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The Anarchy

The Anarchy

Written by: Long Shadow Histories
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In 1120, a drunken crew steered the White Ship onto a rock, and the heir to England drowned. Fifteen years later, his throne was torn between two cousins: Stephen, the charming nephew who seized the crown, and Matilda, the Empress who had been promised it. The Anarchy tells the story of the civil war that followed, a tale of broken oaths, a captured king, a midnight escape across the ice and a boy who would found a dynasty. Real medieval history, told as a gripping story.Long Shadow Histories
Episodes
  • Ep 2: The Empress

    Ep 2: The Empress
    Oct 20 2026

    On New Year’s Day 1127, the great men of England knelt before King Henry I. They swore that his daughter would rule after him. No woman had ever ruled England in her own right.

    In this episode, we follow Matilda’s extraordinary early life. Sent to Germany at the age of eight to marry the most powerful man in Christendom, she was crowned queen as a child. She was governing in Italy by sixteen. When her husband died, she came home as the Empress.

    We meet the men who would decide her fate: her charming cousin Stephen and her half-brother Robert of Gloucester. We also meet the teenage husband she couldn’t stand, Geoffrey of Anjou.

    Two oaths are sworn. Both will be broken.
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    27 mins
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