Editing The Anarchy (section)

===Initial phase (1139–1140)===
[[File:Political map of England 1140.PNG|thumb|alt=A colour coded map of England showing the political factions in 1140|Political map of Wales and southern England in 1140; red = areas under Stephen's control, blue = Matilda, grey = indigenous Welsh]]
The Angevin invasion finally arrived in August. [[Baldwin de Redvers]] crossed over from Normandy to [[Wareham, Dorset|Wareham]] in an initial attempt to capture a port to receive the Empress Matilda's invading army, but Stephen's forces forced him to retreat into the south-west.<ref name=DavisP39>Davis, p.39.</ref> The following month the Empress was invited by the [[Adeliza of Louvain|Dowager Queen Adeliza]] to land at [[Arundel]] instead, and on 30 September Robert of Gloucester and the Empress arrived in England with 140 knights.<ref name=DavisP39/>{{#tag:ref|Edmund King disagrees about that the Empress received an invitation to [[Arundel Castle|Arundel]], arguing that she appeared unexpectedly.<ref>King (2010), p.116.</ref>|group="nb"}} Matilda stayed at [[Arundel Castle]], whilst Robert marched north-west to [[Wallingford Castle|Wallingford]] and Bristol, hoping to raise support for the rebellion and to link up with [[Miles of Gloucester]], who took the opportunity to renounce his fealty to the king.<ref>Davis, p.40.</ref>

Stephen responded by promptly moving south, besieging Arundel and trapping Matilda inside the castle.<ref name=BradburyP78>Bradbury, p.78.</ref> Stephen then agreed to a truce proposed by his brother, Henry of Blois; the full details of the truce are not known, but the results were that Stephen first released Matilda from the siege and then allowed her and her household of knights to be escorted to the south-west, where they were reunited with Robert of Gloucester.<ref name=BradburyP78/> The reasoning behind Stephen's decision to release his rival remains unclear. Contemporary chroniclers suggested that Henry argued that it would be in Stephen's own best interests to release the Empress and concentrate instead on attacking Robert, and Stephen may have seen Robert, not the Empress, as his main opponent at this point in the conflict.<ref name=BradburyP78/> Stephen also faced a military dilemma at Arundel—the castle was considered almost impregnable, and he may have been worried that he was tying down his army in the south whilst Robert roamed freely in the west.<ref>Bradbury, p.79.</ref> Another theory is that Stephen released Matilda out of a sense of [[chivalry]]; Stephen was certainly known for having a generous, courteous personality and women were not normally expected to be targeted in Anglo-Norman warfare.<ref>Gillingham (1994), p.31.</ref>{{#tag:ref|"[[Chivalry]]" was firmly established as a principle in Anglo-Norman warfare by the time of Stephen; it was not considered appropriate or normal to execute elite prisoners and, as historian John Gillingham observes, neither Stephen nor the Empress Matilda did so except where the opponent had already breached the norms of military conduct.<ref>Gillingham (1994), pp.49–50.</ref>|group="nb"}}

Although there had been few new defections to the Empress, Matilda now controlled a compact block of territory stretching out from Gloucester and Bristol south-west into Devon and Cornwall, west into the Welsh Marches and east as far as Oxford and Wallingford, threatening London.<ref>Bradbury, p.81.</ref> She had established her court in Gloucester, close to Robert's stronghold of Bristol but far enough away for her to remain independent of her half-brother.<ref>Chibnall, p.83-84</ref> Stephen set about reclaiming the region.<ref>Bradbury, p.82; Davis, p.47.</ref> He started by attacking [[Wallingford Castle]] which controlled the Thames corridor; it was held by [[Brien FitzCount]] and Stephen found it too well defended.<ref>Bradbury, p.83.</ref> Stephen left behind some forces to blockade the castle and continued west into Wiltshire to attack [[Trowbridge#Castle|Trowbridge]], taking the castles of [[List of castles in Gloucestershire|South Cerney]] and [[Malmesbury]] en route.<ref>Bradbury, pp.82–83.</ref> Meanwhile, Miles of Gloucester marched east, attacking Stephen's rearguard forces at Wallingford and threatening an advance on London.<ref>Davis, p.42.</ref> Stephen was forced to give up his western campaign, returning east to stabilise the situation and protect his capital.<ref name=DavisP43>Davis, p.43.</ref>

[[File:Prince Henry of Scotland 1139 692124.jpg|thumb|left|alt=A photograph of a Prince Henry silver penny coin|A [[Henry, Earl of Northumbria|Prince Henry]] silver [[penny]], minted in his own name at [[Corbridge]] in [[Northumberland]] after his peace deal with Stephen.]]
At the start of 1140, [[Nigel (Bishop of Ely)|Nigel]], the Bishop of Ely, whose castles Stephen had confiscated the previous year, rebelled against Stephen as well.<ref name=DavisP43/> Nigel hoped to seize [[East Anglia]] and established his base of operations in the [[Isle of Ely]], then surrounded by protective [[The Fens|fenland]].<ref name=DavisP43/> Stephen responded quickly, taking an army into the fens and using boats lashed together to form a causeway that allowed him to make a surprise attack on the isle.<ref name=BradburyP88>Bradbury, p.88.</ref> Nigel escaped to Gloucester, but his men and castle were captured, and order was temporarily restored in the east.<ref name=BradburyP88/> Robert of Gloucester's men retook some of the territory that Stephen had taken in his 1139 campaign.<ref>Bradbury, p.90.</ref> In an effort to negotiate a truce, Henry of Blois held a peace conference at [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], at which Robert represented the Empress, and Queen Matilda and Archbishop Theobald the King.<ref>Chibnall, p.92.</ref> The conference collapsed over the insistence by Henry and the clergy that they should set the terms of any peace deal, which Stephen found unacceptable.<ref>Bradbury, p.91.</ref>

[[Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester|Ranulf of Chester]] remained upset over Stephen's gift of the north of England to Prince Henry.<ref name=DavisP50>Davis, p.50.</ref> Ranulf devised a plan for dealing with the problem by ambushing Henry whilst the prince was travelling back from Stephen's court to Scotland after Christmas.<ref name=DavisP50/> Stephen responded to rumours of this plan by escorting Henry himself north, but this gesture proved the final straw for Ranulf.<ref name=DavisP50/> Ranulf had previously claimed that he had the rights to [[Lincoln Castle]], held by Stephen, and under the guise of a social visit, Ranulf seized the fortification in a surprise attack.<ref>Davis, pp.50–51.</ref> Stephen marched north to Lincoln and agreed to a truce with Ranulf, probably to keep him from joining the Empress's faction, under which Ranulf would be allowed to keep the castle.<ref name=DavisP51>Davis, p.51.</ref> Stephen returned to London but received news that Ranulf, his brother and their family were relaxing in Lincoln Castle with a minimal guard force, a ripe target for a surprise attack of his own.<ref name=DavisP51/> Abandoning the deal he had just made, Stephen gathered his army again and sped north, but not quite fast enough—Ranulf escaped Lincoln and declared his support for the Empress, and Stephen was forced to place the castle under siege.<ref name=DavisP51/>