October, after taking the inland route towards the kingdom of Jerusalem. The two armies combined now set off on the coastal route, following the path of the first crusaders’ advance into Philadelphia in Lydia. By the time they reached Ephesus, Conrad was seriously ill and returned to Constantinople to recover. The French king and his army continued on to Antioch; marching through difficult terrain in mid-winter proved particularly harrowing. The Seljuk Turks waited for the crusaders on the banks of the river Meander, but Louis’ army forced their way through. On 6 January 1148, they reached Laodicea and from there marched into the mountains that separate the Phrygia of the Pisidia. It was here that the army met with disaster.

As they crossed Mount Cadmus, the vanguard advanced too far ahead under the leadership of Geoffrey de Rançon, thus becoming detached from the main body of the army. As the vanguard progressed across Mount Cadmus, the French column followed behind, secure in the knowledge that the vanguard occupied the high ground to their front. William de Warenne was in the king’s bodyguard, towards the rear of the column, as they advanced. When the Turks appeared, the French broke their ranks and rushed upon them with swords drawn; the disorder in the ranks handing the advantage to their enemy. Retreating, the French found themselves in a narrow gorge, with a steep precipice on one side and crags on the other. Horses, men and baggage were forced over the precipice by the advancing Turks. Louis VII’s biographer, Odo de Deuil, related the events:

“…the king, who had been left behind in peril with certain of his nobles, since he was not accompanied by common soldiers or serjeants with bows (for he had not fortified himself for crossing the pass, which by common agreement he was to cross the next day), careless of his own life and with the desire of freeing the dying mob, pushed through the rear-guard and courageously checked the butchery of his middle division. He boldly assaulted the infidel, who outnumbered him a hundred times and whom the position aided a great deal; for there no horse could stand, I shall not say gallop, but barely stand, and the slower attack which resulted in the weakened knights’ thrust when wounding the enemy. On the slippery slope our men brandished their spears with all of their own might, but without the added force of their horses, and from the safe shelter of rocks and trees the Turks shot arrows. Freed by the knights’ efforts, the mob fled, carrying their own packs or leading the sumpter animals, and exposed the king and comrades to death in their stead….During the engagement the king lost his small but renowned royal guard; keeping a stout heart; however, he nimbly and bravely scaled a rock by making use of tree roots which God had provided for his safety. The enemy climbed after, in order to capture him, and the more distant rabble shot arrows at him. But by the will of God his cuirass protected him from the arrows, and to keep from being captured he defended the crag with his bloody sword, cutting off heads and hands of many opponents in the process…”
Odo of Deuil, De Profectione Ludovici VII in Orientem

King Louis’ bodyguard was cut down in the fighting and William de Warenne was among the fallen. Louis himself was able to escape the carnage, standing alone against a number of attackers. As the night drew in, the king and survivors were able to take advantage of the darkness to reunite with the vanguard, which had believed the king lost. In one of his letters to Abbot Sugar, King Louis wrote of the disaster on Mount Cadmus, explaining how he had been separated from the vanguard and his escort had been cut down, with the loss of his cousin, William de Warenne. He was too upset to give any more details and Mount Cadmus remains a battle of which very little is known beyond the basic details.

“Nearby the baggage train was still crossing the pass, because the closer packed it was, the slower it fled over the crags. When he came upon it, the king, who was on foot, secured a horse and accompanied the men through the evening, which had already fallen. At that time breathless cohorts of knights from the camp met him and groaned when they saw him alone, bloody, and tired, for, without asking, they knew what had happened and mourned inconsolably for the missing royal escort, which numbered about forty (to wit, the count of Warenne and his brother Evrard of Breteuil, Manasses of Bulles and Gautier of Montjay and others; but I shall not record the names of all, lest I be considered unnecessarily wordy.)”
Odo of Deuil, De Profectione Ludovici VII in Orientem

