Hello and welcome to today's history lesson.

My name is Mr. Merrett, and I'll be guiding you through today's lesson.

So let's get started.

Today's lesson we'll be looking at Matilda's claim and campaign, and by the end of the day's lesson we'll be able to explain how Matilda took advantage of Stephen's weakened positions to advance her own claim and lead a campaign against Stephen.

In order to do that, we need to use some key terms. And our key terms for today are usurper, anarchy, and civil war.

A usurper is somebody who takes something by force without their right to do so.

Anarchy is an absence of government in society or a state of political or social disorder.

And a civil war is a war between citizens of the same country.

Today's lesson will comprise of two separate learning cycles, and our first learning cycle is looking at King Stephen's reign in the early years.

So let's get started.

So Stephen of Blois was crowned king of England and Normandy of the 22nd of November, 1135.

And to Matilda and her supporters, he was a usurper.

And that was a charge that Stephen worked quickly to try and eliminates, and it was made a lot easier by Matilda's circumstances upon the death of her father, King Henry I.

And the reason being is that Matilda was in open rebellion against the king, which meant that Stephen was able to claim that his previous oath to support Matilda's claim to the throne was now invalid.

Stephen's claim was also helped by the fact that there was a knight who was by Henry's side at his deathbed and this knight claimed that Henry had changed his mind and actually had declared that Stephen should be heir to the throne, but realistically, that there weren't very many people who believed that story.

Now, Stephen quickly gained a great deal of support for his claim to the throne, which allowed him to ignore Matilda's claim that he was a usurper.

The Anglo-Norman barons were brought by promises of land and titles, and the Church was won over by promises of greater independence and the return of church land that had been taken from them.

Stephen quickly gained control of the large rural treasury as well, which was located in Winchester.

And this money was absolutely essential for a new king who needed to buy supports.

Now let's have a quick check for understanding.

So from Matilda's perspective, what noun best describes King Stephen? Is it heir, ruler, or usurper? Make your choice now.

Okay, if chose C, usurper, then very well done.

That is the correct answer.

However, not everything went smoothly for Stephen in the first few years of his reign.

Matilda's uncle, King David I of Scotland, invaded the north of England and took several key cities.

Stephen worked very quickly to reach a peace deal with David, and in that peace deal he gave him the important city of Carlisle, which on your screen in front of you there is just that, that top most box there.

Stephen also lost South Wales to rebels, and it became very clear that Stephen didn't have either the inclination or more realistically, the ability to keep hold of this area of his territory once he pulled all of the Anglo-Norman knights out of the region as well.

So there's no real chance that after that point of, been able to reclaim that land, as well as that the South West as well just, was in continual rebellion there at least two large scale rebellions against Stephen in the first few years of his reign, which he did successfully managed to put down, but rather unusually one of the leaders of the rebellion, Stephen allowed to go free and this leader went to his land in Normandy and became a very vocal critic of Stephen, a real thorn in his side from that point on.

So it was situations like this and it was decisions that Stephen made to show mercy when perhaps a more brutal form of authority might have been respected more by his barons.

It led a lot of Stephen's barons to start to think that maybe this new guy isn't actually up to the job.

As well as that, in Normandy, Count Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou, who was Empress Matilda's husband, her second husband, was raiding his way through the Dutches, so continually moving out from his power base in Anjou to the south of Normandy, into Normandy raiding, and then moving back again before Stephen had the ability to really react to that situation, Stephen did eventually raise an army of Norman barons and he also employed some Flemish mercenaries in 1137 on to try to fight back as well.

So the Flemish mercenaries come from there on what is now modern day Belgium.

Unfortunately though, before this army took the field against Geoffrey of Anjou, the Norman barons or the soldiers in the Norman barons army and the Flemish mercenaries argued, the argument escalated and they actually, the two sides ended up fighting a pitch battle against each other, which naturally meant that they couldn't realistically fight alongside each other.

The army broke apart and Stephen effectively just wasted his time and his money just trying to create this army to try and fight back Geoffrey of Anjou.

And in the meantime, whilst all of this is going on, what's Matilda doing? Well, she's taken over several castles along the Normandy-Anjou border, which if you look at the screen in front of you, there's that most bottom box on the screen there as well.

