During the civil war of the Anarchy, fought between the factions of Stephen of England and the Empress Matilda, both sides built a number of new castles to defend their territories and act as bases for expansion, typically motte and bailey designs such as those at Winchcombe, Upper Slaughter, or Bampton by the Empress's followers.
William the Conqueror’s granddaughter, the Empress Matilda gave this area to a Nicolas Estouteville in the twelfth century, to thank him for his support and loyalty.
Adjoining the bridge is the Swan Inn and slight earthworks of Matilda's Castle.
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Henry's only legitimate son William drowned in 1120, so Henry eventually declared his one legitimate daughter Matilda his heir.
His cousin, the surviving legitimate child of the prior King Henry, Empress Maud is in Anjou attempting to build support for her invasion, aided in England by her half-brother Robert of Gloucester.
Graham Shelby's 1972 novel The Oath and the Sword (aka The Villains of the Piece), focuses on Empress Matilda's faithful supporter Brien FitzCount, Lord of Wallingford, through the years of the Anarchy.
Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester (~1090-31 October 1147), a major figure in The Anarchy and supporter of Empress Matilda against King Stephen