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While Matilda's forces were still smaller than Stephen's, support for her was growing. Men who had wavered in their loyalty to Stephen now had the royal figurehead they needed. And while Matilda's forces had no chance of overwhelming Stephen's army head on, they did find a way to wear him down with feints and lightning strikes, a kind of guerrilla warfare that kept Stephen on the back foot. For the next two years civil war raged in England and it took an immense toll on the country. The countryside was plundered and reduced to blackened earth by hostile troops. |
