Trowbridge Castle in Wiltshire was a key Angevin strongpoint held for Empress Matilda in 1139 after the western defection gathered momentum. Stephen besieged it as part of his campaign to deny Matilda a consolidated western power base, but the castle's determined garrison and the difficulty of the terrain made reduction a prolonged and expensive undertaking. Trowbridge was never permanently held by either side for long and exemplifies the attritional nature of Anarchy warfare.
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