In 1139, Empress Matilda brought her knights to Arundel Castle to prepare to pursue her claim to the throne. Her father, King Henry I of England, had made her his heir before he died in 1135. Unfortunately for this warrior queen, her wealthy and influential cousin, Stephen of Blois, had seized the crown for himself years before she arrived on England’s shores. Peace was not an option.

Mustering for War took visitors back to the beginning of a tense period in medieval history, a tumultuous civil war known as The Anarchy, when Matilda’s invading army readied itself to face Stephen’s forces in battle.