The Anarchy - England and the Normans

The Anarchy, one of the most destructive civil wars in English history. Featuring a cast of colorful characters, plenty of action, and a finale that not only changed England, but Western Europe as a whole. Here it is explained in a cringy YouTube video!

Main source; “The Anarchy: The History and Legacy of the Civil War in England and Normandy during the 12th Century” by Charles River Editors (The book was just kinda okay ngl…)

[saltyhistorian]

The footnotes I mentioned at 00:57

00:00 The song that plays during the beginning and later again in the Battle of Lincoln is "Anarchy in England" by Bub Beats, specially made for this video. His channel is linked in the description.


00:17 In Norman inheritance law, the father gives to his eldest son everything he himself inherited from his father, everything he gained in life the father could distribute however he'd like. So William only gave Robert Normandy and gave all of England to William Jr.

00:37 It probably wasn't Henry himself that killed William, but he was definitely involved in the murder. And yes, William was murder, I don't wanna hear it!

00:40 Despite being in prison for his whole life, Robert still kept the title of Duke of Normandy.

00:57 The song that's currently playing is Greensleeves, a famous English folk song. Side note, no Henry VIII didn't write this song, that's just a myth!


00:59 Fun fact; Henry I was also likely the only Norman English king to actually speak English

01:14 Adelin is short for William Adelin

01:36 Adelin actually got on a lifeboat and could have escaped, but he decided to go back to the sinking ship to try to rescue some of the others which led to his death, how heroic!

01:36 Stephen was actually supposed to attend this part, but for some reason he changed his mind last-minute. Really dodged a bullet there Stephen, or arrow I guess…

01:32 Yes that's a Titanic reference in the bottom right corner, I couldn't help myself!

01:47 Henry V's death actually plunged the HRE into a succession crisis as he had no heir. This crisis would eventually lead to Frederick Barbarossa becoming Emperor.

01:52 Due to her time in the Holy Roman Empire, Matilda was probably more comfortable speaking German than French at this time.

02:50 Lampreys are these gross eel things, look them up if you wanna ruin your day!

03:03 The sources for Henry's death only state the cause of his death as "eating a surfeit of lampreys", so like, probably food poisoning?...
Map error, the land highlighted in the County of Blois, not Boulogne.

03:14 I say "somewhat famous Crusader" as Stephen Henry was famous for not good reasons! He was known for being cowardly!

04:06 Another reason why Stephen was able to so easily steal the throne was that Matilda was pregnant at the time, so she couldn't travel.


04:38 Please note that rave lights weren't invented yet!

06:12 Get used to really small armies throughout this war

06:30 The woman Matilda is with here is Adeliza of Louvain, Henry I's second wife and her stepmother. I didn't put her in the family tree as she and Henry didn't have any children together.

07:38 The man to the right is Brian FitzCount, lord of Wallingford and Abergavenny and one of Matilda's most loyal knights. Originally he was going to play a larger role in the video, but I had to cut him due to time constraints.

07:58 Note this war summary is an extreme oversimplification

09:35 Lincoln was loyal to Stephen, the citizens of Lincoln even wrote a letter to the king asking for him to retake the city

10:32 I call William of Ypres Dutch here, but he would have identified as Flemish at the time

12:13 Henry probably also joined Matilda because he wanted this war to end sooner

13:08 This war was so destructive, that many of the most overly religious peasants at the time straight up though it was the apocalypse

13:51 Why didn't Henry's troops just surrender after their masters ditched them? No clue!

15:45 Man I just love screaming into my mic!

18:00 This is just one depiction of Matilda's escape, there are lots of other accounts

19:22 Why is Pokemon music playing? Cuz it’s my video and I like it!

20:06 The song that's currently playing is Scarborough Fair, an English folk song. This version is from the video game Civilization VI.

20:50 Why does Henry have an 0w0 face? Cuz it's funny!

20:55 Small mistake, when Henry first invented England, Matilda didn't leave England yet, she was about to though.