Despite the heavy losses, King Louis’ crusade continued, reuniting with the German contingent between March and June 1148. They failed to take Edessa and were forced to withdraw from Damascus after a week of heavy fighting, when fresh Muslim forces arrived. The crusade ended in failure and the French king, who blamed Emperor Manuel Comnenus for the fiasco, accepted the aid of Manuel’s enemy Roger of Sicily, who sent ships to take the French forces home. Of the English forces, while William de Warenne was lost at Mount Cadmus, his brother Waleran de Beaumont, Count of Meulan and Earl of Worcester, made it back to England’s shores, narrowly surviving a shipwreck along the way; he founded a monastery in gratitude. Of the two Anglo-Norman bishops who accompanied the crusade, Roger of Chester died at Antioch and was buried there, whereas Arnulf of Lisieux, who had served as one of the leading diplomats, returned but with his reputation faded.

Seal of Isabel de Warenne, Countess of Surrey

Perhaps it was always on the cards that the 3rs Earl Warenne’s unspectacular military career would end with his death in battle. He was only 28 years old and had held the earldom for just over nine years. The earl had been a stalwart supporter of King Stephen, not once wavering in his allegiance, despite his failures in Normandy and at Lincoln early on in his career. He had done extensive work on the family’s property at Castle Acre, reinforcing the castle and replanning the town, building the ramparts that now surround it. William de Warenne had been a generous benefactor to the church, especially the Warenne foundations at Lewes and Castle Acre.

Even in his absence on crusade, the earl was still technically in charge; his brother, Reginald, issued a number of charters, each with the proviso that ‘if Jesus Christ brought back the earl [from the crusade] he would cause him to confirm it’ or ‘do his best to obtain the earl’s confirmation.’⁴

The death of William de Warenne, 3rd Earl of Warenne and Surrey brought an end to the senior male line that had been founded with the creation of the earldom for William (I) de Warenne in 1088. The earl was survived by his wife, Ela de Talvas, still a young woman, and his daughter, Isabel de Warenne, a child probably no more than 10 years of age. Isabel was now the richest heiress in England and married to King Stephen‘s youngest son, William of Blois. The earl’s estates were left in the capable hands of his youngest brother, Reginald de Warenne, Baron of Wormegay, who would watch over them for his niece and her young husband.

Notes:

¹ Edmund King, King Stephen; ² Farrer, William and Charles Travis Clay, editors, Early Yorkshire Charters, Volume 8: The Honour of Warenne; ³ Epistolae Pontificum Romanorum ineditae quoted in Edmund King, King Stephen; ⁴ Farrer, William and Charles Travis Clay, editors, Early Yorkshire Charters, Volume 8: The Honour of Warenne; Odo of Deuil, De Profectione Ludovici VII in Orientem, magnacharta.com.

Sources:

Images:

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Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is the story of a truly remarkable lady, who was the hereditary constable of Lincoln Castle and the first woman in England to be appointed sheriff in her own right. Her strength and tenacity saved England at one of the lowest points in its history. King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is now available from Pen & Sword Books, bookshop.org and Amazon.

Defenders of the Norman Crown: The Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey tells the fascinating story of the Warenne dynasty, of the successes and failures of one of the most powerful families in England, from its origins in Normandy, to its ultimate demise in the reign of Edward III. Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey is now available from Pen & Sword Books, Amazon in the UK and US, and Bookshop.org.

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A Thwarted Love Match and the Murder of Becket

29/12/202028/12/2023Sharon Bennett Connolly15 Comments

You may have heard of the murder of Thomas Becket, but did you know one of the four knights involved may have had a more personal motive for attacking the controversial archbishop of Canterbury than his colleagues? Richard Brito had been a knight in the household of Henry II’s youngest brother, William of Anjou, also known as William FitzEmpress. He was also William’s friend. William was the youngest son of Empress Matilda and her husband Geoffrey, Count of Anjou. Empress Matilda had been one of the rival claimants for the English throne during the Anarchy, fighting against her cousin, King Stephen.

King Stephen’s youngest son, William of Blois, had been married to the great heiress, Isabel de Warenne, Countess of Warenne and Surrey in her own right. His death while returning from campaigning in Toulouse in 1159, left Isabel a wealthy young widow, and highly desirable marriage prize.

