A panel miniature of Stephen, from the manuscript by Matthew Paris.  This cannot be a realistic portraic of Stephen, but it does depict his difficult reign, represented by the sword-the civil war with Maude;  and the church-representing his problems with his brother Henry, Bishop of Winchester and papal legate, and by extension, the Church.

Another part of the panel fro Matthew Paris, showing Stephen's uncle, Henry I, son of William the Conquorer, brother to Robert of Normandy and father of Matilda.  His son, William, was drowned when his ship "the White Ship"  went down in the English Channel in 1120, the year Cadfael came back from the crusades [A Rare Benedictine].  His panel shows him holding a church, as a patron of the Church, and a book, to depict him as a scholar.  In this day, only the churchman very wealthy were able to read, and not every one in each group.  Our word Clerk comes from cleric, one who has taken first vows for orders.  They were usually the only ones who were able to go to universities in the middle ages.   Most of these educated clerics then went on to become scribes and clerics [writers and readers] for those wealthy who could not read and write.