Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in Western and Central Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. The largest territory of the empire after 962 was the Kingdom of Germany, though it came to include the neighboring Kingdom of Bohemia, the Kingdom of Burgundy, the Kingdom of Italy, numerous other territories. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as Emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the earlier ancient Western Roman Empire in 476; the title continued in the Carolingian family until 888 and from 896 to 899, after which it was contested by the rulers of Italy in a series of civil wars until the death of the last Italian claimant, Berengar I, in 924. The title was revived again in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne and beginning a continuous existence of the empire for over eight centuries.
Some historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire, while others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning. Scholars concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, describing a gradual assumption of the imperial title and role; the exact term "Holy Roman Empire" was not used until the 13th century, but the concept of translatio imperii, the notion that he—the sovereign ruler—held supreme power inherited from the ancient emperors of Rome, was fundamental to the prestige of the emperor. The office of Holy Roman Emperor was traditionally elective, although controlled by dynasties; the German prince-electors, the highest-ranking noblemen of the empire elected one of their peers as "King of the Romans", he would be crowned emperor by the Pope. The empire never achieved the extent of political unification as was formed to the west in France, evolving instead into a decentralized, limited elective monarchy composed of hundreds of sub-units: kingdoms, duchies, prince-bishoprics, Free Imperial Cities, other domains.
The power of the emperor was limited, while the various princes, lords and cities of the empire were vassals who owed the emperor their allegiance, they possessed an extent of privileges that gave them de facto independence within their territories. Emperor Francis II dissolved the empire on 6 August 1806 following the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by emperor Napoleon I the month before. In various languages the Holy Roman Empire was known as: Latin: Sacrum Imperium Romanum, German: Heiliges Römisches Reich, Italian: Sacro Romano Impero, Czech: Svatá říše římská, Polish: Święte imperium rzymskie, Slovene: Sveto rimsko cesarstvo, Dutch: Heilige Roomse Rijk, French: Saint-Empire romain. Before 1157, the realm was referred to as the Roman Empire; the term sacrum in connection with the medieval Roman Empire was used beginning in 1157 under Frederick I Barbarossa: the term was added to reflect Frederick's ambition to dominate Italy and the Papacy. The form "Holy Roman Empire" is attested from 1254 onward.
In a decree following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was changed to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, a form first used in a document in 1474. The new title was adopted because the Empire had lost most of its Italian and Burgundian territories to the south and west by the late 15th century, but to emphasize the new importance of the German Imperial Estates in ruling the Empire due to the Imperial Reform. By the end of the 18th century, the term "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" had fallen out of official use. Besides, contradicting the traditional view concerning that designation, Hermann Weisert has stated in a study on imperial titulature that, despite the claim of many textbooks, the name "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" never had an official status and points out that documents were thirty times as to omit the national suffix as include it. This, or the shortened "Roman Empire of the German Nation", is used in Germany to refer to the Holy Roman Empire. In a famous assessment of the name, the political philosopher Voltaire remarked sardonically: "This body, called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire."
As Roman power in Gaul declined during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control. In the late 5th and early 6th centuries, the Merovingians, under Clovis I and his successors, consolidated Frankish tribes and extended hegemony over others to gain control of northern Gaul and the middle Rhine river valley region. By the middle of the 8th century, the Merovingians had been reduced to figureheads, the Carolingians, led by Charles Martel, had become the de facto rulers. In 751, Martel's son Pepin became King of the Franks, gained the sanction of the Pope; the Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy. In 768, Pepin's son Charlemagne became King of the Franks and began an extensive expansion of the realm, he incorporated the territories of present-day France, northern Italy, beyond, linking the Frankish kingdom with Papal lands. In 797, the Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine VI was removed from the throne by his mother Irene who declared herself Empress; as the Church regarded a male Roman Emperor as the head of Christendom, Pope
1130 papal election
The papal election of 1130 was convoked after the death of Pope Honorius II and resulted in a double election. Part of the cardinals, led by Cardinal-Chancellor Aymeric de la Chatre, elected Gregorio Papareschi as Pope Innocent II, but the rest of them refused to recognize him and elected Cardinal Pietro Pierleoni, who took the name of Anacletus II. Although Anacletus had the support of the majority of the cardinals, the Catholic Church considers Innocent II as the legitimate Pope, Anacletus II as Antipope; the double election was a result of the growing tensions inside the College of Cardinals concerning the policy of the Holy See towards the Holy Roman Empire, initiated by the Concordat of Worms, which ended the investiture controversy. Several older, cardinals considered the compromise achieved in Worms as desertion of the principles of the Gregorian Reform, inclined to accept it only as a tactical move, they supported the traditional alliance of the Papacy with the Normans in southern Italy.