Though recently widowed, Isabel would have been well aware that she was expected to remarry, just as her mother had done. The fact she held the mighty earldom of Surrey would have made settling her future even more pressing; the earl of Warenne had contributed knights and men from his own lands to the armies of both King Stephen and Henry II. This was expected to continue, but Isabel could not be expected to lead men into battle. It is all the more surprising, therefore, that Isabel was allowed some respite in the marriage market and the prospect of a husband is not mentioned until 1162.

By this time Henry II’s youngest brother, William FitzEmpress, was seeking a dispensation to marry her. The dispensation was refused by Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, on the grounds of consanguinity. The objection was not due to a blood relationship between Isabel and William, but between William and Isabel’s first husband, William of Blois, who were second cousins. It has often been suggested that this was a love-match rather than an arranged marriage. We will, of course, never know how Isabel felt but William died shortly afterwards, at Rouen on 30 January 1164, whilst visiting his mother, possibly seeking her assistance in the matter. Many of his friends claimed that he died of a broken heart after being disappointed in his desire to marry Isabel. He was 27.

The relationship between Henry II and Thomas Becket had been rocky ever since Becket became archbishop of Canterbury. Henry had thought that putting his friend in charge of the church in England would mean the two would be able to work together. However, once in the post, Becket had essentially abandoned Henry’s policies and sought to defend and extend the influence and rights of the church in England, while Henry sought to curb them. A clash was inevitable and came about when Henry sought to extend the jurisdiction of secular courts over English clergymen and to protect the traditional rights of royal government in regard to the church. In January 1164 Henry had issued the Constitutions of Clarendon. The sixteen constitutions were intended to curb clerical independence and weaken the connection of the English church with Rome. Becket consented to the Constitutions, but disputes continued throughout 1164. Henry called for the archbishop to appear at a great council at Northampton Castle on 12 October 1164, to answer to the charges laid against him.

Among numerous other issues, Becket was called to account for his behaviour concerning land disputes between the church and crown, contempt of royal authority and malfeasance in the chancellor’s office. The bishops, earls and barons of the realm were all present, including Roger, archbishop of York, the most senior clergyman in England after the archbishop of Canterbury. Henry II’s brother, Hamelin, was at the trial and spoke in support of Henry. Indeed, Hamelin, the new earl of Warenne and Surrey, and the archbishop appear to have started a war of words; Hamelin defended Henry’s dignity and called Becket a traitor. Ironically, it is thought that Hamelin’s denunciation of Becket was motivated by the injury caused to the royal family in Becket’s refusal to allow King Henry’s brother, William, to marry Isabel de Warenne; who was now Hamelin’s wife. Convicted of the charges against him, Becket stormed out and fled to exile in France, where he received protection from Louis VII.

There followed six years of negotiations, accusations and counter-accusations, before an accord was agreed and Becket was finally able to return to England and his see at Canterbury. Henry II wrote to his son Henry, the Young King, saying:

Henry king of England to his son Henry, king of England, greeting.

May you know that Thomas archbishop of Canterbury has made peace with me in accordance with my wishes. Therefore I order that he and his followers may have peace and that you see to it that he and his followers, who on his behalf left England, should have their possessions in peace and with honour, as they did three months before they left England. Summon before you some of the best and oldest knights of the honour of Saltwood and on their oath you should make an inquiry as to what of the fief of the archbishopric of Canterbury is there, and make sure that the archbishop gets what has been recognised as part of his fief. Witness Archbishop Rotrou of Rouen, at Chinon.
The Plantagenet Chronicles, edited by Elizabeth Hallam

After six years of exile, Thomas Becket arrived at Sandwich, on the Kent coast, on 1 December 1170. Shortly before arriving on England’s shores, however, in November 1170 Becket, rather than being conciliatory, had sent representatives ahead to pronounce the excommunication of those clerics (the archbishop of York and the bishops of London and Salisbury) who had been involved in the coronation of Henry II’s son and heir, Henry the Young King, in June 1170. He then proceeded to impose his discipline on his monks, refusing to ordain all but one of those who had been admitted during his six-year absence.

