Daughters, Wives, Mothers, Queens: ‘Women of the Anarchy’ by Sharon Bennett Connolly – Book Recommendation

I’ve always had a bit of a thing about the medieval era, and I’m particularly fascinated (for reasons unknown to me) with the events and characters of the twelfth century. Having previously read Charles Spencer’s The White Ship and Alison Weir’s Eleanor of Aquitaine, my latest acquisition is Sharon Bennett Connolly’s book detailing the period between those covered in Spencer’s and Weir’s works, known as the Anarchy.

As the title suggests, Bennett Connolly’s work looks at the Anarchy (which spanned the period from 1135 to 1154) from a feminine perspective, which is entirely appropriate since the whole ghastly situation ensued because an English king, Henry I (who was, naturally, French), died leaving only one surviving legitimate child, a daughter called Matilda (he had more than twenty recognised illegitimate children, but of course they didn’t count when it came to inheriting the throne). Although Henry I had persuaded his barons to swear oaths of allegiance to his daughter and accept her as his heir, this was a thoroughly patriarchal age, meaning his efforts in this direction were about as successful as brewing tea in a chocolate teapot and just as short-lived. After Henry’s death, his nephew Stephen of Blois seized the English throne, and lots of the male nobility were quite pleased and relieved that a man was going to be their boss, because females aren’t very good at that sort of thing and tend to get above themselves and not know their place, and they’re a bit weak and silly, anyway. That said, Matilda retained considerable loyal support from some powerful individuals, so the stage was set for a civil war that lasted for nearly two decades, plunging the kingdom into total chaos as one side, then the other, got the upper hand and then lost it again.

The story isn’t just about Matilda and Stephen but the noble families around them, all jostling for power and position and basically shifting their loyalties depending on which contender for the throne at any given time during the Anarchy was going to serve their aims best. Bennett Connolly details the complicated royal and aristocratic family trees of England, Scotland, and France at the time, especially focusing on the womenfolk, many of whom were called Matilda (clearly fashionable at the time, but it does get rather confusing, and it was quite thoughtless of them not to consider the casual reader of history nearly 900 years later trying to get to grips with all of this). Of particular note alongside Henry I’s daughter Matilda (whom history sometimes calls Maud, for what I am coming to suspect are obvious reasons) is Queen Matilda, the wife and consort of Stephen, who (like her husband) was a cousin of the other Matilda, who was also called Empress Matilda and should have been Queen Matilda. Got that? In all seriousness, it’s fascinating and poignant to read the stories of these two women, both key players in the conflict, but on opposite sides. The two Matildas were intelligent and capable, yet each conducted herself somewhat differently in trying to achieve her objectives in a man’s world, with varying degrees of success. Ultimately, the lottery of marriages, births, and deaths—matters domestic and dynastic that were very much female territory—decided the fates of families and even nations. Bennett Connolly does her best with sometimes inevitably limited information to chronicle the lives and experiences of the royal and noble women who played crucial and constantly intersecting roles in a pivotal moment in our history.

In the end (spoiler alert), Henry I’s daughter did not succeed in becoming ruler of England (that’s why you haven’t heard of Matilda I), but her son did, reigning as Henry II. I suppose that’s a sort of victory. It would take another 400 years before the first queen regnant (Mary I) sat on the English throne. Her father was Henry VIII, and we know his views on sons and daughters! After Mary, came her half-sister, Elizabeth I, Anne Boleyn’s child, the girl who should have been a boy and whose birth was therefore a massive disappointment to Henry VIII. Yet Elizabeth I was arguably the greatest monarch England ever had. History loves an irony, and that’s one reason why I love history.

 

Women of the Anarchy by Sharon Bennett Connolly ISBN: 9781445691718