The Civil War between the Empress Matilda aka Maude and King Stephen, known as
The Anarchy

When King Henry I lost his only son, William, drowned in the White Ship tragedy, he announced that his daughter, Matilda (also known as Maude) would be his heir.

This was unheard of! Shock! Horror! A woman cannot rule! Everybody knows that. Well, Henry didn't know that and neither did Matilda.

The men surrounding Henry on his deathbed swore an oath that they would support his daughter as Queen, which was her father's last wish. Stephen, Henry's nephew, was among them.

But that did not stop him from grabbing the throne the minute Uncle Henry was dead.

Unfortunately for Matilda, she was not in England. She had been married off to Geoffrey of Anjou, who was merely a child at the time of the marriage. By the time she raised an army and invaded, Stephen was firmly entrenched as King.

The war between them went on for some twenty years and was known as the Anarchy. Matilda actually managed to defeat him once and declared herself Queen, but although she was accepted as Lady of the English, she could not get anyone to agree that she was the rightful monarch. At least, not anyone who mattered.

Stephen, meanwhile, managed to escape with the help of his wife, also called Matilda, who raised an army of her own.

Matilda was once imprisoned in a castle in Oxford by Stephen and managed to escape by being lowered down the walls in a coffin. She was a very feisty woman and that was her downfall.

The people wanted a strong monarch, a leader who could fight battles and Matilda was just that. But then they disliked her for not being meek and mild as a woman should be. She was even criticised for riding astride her horse like a man! She couldn't win, either way, but she was the rightful Queen of England. The Anarchy came to an end when Stephen promised to make Matilda's son, Henry, his heir.

And that is what happened. Henry ascended the throne as King Henry II and proved himself to be one of our greatest kings.

King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine

King Henry II was the founder of the Plantagenet dynasty, which lasted all the way through till the late fifteenth century.

He married Eleanor of Aquitaine, a strong and independent woman in her own right. That was unusual enough in that day and age, but she also divorced her first husband, King Louis of France, after accompanying him on crusade.

Eleanor was the Duchess of Aquitaine, important lands in France, which Henry was anxious to get his hands on, and it is said that he abducted her in order to force the marriage. I can never imagine Eleanor being forced into anything, but that is the tale.

They had many children together, including four sons and several daughters. Those daughters, like other royal girls, populated the royal houses of Europe. Their daughter, Joan, was sent off at the age of eleven to marry the King of Sicily, a man in his twenties.

These were the parents of Richard the Lionheart, one of our most famous, if useless, Kings.

Henry's downfall was that he could not give up any of his power, not even a smidgeon, and he had his eldest son, Henry, crowned King during his lifetime. A title with no authority was never going to work and it is a fact that, although he was crowned, he doesn't figure in the history books as Henry III.

Young Henry wanted some power of his own and King Henry made himself unpopular with Richard by trying to make John (known as Lackland for his lack of lands) the heir to England. Now England was just a little island, but it did come with the title of King.

The result was that all his sons, save John, turned on him and went to war with him.

Henry is also known for his famous quarrel with Thomas a Becket, once his best friend. Weary of quarrelling with the Church and having to share power with them, Henry thought if he made his friend Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury, the church would always be on his side. But he reckoned without Thomas' conscience. Having taken vows and Holy Orders, he wanted to stay faithful to his place in the church and soon Henry was in just as much trouble as before, if not more so.

After one major argument he is known as saying 'Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?'

Some soldiers who overheard this took it to mean they had a licence to murder Thomas in the King's name and that is what they did. They murdered the Archbishop on the steps of Canterbury Cathedral.

Henry was devastated by this.

In the battle between King Henry and his sons, his wife, Eleanor took the side of her sons against her husband. Consequently, she was imprisoned by him for twenty years.

Odd then that they should have been buried together.

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