On hearing of the excommunications, during his Christmas court in Normandy, Henry is said to have pronounced the fateful words:

‘What miserable drones and traitors have I nurtured and promoted in my household who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born clerk!’
Franck Barlow, Oxforddnb.com

Four knights heeded Henry’s words and left Normandy to confront the archbishop. One of William FitzEmpress’s former knights, Richard Brito, was among the quartet who murdered Thomas Becket on 29 December 1170. The knights had travelled from Normandy to demand that the archbishop restore the English bishops who had been suspended from their offices, and to absolve those under sentence of excommunication. Becket refused, saying that it was not

‘for a lesser judge to dissolve the sentence of a superior, and that it was not for any man to undermine what had been decreed by the apostolic see.’
The Plantagenet Chronicles, edited by Elizabeth Hallam

According to William FitzStephen the knights attempted to arrest the archbishop and a struggle ensued after he refused to go with them. The archbishop’s companion, Master Edward Grim, stepped into the path of the first stroke meant for Becket. The archbishop then gave thanks to God, saying

‘Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.’ As he knelt down, clasping and stretching out his hands to God, a second stroke was dealt him on the head, at which he fell flat on his face hard by an altar there dedicated to St Benedict … On the right hand he fell, as one proceeding to the right hand of God. While he lay there stricken, Richard Brito smote him with such force that the sword was broken against his head, and the pavement of the church: ‘Take that,’ said he, ‘for the love of my lord William, the king’s brother.’
The Plantagenet Chronicles, edited by Elizabeth Hallam

Beyond this extreme reaction by William’s knight, Richard Brito, there is little evidence that the proposed marriage between William and Isabel was a true love match, and we have no indication of Isabel’s thoughts on the matter. Even without the love angle, for William, marrying Isabel would have been an attractive prospect and would have given him position and power in England, not only as the king’s brother but also as one of the foremost magnates in England and Normandy.

For King Henry, the proposed marriage would have been a very practical match. It would have been the perfect solution to the dilemma of what to do with Isabel and the vast Warenne holdings in England and Normandy; to bring them into the royal family and to have them held by the king’s own brother. Henry II was not to be so easily thwarted, however, and indeed did not object to Thomas Becket’s ruling against the marriage of William FitzEmpress and Isabel de Warenne. He came up with a solution that would achieve the same end, while satisfying the restrictions of the church: his brother Hamelin.

In the aftermath of the murder, Richard Brito and his three accomplices

plundered the property of the archbishop, the clothes of the clergy and servants, and even the utensils from the workshop. They swiftly made off with all the which they found in his stables, as spoils.
The Plantagenet Chronicles, edited by Elizabeth Hallam

Brito and the three other knights, Riginald Fitzurse, Sir William Traci and Hugh de Morville fled to Scotland and then to Knaresborough Castle in Yorkshire, owned by Morville. All four were excommunicated by Pope Alexander III at Easter 1171. They were each ordered to make a 14-year pilgrimage to the Holy Land in penitence. Once their penitential duties in the Holy Land were fulfilled, they were to visit the holy places barefoot and in hair shirts and then to live alone for the rest of their lives on the Black Mountain near Antioch and spend their time in vigil, prayer, and lamentation. It is believed that none of the four knights returned from the Holy Land, though one legend has Brito, also known as Richard le Breton, eventually retiring to the island of Jersey. Nothing more is known of his eventual fate.

Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was canonised on Ash Wednesday, 21 February 1173.

Images:

Sources:

Robert Batlett, England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings; Elizabeth Hallam, editor, The Plantagenet Chronicles; Dan Jones, The Plantagenets; Donald Matthew, King Stephen; Medieval Lands Project on the Earls of Surrey, Conisbrough Castle; Farrer, William and Charles Travis Clay, editors, Early Yorkshire Charters, Volume 8: The Honour of Warenne; Rev. John Watson, Memoirs of the Ancient Earls of Warren and Surrey and their Descendants to the Present Time; Morris, Marc King John: Treachery, Tyranny and the Road to Magna Carta; Church, Stephen, King John: England, Magna Carta and the Making of a Tyrant; doncasterhistory.co.uk; Oxforddnb.com.

