Editing The Anarchy (section)

==Legacy==
===Historiography===
[[File:Peterborough.Chronicle.firstpagetrimmed.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=A photograph of the first page of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle|The first page of the Peterborough element of the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'', written around 1150, which details the events of the civil war]]

Much of the modern history of the civil war of the Anarchy is based on accounts of [[chronicler]]s who lived in, or close to, the middle of the 12th century, forming a relatively rich account of the period.<ref>King (2006), p.195.</ref> All of the main chronicler accounts carry significant regional biases in how they portray the disparate events. Several of the key chronicles were written in the south-west of England, including the ''[[Gesta Stephani]]'', or "Acts of Stephen", and [[William of Malmesbury]]'s ''[[Historia Novella]]'', or "New History".<ref name=DavisP146>Davis, p.146.</ref> In Normandy, [[Orderic Vitalis]] wrote his ''[[Orderic Vitalis#The Historia Ecclesiastica|Ecclesiastical History]]'', covering the period until 1141, and [[Robert of Torigni]] wrote a later history of the rest of the later years.<ref name=DavisP146/> [[Henry of Huntingdon]], who lived in the east of England, produced the ''[[Henry of Huntingdon#Historia|Historia Anglorum]]'' that provides a regional account of the conflict.<ref>Davis, pp.147, 150.</ref> The ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'' was past its prime by the time of the war, but the version maintained at Peterborough Abbey (today known as the ''[[Peterborough Chronicle]]'') is remembered for its striking account of conditions during the Anarchy, in particular its description that "men said openly that Christ and his saints were asleep".<ref>Davis, p.151; Bradbury, p.215.</ref> Most of the chronicles carry some bias for or against the key political figures in the conflict.<ref>Davis, pp.146–152.</ref>

The use of the term "the Anarchy" to describe the civil war has been subject to much critical discussion. The phrase itself originates in the late Victorian period. Many historians of the time traced a progressive and [[universalist]] course of political and economic development in England over the medieval period.<ref name=DyerP4CossP81>Dyer, p.4; Coss, p.81.</ref> [[William Stubbs]], following in this "[[Whiggish]]" tradition, analysed the political aspects of the period in his 1874 volume the ''[[Constitutional History of England]]''. This work highlighted an apparent break in the development of the English constitution in the 1140s, and caused his student [[John Horace Round|John Round]] to coin the term "the Anarchy" to describe the period.<ref>''[http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/1038 Review of King Stephen, (review no. 1038)]'', David Crouch, ''Reviews in History'', accessed 12 May 2011; Kadish, p.40; Round (1888), cited ''[http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/1038 Review of King Stephen, (review no. 1038)]'', David Crouch, ''Reviews in History'', accessed 12 May 2011.</ref> Later historians critiqued the term, as analysis of the financial records and other documents from the period suggested that the breakdown in law and order during the conflict had been more nuanced and localised than chronicler accounts alone might have suggested.<ref>White (2000), pp.14–15; Hollister, pp.51–54.</ref> Further work in the 1990s reinterpreted Henry's efforts in the post-war reconstruction period, suggesting a greater level of continuity with Stephen's wartime government than had previously been supposed.<ref>White (2000), pp.75–76.</ref> The label of "the Anarchy" remains in use by modern historians, but rarely without qualification.<ref>White (2000), p.12; Carpenter, p.176; King (1994), p.1.</ref>

===Popular representations===
{{Main|Cultural depictions of the Anarchy}}
The civil war years of the Anarchy have been occasionally used in historical fiction. Stephen, Matilda and their supporters feature in [[Ellis Peters]]' historical detective series about [[Brother Cadfael]], set between 1137 and 1145.<ref name=RiellyP62>Rielly, p.62.</ref> Peters' depiction of the civil war is an essentially local narrative, focused on [[Shrewsbury]] and its environs.<ref name=RiellyP62/> Peters paints Stephen as a tolerant man and a reasonable ruler, despite his execution of the Shrewsbury defenders after taking the town in 1138.<ref>Rielly, p.68.</ref> In contrast, [[Ken Follett]]'s historical novel ''[[The Pillars of the Earth]]'' and the [[The Pillars of the Earth (TV miniseries)|TV mini-series]] based on it depict Stephen as an incapable ruler. Although Follett begins his book with [[Austin Poole]]'s account of the ''White Ship'''s sinking to set the historical scene for the subsequent events, in many other ways Follett uses the war as a location for a story about essentially modern personalities and issues, a feature reproduced in the epic costume TV adaptation.<ref>Turner, p.122; Ramet, p.108; ''[http://tv.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/arts/television/23pillars.html Blood on Their Hands, and Sex on Their Minds]'', Mike Hale, ''The New York Times'', published 22 July 2010, accessed 15 May 2011.</ref>
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