If not being talked about really is the worst thing of all, then one English monarch is having a really bad day in the history books. A new poll of the most popular kings and queens of all time has revealed favourite heroines, celebrated villains and a rather unfortunate crown for one royal. Easily ahead in the section marked ”never heard of” is a king that, well, you most likely haven’t heard about at all. Say hi and who the heck are you to King Stephen.
Stephen of Blois ruled England between 1135 and 1154 which is all well and good but it appears that many people living in the country 900 years on haven’t got a clue that he was ever around at all. A new poll by You Gov asked people to rank every British monarch since 1066; they could say if they were favourable towards them, unfavourable towards them or if they had no opinion or had never actually heard of them. It’s this final crusher of a category that has seen Stephen come into his own.
A whopping 90% of the 10,505 people asked said they either didn’t know about Stephen or had never heard of him. When that was broken down further, it showed that 73% of those quizzed had no idea that, once upon a time, the whole country belonged to a king called Steve.
To be fair to them, Steve (the familiarity might make him more appealing, who knows?) was a pretty terrible king which may be why there is only one monarch with that name. He became king as a result of the first post Conquest succession crisis which makes things sound far more glamourous than they really were. In 1135, Henry I died and left only a daughter to inherit his throne. Henry had been quite keen on the idea and the daughter in question, Matilda, was one of the power players of the time. However, she was a woman which sent shivers down the spines of many of the men she was about to start reigning over so they sided with her inept (albeit ambitious) cousin, Stephen.
Matilda had no intention of just accepting that and civil war ensued. King Stephen’s reign has also been known, for a very long time indeed, as the Anarchy. So he might be quite happy with obscurity having had time to reflect. Matilda did, briefly, take nominal control and was known as the Lady of the English (let’s not give these girls ideas with words such as ”queen”, who knows how that might end) but she was also a poor diplomat once power was in her hands and she alienated enough supporters for the chaos to start all over again. The end came when Stephen agreed to leave the throne to Matilda’s son who became Henry II who is far more recognisable to those polled with just 22% having never heard of him.
The poll found that the most popular British Monarch of all time is Queen Elizabeth II while the least popular is King Henry VIII. But the crown that no one wants belongs to Stephen although having proven to be so completely bland, at least now he’s being talked about for once.