And she just dug in effectively.

She just consolidated her power.

She built up her power while she waited to give birth to her third son, and her third son arrived on the 22nd of July, 1136.

But obviously, being a new parent again, along with two other small children, Matilda's not really, really in reposition to be travelling at this point.

So what did she do? Well, she remained in the area and she continued to build up her support.

It wasn't like she was just sitting there doing nothing.

She had a new family to take care of, but in terms of trying to take hold of what she felt was rightfully hers, the kingdom of England and the touch of Normandy, she was working quietly on that as well.

So she was building up support in the region for herself as well.

She also petitioned the Pope to support her claim to the throne.

Unfortunately though this was rejected and the reason being is that the Pope had already given his support to Stephen, so couldn't necessarily want to back down and support somebody else instead.

Now, whilst Matilda lacked a huge amount of support for her claim in the early years of Stephen's reign, Stephen's own support was actually fading away as well.

Both the Church and the barons felt that Stephen had not given them the land that he had promised them.

The barons was also concerned that Stephen wasn't ruthless enough, wasn't aggressive enough to be a successful king of England.

And then to make matters worse, by 1138, the treasury had run dry as well.

So by 1138, Stephen's position is looking increasingly fragile.

Let's have a quick check for understanding now.

So true or false, Matilda gained the support of the pope for her claim, the throne of England and Normandy.

Is that true or is that false? All right, if you chose false, then congratulations.

That is correct.

Let's justify the answer now.

Why is it a false statement? Is it false because Stephen gained the support of the pope or is it false because nobody gained the support of the pope? So choose your justification now.

All right, if you chose A, then very well done.

That's the correct answer.

Right, another check for understanding.

So quick discussion question here.

So what did Stephen do well in the early years of his reign? Let's see if you can make a bit of a list here.

So pause the video whilst you discuss this, and I'll see you in just a moment.

Okay, so some of the things you could have said that he moved quickly to seize the throne, he won the support of the Church and the barons, he also gained the support of the pope, he quickly ended the war with Scotland, you could argue it wasn't particularly great deal for England, but at the very least he wasn't fighting wars on multiple fronts anymore.

So that at least is a benefit there as well.

Right, so another quick discussion, check for understanding.

So what problems did Stephen face in the first two years of his reign? So again, see if you can make a bit of a list.

Pause the video now whilst you're doing that.

I'll see you in just a moment.

Okay, so some of the things you could have said that there were rebellions in the South West, there were rebellions in South Wales, there was constant raiding in Normandy, he was losing the support from the Church and the barons and also, he was running out of money as well.

So things weren't looking great by the end of that, those first two years for Stephen.

Right, let's do our first task for the day now then.

So I want you to think how successful in your opinion overall were the first two years of Stephen's reign? So having a look on the scale there, it runs from very successful down to very unsuccessful and just place a mark somewhere on that scale where you think in your opinion, how Stephen got on in his first two years.

It doesn't necessarily matter where you put the mark.

The really key thing though is that you're able to explain your answer.

So make sure you give a reason or perhaps a couple of reasons as to why you think that Stephen was as successful as you think he was.

So pause the video now whilst you do that and I'll see you in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully, you've gone okay with that task there.

So let's sort of think about and see what you could have done.

So in terms of what my opinion is, I think that he was quite unsuccessful and the reason why I think that, I've said that, "I think the first two years of Stephen's reign were quite unsuccessful because, although he did manage to become king, he faced a lot of revolts that he did not deal with very well and his supporters turned against him." So that's why I think he didn't do a particularly great job.

If you've got a different opinion to me, that's absolutely fine.

The key thing is that you're able to justify your opinion.

So whatever you think, make sure you've explained why you think it.

Let's do our second task for the day now then.

So I'd like you to write a report to Empress Matilda explaining what she can do to fight back against King Stephen.

So focus on telling Matilda about Stephen's weaknesses that she could exploit.

For instance, you could tell her about the rebellions in the South West and in South Wales, the raids in Normandy, the fact that Stephen was losing support from the Church and the barons and the fact that he was lacking money as well.

So have a think about perhaps picking up two or three of those bullet points and kind of think about how Matilda could actually take advantage of those weaknesses of Stephen.

