Stephen was
personally popular, a good-humored, generous prodigal, his very faults
tending to make him a favorite. Yet he was born to be a swordsman, not a
king, and his only idea of royalty was to let the land rule--or misrule
it if preferred--itself, while he enjoyed the pleasures and declined the
toils of kingship.
A few words will suffice to bring the history of those turbulent times
up to the date of the opening of our story. The death of Henry I. was
followed by anarchy in England. His daughter Maud, wife of Geoffry the
Handsome, Count of Anjou, was absent from the land. Stephen, Count of
Blois, and son of Adela, the Conqueror's daughter, was the first to
reach it. Speeding across the Channel, he hurried through England, then
in the turmoil of lawlessness, no noble joining him, no town opening to
him its gates, until London was reached. There the coldness of his route
was replaced by the utmost warmth of welcome. The city poured from its
gates to meet him, hastened to elect him king, swore to defend him with
blood and treasure, and only demanded in return that the new king should
do his utmost to pacify the realm.
Here Stephen failed. He was utterly unfit to govern. While he thought
only of profligate enjoyment, the barons fortified their castles and
became petty kings in their several domains.
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