STEPHEN (1097?-1154), king of England, was the third son of Stephen Henry, count of Blois and Chartres, and, through his mother Adela, a grandson of William the Conqueror. Born some time before Ito', he was still a boy when he was taken into favour by his uncle, Henry I. of England, and received the honour of knighthood and the county of Mortain. In 1118 he severed his connection with Blois and Chartres, renouncing his hereditary claims in favour of his elder brother Theobald. But he acquired the county of Boulogne by marrying Matilda (c.
1103-1152), the heiress of Count Eustace III. and a niece of Henry's first wife. The old king arranged this match after the untimely loss of his son, William Atheling, in the tragedy of the White Ship; until 1125 Stephen was regarded as the probable heir to the English throne. But on the return of the widowed empress Matilda (q.v.) to her father's court, Henry compelled Stephen and the rest of his barons to acknowledge her as their future ruler (1126). Seven years later these oaths were renewed; and in addition the ultimate claims of Matilda's infant son, Henry of Anjou, were recognized (1133). But the death of Henry I. found the empress absent from England. Stephen hurried across the Channel and began to canvass for supporters, arguing that his oaths to Matilda were taken under coercion, and that she as the daughter of a professed nun, was illegitimate.
He was raised to the throne by the Londoners, the official priest named Stephen, elected before him, died three days after, without having received the episcopal consecration.
baronage and the clergy ; his most influential supporters were the old justiciar, Robert, bishop of Salisbury, and his own brother Henry, bishop of Winchester. Innocent II. was induced by Bishop Henry to ratify the election, and Stephen thus cleared himself from the stain of perjury. Two charters of liberties, issued in rapid succession, confirmed the King's alliance with the Church and earned the good will of the nation. But his supporters traded upon his notorious facility and the unstable nature of his power. Extortionate concessions were demanded by the great barons, and particularly by Earl Robert of Gloucester, the half-brother of the empress. The clergy insisted that neither their goods nor their persons should be subject to secular jurisdiction. Stephen's attempt to create a mercenary army and a royalist party led at once to a rupture between himself and Earl Robert (1138), which was the signal for sporadic rebellions. Soon afterwards the king
attacked the bishopS of Salisbury, Ely and Lincoln—a powerful family clique who stood at the head of the official baronage— and, not content with seizing their castles, subjected them to personal outrage and detention. The result was that the clergy, headed by his brother, the bishop of Winchester, declared against him Stephen was thoroughly discredited when the empress at length appeared in England (Sept. 3o, 1139). Through a misplaced sense of chivalry he declined to take an opportunity of seizing her person. She was therefore able to join her half-brother at Gloucester, to obtain recognition in the western and south-western shires, and to contest the royal title for eight years. Stephen's initial errors were aggravated by bad generalship. He showed remarkable energy in hurrying from one centre of rebellion to another, but he never ventured to attack the headquarters of the empress. In 1141 he was surprised and captured while besieging Lincoln castle. The empress in consequence reigned for six months as "Lady (Doming) of the English"; save for her faults of temper, the cause of Stephen would never have been re trieved. But, later in the year, his supporters were able to pro cure his release in exchange for the earl of Gloucester. After an obstinate siege he expelled Matilda from Oxford (Dec. 1142) and compelled her to fall back upon the west.
The next five years witnessed anarchy such as England had never before experienced. England north of the Ribble and the Tyne had passed into the hands of David of Scotland and his son, Prince Henry; Ranulf earl of Chester was constructing an independent principality; on the west the raids of the Angevin party, in the east and midlands the excesses of such rebels as Geoffrey de Mandeville, earl of Essex, turned considerable dis tricts into wildernesses. Meanwhile Geoffrey of Anjou, the hus band of the empress, completed the conquest of Normandy (1144). In 1147 the situation improved for Stephen; Robert of Gloucester, the ablest of the Angevin partisans, died, and the empress left England in despair. But her son soon appeared in England to renew the struggle (1149) and conciliate new sup porters. Soon after his return to Normandy Henry was invested by his father with the duchy (115o). He succeeded to Anjou in next year he acquired Aquitaine by marriage.