So pause the video whilst you do that and I'll see you in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

I hope you've gone okay with that task.

So let's think about what you could have written then.

So I said, "Empress Matilda, there is much you could do to fight back against the wicked usurper Stephen.

He is refacing rebellions from your loyal subjects in the South West and South Wales.

You could create a strong base in these areas.

Your husband is also successfully raiding Normandy.

You could try to take over the whole of this area.

Additionally, Stephen is losing the support of the Church and the barons.

You could try to win over these people so that they will support you instead." So again, if you've got different ideas about how Matilda can take advantage of Stephen's weaknesses, that's absolutely fine.

You just explain how Matilda could actually take advantage and that's what I'm looking for there.

Right, let's move on to our second and final learning cycle for the day, which is the Anarchy and Matilda's campaign.

So Stephen's reign soon descended into Anarchy.

Robert of Gloucester, who was Matilda's half brother, he was the eldest of King Henry I illegitimate children, very well respected man, and very well liked amongst the other barons as well.

Anyway, he rebelled against Stephen whilst he was visiting his own lands in Normandy in June 1138 and he declared his support for Matilda's claim to the throne.

There were some people who felt that Robert himself could have made a claim to become king of England, but because of the laws regarding legitimacy, he just wouldn't have been accepted by the English people, even if he may well have made a very good king.

Now, Robert owned land in Kent as well.

Quite a lot of land in Kents and these all rose up in rebellion because that's what their law was doing and this included the cities of Canterbury where the Archbishop was based and also, the really key port city of Dover as well.

So because Robert of Gloucester has risen up in rebellion, Stephen has immediately lost some really, really key parts of his country.

Now, Geoffrey of Anjou also then set out on a fresh round of raiding in Normandy.

And David I of Scotland invaded north of England again and this time he reached as far south as Yorkshire.

So suddenly, Stephen has got massive problems and on a variety of different fronts and realistically, he's not gonna be able to successfully deal with all his issues at the same time if he's by himself.

But luckily, he was able to rely on his wife, the remarkable Queen Matilda of Boulogne.

So it's another Matilda.

So this is Queen Matilda and she hailed from Boulogne.

So she's either known as Queen Matilda, or she's generally known as Matilda of Boulogne.

So one of those two there.

Whereas the other Matilda is generally known as Empress Matilda.

So if there's a little bit of confusion, I do apologise, but it seems that there's not that many first names going around at this point in history.

Now Queen Matilda took ships and resources from Boulogne and she led an attack herself on Dover, which again is just absolutely almost unheard of for women at this point in time as well.

And not only that, she was successful, she took Dover later in the year as well.

In terms of the Scottish problems, Stephen sent a small number of trusted knights north to deal with the Scots and they managed to successfully defeat King David I in battle.

Unfortunately though, they were not strong enough to actually remove David from England.

So they were strong to beat in battle, but there weren't enough of them to actually continually harassing David's army in a successful manner.

So as a result of that, a compromise was achieved between Stephen and David.

And this compromise was that the counties of Cumbria and Northumbria, so effectively the whole of the north of England, would be given to the Scots.

And in exchange, King David I and his family would agree to be under the control of the English.

So there's two ways of looking at this peace settlement.

You could look at it from the respect that the north of England has been lost to the Scottish.

That's certainly one way of looking at it and certainly the way that the people in Scotland probably would've looked at it.

Another way to look at it is that Stephen has successfully managed to gain control of all of Scotland because he controls the Scottish king and the Scottish king's family as well.

So it depends upon your perspective there in terms of how good or how bad that peace treaty was for King Stephen.

Now Stephen himself took an army west into the heart of Robert of Gloucester lands and he did have some success in taking important towns, but he was unable to take the town of Bristol, which was the seat of Robert's power at this point in time.

And now the Empress Matilda spent 1138 aiding her husband Geoffrey in Normandy.

And by 1139, much of the Dutchie was under their joint control.

The pair then turned their attention to organising an invasion of England.

So once they felt that they had their rear secure, once they fought, once Normandy was secured, they felt that they're then safe enough to move their attention northward into England then.

So on the 31st of August, 1139, Matilda crossed the English Channel with Robert of Gloucester, her half-brother, and also 140 knights.

