Empress Matilda (February 1102 – September 10,
1167; sometimes Maud or Maude), also called Matilda, Countess of Anjou or
Matilda, Lady of the English, was the daughter and dispossessed heir of King
Henry I of England. She was married to Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, and then to Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, by whom she became the mother of Henry II of England.
Matilda was the first female ruler of the Kingdom of England. Her failure to
secure that rule meant that her undisputed period of reign in 1141 was extremely brief.
As many of her contemporaries or near contemporaries were also called Matilda in Latin texts, she is sometimes called
Maude to distinguish her. This is merely a modernised spelling of the Norman-French form of her name, Mahaut.
Holy Roman Empress
Matilda was born in February (possibly the 7th or 11th) 1102 to Henry I of England
and his wife Edith-Matilda of Scotland. Her maternal grandparents were
Malcolm III of Scotland and Saint
Margaret of Scotland. Margaret was a daughter of Edward the Exile and
granddaughter of Edmund II of England.
Her birth is generally said to have taken place at Winchester, though recent research by
the late John Fletcher (1990) suggests it may have occurred at the royal palace at Sutton
Courtenay in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire).
When she was seven years old, Matilda was betrothed to Henry V, Holy Roman
Emperor, and was sent to the Holy Roman Empire in 1111 to begin her training as
his consort. Matilda and Henry were married at Worms on January 7, 1114 in a splendid ceremony. In March 1116 Matilda and Henry visited
Rome and Tuscany, and she acted as Regent in his absence.
The Imperial couple allegedly had no surviving offspring; Hermann of Tournai states that Maud bore a child that lived only a
short while. When Henry died in 1125, he left Matilda a "childless" widow of twenty-three. Her brother William Adelin had perished several years before in the wreck of the White
Ship, leaving Matilda the only legitimate heir to the English throne.
Despite being known most popularly by the title of 'Empress' in after years due to her first marriage, Matilda's right to the
title was dubious. She was never crowned Holy Roman Empress by a legitimate Pope (generally recognised as required to claim the
title), only as Queen Consort of Germany by her husband's Bishops and formally her correct title was 'Queen of the Romans'.
However, 'Empress' was arguably an appropriate courtesy title for the wife of the Emperor (who had been crowned by the Pope), and
indeed, in later years she encouraged chroniclers to believe that the Pope had crowned her.
Second marriage to Geoffrey of Anjou
Matilda returned to the Kingdom of England, where her father named her his heir
with the agreement of the Anglo-Norman barons, who swore (in 1127) to accept her as ruler if Henry I had no son, and arranged
another marriage for her. On June 17, 1128, she was married again,
at Le Mans in Anjou, to Geoffrey of Anjou, who was eleven years her junior. He was nicknamed "Plantagenet" from the broom flower (planta genista)
which he took as his emblem, hence the name of the line of English kings descended from him. He was at this time Count of Maine and heir to his father Fulk V of
Anjou.
The marriage was not a happy one, and Matilda separated from him and returned to her father. She returned to Geoffrey in 1131,
and they were reconciled. They produced three sons, the eldest of whom, Henry, was born on March
5, 1133. The birth of her second son, Geoffrey, Count of Nantes, in 1134 was difficult and
Matilda nearly died in childbirth. Her third son was William, Count of Poitou.
Her father King Henry came to visit and took "great delight" in his grandsons. King
Henry and Geoffrey quarreled, and so when her father died on December 1, 1135 in Normandy, Matilda was with Geoffrey in Anjou.
Struggle for throne of England
On the death of her father in 1135, Matilda expected to succeed to the throne of England, but her cousin, Stephen of Blois, (grandson of
William I) usurped the throne, breaking the oath he had previously made to defend
her rights, with the support of most of the barons. The civil war which followed was bitter
and prolonged, with neither side gaining the ascendancy for long, but it was not until 1139 that Matilda could command the
military strength necessary to challenge Stephen within his own realm, including battles at Beverston Castle and other sites. Stephen's wife was another Matilda: Matilda, Countess of Boulogne, and the Empress's maternal cousin. During the war, Matilda's most
loyal and capable supporter was her half-brother, Robert of
Gloucester.
