Empress Matilda: England's Almost-Queen

Empress Matilda: England's Almost-Queen In 1142, a woman wanted by the King of England walked out of a besieged castle in the middle of the night, disguised in white against the snow, and crossed a frozen river on foot to escape capture. She was the rightful heir to the English throne — named so by her own father, in front of the entire English nobility, not once but twice. She beat a king in battle. She captured him. And she still never wore the crown. This is the true story of Empress Matilda and The Anarchy — the nineteen-year civil war that tore England apart after King Henry I died without a son, and the almost-queen whose son became king in her place. 00:00 — The Escape 01:07 — A Drowned Prince and a Broken Promise 02:06 — The Cousin Who Broke His Oath 03:07 — The Empress Returns 03:57 — The Battle of Lincoln and the Queen Who Wasn't 05:01 — The Rout of Winchester 05:44 — The Siege of Oxford 06:45 — Nineteen Years of Winter 07:50 — The Treaty and the Boy Who Would Be King Sources include the Anglo-Saxon (Peterborough) Chronicle, the Gesta Stephani, and modern historical scholarship on the reign of King Stephen and the succession crisis following Henry I's death. #documentary #history #england #london