That's all she had with her at the time.

And she gained shelter with Matilda's stepmother, the dowager queen, Adeliza, in her castle in Arundel.

Now, Robert didn't stay, he quickly marched onto his stronghold in Bristol in order to raise more troops and gain more supporters.

And he felt confident in doing this because a few nobles had already declared their support for Matilda once Robert declared his supports as well and he felt confident a few others would once he was there, but they weren't strong enough or confident enough to declare whilst Robert was not in the area.

Now, in the meantime, Matilda stayed with Adeliza in Arundel Castle.

Now upon hearing the news, Stephen marched with an army south and besieged Arundel Castle.

Surprisingly, Stephen then made the decision to allow Matilda to safely leave Arundel Castle and journey to Bristol to join Robert and historians are unsure why Stephen allowed his enemy to leave when he could have ended the civil war before it truly begun.

And there's a variety of different possibilities here.

It's possible that he didn't actually had the manpower to maintain a long siege against the powerful Arundel Castle.

Arundel Castle was considered almost impregnable at this point in time.

So in order to actually gain control of the castle, Stephen potentially could have been there for years, trying to gain control of it and he's just not prepared to do that when the north could rise in rebellion again, the rebellions in the South West and the South Wales could spill over into the rest of England.

Robert of Gloucester could start marching elsewhere.

Stephen felt that potentially he just, it wasn't the best use of his manpower to besiege Arundel Castle.

He also might have felt that Matilda wasn't actually much of a threat, that Robert of Gloucester was the real threat and that's where his attention needed to be.

It's also possible that it was just Stephen's nature to be quite a nice guy and he felt that Matilda being a woman wasn't a valid target in warfare, even though she was his enemy, she was a woman and it wasn't chivalrous, it wasn't the right thing to do to attack a woman in this way.

We do know that Stephen was quite a chivalrous man.

He had quite high morals and quite strong ideas about what is right and what is wrong.

So it is entirely possible that the only reason he did this is because he felt that what he's currently doing is wrong.

And if he's gonna defeat Matilda, he is got to do it in the right way.

It's entirely possible that that was a situation.

So let's have a quick check for understanding then.

So how large was Matilda's initial army when she first crossed to England in 1139? Was it 140 knights? Was it 1,400 knights and 2,000 infantry? Or was it 2,400 knights, 8,000 infantry and 500 archers? Make your choice now.

Okay, if you chose A, 140 knights, that is indeed the correct answer.

Now Matilda made her way to Robert's lands once Stephen had let her go from Arundel and she set up her court in Gloucester, whichever look up, look on the map on the screen there in front of you, it is close enough to Robert who's in Bristol in order to feel safe if Gloucester is attacked then, Robert can quickly send an army up to help out.

But it's far enough away to make it clear that she's not actually controlled by him.

Empress Matilda wanted to make it really, really clear that she was the one leading this rebellion, or rather she was the one leading her rightful claim to become the monarch of England.

She wasn't under the control of Robert of Gloucester, he was merely a useful servant to her.

Now, she gained the support of the rebellious South West and of South Wales.

So she managed to gain a pretty powerful, strong base in these areas as well.

She also managed to gain control of the Thames Valley as far as Oxford.

So at this point in time, Stephen's a little bit concerned because it's a relatively short march from Oxford to London, which is the seat of Stephen's power.

Now, although Matilda could not call upon the support of large numbers of the ignition or the Anglo-Norman barons, those that did support her were very capable soldiers and they were led by the brilliant, Robert of Gloucester.

So each one of the barons that came to Matilda's aid were vastly experienced and were real assets to her.

Having settled this, many barons didn't actually support Stephen either.

They just chose to kind of sit and watch and see what happened.

They didn't wanna commit to either side in this civil war.

So this civil war known as the Anarchy, then settled into a rhythm of Stephen attempting to land a decisive blow whilst Matilda's smaller force outmanoeuvred him.

And this was naturally frustrating for both sides.

It's frustrating with Stephen 'cause he can't get rid of Matilda and her forces and it's frustrating Matilda because they're just not strong enough to actually deal any sort of significant damage to Stephen.

