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abbey’s manor at Chelsea at a cheap rate. When she took possession of the property, however, she was recorded as owning forty shillings and a valuable silk cloth, which suggests that Stephen had maintained her honourably for some years.
    The strength of Stephen’s marriage was perhaps one of his greatest assets as a king, and Matilda’s active support became indispensable to him very early in his reign. In 1137, she accompanied him on a five-month military and diplomatic journey through Normandy, resulting in a three-year truce with Geoffrey of Anjou, who was still aggressively pushing his wife’s cause. It was a busy period for Matilda: of the total of fifty-eight charter attestations she made as queen, fifteen fall into the two-year period from 1136 to 1138. Peace in Normandy was essential if Anglo-Norman society was to hold together. For magnates with interests in both countries, a division of their fealty, and their privileges, between two lords was unacceptable, and if the Angevins gained ground in the duchy, it would strengthen the Empress’s case there. Stephen unwisely returned to England in November 1137 — and brought civil war with him.
    In the summer of 1138, a series of rebellions broke out across England. The Empress Matilda had been sending envoys to potential pro-Angevins, and a number of lords now set themselves against the King. While Stephen occupied himself with risings in the Welsh marches, Matilda had her first experience of military activity as she took personal responsibility for anoutbreak of unrest in Kent. Her Boulogne inheritance proved its worth in this conflict and in many more to come. Her father’s territories had included the port of Wissant, a vital — and wealthy — centre for the Anglo-Flemish wool trade and a resource for channelling money and mercenaries to England to assist the King. Paid Flemish troops were a crucial royal weapon, and Matilda is credited with having had the foresight, in the wake of William Clito’s death, to make peace with Thierry of Flanders in order to facilitate the provision of these Flemish soldiers. Generous grants to Thierry’s foundation of Clairmarais may have sealed the truce. Thus, when Dover rebelled, Matilda was able to call out ‘friends, kinsmen and dependents of Boulogne’. 5 Using troops from Boulogne and Flanders under the command of her illegitimate cousin Pharamus of Boulogne, she successfully besieged Dover Castle. (She was not, incidentally, the only active female military leader at the time: Ludlow Castle was being mobilised against Stephen by Lady FitzJohn, the widow of the castellan, though Stephen chivalrously left Ludlow out of his campaign that year.)
    Meanwhile, the Scots, whose ruler, King David, had been persuaded by his niece the Empress to abandon his truce with Stephen, invaded in April, and by the end of July had pillaged their way to Yorkshire. In August, a royalist army defeated them at Northallerton, decimating the rebels, though King David himself escaped. From September, peace negotiations were held and after Christmas, Matilda was appointed to treat with David, who was, of course, her uncle as well as the Empress’s. The papal legate Alberic of Ostia had originally approached Matilda to ask for her help in convincing a reluctant Stephen of the necessity for a truce, and in the end the Queen’s ‘shrewdness and eloquence triumphed’. 6 An agreement was reached at Durham on 9 April 1139 according to which Henry of Scotland was created Earl of Northumbria. Matilda and Henry travelled south together to ratify the treaty at Nottingham. Matilda had emphasised that the newly created county of Northumberland was not to be an extension of Scotland, but would remain part of England, retaining its English laws and customs. She thereby succeeded in creating a ‘buffer zone’ on the Scottish border by investing a Scottish prince with an interest in keeping an English peace.
    Interestingly, this development may represent a