Some of them were connected to old monastic centers in Southern Italy such as Montecassino. One of their leaders was Cardinal Pierleoni, representative of one of the most powerful families of Rome; the opposite faction was headed by Aymeric de la Chatre, named cardinal and chancellor of the Holy See shortly after signing the Concordat of Worms and was one of the main architects of the new policy. He and his adherents looked at the compromise as a good solution both for the Church and the Emperor, did not trust the Norman vassals of the Holy See, who expressed some expansionist tendencies, it seems that at least some major representatives of this faction had strong connections to the "new spirituality", meaning the new religious orders such as regular canons. Besides, they were allied with the Roman family of opponents of the Pierleoni family. In the last weeks of the lifetime of Pope Honorius II the cardinals, fearing the possible schism, made an agreement that the new pope would be elected by the commission of eight of them, including two cardinal-bishops, three cardinal-priests and three cardinal-deacons.
The College of Cardinals had 43 members in February 1130. It seems that no more than 37 were present at Rome on the death of Honorius II: Probably six cardinals were absent from Rome: Both parties of the College of Cardinals were of an equal size; the party of Aymeric had 19 members, while that of his opponents 24, but the party of the Chancellor was better organized. One of the undeniable aspects of that division is that the Anacletans were older cardinals, veterans of the investiture controversy, created either by Paschalis II or early in the pontificate of Callixtus II, while Innocentine cardinals with few exceptions were created after Concordat of Worms, which established peace with the Emperor. Out of nineteen cardinals created before 1122, only five supported the Chancellor, while out of twenty four appointed from that time onwards as many as fourteen; the other possible reasons for such radical tensions in the College are discussed by historians without final conclusion. In the elected committee the party of Aymeric had 5 members out 8.
This was due to the way of their election – each of the three cardinalatial orders had to elect their own representatives. Although adherents of Aymeric were in the minority in the whole College, they had a majority among cardinal-bishops and cardinal-deacons, while their opponents were cardinal-priests. Therefore, the faction of the Chancellor acquired a majority in the electoral body The following cardinals were elected to the committee: Cardinal-Bishops Guillaume, Bishop of Palestrina Corrado della Suburra, Bishop of Sabina Cardinal-Priests Pietro Pierleoni, O. S. B. Cluny, Priest of S. Maria in Trastevere † Pietro Pisano, Priest of S. Susanna † Pietro Ruffino, Priest of SS. Silvestro e Martino Cardinal-Deacons Gregorio Papareschi, C. R. L. Deacon of S. Angelo in Pescheria Aymeric de la Chatre, C. R. S. M. R. Deacon of S. Maria Nuova and Chancellor of the Holy See Gionata, Deacon of SS. Cosma e Damiano † Honorius II died in the night 13/14 February 1130 in the Roman monastery of S. Gregorio, after a long illness.
