General Notes

Empress Matilda (Maud)


August 5 <http://womenshistory.about.com/library/cal/bl0805.htm>, 1102 - September 10 <http://womenshistory.about.com/library/cal/bl0910.htm>, 1167
Alternate names: Matilda (Latin or Norman form); Maud or Maude (Saxon form) - see below for more information on the variations on her name
Titles: Queen of England (disputed), Lady of the English, Empress (Holy Roman Empire, Germany), imperatrix, Queen of the Romans, Romanorum Regina, Countess of Anjou, Matilda Augusta, Matilda the Good, Regina Anglorum, Domina Anglorum, Anglorum Domina, Angliae Normanniaeque domina
See discussion below for more about Matilda's names and titles
The inscription on Matilda's tomb at Rouen, France, read: "Here lies Henry's daughter, wife and mother; great by birth, greater by marriage, but greatest in motherhood." Matilda was the daughter of Henry I ("Henry Longshanks" or "Henry Beauclerc"), Duke of Normandy and King of England; wife of Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (and thus "Empress Maude"); and her eldest son by her second husband, Geoffrey of Anjou, became Henry II, Duke of Normandy and King of England. Henry II was known as Henry Fitzempress (son of empress) in recognition of his mother's title carried with her from her first marriage.
The tomb inscription does not tell the whole story, however. The Empress Matilda (or Empress Maud) is best known in history for the civil war sparked by her fight against her cousin, Stephen, to win the throne of England for herself and her descendents.
Through her father, Matilda was descended from the Norman conquerors of England, including her grandfather William I, Duke of Normandy and King of England, known as William the Conqueror. Through her mother's mother, she was descended from more kings of England: Edmund II "Ironside," Ethelred II "the Unready," Edgar "the Peaceable," Edmund I "the Magnificent," Edward I "the Elder" and Alfred "the Great."
After her younger brother, William, the heir to the throne of England as her father's only surviving legitimate son, died when the White Ship capsized in 1120, Henry I named her his heir and obtained the endorsement of that claim by the nobles of the realm. Henry I himself had won the throne of England when his eldest brother William Rufus, died in a supposed hunting accident, and Henry quickly seized control from the named heir, another older brother, Robert, who settled for the title as Duke of Normandy. In this context the action of Henry's nephew, Stephen, in quickly taking control as king of England after Henry's death was not really unpredictable.
It is likely that many of these nobles who supported Stephen in violation of their oath to support Matilda did so because they did not believe a woman could or should hold the office of ruler of England. These nobles probably also assumed that Matilda's husband would be the true ruler -- the concept that a queen could rule in her own right was not well-established in England at that time -- and Geoffrey of Anjou, to whom Henry had married his daughter, was not a character whom the English nobility wanted as their ruler, nor did the barons want a ruler whose main interests were in France.
A few nobles, including Matilda's illegitimate half-brother (one of more than 20 illegitimate children of Henry I), Robert of Gloucestor, supported Matilda's claim, and for most of the long civil war, Matilda's supporters held the west of England.
Key events in that war and in Matilda's life are included in the timeline below. The Empress Matilda, as well as another Matilda, the wife of Stephen, were active leaders in the fight over the throne of England, as power changed hands and each party seemed ready to defeat the other at various times.
A note on names: Maud and Matilda are variations on the same name; Matilda is the Latin form of the Saxon name Maud, and was usually used in official documents, especially of Norman origin. Some writers use Empress Maud as their consistent designation for the Empress Matilda. This is a useful device to distinguish this Matilda from the many other Matildas around her: Henry I had at least one illegitimate daughter named Maud or Matilda. Robert, Earl of Gloucestor, was married to a Matilda. Stephen's wife's name was Matilda. And the Empress Matilda's mother was Matilda of Scotland.
Matilda signed her name to documents after 1141 using such titles as "Mathildis Imperatrix Henrici regis filia et Anglorum domina." A seal described as reading "Mathildis imperatrix et regina Angliae" was destroyed and does not survive as evidence that she described herself as Queen rather than Lady of the English. Her personal seal read "Mathildis dei gracia Romanorum regina" (Matilda by the grace of God Queen of the Romans).

[13143.ftw]

!Her throne was usurped by her cousin Stephen of Blois. [Funk & Wagnalls]

NEWLIN, FOSTER LINES

!Geoffrey V Plantagenet was her 2nd husband. [Desc. of Charlemagne]

!Her father wanted her to succeed him, but the barons didn't want a woman ruler and her husband, Geoffrey of Anjou was not popular.  Thus, it was fairly easy for her cousin Stephen to win the crown.  In 1138, a rebellion in favor of Mathilda broke out, lasting until 1153, when a peace was arranged providing that Stephen should continue to be king during his lifetime, but that Mathilda's son, Henry, should succeed him.  The next year Stephen died. [Outline History of Mankind]

!Following her half-brother Robert's death in 1146/7, Matilda withdrew to Normandy.  The war was now a mere chaos of pillage and bloodshed.  The royal power came to an end.  The royal courts were suspended, for not a baron or bishop would come at the King's call.  The bishops met in council to protest, but their protests and excommunications fell on deafened ears. [WBH - England]

!Betrothed to the Emperor of Germany in 1108 (when she was 6); married in 1114 (when she was 12). [Knight's Popular History of England, Vol. 1, p. 271]

!Marriage of Geoffrey of Anjou was one of policy and not happy.  Her father, King Henry I, constantly had to interfere between the husband and wife. Matilda had much of her father's imperious spirit; and Geoffrey made demands which Henry resisted.  There was deep enmity between them. But in 1133 Matilda bore a son, Henry.  The oaths to maintain the succession were renewed. [Knight's, Vol 1, p. 274]

