The Anarchy

In Our Time: Culture

BBC

History

4.6 • 978 Ratings

🗓️ 1 November 2012

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss The Anarchy, the civil war that took place in mid-twelfth century England. The war began as a succession dispute between the Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I, and her cousin, Stephen of Blois. On Henry's death Stephen seized the English throne and held it for a number of years before Matilda wrestled it from him, although she was chased out of London before she could be crowned.

The Anarchy dragged on for nearly twenty years and is so called because of the chaos and lawlessness that characterised the period. Yet only one major battle ever took place, the Battle of Lincoln in 1141, and any other fighting associated with the conflict was fairly localised. This has led historians to question the accuracy of labelling the civil war as The Anarchy, a name only bestowed on the era in the 19th century. But why did Matilda fail to become the monarch, and what impact did it have on the way England was ruled in centuries to come?

With:

John Gillingham Emeritus Professor of History at the London School of Economics and Political Science

Louise Wilkinson Reader in Medieval History at Canterbury Christ Church University

David Carpenter Professor of Medieval History at Kings College London.

Producer: Natalia Fernandez.

Transcript

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0:44.0	Hello here's a quotation from a 12th century source.
0:48.0	I neither can nor may I tell all the wounds and all the pains which they inflicted on wretched men in this land.
0:55.0	This lasted the nineteen winters while Stephen was king, and it grew continually worse and worse.
1:01.0	To till the ground was to plow the sea, the earth bear no corn, for the land
1:06.1	was all laid waste by such deeds, and they said openly that Christ slept and his
1:12.1	saints. Christ slept and his, that Christ slept and his Saints.
1:15.0	That's how the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes a period of turmoil and conflict that
1:18.8	characterized England from 1135 to 1153 and since being known as the time of anarchy.
1:26.8	The Stephen in the chronicle referred to was Stephen Abla, King Stephen's and his nemesis
	...

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