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Stephen's Anarchy*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2014

C. Warren Hollister
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To H. W. C. Davis, writing in 1905, Stephen's reign presented “a terrible picture of rapine, cruelty, and wanton insolence.” More recently scholars have called into question the notion of the nineteen years when England suffered for its sins and “Christ and his saints slept.” Nowadays scholars of Stephen's reign commonly put “anarchy” in quotes in an effort to dissociate themselves from an old fashioned notion which they nevertheless continue ta find useful. Sir Frank Stenton, A. L. Poole and others have argued that warfare under Stephen was limited to specific periods and places and that the horror stories of contemporary writers are exaggerated or relevant only to particular local conditions. Most recently, H. A. Cronne and T. A. M. Bishop have both observed that Henry Ts administrative system survived Stephen's wars, at least after a fashion, and John Appleby has concluded that although Stephen was not the best of kings he was probably the best available at the time.

Each of the three foregoing essays contributes in some way to the problem of Stephen's anarchy. Robert Patterson has provided a valuable study of the application of medieval constitutional principles in the politics and polemical literature of the reign. Most of what he says is both illuminating and persuasive. And although he refrains from relating his findings directly to the anarchy issue, nevertheless certain connections can perhaps be made. Patterson's essay suggests to me that an age given to rational explanations of things—the age of Abelard and Gratian—was as capable of rationalizing domestic violence as theology and law.

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Type
Research Article
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Albion , Volume 6 , Issue 3 , Fall 1974 , pp. 233 - 239
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 1974

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Footnotes

*

Professor Hollister is commenting on the three previous essays. Professors Patterson, Kealey, Callahan, and Hollister were the participants in a panel discussion at the American Historical Association's December, 1973 meeting. [Ed.]

References

1 England under the Normans and Angevins (London, 1905), p. 167.Google Scholar

2 SirStenton, Frank, The First Century of English Feudalism, 1066-1166 (2nd ed.; Oxford, 1961), pp. 218-19, 245 ffGoogle Scholar; Poole, A. L., From Domesday Book to Magna Carta, 1087-1216 (2nd ed.; Oxford, 1955), pp. 151–54.Google Scholar

3 Cronne, H. A., The Reign of Stephen: Anarchy in England, 1135-54 (London, 1970). pp; 2-3, 12–14 and passimGoogle Scholar; Bishop, T. A. M., Scriptores Regis (Oxford, 1961), pp. 30–31Google Scholar; Appleby, John T., The Troubled Reign of King Stephen (New York, 1970), pp. 206–7 and passim.Google Scholar

4 Bishop, , Scriptores Regis, p. 31.Google Scholar

5 Some of the evidence for this conclusion is in Professor Kealey's paper. Sec further. Bishop, , Scriptores Regis, p. 30Google Scholar; fitz Nigel, Richard, Dialogus de Scaccario, ed. Johnson, Charles (London, 1950), p. 50.Google Scholar

6 Regesta, III, pp. x, xixGoogle Scholar, and passim. When Stephen crossed to Normandy in 1136 he left Lngland in Roger of Salisbury's hands and was accompanied by (among others) Alexander, Nigel, and Roger the Chancellor: ibid. no. 67; Haskins, C. H., Normern Institutions (Cambridge, Mass., 1918), p. 124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Luchaire, Achille, Louis VI le Gros (Paris, 1890). pp. xlii–lvi and no. 399.Google Scholar

8 Knowles, Dom David, The Monastic Order in England (2nd ed., Cambridge, England, 1966), pp. 702–3Google Scholar. The list is based on Domesday values of monastic manors. I have added the abbey of Reading, the only wealthy abbey established between the Domesday survey and Stephen's accession.

9 Annales Monasterii de Wintonia, in Luard, H. R., ed., Annales Monastici, Rolls Series, 1864–1869), II:52.Google Scholar

10 See appendix.

11 Davis, H. W. C., “The Anarchy of Stephen's Reign,” English Historical Review, XVIII (1903): 630–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 Poole, , Domesday Book to Magna Carta, p. 153Google Scholar; cf. Davis, , King Stephen, p. 87.Google Scholar

13 Davis, , England under the Normans and Angevins, p. 167.Google Scholar