But whilst we are thinking about this, we also need to keep bear in mind that for the peasants whose land these armies are marching through, it was absolutely devastating.

For the next 15 years, pillage and destruction just became daily hazards for these poor people who lived at this time.

Right, let's have a quick check for understanding now then.

So which of the following statements is correct? All of the Anglo-Norman barons switched their allegiance to Matilda once she crossed over to England.

Most of the Anglo-Norman barons switched their allegiance to Matilda once she crossed over England or a small number of the Anglo-Norman barons switched their allegiance to Matilda once she crossed over to England.

So make your choice now.

Okay, if you chose C, then congratulations, that is the correct answer.

Right, let's have another quick check for understanding, it's a discussion question.

It's for us to think, what can we learn about mediaeval elite women from Matilda's reactions to Stephen's usurpation? So make a little list if you can, pause the video whilst you're doing this and I'll see you in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

So some of the things you could have said was that, you could say that we can learn that mediaeval elite women, such a Matilda, were ready to fight for their rights.

We can also see that from Matilda of Boulogne as well.

We can see that they're able to gain support from powerful figures.

We can see that some mediaeval elite women were able to command a force on the offence.

And again, Matilda of Boulogne's attack on Dover is a great example of that.

But they're also able to command a force on the defence as well.

And Empress Matilda's castles in Normandy-Anjou border are a great example of that as well.

So although women didn't frequently take control of armies, we can see from the evidence here that they were perfectly capable of doing so if opportunity allowed them to.

We can also see that mediaeval elite women were able to own property when they're unmarried.

So Queen Adeliza's castle in Arundel is a great example of that.

And we can also surmise that they were not seen as honourable targets during warfare.

And that's certainly a suggestion of, of Stephen's actions in letting Matilda go from when she besiege in Arundel Castle.

Right, as to our next task now then, so what's the thing? Why did Matilda wait until 1139 before crossing to England to begin the civil war against Stephen? I'd like you to include at least two pieces of evidence to support your answer.

So you could consider, for instance, how strong Stephen's position was in England at that point in time, and also, how strong Matilda and Geoffrey position was in Normandy at that point in time as well.

So pause the video what shall I go with this, and I'll see you in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

I hope you've gone okay with that task.

So let's think about what you could have said then.

So you could have said that, "Matilda waited until 1139 to cross to England to begin the civil war against Stephen, because Stephen was too strong before this.

He had the support of the barons and the Church and had a large treasury.

By 1139, much of this support and money had gone, which made him weaker.

Also by 1139, Matilda and her husband, Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou, had control of most of Normandy, which meant that they were in a much stronger position." If you said something different, it's absolutely fine as long you've explained why you think whatever it is that you think.

Right, let's do our last task for today then.

So I want to explain how Matilda was able to take advantage of Stephen's weakened position from 1139 onwards.

So you thought about why she didn't do a huge amounts in England before 1139.

What is she able to do after 1139? So I'd like to include at least two pieces of evidence to support your answer.

So pause the video whilst you do this and I'll see you in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

I hope you got on fine with that task.

Let's think about what you could have written.

So you could have said that, "Matilda was able to take advantage of the fact that Stephen had effectively lost Normandy by safely travelling from there to bring the civil war to England.

It would've been too dangerous to do this if Stephen still held Normandy as he could have attacked her from multiple places.

Matilda also took advantage of the fact that South Wales had been lost to Welsh rebels and the South West had repeatedly rebelled against Stephen by taking control of this area.

And this became her power base during the Anarchy with her court based in," and again, if you've got something different, that's absolutely fine, as long as you've explained your answer there.

Okay, let's summarise today's lesson then.

So Stephen worked quickly to secure support for his claims to the throne of England and Normandy.

However, within a couple of years, much of this support had ebbed away and Stephen found himself in an increasingly difficult position.

Matilda waited for Stephen's position to weaken before crossing to England to launch a civil war as she had not gained enough early supports.

Matilda enjoyed limited but effective support from the Anglo-Norman barons, and several women, including Matilda were prominent figures during the Anarchy.

Thank you very much for joining me today.

Hopefully, you've enjoyed yourself.

Hopefully, you've learned something and hopefully, I'll see you again next time.

Bye-bye.