Collection: The Anarchy 1138 - 1153

Step into the blood-soaked turmoil of The Anarchy (1138–1153), a defining crisis that shattered the stable Anglo-Norman kingdom.

The period began with the death of King Henry I without a clear male heir, plunging England and its French territories into a bitter civil war over the rightful crown.

Pitting the claim of Henry's daughter, Empress Matilda, against her cousin, the ambitious Stephen of Blois, the conflict was less a single campaign and more a sprawling, sixteen-year breakdown of law. This era is defined by opportunistic baronial feuds, the rapid construction of illegal castles (adulterine castles), and the widespread use of brutal mercenary armies.

It was a time of true chaos, where allegiances shifted with the wind and the crown's authority crumbled, leaving the land ripe for the taking by any lord with the will and the sword to seize it.