Stephen Earl of Boulogne, whose descent hath been already shewn in the foregoing reign, was the second of three brothers, whereof the eldest was Theobald Earl of Blois, a sovereign prince, and Henry the youngest was Bishop of Winchester, and the Pope’s legate in England.  At the time of King Henry’s death, his daughter the Empress was with her husband the Earl of Anjou, a grave and cautious prince, altogether unqualified for sudden enterprises:  but Earl Stephen, who had attended the King in his last expedition, made so great dispatch for England,[26] that the council had not time to meet and make any declaration about a successor.  When the lords were assembled, the legate had already, by his credit and influence among them, brought over a great party to his brother’s interests; and the Earl himself, knowing with what success the like methods were used by his two last predecessors, was very liberal of his promises to amend the laws, support the Church, and redress grievances:  for all which the bishop undertook to be guarantee.  And thus was Stephen elected by those very persons who had so lately, and in so solemn a manner, more than once sworn fealty to another.

[Footnote 26:  Stephen was at Boulogne when he received the news of Henry’s death. [D.S.]]

The motives whereby the nobility was swayed to proceed after this manner, were obvious enough.  There had been a perpetual struggle between them and their former kings in the defence of their liberties; for the security whereof, they thought a king elected without other title, would be readier to enter into any obligations, and being held in constant dependence, would be less tempted to break them:  therefore, as at his coronation they obtained full security by his taking new and additional oaths in favour of their liberties, their oath of fealty to him was but conditional, to be of force no longer than he should be true to those stipulations.

But other reasons were contrived and given out to satisfy the people:  they were told it was an indignity for so noble a nation to be governed by a woman; that the late King had promised to marry his daughter within the realm, and by consent of Parliament, neither of which was observed:  and lastly, Hugh Bigod, steward to King Henry, took a voluntary oath, before the Archbishop of Canterbury, that his master, in his last sickness, had, upon some displeasure, disinherited his daughter.

He received the crown with one great advantage that could best enable him to preserve it:  this was the possession of his uncle’s treasures, amounting to one hundred thousand pounds, and reckoned as a prodigious sum in those days; by the help of which, without ever raising one tax upon the people, he defended an unjust title against the lawful heir during a perpetual contest of almost twenty years.