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Mary, Reluctant Countess of Boulogne

04/11/202020/12/2023Sharon Bennett Connolly3 Comments

Mary of Blois was the youngest daughter of Stephen of Blois and his wife, Matilda of Boulogne, herself the granddaughter of St Margaret, queen of Scotland. Mary was born in Blois, France around 1136. She was destined for the cloister from an early age and, while still a young girl, was placed in a convent at St Sulpice in Rennes.

Mary’s lineage and the quirks of fate, however, meant that Mary’s peaceful convent life would be violently cut short.

Mary’s father Stephen was the nephew of Henry I, and his closest, legitimate, male relatives. Following the death of his only legitimate son, William Adelin, in the White Ship disaster of 1120, and with his only other legitimate child, Empress Matilda, living in Germany, it seems that Henry looked at Stephen as a possible successor. However, when Matilda’s husband died in 1125 and the empress returned to her father’s court, Stephen’s position was left undetermined. Stephen remained prominent at the English court, always present as a viable alternative to the succession of a woman – Empress Matilda.

In the confusion following Henry’s death in December 1135, it was Stephen who acted quickly and decisively. As he claimed the crown in England and his adherents secured Normandy in Stephen’s name, Empress Matilda was home in Anjou with her husband Geoffrey, Count of Anjou and two young sons, Henry and Geoffrey. She was pregnant with her third and youngest son, William.

What followed was a period known as the Anarchy, almost 20 years of conflict and bloodshed as Stephen and the Empress Matilda battled for supremacy of England and Normandy. Ultimately, Stephen managed to retain control of England but lost Normandy to Count Geoffrey, who passed it on to his and Matilda’s eldest son, Henry FitzEmpress. Henry, was eager to win back his birthright and following several incursions by Henry – whilst still in his teens – he and Stephen came to an agreement.

Stephen and his wife Matilda had five children in total, but only three, including Mary, who survived infancy. Of Stephen and Matilda’s three children, Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne, was the eldest to survive into adulthood, and was groomed as his father’s heir. He was married to Constance of France, daughter of King Louis VI and sister of Louis VII, in 1140 and knighted in 1147. He died in August 1153, after suffering some form of seizure. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle said of him

‘he had little success, and with just cause, because he was an evil man, because wheresoever he came he did more evil than good; he robbed the lands and laid great taxes on them.’
Anglo_Saxon Chronicles, edited by Michael Swanton

The Gesta Stephani, however, paints a picture of

‘a young man of high character … his manners were grave; he excelled in warlike exercises and had great natural courage … he was courteous and affable … and possessed much of his father’s spirit … ever ready to draw close the bands of peace’ but ‘never shrank from presenting a resolute and indomitable front to his enemies.’
Gesta Stephani

Stephen’s youngest son was William, who was born around 1134/5. In 1149 he married Isabel de Warenne, sole heiress to William de Warenne, third earl of Surrey, in order to bring the vast Warenne lands within the influence of the crown. William would succeed to the County of Boulogne in 1153, on the death of Eustace. Shortly after his brother’s death, and with the help of the clergy, William made an agreement with Henry of Anjou, whereby he waived his own rights to the crown in return for assurances explicitly recognising his rights to his lands, as Count of Boulogne and Mortain and Earl of Surrey.

Mary, who had been in the convent at St Sulpice in Rennes, was moved around 1150-52, apparently after some discord with the nunnery. Her parents founded a new convent for her at Lillechurch (Higham) in Kent, making it a sister convent with Rennes’ St Sulpice. Mary does not appear to have been given the title of prioress. However, a charter of Henry II, dated around 1155-58, confirmed Lillechurch to Mary and her nuns, suggesting she held some position of authority. Before 1160, however, Mary had become abbess of the great abbey at Romsey, an older and more prestigious institution than her little foundation at Lillechurch.

