General Notes

Matilda (Maud the Empress) of England  (1102-1167), was lef
t the sole legitimate child of Henry I. by the loss of hi
s son in the White Ship (1120). She married (1) Emperor Hen
ry V, Emperor of Rome, and was crowned at Mainz (1114), bu
t was widowed in 1125 and married (2) Geoffrey IV. le Bel
, Plantaganet, 10th Count of Anjou and Maine, Duke of Norma
ndy, having won the Duchy from Stephen, son of Fulk V. th
e Younger, 9th Count of Anjou, King of Jerusalem, and his w
ife, Ermengarde. See their ancestral lineage elsewhere in V
ol. I. Her first husband was thirty years older, her secon
d husband, ten years younger than herself. Henry made the b
arons recognize the Empress as his heir (1126, 1131, and 11
33), but when he died Stephen ignored her claim to rule Eng
land by hereditary right. The Normans preferred his chivalr
ous geniality to her haughtiness and they disliked the Hous
e of Anjou as much as they did the House of Blois, into whi
ch Stephen's mother, the Conqueror's daughter Adela, had ma
rried. The Empress appealed to the Pope in vain (1136) an
d Archbishop Thurstan of York defeated her uncle and champi
on, David I., King of Scotland (1084-1153) at the Battle o
f the Standard (1138); but at last she landed in England. G
eoffrey was the original Plantaganet, so named by his compa
nions for the broom corn he wore on his person. Matilda an
d Geoffrey had two sons as follows:
1. Henry II 
2. Geoffrey, died in 1158.
It is through Geoffrey that the Plantaganet line from Franc
e was brought into the British royalty (see the lineage o
f the Counts of Anjou elsewhere). He died in 1151. After Ge
offrey's death Matilda lived in Normandy, charitable and re
spected. Matilda died in 1167. Geoffrey was succeeded by hi
s eldest son, Henry.