İç savaş ve anarşi yılları tarihi romanlarda kullanılmıştır. Ellis Peters 1137-1145 yıllarında geçen tarihi dedektiflik serisi ''Brother Cadfael'' eserinde Stephen, Matilda ve taraftarlarını betimlemiştir. Aynı dönem Ken Follett'in tarihi romanı ''The Pillars of the Earth'' adlı eserinde anlatmıştır. Eser aynı zamanda televizyon dizisi olarak da uyarlanmıştır.<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1453159/ Dizinin imdb sayfası] {{En}} 3 Temmuz 2012 tarihinde erişilmiştir</ref>
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Popular representations
Main article: Cultural depictions of the Anarchy
The civil war years of the Anarchy have been occasionally used in historical fiction. Stephen, Matilda and their supporters feature in Ellis Peters' historical detective series Brother Cadfael, set between 1137 and 1145.[250] Peters' depiction of the civil war is an essentially local narrative, focused on the town of Shrewsbury and its environs.[250] Peters paints Stephen as a tolerant man and a reasonable ruler, despite his execution of the Shrewsbury defenders after the taking of the city in 1138.[251] In contrast, Stephen is depicted in both Ken Follett's historical novel The Pillars of the Earth and TV mini-series as a conniving villain. Although Follett begins his book with Austin Poole's account of the sinking of the White Ship to set the historical scene for the subsequent events, in many other ways Follett uses the war as a location for a story about essentially modern personalities and issues, a feature reproduced in the epic costume TV adaptation.[252]