Matilda's greatest triumph came in April 1141, when her forces defeated and captured King Stephen at the Battle of Lincoln (1141). He was made a prisoner and effectively deposed. Although she now
controlled the kingdom, Matilda never styled herself Queen but took the title "Lady of the English", possibly modeled on the
Anglo-Saxon practice of naming female rulers "Lady of the..." such as King Alfred the Great's daughter Ethelfleda, Lady of the Mercians. Her advantage lasted only a few months. By November, Stephen was free,
having been exchanged for the captured Robert of Gloucester, Matilda's
half-brother, and a year later, the tables were turned when Matilda was besieged at Oxford but
escaped to Wallingford, supposedly by fleeing across the snow-covered land in a white cape.
In 1141 she had escaped Devizes in a similarly clever manner, by disguising herself as a corpse
and being carried out for burial. In 1148, Matilda was finally forced to return to France,
following the death of Robert of Gloucester.
Later life
All hope was not lost. Matilda's son, Henry (later, Henry II of England), was
showing signs of becoming a successful leader. Although the civil war had been decided in Stephen's favour, his reign was
troubled. In 1153, the death of his son Eustace, combined with the arrival of a military expedition led by Henry, led him to
acknowledge the latter as his heir by the Treaty of Wallingford.
Matilda retired to Rouen, in Normandy, during her last years, where she maintained her own
court and presided over the government of the Duchy in the absence of Henry. She intervened in the quarrels between her eldest
son Henry and her second son Geoffrey, but peace between the brothers was brief. Geoffrey rebelled against Henry twice before his
sudden death in 1158. Relations between Henry and his youngest brother, William, were more cordial, and William was given vast estates in England. Archbishop Thomas Becket refused to allow William to marry the
Countess of Surrey and the young man fled to Matilda's court at Rouen. William, who was his mother's favourite child, died there
in January 1164, reportedly of disappointment and sorrow. She attempted to mediate in the quarrel between her son Henry and
Thomas Becket, but was unsuccessful.
Despite her tenure as "Lady of the English", Matilda was never loved by the people of her native land, who found her too
foreign and haughty. The citizens of London were particularly aggrieved by her financial demands. She spoke three languages:
French, German, and Latin. Even though she gave up hope of being crowned Queen in 1141, her name always preceded that of her son
Henry, even after he became king. Matilda died at Rouen, and was buried in the cathedral there; her epitaph reads: "Great by Birth, Greater by Marriage,
Greatest in her Offspring: Here lies Matilda, the daughter, wife, and mother of Henry."
Historical fiction
The civil war between supporters of Stephen and the supporters of Matilda has proven popular as a subject in historical
fiction. Novels dealing with it include:
- Graham Shelby, The Villains of the Piece, (1972) (published in the US as The
Oath and the Sword);
- The Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters,
and the TV series made from them starring Sir Derek Jacobi as that rare Benedictine;
- Jean Plaidy, Passionate Enemies, the third book of her Norman Trilogy;
- Sharon Penman, When Christ and His Saints Slept by tells the story of the
civil war;
- Haley Elizabeth Garwood, 'The Forgotten
Queen' (1997, IBSN 0-9659721-9-4);
- Ken Follett, The Pillars of the
Earth;
- Ellen Jones, The Fatal Crown(highly inaccurately, in romance novel-style).
Indeed, some romance-type historical novels go so far as to posit a love-affair between Matilda and StephenT. The Janna
Mysteries- Felicity Pullman Set during the civil war between Stephen and Matilda
Ancestors
Sources
- Gervase of Canterbury
- Robert of Torigny
- Roger of Hoveden
- Gesta Stephani
- Walter Map
- Bradbury, J. (1996) Stephen and Matilda: the Civil War of 1139-1153, Sutton Publishing, ISBN 0-7509-0612-X
- Chibnall,Marjorie (1991) The Empress Matilda:Queen Consort, Queen Mother, and Lady of the English
- Fletcher, John (1990) Sutton Courtenay: The History of a Thameside Village
- Pain, Nesta (1978) Empress Matilda: Uncrowned Queen of England
- Parsons, John Carmi. Medieval Mothering (New Middle Ages), sub. Marjorie Chibnall, "Empress Matilda and Her
Sons"
- Gardener J and Wenborn W the History Today Companion to British History
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