![]() Thus began a long and bitter war that devastated England, most of whose people did not care which claimant sat on the throne, if only they could have peace. Many of the barons were reluctant to accept Maude not only because of her sex, but also because of her husband, the hot-tempered Geoffrey of Anjou, so they supported Stephen. ![]() Stephen broke his oath to defend her, claiming the crown for himself. When he died in 1135, Maude's cousin Stephen reached London at white-hot speed before she could arrive from the Continent. William the Conqueror's son Henry I named his daughter Maude as his heir. "And they said openly that Christ and his saints slept," says the twelfth century Peterborough Chronicle about the eighteen years of warfare between Stephen and Maude, known as "the Anarchy." When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman ![]()
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