The Importance of Steven's Defection

Robert the Earl of Gloucester defected from Steven's cause to his now just a little bit of background we mentioned earlier that king henry had a large illegitimate family Robert was the eldest of these so he was about 10 years older than Matilda and he had always been one of Henry the first most loyal men. i think Robert's decision to defect was probably more self-serving than anything else but in any case it really helped Matilda because he was immensely rich and he owned lands in Normandy and in England. She left Jeffrey and her three sons behind and she got on a ship and she became countess of all the jews.