Wales and Normandy

Something went wrong early in Stephen's reign. Nobody would deny that. That 'something' may not have seemed much at the time, but it grew and unbalanced the whole governance of England. Deciding what it was has been one of the oldest questions in English medieval historiography, and we will be returning to the question in later chapters, for the cause of the problem was in no way simple. But I will deal with one particular and key aspect of the problem here: when things began to go wrong. Previous studies of the reign have been Anglocentric; they have concentrated unduly (but understandably) on England and English affairs, and therefore on English causes for the problem. But if there is one thing that needs to be recognised about Stephen's reign above all else, it is that England was but one factor in a large equation. ¹ Stephen himself failed to recognise that; a mistake which his predecessor had never committed. Here lies the beginning of his problems. Two areas in particular had always engaged King Henry's immediate attention: Wales and Normandy. These two were the very areas that broke into the most serious unrest soon after Henry's death. My contention is that these were the areas which quickly unmasked Stephen's most serious weaknesses, and perhaps not merely Stephen's, but those of his advisers also.