Cardinal Aymeric arranged a hasty burial there and called the members of the committee to the monastery to proceed for the election of a new pope. But Cardinals Pierleoni and Gionata, realising that the commission would elect a supporter of the Chancellor, withdrew from it hoping that a lack of quorum would prevent it from functioning, but Aymeric ignored the commission assembled with six members only. Despite the protests of Cardinal Pietro Pisano, a distinguished canonist, the committee elected one of its members, Cardinal Gregorio Papareschi of S. Angelo, who accepted the election and took the name Innocent II, he was enthroned in the Lateran Basilica early in the morning on February 14. His election was immediately recognized by six other cardinals: two bishops and four priests. In a short time they were joined by the next eight cardinals; the majority of the cardinals, did not recognize Innocent II under the influence of Pietro Pisano, who, as a distinguished canonist, declared that his election was invalid.
On February 14 in the morning the opponents of Aymeric and his candidate assembled under the leadership of Pi
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bordeaux
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bordeaux is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The episcopal seat is located in Aquitaine, it was established under the Concordat of 1802 by combining the ancient Diocese of Bordeaux with the greater part of the abolished Diocese of Bazas. The metropolitan diocese has a senior position to four suffragan dioceses in the archdiocese: Agen; the metropolitan diocese itself comprises Aquitaine. Constituted by the same Concordat metropolitan to the suffragan Bishoprics of Angoulême, Poitiers and La Rochelle, the see of Bordeaux received in 1822, as additional suffragans, those of Agen, withdrawn from the metropolitan of Toulouse, the newly re-established Périgueux and Luçon. In 1850 were added the three Bishoprics of Fort-de-France and Basse-Terre, Saint-Denis de la Réunion detached. Since 2002 the province of Bordeaux has been modified following the abolition of the province of Auch and the creation of that of Poitiers. According to old Limousin legends which date back to the beginning of the eleventh century, Bordeaux was evangelized in the first century by St. Martial, who replaced a temple to the unknown god, which he destroyed, with one dedicated to St. Stephen.
The same legends represent St. Martial as having brought to the Soulac coast St. Veronica, still venerated in the church of Notre-Dame de Fin des Terres at Soulac; the first Bishop of Bordeaux known to history, Orientalis, is mentioned at the Council of Arles. By the close of the fourth century Christianity had made such progress in Bordeaux that a synod was held there, summoned by the Emperor Maximus, for the purpose of adopting measures against the Priscillianists, whose heresy had caused popular disturbances; this was during the episcopate of Delphinus of Bordeaux, who attended the Councils of Saragossa in 380, maintained correspondence with St. Ambrose and with St. Paulinus of Nola. At the beginning of the 5th century a mysterious figure, who according to St. Gregory of Tours came from the East, appeared in Bordeaux: Severinus, in whose favour Bishop Amand abdicated the see from 410 to 420, resuming it after Seurin's death and occupying it until 432. In the sixth century Bordeaux had an illustrious bishop in the person of Leontius II, a man of great influence who used his wealth in building churches and clearing lands and whom the poet Fortunatus calls patriae caput.
During this Merovingian period the cathedral church, founded in the fourth century, occupied the same site that it does today, tight against the ramparts of the ancient city. The Faubourg Saint-Seurin outside the city was a great centre of popular devotion, with its three large basilicas of St Stephen, St Seurin, St Martin surrounding a large necropolis from which a certain number of sarcophagi are still preserved; the cemetery of St Seurin was full of tombs of the Merovingian period around which the popular imagination was to create legends. In the high noon of the Middle Ages it used to be told how Christ had consecrated this cemetery and that Charlemagne, having fought the Saracens near Bordeaux, had visited it and laid Roland's wonderful horn Olivant/Oliphant on the altar of Saint Seurin. Dessus l'autel de Saint Seurin le baron, Il met l'oliphant plein d'or et de mangonstranslation: On the altar of Saint Seurin the baron, it put the oliphant full of gold and of gold coins Song of Roland Many tombs passed for those of Charlemagne's gallant knights and others were honored as the resting-places of Veronica and Benedicta.
