Who Is The Conflict In Ken Follett's The Pillars Of The Earth

The Pillars of the Earth is a historical fiction novel by Ken Follett about the building of the cathedral in the fictional English town of Kingsbridge in the 12th century. One of the main characters is a Prior named Philip who goes from being the prior of a small cell in the woods to the prior of the cathedral being built. The book also follows the people of Kingsbridge and all of the conflicts and betrayals that come along with the building of the cathedral and town of Kingsbridge over the course of about 50 years.

Early on in the novel and Philip’s time as prior, the old church at Kingsbridge burns down, and they need to rebuild it. The process of rebuilding the cathedral takes much longer than expected, due to many roadblocks along the way, and at one point in the novel Jack Jackson, the current master builder goes to Paris searching for information about his dead father, and ends up finding new ideas and ways
In the novel, Prior Philip is informed by his brother Francis that while Theobald of Blois was accepting the homage of the barons, Stephen crossed the channel with his brother Bishop Henry to claim the British Crown (Follett 105). In reality, when Stephen heard the previous King Henry had died, he immediately acted on it and rushed to London from Blois, where he was at the time of Henry’s death, to claim the throne (“Anarchy”). Clearly, Follett was accurate with his information in this aspect of the Anarchy.

In the novel, the next part of the Anarchy is when Stephen is able to gain the trust of the Church, in order to solidify his spot as King. His brother Henry helped him gain that trust as one of the most well known priests around, and made Stephen swear an oath to preserve and protect the Church (105). In real life, Henry just took care of getting people to trust and respect Stephen on his own which allowed him to easily claim the crown