num_pages: 384
description: This compelling new biography provides the most authoritative picture yet of King Stephen, whose reign (1135–1154), with its “nineteen long winters” of civil war, made his name synonymous with failed leadership. After years of work on the sources, Edmund King shows with rare clarity the strengths and weaknesses of the monarch. Keeping Stephen at the forefront of his account, the author also chronicles the activities of key family members and associates whose loyal support sustained Stephen’s kingship. In 1135 the popular Stephen was elected king against the claims of the empress Matilda and her sons. But by 1153, Stephen had lost control over Normandy and other important regions, England had lost prestige, and the weakened king was forced to cede his family’s right to succession. A rich narrative covering the drama of a tumultuous reign, this book focuses well-deserved attention on a king who lost control of his destiny.
language: English
title: King Stephen
titlecomplete: King Stephen (The English Monarchs Series)
characters: Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester, Matilda I, Countess of Boulogne, Theobald of Bec, Adela of Normandy, Henry I of England, Henry of Blois, Miles of Gloucester, 1st Earl of Hereford, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, Henry II of England, William of Malmesbury, Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester, Stephen, King of England, Empress Matilda, Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne
genres: British Literature, History, Medieval History, Biography, Nonfiction, Medieval
ratings_count: 79
series: The English Monarchs
publisher: Yale University Press