Mary’s brother William died without issue in 1159 during the Siege of Toulouse. Though a nun, Mary succeeded him in the County of Boulogne. As a consequence, in 1160 Mary’s life was turned upside down. She was suddenly a great heiress, countess of Boulogne in her own right and too great a marriage prize to be allowed to remain secluded in the cloisters. She was abducted from Romsey Abbey by Matthew of Alsace, second son of the Count of Flanders, and forced to marry him. This may well have been a political move; although there does not appear to be any proof that Henry II sanctioned it, most sources imply that the marriage was forced on her by the king and he certainly benefited from Mary being safely married to a loyal vassal. She was, after all, not only a great heiress but, through her father, she had a strong, rival claim to the throne of England.

There was great outrage among the clergy; marriage with a nun was a breach against canon law and opposed by the leading ecclesiastical figures of the day. One source suggested the pope had granted a dispensation for the marriage. However, given that Pope Alexander III expressed great disapproval in a letter to the archbishop of Rheims, his consent seems highly unlikely. The pope imposed an interdict on Matthew of Alsace and pressed the claims of the wife of Mary’s brother, Eustace, to the Boulogne estates; even though Constance had died some fourteen years before. The furore seems to have died down eventually, and the marriage was allowed to stand.

Unfortunately for Henry II, Matthew turned out to be a not-so-loyal vassal and rebelled at least twice. The first occasion arose when Matthew tried to press his claims to Mortain, land that should have been part of Mary’s inheritance but was now held by Henry II. The king was not too accommodating. An agreement was eventually reached whereby, in return for £1,000, Matthew would renounce all claims to those parts of his wife’s estates that were still in royal hands.

Mary seems to have had little love for Henry II, possibly due to his involvement in her abduction and marriage, or simply because of the fact their respective families had spent many years at war. With so much bad history, you wouldn’t expect them to have an affectionate relationship, but Mary appears to have actively worked against Henry. Following a meeting with the ambassadors of the emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, she wrote to King Louis of France. In the document, she describes Henry II as ‘the fraudulent king’, while informing Louis of Henry’s manoeuvring against him.

Mary and Matthew had two children, daughters Ida and Mathilde; and it was after the birth of Mathilde that the couple were divorced, in 1170. There is some suggestion that Matthew was pressured to agree to the divorce by his dying father and the emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, probably in the hope of having the interdict – placed on Matthew on his marriage to Mary – lifted. After the divorce, Matthew would continue to rule Boulogne and was succeeded by Ida on his death in 1173.

Mary’s younger daughter Mathilde, Duchess of Brabant

Ida (b. c1160) married three times; her first husband, Gerard III, count of Gueldres, who died in 1183. Her short marriage to her second husband, Berthold IV, Duke of Zehringen, ended in his death in 1186. Ida’s last marriage was to Reginald, or Renaud, de Tree, Count of Dammartin, who was a childhood friend of France’s king, Philip Augustus. It seems Renaud abducted Ida and forced her into marriage. He died in 1227, outliving Ida, who died in 1216, by eleven years. It was Matilda, the daughter of Ida and Renaud, who inherited Boulogne from Ida, and would also become Queen of Portugal through her marriage to Alfonso III of Portugal.

Born in 1170 Ida’s younger sister, Mathilde, married Henry I, duke of Louvain and Brabant, when she was nine-years-old. She would have seven children before her death sometime in 1210 or 1211; she was buried in St Peter’s Church, Leuven.

The interdict, which had been placed on Matthew on his marriage to Mary, was finally lifted when she returned to the convent life in 1169-70, becoming a simple Benedictine nun at St Austrebert, Montreuil. Mary died there in July 1182, possibly on the 25th, aged about forty-six, and was buried within the convent that had been her home for over ten years. A woman who obviously believed that her life should be devoted to God, she is remarkable in that she managed to fulfil her dynastic duties in a forced marriage, and yet asserted herself so that she was able to return to the secluded life she so obviously craved.

