In September 1136, Paynel's castle at Les Moutiers-Hubert was attacked by Count Geoffrey of Anjou, husband of Empress Matilda. Matilda was the only surviving legitimate child of King Henry I of England, but at Henry's death in 1135, her cousin Stephen of Blois had seized the throne of England and secured Normandy as well. In 1136 Matilda and her husband contested Stephen's seizure of both England and Normandy, starting a civil war usually known as The Anarchy that lasted most of Stephen's reign from 1135 to 1154. By 1140, Paynel was a supporter of the Empress Matilda's efforts to gain the throne of England. In late 1140 he was named Matilda's castellan for Nottingham Castle, which had just been captured by Matilda's half-brother Robert of Gloucester. At the end of Lent in 1142 William Peverel seized the castle for the king's forces while Paynel was absent visiting the Empress. After Paynel's death, his sons were also supporters of the Empress, and lost control of Drax for this support, but by 1154 Hugh and Fulk split some of the English and Norman lands between themselves.