ABSTRACT
England is a lucky nation. It has experienced only two long-term civil wars in the past nine hundred years. The first of these was the series of wars of succession during the reign of King Stephen (1135-54). The wars have been commonly called (since the late nineteenth century) 'the Anarchy'; a bad choice of name. This introductory chapter is going to dispute strongly its suitability as a label for the civil wars of Stephen's reign. Wars are terrible events and horrific for those who live and fight through them, but they are only rarely anarchic. When wars are begun in order to pursue political rather than social ends, they generally have a clear objective, and those objectives inform strategies. Wars involve reason and logic, and are not devoid of a sort of morality. Stephen's civil wars were no exception. There were two parties contesting the succession to the kingdom of England and the duchy of Normandy, and each knew precisely what its objectives ought to be. Having those ends in view, they manoeuvred, fought, argued and disputed to achieve them.