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Ada de Warenne, Queen Mother of Scotland

15/09/202030/01/2024Sharon Bennett Connolly29 Comments

300px-Prince_Henry_of_Scotland_1139_692124 — Coin of Prince Henry of Scotland

Ada de Warenne was born around 1120, daughter of William de Warenne 2nd Earl of Surrey and Isabel de Vermandois. Through her mother, she was a great-granddaughter of Henry I of France and half-sister to twins Waleran and Robert de Beaumont, Count of Meulan and 2nd Earl of Leicester, respectively, and Hugh de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Bedford. Her niece, Isabel de Warenne, would marry William of Blois , the younger son of King Stephen and, following his death, Hamelin, half-brother of Henry II of England. Ada’s family connections were of the highest quality in the Anglo-Norman world.

As a consequence, Ada’s future marriage became an international concern. On 9 April 1139, a peace treaty was concluded between King Stephen of England and King David I of Scots. Primarily negotiated by Stephen’s wife, Queen Matilda – King David’s own niece – the terms were extremely favourable to the defeated Scots. All the lands that Prince Henry of Scotland, King David’s son and heir, had held in 1138 were returned to him, save for the castles at Bamburgh and Newcastle, for which he was recompensed with two towns of equal value in the south. Furthermore, Henry was confirmed as earl of Huntingdon and created earl of Northumbria, a title which encompassed Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland, Westmoreland and the parts of Lancashire north of the Ribble.

It was agreed that English law would remain in force in these regions, but that the barons within the earldom were permitted to do homage to Prince Henry, saving only their allegiance to King Stephen. In return, King David and his son promised a permanent peace and provided four hostages. Although the text of the treaty is now lost, it seems likely that the prince’s marriage to Ada de Warenne, sister of the third Earl Warenne and half-sister of the Beaumont twins, was included in the terms of the Treaty of Durham.

Shortly after the treaty was signed, Prince Henry joined King Stephen’s court for a time, accompanying Stephen on campaign, which came not without a little risk. While Stephen’s forces besieged Ludlow, Henry was dragged from his horse by an iron hook, and nearly taken prisoner, but he was gallantly rescued from the enemy by the King himself.

It was probably during his stay with Stephen’s court that Henry married his bride. Orderic Vitalis claims that the marriage was a love match; however, the timing clearly suggests that the union was a consequence of the 1139 treaty of Durham, perhaps with the intention of drawing Henry into Stephen’s corner by allying him in marriage to his staunchest supporters, the Beaumont twins. Although it is nnot inconceivable that affection grew between the couple during Henry’s stay at Stephen’s court. On her marriage, which took place sometime between the conclusion of the treaty of Durham and Henry’s return to Scotland, Ada became Countess of Huntingdon and Northumbria and Lady of Haddington and Crail.

Henry was the only surviving son of King David I of Scotland and his queen, Matilda (or Maud), widow of Simon (I) de Senlis, who had died in 1113. Henry’s mother, Matilda, was the daughter of Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria, and Judith, a niece of William the Conqueror. Henry’s older brother, Malcolm, was tragically killed when a toddler; he was reportedly murdered by a Scandinavian monk in his father’s service, who is said to have savagely attacked the child with his artificial iron hand. Needless to say, the murderous monk was executed: David ordered that he be torn apart by wild horses.

The marriage produced 3 sons and 3 daughters.

Ada never became Queen of Scots as Henry of Scotland died in 1152, a year before the death of David I. On his son’s death, David recognised his grandson and Ada’s eldest son, Malcolm, as his heir. During her son’s reign, Ada became known as the Queen Mother of Scotland. At this time, in her charters, she is most frequently styled ‘Ada comitissa regis Scottorum.’

Born in 1142, Malcolm succeeded to the crown at the age of 11 as Malcolm IV. Also known as Malcolm the Maiden, he died, unmarried, at Jedburgh in December 1165. Ada had been trying to arrange a suitable bride for him when he died.

