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Introduction

The earth bare no corn, for the land was all laid waste by such deeds; and they said openly, that Christ slept, and his saints. Such things, and more than we can say, suffered we nineteen winters for our sins

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

The death of King Henry I in 1135 created a succession crisis that resulted in England’s first civil war. Nicknamed ‘The Anarchy’ for its unprecedented levels of chaos and disorder, this nineteen-year conflict witnessed the usurpation of King Stephen, and a persistent battle on the part of Henry’s daughter, Matilda, to reclaim her royal inheritance. Though the civil war came to a peaceful end with the Treaty of Winchester in 1153, it was Matilda’s son, Henry, who succeeded to the throne of England after the death of King Stephen in 1154.

This, in an hour, is the story of The Medieval Anarchy through the personalities, context, events, and aftermath of England’s first, and often forgotten, civil war.