At the other extremity of the city, Benedictines drained and filled in the marshes of L'Eau-Bourde and founded there the monastery of Sainte-Croix. While thus surrounded by evidence of Christian conquest, the academic Bordeaux of the Merovingian period continued to cherish the memory of its former school of eloquence, whose chief glories had been the poet Ausonius and St Paulinus, a rhetorician at Bordeaux and died Bishop of Nola. During the whole 8th century and part of the 9th, no bishops are mentioned for Bordeaux among Vatican and local records. Frotharius was archbishop in 870. In the late tenth century, ecclesiastical power was once again concentrated in the hands of the archbishop of Bordeaux when Gombald, brother of William II of Gascony and bishop of all the Gascon sees became archbishop. In 1027 the duke of Gascony, Sancho VI, the duke of Aquitaine, William V, joined together to select Geoffrey II, an Aquitanian Frank, as archbishop; this represented a new ecumenical rôle for the archbishop spanning both regions.
The reigns of William VIII and William IX, were noted for the splendid development of Romanesque architecture in Bordeaux. Parts of the churches of Sainte-Croix and Saint-Seurin belong to that time, the Cathedral of Saint-André was begun in 1096. In the Middle Ages, a struggle between the metropolitan sees of Bordeaux and Bourges was brought about by the claims of the
Macerata
Macerata is a city and comune in central Italy, the county seat of the province of Macerata in the Marche region. It has a population of about 41,564; the historical city centre is on a hill between the Potenza rivers. It first consisted of the Picenes city named Ricina after its romanization and Helvia Recina. After the destruction of Helvia Recina by the barbarians, the inhabitants took shelter in the hills and began to rebuild the city, first on the top of the hills, before descending again and expanding; the newly rebuilt town was Macerata. It became a municipality in August 1138. According to Jason Horowitz of The New York Times Macerata was welcoming to migrants coming from Africa. Horowitz stated. In February 2018 an Italian woman, Pamela Mastropietro, was found dead in a suitcase in Macerata, with her body in pieces; this caused an increase in anti-migrant sentiment. The town counts several hamlets and localities: Acquesalate, Botonto San Giacomo, Botonto Sant'Isidoro, Cimarella, Collevario, Consalvi, Helvia Recina, Madonna del Monte, Piediripa, Valle, Valteia, Villa Potenza.
Hilly, the climate is both Mediterranean and continental. The Adriatic Sea, 30 kilometres away, the Apennine Mountains influence the weather; the elevation of Macerata is 315 metres above sea level, so winter is rainy and the snow is not so frequent and plentiful. Balkanic and northwestern perturbations may cause snow. Middle seasons are variable, late snowfall and frost may occur during April. October is neither warm nor cold. Summer is rather sunny, sometimes the thermometer reaches 40 °C. Garbino is a hot wind from the hinterland. Summer thunderstorms are frequent in August during the evening, when the weather becomes quite unstable. In the central Piazza della Libertà is the Loggia dei Mercanti with two-tier arcades dating from the Renaissance. There are a number of striking palazzi along Corso Matteotti, including Palazzo dei Diamanti. Next to the Loggia dei Mercanti, Corso della Repubblica leads to Piazza Vittorio Veneto where, in the Palazzo Ricci, houses the city's modern art gallery; the nearby Palazzo Buonaccorsi houses the main civic art museum, as well as a Carriage Museum.
The palace was built in 1700–1720 for Count Raimondo Buonaccorsi and his son Cardinal Simone Buonaccorsi using designs by Giovanni Battista Contini. The piano nobile is known for the Sala dell'Eneide, decorated with frescoes depicting episodes of the Aeneid depicted by Rambaldi, Dardani and canvases by Garzi and Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole. Among the museum's masterpieces is the Renaissance work of the Madonna and Child by Carlo Crivelli; the Biblioteca Comunale Mozzi Borgetti, the main civic library of Macerata, founded in the 18th century, is housed in the former Jesuit seminary, located on Piazza Vittorio Veneto. The University of Macerata has about 13,000 students. Just north of the town, at the Villa Potenza, lie the remains of ancient Helvia Recina, a Roman settlement destroyed by the Visigoths. Among the churches in the town are: Macerata Cathedral: built in Neoclassical style in 1771–1790; the interior was designed by Cosimo Morelli. San Claudio al Chienti: Romanesque church south of the Town.
