Henry of Huntingdon Kings Are Weak

Henry of Huntingdon

Kings are weak: this is the impression one gets from reading the twelfth century English historian Henry of Huntingdon, particularly in his astonishing summary of the troubled reign of King Stephen -- for which, Diana Greenway tells us, Henry's is "the only complete contemporary account"[footnoteRef:0]. Stephen's reign was a time of low-level civil war -- which would last for over a decade -- and ultimately would raise serious questions about the legitimacy of the English monarchy. The portion of his chronicle that presents Stephen's reign, Henry makes it clear that Stephen's own accession to the throne, the ongoing issue of his legitimacy while he ruled, and the bizarre circumstances which lead to Stephen's being forced to acknowledge his female cousin's son, Henry of Anjou, as his heir. But to Henry of Huntingdon, Stephen stands an emblem of the overall weakness of kings in this time period, and an examination of Henry's account of Stephen's reign will show us a monarchy that is in transition, and is much weaker than the popular cliche of kingship considers. By the fifth year of Stephen's reign, Henry of Huntingdon tells us, "the huge store of treasure had by now disappeared; there was no peace in the realm, but through murder, burning, and pillage everything was being destroyed, everywhere the sound of war, with lamentation and terror"[footnoteRef:1]. Stephen offers for Henry a perfect example of a monarch's failures to maintain order and peace. [0: Henry of Huntingdon. The History of the English People 1000-1154. Translated with an introduction by Diana Greenway. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.) xxi.] [1: Ibid., 74-5.]

Although monarchy was long established in Britain and legendary histories list British monarchs even during the Roman period, Henry of Huntingdon was writing at a period in time when the monarchy had not long been centralized in England, which had been divided into smaller kingdoms (Wessex, Mercia) that eventually were unified under a single English crown. Even after this unification, though, there still existed a separate Scottish monarchy (which would ultimately prove to be the first point of difficulty for King Stephen). In any case, the fact remains that Henry is writing at a moment when the English monarchy had only recently been unified and centralized, and its rules and laws had not yet necessarily been codified. In the case of the laws of succession to the throne, King Stephen's reign comes at a particularly difficult time. The official establishment of primogeniture -- that official set of rules and customs concerning inheritance which prefers the claim of the oldest legitimate male heir -- had not yet occurred in Henry of Huntingdon's time: although preference was given to the oldest son to a certain degree, other members of the royal family might be offered the throne under certain circumstances, based on the evaluation of courtiers and magnates. The reign of Stephen in both its beginning and end was more or less defined by the question of succession: after his uncle, Henry I, had lost his own son, he declared his daughter Matilda (Stephen's cousin) to be his heiress and forced noblemen and magnates to swear an oath expressing their loyalty to Matilda in the event of Henry's death. But Stephen placed his claim on the English throne and was accepted -- which immediately provoked warfare with the King of the Scots, "on account of the oath he had sworn to King Henry's daughter"[footnoteRef:2] [2: Ibid., 69.]

Although the Scots were defeated Stephen would rule from 1135 to 1154, his entire reign was marked by low-grade civil warfare with Matilda's partisans, and did not end until the 1153 treaty of Westminster, in which Stephen accepted Matilda's son as his own heir. This indicates a particularly weak executive, but by the end of his reign Stephen no longer had any advantages. As king he was forced to lead his men into battle frequently in the civil strife: unlike modern commanders-in-chief, though, Stephen would put himself in harm's way by doing so, and was in fact taken prisoner at the Battle of Lincoln in 1141. But he also discovered that his own presence still could not inspire awe or obedience. Huntingdon offers a particularly telling anecdote early in Stephen's reign, when the question of his succession over Matilda was still hotly contested:

At Rogationtide [26 April] it was reported that the king was dead. Hearing this, Hugh Bigod entered Norwich castle by stealth and refused to surrender it except to the king himself when he arrived, and even then with great reluctance. So already the madness of the Normans, referred to above, was beginning to spread, in faithlessness and treachery[footnoteRef:3] [3: Ibid., 68.]