for the safety of his throne, he at first
rested on the support of the Church and the ministers who represented
Henry's system. But sides were quickly changed. The great churchmen and
the ministers were soon cast off by the new ruler. "By my Lady St.
Mary," said Roger of Salisbury, when he was summoned to one of Stephen's
councils, "my heart is unwilling for this journey; for I shall be of as
much use in court as is a foal in battle." The revolution was completed
in 1139, when the king in a mad panic seized and imprisoned Roger, the
representative alike of Church and ministers. With the ruin of Roger who
for thirty years had been head of the government, of his son Roger the
chancellor, and his nephew Nigel the treasurer, the ministerial system
was utterly destroyed, and the whole Church was alienated. Stephen sank
into the mere puppet of the nobles. The work of the Exchequer and the
Curia Regis almost came to an end. A little money was still gathered
into the royal treasury; some judicial business seems to have been still
carried on, but it was only amid overwhelming difficulties, and over
limited districts. Sheriffs were no longer appointed over the shires,
and the local administration broke down as the central government had
done. Civil war was added to the confusion of anarchy, as Matilda again
and again sought to recover her right. In 1139 she crossed to England,
wherein siege, in battle, in council, in hair-breadth escapes from
pursuing hosts, from famine, from perils of the sea, she showed the
masterful authority, the impetuous daring, the pertinacity which she had
inherited from her Norman ancestors. Stephen fell back on his last
source--a body of mercenary troops from Flanders,--but the Brabancon
troops were hated in England as foreigners and as riotous robbers, and
there was no payment for them in the royal treasury. The barons were all
alike ready to change sides as often as the shifting of parties gave
opportunity to make a gain of dishonour; an oath to Stephen was as easy
to break as an oath to Matilda or to her son. Great districts, especially
in the south and middle of England, and on the Welsh marches, suffered
terribly from war and pillage; all trade was stopped; great tracts of
land went out of cultivation; there was universal famine.

In 1142 Henry, then nine years old, was brought to England with a chosen
band of Norman and Angevin knights; and while Matilda held her rough
court at Gloucester as ackno