=Source.=--_Gesta Stephani_, ed. Howlett, vol. iii., p. 3. (Rolls
Series, Chronicles of Stephen, Henry II., and Richard I.)
When king Henry, giver of peace to his country and father of his
people, passed away in death, the unhappy event threw the whole country
into anarchy and total confusion. The land, which during his reign had
been the seat of justice and the home of law, became on his decease
a sink of iniquity and a hotbed of all malice. England, formerly the
abode of right, the habitation of peace, the throne of piety, the
mirror of religion, became the dwelling-place of perversity, the refuge
of discord, the school of disorder, and the mistress of all rebellion.
The reverend bonds of sacred friendship were straightway broken among
the people, the most intimate ties of mutual kinship were loosed, and
those who had worn the garments of daily tranquillity were whelmed by
the noise of battle and the madness of war. For every man was seized
with a new passion for barbarity, to run riot against his neighbour,
and to reckon his glory by the measure of his wrongs to the innocent.
The established laws, that restrain an undisciplined people, were
wholly neglected, nay rather annulled, and men straightway accomplished
any crime which their unlawful passions inspired. To use the words of
the prophet, “There was no soundness from the sole of the foot to the
crown of the head,” for from the lowest to the highest their minds were
sick, and either they wrought havoc or assented to the havoc which
others wrought. Even the wild beasts, which were aforetime peaceably
preserved in every district, as though confined by enclosures, were
everywhere loosed and hunted by all and slain by all indiscriminately
and without fear. This, indeed, was a lesser evil, and a matter of
small complaint; none the less it was amazing how so many thousands
of beasts, that before had covered the whole country in thronging
herds, were now suddenly annihilated, so that out of so vast a number
you would scarcely discover two together. When at length this great
and indescribable plenty began so to decline that, as men say, a bird
was a rarity and scarce a stag could anywhere be seen, folk turned
their violence against each other and robbed their neighbours, each
plundering each in turn, and plotting ambush and destruction for each
other, as the prophet said, “Man rose up without mercy against man, and
everyone was set against his neighbour.” Whatever crime was suggested
by passion in times of peace, was now swiftly brought to an issue, when
vengeance might seize its opportunity; dissembled hatred and hidden
malice burst forth to light and was openly avowed.
While the English were indulging in this disastrous anarchy,
breaking the restraints of justice and freely rioting in all sorts
of wickedness, Stephen, count of Boulogne, a man of illustrious and
noble lineage, landed in England with a few followers. King Henry, the
peacemaker, loved him above all his nephews, not only because of his
close tie of kinship, but for the manifold excellencies that specially
distinguished and adorned him. What is rare indeed in our times, he
combined riches with modesty, generosity with courtesy; yet in all
military encounters and any siege of his enemies, he was daring and
courageous, cautious and persistent. Being the man he was, as soon as
rumours of king Henry’s death reached him, he conceived a bold design
in his heart, like Saul, and since he was beyond seas, hurried to the
coast, and obtaining by good fortune a favourable breeze, steered for
England on which his thoughts were set. Landing, as said before, with a
very small following, he hastened to London, the metropolis and queen
of the whole country. Stirred by his coming, the whole city came out to
meet him with a noisy welcome, dancing with joy and festivity to have
recovered in Stephen another Henry, the loss of whose guardianship they
were but now deploring. So the elder and more prominent men summoned
a council, and making common provision, in their judgment, for the
good estate of the realm, unanimously conspired to elect him king.
They urged that the whole realm was liable to the chances of evil
fortune, where the fount of all governance and the head of justice was
lacking. It was vital to them at once to establish a king, who should
restore peace for the common good, punish rebels by force of arms, and
justly administer the laws. Moreover it was their right, their special
privilege, on the death of their king, themselves to set his successor
on the throne. There was no other at hand to fulfil a king’s part and
put an end to the perils of the realm, save only Stephen, who, it
seemed, had been brought to them by the will of Heaven; he was worthy
of the dignity in the eyes of all, as well by the distinction of his
birth as by the excellence of his character. These points were heard
and welcomed by all without open contradiction, and by common counsel
they decided to offer him the throne and to appoint him king with their
unanimous support, both parties covenanting by a treaty confirmed,
it is said, by mutual oaths, that the citizens on the one hand would
support him with their wealth and maintain him with their strength
during his life, and that he, on the other hand, should devote all his
energies to the pacification of the realm for the benefit of them all.