Besides his administrative offices, Chesney controlled a number of royal castles and served Stephen during some of the king's English military campaigns.

[2] Matilda, though, was not reconciled to losing the throne and secured the support of the Scottish king, David, who was her maternal uncle.

The height of the civil war was from 1142 to 1148, but it began in 1138 when Robert of Gloucester declared for Matilda, after previously supporting Stephen.

[4] The elder Chesney came from near Quesney-Guesnon in the Calvados region of Normandy, and held lands in England from Robert d'Oilly at the time of the Domesday Survey in 1087.

[8] His other siblings were Reginald, who later became abbot of Evesham Abbey,[9] Hugh, Ralph, Hawise, Beatrice, Isabel,[5] and Roger.

[17] Before he controlled Deddington, Chesney temporarily administered the lands of Robert d'Oilly, who had previously held Oxford Castle but had defected to the side of the Empress Matilda in 1141 and died a year later.

[19] During the period 1142–1148 Chesney forced Gloucester Abbey, then under the abbacy of his nephew Gilbert Foliot, to pay him sums of money.

"[21] In 1147, Chesney granted the island of Medley to Osney Abbey in the name of his father and brother Roger, as well as King Stephen, Queen Matilda and their son Eustace.

[23] Chesney served again as the leader of Stephen's army at Wallingford Castle in 1153 and in August he was defeated by Henry of Anjou.

[24] The subsequent peace settlement, the Treaty of Wallingford, gave Henry the English throne after Stephen's death.