When Henry I died on 1 December 1135, some nobles declared that the king had released them from their oaths. They looked to continental Europe for an alternative, and they found one in the form of Stephen of Blois, second son of Henry’s sister Adela. Twenty-two days after the king’s death, Stephen was in London wearing the crown. But Matilda had not renounced her claim to the throne – and so their civil war began.

It wasn’t called the Anarchy due to the ferocity of the conflict, but because of the supposed lack of control Stephen had over the country when he was king.

But was it really anarchic? Historian Matthew Lewis questions whether this badge of dishonour is deserved, or the product of revisionism.

“If King Stephen would have recognised anarchy, it was only in the sense of so many diverse threats emerging at once: Empress Matilda in England, her husband Geoffrey conquering Normandy, King David [of Scotland] in the north, and rebel barons,” he writes.

Instead, he suggests, could the name be the result of Plantagenet spin? “Stephen’s reign was not glorious, but that does not make it anarchic. Few wholly unsuccessful rulers lasted 19 years and died in their bed still wearing the crown.”

Here is a point of divergence from real history: House of the Dragon promises to be anarchic indeed.

Who was the real Half Year Queen?

Known as the ‘Half Year Queen’, Rhaenyra Targaryen is an analogue of Empress Matilda, daughter and heir to Henry I.

Born in 1102, Matilda was married to Heinrich V of the Holy Roman Empire in 1110. She was widowed in 1125, and returned to England two years later where – like Rhaenyra Targaryen – she was named her father’s heir in lieu of a legitimate son, only to be faced with civil war when the time came inherit his crown.