Its unusual shape is due to one church being built on the remains of another. It was built during the 14th century as war reparation to Montolmo, which defeated Macerata in a bloody and long war. San Claudio al Chienti is close to Macerata, but it has been a frazione of Corridonia since that time. San Filippo Neri San Giorgio Santa Maria della Misericordia Santo Stefano In July and August the Sferisterio Opera Festival is held in the 2,500 seat Arena Sferisterio, it is a huge neoclassical arena erected in the 1820s as a stadium for a form of handball by the architect Ireneo Aleandri. The orchestra pit is so wide; the first opera performed here was Giuseppe Verdi's Aida in 1921. It was promoted by the association "Società Cittadina" led by Count Pieralberto Conti; the arena was transformed into a real outdoor theatre with an enormous parabolic stage. The orchestra was placed behind it and the seats were located around it. In the middle of the front sidewall a large door was built that allowed the entrance of the Egyptian conqueror.
Posters were created by Verona's official Aida employee Plino Codognato and the painter Emilio Lazzari. The opera and its Triumphal March employed many people. Francisca Solari interpreted Aida and Alessandro Dolci sang the great tenor role in the robes of Radames; the hospitality of Macerata grew and new ways were developed to induce people to stay longer in the town, so the opera was repeated 17 times with more than seventy thousand attendees. The next year the opera La Gioconda was sung; until 1927 no more shows were performed, at which time the famous tenor Beniamino Gigli sang a unique c
Peter Abelard
Peter Abelard was a medieval French scholastic philosopher and preeminent logician. His love for, affair with, Héloïse d'Argenteuil has become legendary; the Chambers Biographical Dictionary describes him as "the keenest thinker and boldest theologian of the 12th Century". Abelard called "Pierre le Pallet", was born c. 1079 in Le Pallet, about 10 miles east of Nantes, in Brittany, the eldest son of a minor noble French family. As a boy, he learned quickly, his father, a knight called Berenger, encouraged Pierre to study the liberal arts, wherein he excelled at the art of dialectic, which, at that time, consisted chiefly of the logic of Aristotle transmitted through Latin channels. Instead of entering a military career, as his father had done, Abelard became an academic. During his early academic pursuits, Abelard wandered throughout France and learning, so as "he became such a one as the Peripatetics." He first studied in the Loire area, where the nominalist Roscellinus of Compiègne, accused of heresy by Anselm, was his teacher during this period.
Around 1100, Abelard's travels brought him to Paris. In the great cathedral school of Notre-Dame de Paris, he was taught for a while by William of Champeaux, the disciple of Anselm of Laon, a leading proponent of Realism. During this time he changed his surname to "Abelard", sometimes written "Abailard" or "Abaelardus". Retrospectively, Abelard portrays William as having turned from approval to hostility when Abelard proved soon able to defeat the master in argument, and William thought. It was during this time that Abelard would provoke quarrels with both Roscellinus. Against opposition from the metropolitan teacher, Abelard set up his own school, first at Melun, a favoured royal residence around 1102-4, for more direct competition, he moved to Corbeil, nearer Paris, his teaching was notably successful, though for a time he had to give it up and spend time in Brittany, the strain proving too great for his constitution. On his return, after 1108, he found William lecturing at the hermitage of Saint-Victor, just outside the Île de la Cité, there they once again became rivals, with Abelard challenging William over his theory of universals.
