Trying to explain Adeliza's actions, John of Worcester suggests that "she feared the king's majesty and worried that she might lose the great estate she held throughout England". He also mentions Adeliza's excuse to King Stephen: "She swore on oath that his enemies had not come to England on her account but that she had simply given them hospitality as persons of high dignity once close to her." In the end King Stephen yielded to an appeal from Adeliza, and permitted Matilda to depart and join her half-brother Robert at Bristol.