After the long peace of Henry I’s reign (in England, at least), the civil war between Stephen and Matilda brought active warfare to England for the first time in a generation. For nearly twenty years, the country was torn apart by warfare between partisans of Henry’s nephew Count Stephen of Boulogne (who became king in 1135) and those of his daughter Matilda, to whom Henry had made his chief nobles swear allegiance before her marriage to Count Geoffrey of Anjou. The war ended in 1153, when Stephen recognized Matilda’s son Henry (the future Henry II) as his heir. Stephen then died in 1154. The unsettled nature of the legitimate succession muddied the waters for contemporaries judging clerical military actions through the scope of royal service – partisans on each side could argue that they were supporting the legitimate ruler. This chapter examines the arguments and actions of churchmen who actively participated in the war, primarily Stephen’s brother Henry of Blois, abbot of Glastonbury (1126–71), bishop of Winchester (1129–71), and papal legate (1139–43). In addition to Henry, there were other clerics who fought on behalf of either side as well as to defend their local interests, such as Thurstan, the aged archbishop of York, who defended the North from Scottish invasion in 1138. While Thurstan garnered universal acclaim for his actions, Henry was a much more controversial figure, probably due to his ‘knightly’ demeanor and overtly political lifestyle.

If the image of the warrior-cleric was of a man descended from an elite lineage, with the finest education and close affinities with noble and royal families, then Henry of Blois had impeccable credentials. His family lineage was the bluest of the blue; he was the nephew of two English kings, William Rufus and Henry I, he was the grandson of William the Conqueror, and brother to King Stephen. His father was Count Stephen of Blois, who had gained a not-so-sterling reputation as a crusader (by fleeing the siege of Antioch), and his mother was Adela, daughter of William I. His ecclesiastical lineage was almost as impressive. He was an avowed Cluniac. Cluny was still a powerful ideological institution, which in Henry’s youth was under the control of St. Hugh, and later Peter the Venerable.