King Stephen

King Stephen

A talk by Professor Carl Watkins

Tuesday 20th October 7pm 

Known as ‘the anarchy’, the reign of Stephen (1135-1141) saw England plunged into a civil war that illuminated the fatal flaw in the powerful Norman monarchy, that without clear rules ordering succession, conflict between members of William the Conqueror’s family were inevitable. But there was another problem, too: Stephen himself.

With the nobility of England and Normandy anxious about the prospect of a world without the tough love of the old king Henry I, Stephen styled himself a political panacea, promising strength without oppression. As external threats and internal resistance to his rule accumulated, it was a promise he was unable to keep. Unable to transcend his flawed claim to the throne, and to make the transition from nobleman to king, Stephen’s actions betrayed uneasiness in his role, his royal voice never quite ringing true.

The resulting violence that spread throughout England was not, or not only, the work of bloodthirsty men on the make, it arose because great men struggled to navigate a new and turbulent kind of politics that arose when the king was in eclipse.

Carl Watkins is a Professor at British History at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge. He carries out research into religion in the middle ages and beliefs about the supernatural. His books include History and the Supernatural in Medieval England, Cambridge University Press (2007)and The Undiscovered Country: journeys among the dead, Bodley Head (2013). His book on Stephen, King Stephen, was part of the Penguin Monarchs series.

Tickets £8.50

Gates open at 6.30pm