He was succeeded by Ada’s second son, William I the Lion. William was one of the longest reigning king of Scots in history, ruling for 49 years. He married Ermengarde de Beaumont, a granddaughter of Henry I of England by his illegitimate daughter, Constance. William and Ermengarde had 3 daughters and a son, who succeeded his father as Alexander II in 1214. Their 2 eldest daughters, Margaret and Isabella, are mentioned in a clause of Magna Carta. They became hostages of King John following the treaty of Norham in 1209; the English king had promised to marry at least one of them to his son, the future King Henry III, and to find a suitable husband for the other. Both girls married English nobles – eventually. Their brother, Alexander II, married Henry III’s sister, Joan, but the marriage was childless.

Ada and Henry’s 3rd son, David, Earl of Huntingdon, married Matilda of Chester and it is through the daughters of David that Robert the Bruce and John Balliol both based their claims as Competitors to the Scots crown in the 1290s.

Of the 3 daughters, Matilda died young, in 1152, the same year as her father, meaning poor Ada faced a double grief, of losing a husband and a daughter in one year. Ada’s namesake, Ada of Huntingdon married Floris III, Count of Holland, in 1161. She had 4 sons and 4 daughters before the count died at Antioch while on the 3rd Crusade, in 1190. The younger Ada’s great-great-grandson, Floris V, Count of Holland, was one of the 13 Competitors for the Scots crown in 1291. Margaret married Conan IV, Duke of Brittany and Earl of Richmond in 1160. She was the mother of Constance, Duchess of Brittany, wife of Henry II’s son Geoffrey and mother of the tragic Arthur of Brittany who was murdered by King John, and Eleanor, the Pearl of Brittany who spent all her adult life in ‘honourable imprisonment’ in England.

220px-St_Martin's_Kirk,_Haddington_03 — St Martin’s Kirk, Haddington

Following her husband’s death Ada played little part in the politics of Scotland. She did, however, take great interest in the futures of her children, arranging the marriages of her daughters and seeking a bride for her son, King Malcolm IV. She later retired to her dower lands at Haddington in East Lothian, given to her by David I. It was possibly the 1st Royal Burgh in Scotland.

A generous patroness of the Church, Ada de Warenne died in 1178, shortly after founding the nunnery at Haddington. She is believed to be buried in the Haddington area, possibly in St Mary’s Church, although the exact location of her grave is lost to history. In 1198 her grandson, the future Alexander II, would be born in her old palace at Haddington, after her dower-lands were passed on to her daughter-in-law, Queen Ermengarde.

Images from Wikipedia.

Further Reading: G.W.S. Barrow, David I (c. 1185-1153) (article), Oxforddnb.com; Keith Stringer, Ada [née Ada de Warenne], countess of Northumberland (c. 1123-1178), Oxforddnb.com; Keith Stringer, Henry, earl of Northumberland (c. 1115-1152) (article), Oxforddnb.com; The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon; W.W. Scott, Malcolm IV (c. 1141–1165) (article), (article), Oxforddnb.com; Comprising the history of England, from the invasion of Julius Caesar to the accession of Henry II. Also, the Acts of Stephen, King of England and duke of Normandy Translated and edited by Thomas Forester; Early Yorkshire Charters Volume 8: The Honour of Warenne, Edited by William Farrer and Charles Travis Clay; Brewer’s British Royalty by David Williamson; The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens by Mike Ashley; The Story of Scotland by Nigel Tranter; Ada, Queen Mother of Scotland (article) by Victoria Chandler; David Ross, Scotland: History of a Nation; Matthew Lewis, Stephen and Matilda’s Civil War: Cousins of Anarchy; Stephen Spinks, Robert the Bruce: Champion of a Nation.

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King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is the story of a truly remarkable lady, the hereditary constable of Lincoln Castle and the first woman in England to be appointed sheriff in her own right. It is is available from Pen & Sword Books, bookshop.org and Amazon. Defenders of the Norman Crown: The Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey tells the fascinating story of the Warenne dynasty, from its origins in Normandy, through the Conquest, Magna Carta, the wars and marriages that led to its ultimate demise in the reign of Edward III. Available from Pen & Sword Books, Amazon in the UK and US, and Bookshop.org.

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The First Battle of Lincoln

Lady of the English

Queen Matilda

Empress versus Queen

The Rout of Winchester

Prisoner Exchange

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