Eustace IV of Boulogne
Eustace was the son King Stephen fought a civil war to leave the throne to, and he died before his father did. He was the eldest son of Stephen and Matilda of Boulogne, and inherited his mother's county of Boulogne, which gave him the wool ports and made him a magnate in his own right. The Anarchy - nineteen years of sieges, unlicensed castles and barons changing sides - was in substance a dispute about whether Stephen's line or the Empress Matilda's would inherit, so his position was the whole point of the war. Stephen tried to have him crowned in his own lifetime, on the French practice of associating an heir, and the pope forbade it and the archbishop of Canterbury refused - on the ground that Stephen had taken the throne in breach of an oath, which made the whole line questionable. He campaigned against Henry of Anjou when Henry invaded in 1153, and by the chroniclers' account was a violent and unpopular young man who plundered church lands, including the abbey of Bury St Edmunds. He died that August, suddenly, at about twenty-three - of a seizure while eating, said some, of divine judgement for Bury, said the monks of Bury. His death made the settlement possible within months. The Treaty of Winchester let Stephen keep the crown for life with Henry as his heir, and Stephen died the next year. His younger brother William made no claim at all and kept the family lands. He is the clearest case in English history of a war settled by a death rather than a battle: nineteen years of fighting ended within months of one young man dying at dinner.
- Lived: 1130 CE – 1153 CE
- Nationality: English
- Roles: noble
