Stephen of England
Stephen ruled England from 1135 to 1154 through a civil war so destructive that chroniclers said Christ and his saints slept. Born around 1092 or 1096 in Blois, he was a grandson of William the Conqueror through his mother Adela, and was raised at the court of his uncle Henry I, who made him a wealthy magnate in England and Normandy. He had twice sworn to accept Henry's daughter Matilda as heir. When Henry died in December 1135 Stephen crossed the Channel immediately, reached London and Winchester ahead of any rival, secured the treasury with his brother Henry of Blois's help, and was crowned within three weeks. The barons preferred a man, and Matilda was married to the Count of Anjou, whom the Normans detested. He was personally brave and militarily competent and politically hopeless — generous to the point of weakness, then abruptly harsh. His arrest of Roger of Salisbury and two bishops in 1139 lost him the church's support. Matilda landed that year and the war began. Stephen was captured at Lincoln in 1141 and Matilda entered London, but her manner alienated the citizens and they drove her out before she could be crowned; she exchanged him for her captured half-brother Robert of Gloucester. The fighting settled into a stalemate of sieges and unlicensed castles, with barons switching sides and much of the country ungoverned. Matilda's son Henry invaded in 1153. Stephen's own son Eustace died that year, and the Treaty of Winchester let Stephen keep the throne for life with Henry as heir. He died in 1154.
- Lived: 1096 CE – 1154 CE
- Nationality: English
- Roles: king, head_of_state
