Gesta Stephani
12th-century Medieval English chronicle
Deeds of King Stephen or Acts of Stephen or Gesta Regis Stephani is a mid-12th-century English history by an anonymous author about King Stephen of England and his struggles with his cousin Empress Matilda. It is one of the main sources for this period in the history of England.
Some historians think the author may have been Robert of Bath (also known as Robert of Lewes), Bishop of Bath from 1136 to 1166.
The Gesta Stephani was first published in Paris in 1619, from a manuscript in the episcopal library at Laon which was subsequently lost. A fuller manuscript was found in the 20th century, and since published, in the Municipal Library at Valenciennes, having been transferred from the nearby abbey of Vicoigne. The Latin text tells in 120 chapters of the Anarchy of King Stephen's reign, and ends with the accession of King Henry II.
Background and authorship
The Gesta Stephani was written in two books. The historian R. H. C. Davis believes that the first book, which covers the first twelve years of Stephen's reign (1135–1147), was written in about 1148, while the second book, taken up to the accession of Henry II, was written after 1153. Davis examined the places named in the texts and found that most of them were in the South-West of England; unusually detailed descriptions of Bristol and Bath, as well as scornful comments about the former, suggest that the author may have been writing in or near Bath. This contrasts with an earlier statement by K.R. Potter that there is "no clear indication of any local attachment". However, Davis points out that comparisons with the chronicles of other writers based elsewhere in the country reveal considerable south-west bias in the Gesta, which had been overlooked by historians who compared it only with the account of William of Malmesbury, who was also writing in the south-west.
“Gesta Stephani” enters the record as 12th-century Medieval English chronicle. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Gesta, Stephani and 12th-century can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q507457. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1136, 1166, 1619 and 1135.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gesta Stephani” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.