Very wealthy nobility aligned with foreign powers, for example, completely thwarted a cross-kingdom powerhold for the -year reign of Stephen, King of England. This period, the much latter-dubbed Anarchy of the 12th century, was foremost among semi-coups and great compromises. These confirmed practical limits on the non-church wealth and power a monarch could seize. From the Magna Carta of 1215 it was becoming accepted, in writing that could be construed as binding law, that a King's duties included the duty to respect and take counsel from feudal magnates.