!Germany, 7 Jan 1114.  Princes, dukes and archbishops were among the hundreds of dignitaries present at the royal wedding of the year.  Minstrels, jugglers and dancers were on hand to entertain the guests as Mitilda, the dau. of King Henry of England, was married to Holy Roman Emperor Henry V.  The bridegroom was in his early thirties; his wife, now Empress Matilda, barely 12.  Matilda, learned German, left England on her betrothal in 1110.  Until now she was throught too young to marry. [Chronicle of the Royal Family, p. 41

!Normandy, May 1127.  Empress Matilda is betrothed to Count Geoffrey of Anjou, dubbed "Plantagenet" from his emblem, the broom plant.  She is 24, he is 14. [Chronicle of the Royal Family, p. 40]

!Described as cold and haughty, detested by her energetic, dashing 2nd husband, Geoffrey. Also described as a young woman of clear understanding and masculine firmness; strikingly handsome but haughty and domineering.  The unlikely liaison of Matilda and Geoffrey turned out to be miserable for both of them.  There was no denying Geoffrey's learning and charm, but as Matilda soon discovered, the charm was shallow and his cleverness devoted to the promotion of Geoffrey.  He mad no secret of the fact that he had married Matilda only to gain control of Normandy or that he disliked her.  He complained that she was rude, arrogant, and unfeminine. [Eleanor of Aquitaine, pp. 29, 132-3]

Retired to the abbey of Bec at the end of her life. [Falaise Roll, p. 139]

Saxon name was "Aethelric".  Matilda was called Alice at birth.

From the start she despised her adolescent second husband as her social inferior and she seems never to have warmed to him. Geoffrey equally disliked Matilda, yet both were tough and calculating, able to exploit their loveless marriage for mutual political gain. They produced the children necessary for the continuation of their lines, then went their separate ways, never deviating from personal political ambitions. Driven by an iron will to gain what she regarded as her inheritance, her personality was one of the chief obstacles to the success of her cause. [Plantagenet Chronicles, p. 51]

Dark hair, dark eyes, white skin; rather tall and graceful. [The Conquering Family, p. 6]

Hated her second husband; left him three times. [The Conquering Family, p. 8]

Dau. of King Henry I of England and Matilda of Scotland; m. Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou. [GRS 3.03, Automated Archives, CD#100]

Dau. of Henry I and Matilda Atheling; m.1 Heinrich V, Emperor of Germany; m.2 Geoffrey V le Plantegenet and was mother of:
1. Henry II, king of England
2. Geoffrey VI Mantell
3. Guillaume
4. Emma who m. Dafydd ap Owain
[WFT Vol 4 Ped 3168]

Matilda was pregnant at the time of Henry I's death and shortly thereafter, early in 1136, she bore her third son, William. It appears probable that after 1136 she and Count Geoffrey did not live as husband and wife for at least a period of some years while Matilda was in England contending with Stephen and Geoffrey was trying to subdue Normandy. Only after the Empress left England following Robert of Gloucester's death in 1141, when she was 39 or so, would it have been possible for her to resume married life with her husband, but the evidence strongly inclines to the belief that she did not do so. Indeed, to judge from the dates of the deaths of Geoffrey V's known OOW children--all of whom outlived Henry II by fairly significant lengths of time--it seems a reasonable guess that they were born in the later years of his life, in the later 1130s and 1140s, when he was almost certainly no longer cohabiting with the Empress.
   English chroniclers are very specific about the births of the Empress' three sons Henry, Geoffrey and William, even though all 3 were born abroad. [John Carmi Parsons <jparsons@chass.utoronto.ca]

On the death of Henry I there were three candidates for the throne: Matilda, his daughter, and the two sons of his sister Adela, Theobald of Blois and Stephen of Boulogne. Of the three, Matilda had unquestionably the best title as she was the nearest heir, her father had named her his successor, and the barons had sworn to accept her; but Matilda's sex told against her, as did her arrogant temper and her marriage to the representative of the Angevin house, long the declared enemy of England. [The Fosters of Flanders, England, and America, p. 9]

ES (Ysenburg-Buedingen/Freytag von Loringhoven) shows only one marriage for Henry V, that to Matilda of England/Normandy, celebrated in 1114. The marriage is usually said to have been barren, but Marjorie Chibnall's recent study of Matilda's life refers to the chronicle of Herman of tournai, which indicates that the couple had at least one child who must have died very young. [Leo van de Pas <leovdpas@iinet.net.au]

A motte castle was raised at Bampton, Oxfordshire by Empress Matilda, c. 1142, during the reign of her cousin Stephen. The castle was taken by Stephen and slighted. [Castles of Britain and Ireland, p. 122]

Child-bride of Henry V, emperor of Germany, and after his death in 1125 she married Geoffrey of Anjou. Although Matilda was the lawful queen of England, her cousin Count Stephen of Blois crossed the channel and siezed the throne. The situation eventually resulted in civil war. Leaving her husband and infant son, the future Henry II, in Anjou, the Empress Matilda set sail for England in Sep 1139, accompanied by her half-brother, Earl Robert of Gloucester, and 140 knights. They landed at Arundel. Earl Robert was popular in the west country, where he held his estates, and the people gave the empress a hearty welcome: Bristol soon became their main base and rallying center. King Stephen did his best to eject the empress's supporters from their castles and he passed the next 18 months suppressing revolts and engaging in siege warfare. At an unknown date before Christmas 1140 the empress and her knights had succeeded in occupying the castle and city of Lincoln: this was an important achievement because at that time Lincoln was one of the richest cities in England. King Stephen hurried up with an army and forced the empress to make good her escape.  [Lincoln Castle, p. 17]