Abelard was once more victorious, Abelard was able to hold the position of master at Notre Dame. For a short time, William was able to prevent Abelard from lecturing in Paris. Abelard accordingly was forced to resume his school at Melun, which he was able to move, from c. 1110-12, to Paris itself, on the heights of Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, overlooking Notre-Dame. From his success in dialectic, he next turned to theology and in 1113 moved to Laon to attend the lectures of Anselm on Biblical exegesis and Christian doctrine. Unimpressed by Anselm's teaching, Abelard began to offer his own lectures on the book of Ezekiel. Anselm forbade him to continue this teaching, Abelard returned to Paris where, in around 1115, he became master of Notre Dame and a canon of Sens. Distinguished in figure and manners, Abelard was seen surrounded by crowds – it is said thousands of students – drawn from all countries by the fame of his teaching. Enriched by the offerings of his pupils, entertained with universal admiration, he came, as he says, to think himself the only undefeated philosopher in the world.
But a change in his fortunes was at hand. In his devotion to science, he had always lived a regular life, enlivened only by philosophical debate: now, at the height of his fame, he encountered romance. Héloïse d'Argenteuil lived within the precincts of Notre-Dame, under the care of her uncle, the secular canon Fulbert, she was remarkable for her knowledge of classical letters, which extended beyond Latin to Greek and Hebrew. Abelard, in 1115 or 1116, began an affair with Héloïse; the affair interfered with his career, Abelard himself boasted of his conquest. Once Fulbert found out, he separated them. Héloïse became pregnant and was sent by Abelard to be looked after by his family in Brittany, where she gave birth to a son whom she named Astrolabe after the scientific instrument. To appease Fulbert, Abelard proposed a secret marriage. Héloïse opposed it, but the couple were married; when Fulbert publicly disclosed the marriage, Héloïse denied it, Abelard sent Héloïse to the convent at Argenteuil, where she had been brought up, in order to protect her from her uncle.
Héloïse shared the nun's life, though she was not veiled. Fulbert, most believing that Abelard wanted to be rid of Héloïse by forcing her to become a nun, arranged for a band of men to break into Abelard's room one night and castrate him. Roscellinus would belittle Abelard for getting castrated. Abelard decided to become a monk at the monastery of St Denis, near Paris. Before doing so he insisted. Héloïse sent letters to Abelard, questioning why she must submit to a religious life for which she had no calling. In the Abbey of Saint-Denis, the 40-year-old Abelard sought to bury himself as a monk with his woes out of sight. Finding no respite in the cloister, having turned again to study, he gave in to urgent entreaties, reopened his school at an unknown priory owned by the monastery, his lectures, now framed in a devotiona
March of Ancona
The March of Ancona was a frontier march centred on the city of Ancona and Macerata in the Middle Ages. Its name is preserved as an Italian region today, the Marches, it corresponds to the entire modern region and not just the Province of Ancona; the march was created as a political division of the Papal States during the pontificate of Innocent III in the year 1198. It was governed by a papal nominee called a rector; the rector of Ancona, like the rectors of the other papal provinces, was under the authority of a general rector reporting directly to the pope. The province was confirmed by the Constitutiones Sanctæ Matris Ecclesiæ in 1357; the march followed the Adriatic as far north as Urbino and contained the cities of Loreto, Fermo, Osimo, San Severino, Tolentino According to Paul Sabatier's biography of St. Francis of Assisi, "The Road to Assisi", the March of Ancona became the home of the spiritual Franciscans after Francis' death. Alberto Azzo I d'Este Werner Markward von Annweiler The line of "Marquesses of Este" rises in 1039 with Albert Azzo II, Margrave of Milan.
