page_title: Siege of Oxford (1142)
section_title: Matilda's escape
hierarchical_section_title: Siege of Oxford (1142) / Matilda's escape
context_page_description: The siege of Oxford took place during The Anarchy—a period of civil war following the death of Henry I of England without an heir—in 1142. Fought between his nephew, Stephen of Blois, and his daughter, the Empress Matilda, who had recently been expelled from her base in Westminster and chosen the City of Oxford as her new headquarters. Oxford by now was effectively a regional capital and important in its own right. It was a well-defended city with both rivers and walls protecting it, and was also strategically important as it was at a crossroads between the north, south-east and west of England, and also not far from London.
  By now the civil war was at its height, yet neither party was able to get an edge on the other: both had suffered swings of fate in the last few years which had alternately put them ahead, and then behind, their rival. Stephen, for instance, had been captured by Matilda's army in 1141, but later in the year, Matilda's half-brother and chief military commander, Robert, Earl of Gloucester was captured by Stephen's army. Likewise, Matilda had been recognised as "Lady of the English" but had not long afterwards been run out of London.
context_section_description: For the second time in the war, Stephen almost succeeded in capturing Matilda, but for the second time also, failed in the attempt. After three months' siege, supplies and provisions within Oxford Castle had become dangerously low, and, suggests Castor, "trapped inside a burned and blackened city, Matilda and her small garrison were cold, starving and almost bereft of hope." Matilda—thanks to the "ingenuity" of her garrison, says David Crouch and accompanied by four knights—escaped from St George's Tower one night in early December. She managed this, says J. O Prestwich, because, due to the duration of the siege, elements within Stephen's army had "deserted and others grew slack". Matilda took advantage of the weakened siege; she may have been assisted by treason within Stephen's army. If not treachery, says Davis, then certainly carelessness. In any case, he goes on, it prevented Stephen from achieving his primary aim: to win the war in one fell swoop. Matilda's escape to Wallingford contributed to her reputation for luck, which was seen as verging on the miraculous. The contemporary chronicler of the Gesta Stephani—who was highly partisan to Stephen—wrote how:
  I have never read of another woman so luckily rescued from so many mortal foes and from the threat of dangers so great: the truth being that she went from the castle of Arundel uninjured through the midst of her enemies; she escaped unscathed from the midst of the Londoners when they were assailing her, and her only, in mighty wrath; then stole away alone, in wondrous fashion, from the rout of Winchester, when almost all her men were cut off; and then, when she left besieged Oxford, she came away safe and sound?
  — Gesta Stephani
   Matilda's escape was, true to her reputation, embroidered by contemporaries, who asked many questions as to how she had managed it. The chroniclers tried to answer them, embellishing as they did. It was the last, and probably most dramatic event of Matilda's career, a career punctuated with dramatic events. It is also the final chapter in William of Malmsbury's Historiae Novellae; he was the first to suppose that she escaped by way of a postern gate and walked to Abingdon. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle—itself relying heavily on Malmsbury—adds the possibility that she had descended from the walls by rope. The Gesta Stephani adds that not only was there thick snow but the river had frozen. Henry of Huntingdon then garnishes the whole with the escapees' white cloaks. Edmund King has suggested that many of these explanations can be traced to other, often mythological or biblical events that would have been a point of reference for ecclesiastical chroniclers. They suggested that she had climbed down a rope out of her window (but, says King, "this was the manner of St Paul's escape from his enemies at Damascus"), that she had walked on water to cross Castle Mill Stream ("but this sounds more like the Israelites crossing the Red Sea than the traversing of an established thoroughfare", and the Thames may well have been frozen), according to Henry of Huntingdon, wrapped in a white shawl as camouflage against the snow. This was not achieved without alerting the Stephen's guards: they were not asleep, and as she slipped out, there was the sound of trumpets and men's shouting, their voices carrying through the frosty air" as Matilda and her knights slipped through Stephen's ranks. There had been a recent snowfall, which shielded her from her enemies but also hindered her passage. However precisely the escape was achieved, says Edmund King, it had clearly been thoroughly planned. The castle surrendered the day after Matilda's escape, and Stephen installed his own garrison. The siege had lasted over two and a half months.
  Having made "the last and most remarkable of her escapes", says King, Matilda and her companions made their way—or "fled ignominiously", he suggests—to Abingdon where they collected horses and supplies, and then further to Wallingford, where they could rely on the support of Fitz Count, and where they met up with Gloucester. Stephen, mea
caption: St George's Tower, Oxford Castle, in 2007
exif: {"Image Make": "Sony Ericsson", "Image Model": "K750i", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "R1N005      prgCXC125952_EU_1_CL 0.0", "Image DateTime": "2007:04:01 11:00:15", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "296", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Image SubjectDistanceRange": "3", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "672", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4381", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/5000", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:04:01 11:00:15", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:04:01 11:00:15", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "11", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Average", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1224", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1632"}