Reading through Edmund King’s ‘King Stephen’ and was curious if Stephen knew that Matilda was on her way, and if so, why he didn’t do more to prepare for her landing beside put everyone on ‘high alert’?
If the Earl of Gloucester Robert put up resistance in 1138,
“…announced that they came from Robert, earl of Gloucaster, and asked for an audience with the King. What they had to say will have come as no surprise. The earl was defying the king, that is to say he was renouncing the homage and the fealty that he had sworn to him in the spring of 1136.” – King
And Matilda didn’t cross over till September in 1139, couldn’t the King have properly made the ports closed to her and mount a more lasting presence in the region to prevent them from getting into England?
Seems like a rather large oversight on Stephens part.
Stephen's rule was full of "rather large oversights". He once agreed to bail out his cousin when said cousin was unable to pay his mercenaries. Which cousin? Henry FitzEmpress.
That said I think you're over estimating the power Stephen had. Medieval royalty was not an authoritrain state, and even if Matilda came via a port, (remember, England is an island. There are plenty of routes in to the country not by an official port), there was no guarantee he'd be able to stop her. She was the daughter of a King, Widow of an Emperor and husband of one of the most powerful Dukes in France. Plus, even before he broke his fealty to Stephen, Robert of Gloucester was one of, if not the, strongest landholder in the country, basically ruling the south west of the country as a fiefdom. Robert was not the only baron to weild power in opposition to Stephen, though he was the most overt. Ranulf, Earl of Chester was also causing problems, generally in relation to his quarrels with David I of Scotland, but the dynamic between Ranulf and Stephen was such that he was able to ignore the king for most of the time. Fair enough Chester isn't really en route from France, but you see my point?