ABSTRACT
As the first year of the civil war in England closed, so we get at Hereford and Worcester a colourful but tragic glimpse of the complex motivation of the partisans. For the triumvirate of Robert of Gloucester, Miles of Gloucester and even Brian fitz Count, it was alienation from the centre of power that had ultimately caused them to turn against King Stephen. It should be emphasised that, at least at the beginning, they were rather against Stephen than for Mathilda. So far as Miles was concerned, it was always going to be uncertain how much the empress's rightful claims mattered to him. His seizure of Hereford in October 1139 was an early signal as to where his priorities lay: in the promotion of a regional hegemony which Stephen's indifference to him had made unattainable. Robert of Gloucester seems from the events of November 1139 to have been pursuing a number of private scores across England. His personal animus against Stephen and his lieutenant, Count Waleran, was what caused Worcester to be plundered and burned. Brian fitz Count is traditionally reckoned to have been the idealist amongst these three pillars of the Angevin cause. 1 But it is embarrassingly obvious that he did nothing to assist the foundering rebellion in the southwest during 1138 and 1139 until the day in October that Robert of Gloucester appeared before Wallingford and changed his mind.