21:42 Devires Castle was a really strategically important location, as it was a prison for high rank criminals, Robert Curthose being one of them. The Castle was actually Matilda's property at the time, but Stephen forced her to give it to him or he would straight up kill Henry if he got his hands on him! Also last time I checked, this castle is currently up for sale! And it can be yours for the low low price of 3.25 million pounds!

22:52 Unlike the other locations, I don't put up a picture of Malmesbury Castle as it was completely destroyed during the reign of King John.

24:06 Eustace died right after he sacked a church, so many at the time thought his death was a punishment from God.

25:45 Did you hear that? That's the sound of the entire population of France screaming in rage at the mere mention of the Angevins!

[vibechecker]

Great video man. As someone from England myself, I always found this part of history to be really under appreciated.

A few fun extra bits about this period. Adelin was actually called William. The name Adelin comes from the Normanised word for the Anglo Saxon “atheling” which basically means heir apparent.

The Norman actually had a tradition of Normanising names. Henry I’s wife was originally called Edith, and the Norman barons basically decided “nah we’re not calling you that weird Saxon name, you’re now Matilda”

There were actually 3 straight generations of Matilda’s. William the conquerors wife, Henry I’s wife and the empress Matilda.

The Scottish were the British isles most belligerent nuisance. They weren’t particularly effective though. The best example of this was the battle of the standard in 1138, where the northern barons, after years of no help from either monarch against the Scots decided “fine I’ll do it myself and absolutely wrecked them. The Scot’s were pin-cushioned by the English archers and then ran over by the English knights. The next century or so was a time of English domination over Scotland, only really changing, when William Wallace and Robert the Bruce(a man of Norman descent) started doing their thing.

[jimfromdiscord.]

If I had a dollar for every time a Henry popped up in this story, I'd have enough to do something stupid with it

[honeycomblord]

11:09 Say what you will about Stephen's competency as a king, but pulling out a battle-axe when your sword breaks as a last stand is metal as hell. 🤟

[Bucky_BB]

You might’ve just saved my college career with this😂

[Prusky]

I've been learning about English history for a while now and I was trying to find good videos on the anarchy. Fortunately I found your video and I can say I absolutely loved it!

Keep up the goof work man!

[renan-elias]

The best part of history is learning that mankind was always full of annoyingly power hungry people that mess up all the time. It makes our own time period look normal by comparison.

[ChancellorOfHistory]

The Long Awaited Anarchy Video! Nice seeing more video's about Middle Age England!

[byzansimp]

Isn't it lovely how every time after these 2 decade Anarchies, states would emerge stronger and more unified? If I had a nickel for every time that happened, I'd have two nickels (England and Eastern Rome), which is not a lot but weird that it happened twice.

Thanks for the informative video, you did a really good job, and it was nice to see Harald Hardrada make a cameo, if even for 2 seconds.

[ruiz]

This chanel deserves more views and subscribers!

[Eamesam]

You’ve done a brilliant job here! A great, easy to understand account of the Anarchy. I’ve just subscribed and hope to see many more videos like this! :)

[acb]

3rd generation American de Blois. (Anglecized to Bloy in 1830's England)
We can trace our tree back to King Stephen via his bastard son Gervais since his two sons died shortly before he did.
We have no Heraldry or claim to the throne but its chuffing to know the story.

[johngamba]

“Henry married an Anglo Saxon princess” No. he married the daughter of the King of Scotland

[decantabriaball]

Love this video man ! Can't wait for the next one !

[ashtonbarwick]

William Adeline, a corruption of the term Anglo Saxon term Ætheling

[eruditeboi]

Recién encuentro tu canal hermano. Tremendo nivel los videos! Estaré atento a ver que más terminas subiendo!

[lionqwest]

I love this video and the algorithm that brought me here

[Syed.]

For the first time I have taken interest in English history

[askiiart]

You managed to get a new subscriber in just 2 and a half minutes simply through quality content. Impressive.

Maybe turn down the music near the beginning a tad though, it was a bit distracting. Mostly because of the bagpipes. (I think they were bagpipes? Idk I'm bad at music)

[therealinferno]

Good job on the video! I think you should be more successful with the amount of effort you put into this stuff.