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, also known as the "Empress Maud". It is one of the main sources for this period in the history of England.
Some historians think the author should have been Robert of Bath (also known as Robert of Lewes), Bishop of Bath from 1136 to 1166.[1][2][3]
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 has recently been found, 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.
- ^ British History Online Bishops of Bath and Wells accessed on September 23, 2007
- ^ Huscroft Ruling England p. 200
- ^ Davis 1962