The name "Este" is related to the city. The family was founded by Adalbert the Margrave. Who might have been the true first Margrave of Milan of this family. In 1209 Azzo VI is named the first "Marquess of Ferrara", the title passed to his descendants, Este Marquisate's was delegated to a cadet branch of the family. Were created the Marquisates of Modena and Reggio. Francesco I Sforza
Stephen, King of England
Stephen referred to as Stephen of Blois, was King of England from 1135 to his death, as well as Count of Boulogne from 1125 until 1147 and Duke of Normandy from 1135 until 1144. Stephen's reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda, he was succeeded by Henry II, the first of the Angevin kings. Stephen was born in the County of Blois in central France. Placed into the court of his uncle, Henry I of England, Stephen rose in prominence and was granted extensive lands, he married Matilda of Boulogne, inheriting additional estates in Kent and Boulogne that made the couple one of the wealthiest in England. Stephen narrowly escaped drowning with Henry I's son, William Adelin, in the sinking of the White Ship in 1120; when Henry I died in 1135, Stephen crossed the English Channel and with the help of his brother Henry of Blois, a powerful ecclesiastic, took the throne, arguing that the preservation of order across the kingdom took priority over his earlier oaths to support the claim of Henry I's daughter, the Empress Matilda.
The early years of Stephen's reign were successful, despite a series of attacks on his possessions in England and Normandy by David I of Scotland, Welsh rebels, the Empress Matilda's husband, Geoffrey of Anjou. In 1138 the Empress's half-brother Robert of Gloucester rebelled against Stephen, threatening civil war. Together with his close advisor, Waleran de Beaumont, Stephen took firm steps to defend his rule, including arresting a powerful family of bishops; when the Empress and Robert invaded in 1139, Stephen was unable to crush the revolt and it took hold in the south-west of England. Captured at the battle of Lincoln in 1141, Stephen was abandoned by many of his followers and lost control of Normandy. Stephen was freed only after his wife and William of Ypres, one of his military commanders, captured Robert at the Rout of Winchester, but the war dragged on for many years with neither side able to win an advantage. Stephen became concerned with ensuring that his son Eustace would inherit his throne.
The King tried to convince the Church to agree to crown Eustace to reinforce his claim. In 1153 the Empress's son, Henry FitzEmpress, invaded England and built an alliance of powerful regional barons to support his claim for the throne; the two armies met at Wallingford, but neither side's barons were keen to fight another pitched battle. Stephen began to examine a process hastened by the sudden death of Eustace. In the year Stephen and Henry agreed to the Treaty of Winchester, in which Stephen recognised Henry as his heir in exchange for peace, passing over William, Stephen's second son. Stephen died the following year. Modern historians have extensively debated the extent to which Stephen's personality, external events, or the weaknesses in the Norman state contributed to this prolonged period of civil war. Stephen was born in Blois in France, in either 1092 or 1096, his father was Stephen-Henry, Count of Blois and Chartres, an important French nobleman, an active crusader, who played only a brief part in Stephen's early life.
During the First Crusade Stephen-Henry had acquired a reputation for cowardice, he returned to the Levant again in 1101 to rebuild his reputation. Stephen's mother, was the daughter of William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders, famous amongst her contemporaries for her piety and political talent, she had a strong matriarchal influence on Stephen during his early years. France in the 12th century was a loose collection of counties and smaller polities, under the minimal control of the king of France; the king's power was linked to his control of the rich province of Île-de-France, just to the east of Stephen's home county of Blois. In the west lay the three counties of Maine and Touraine, to the north of Blois was the Duchy of Normandy, from which William the Conqueror had conquered England in 1066. William's children were still fighting over the collective Anglo-Norman inheritance; the rulers across this region spoke a similar language, albeit with regional dialects, followed the same religion, were interrelated.
Stephen had one sister, along with two probable half-sisters. Stephen's eldest brother was William. William was intellectually disabled, Adela instead had the title passed over him to her second son, who went on to acquire the county of Champagne as well as Blois and Chartres. Stephen's remaining older brother, died young in his early teens, his younger brother, Henry of Blois, was born four years after him. The brothers formed a close-knit family group, Adela encouraged Stephen to take up the role of a feudal knight, whilst steering Henry towards a career in the church so that their personal career interests would not overlap. Unusually, Stephen was raised in his mother's household rather than being sent to a close relative. Stephen's early life was influenced by his relationship with his uncle Henry I. Henry seized powe
