31st October 1147 - Death of Robert, Earl of Gloucester.
Robert was the eldest (among 20 or so) of Henry I's illegitimate children. Along with Stephen of Blois, Robert was one of the principle landowners and most powerful men in England and Normandy at the time of Henry's death in 1135.
Following the drowning of his legitimate half-brother, William Audelin (in what can only be described as a drunken boat party gone wrong), Henry I's only legitimate heir was his daughter, Matilda, but following Henry's death, it was his nephew, Stephen of Blois, who hopped over from France to take the throne.
Matilda could not mount an attempt to take back what she saw as her rights until 1138, when Robert of Gloucester withdrew his allegiance to Stephen, and with a group of other West Country magnates, fought for the Matildine/Angevin cause. It was now that Matilda came to England.
King Stephen was captured at the Battle of Lincoln in 1141, and was imprisoned at Bristol, making him the first English King to be held prisoner in his own country. However, Matilda's success was short-lived: she was ousted from London by its citizens, and Robert was captured in the Rout of Winchester later that year. Recognising the importance of Robert to her cause, Matilda agreed to a swap. Stephen was released and restored to the throne in exchange for Robert's return.
For the most part, the 'Anarchy' (as the conflict is now known) was a castle war, largely fought between individual barons, but Robert's unswerving loyalty to his half-sister, and his military prowess, meant that on his death in 1147, Matilda's cause had lost its main asset, and she thought it futile to continue. She retired to France, until the Angevin cause was then taken up by her son, Henry of Anjou, later Henry II.
