General Notes

Empress Matilda (1141 AD)
Matilda is the Latin form of Maud, and the name of the only survivinglegitimate child of King Henry I. She was born in 1101, generally it issaid at Winchester, but recent research indicates that she was actuallyborn at the Royal Palace in Sutton Courtenay (Berkshire).

In something of a political coup for her father, Matilda was betrothed tothe German Emperor, Henry V, when she was only eight. They were marriedon 7th January 1114. She was twelve and he was thirty-two. Unfortunatelythere were no children and on the Emperor's death in 1125, Matilda wasrecalled to her father's court.

Matilda's only legitimate brother had been killed in the disastrous Wreckof the White Ship in late 1120 and she was now her father's only hope forthe continuation of his dynasty. The barons swore allegiance to the youngPrincess and promised to make her queen after her father's death. Sheherself needed heirs though and in April 1127, Matilda found herselfobliged to marry Prince Geoffrey of Anjou and Maine (the future GeoffreyV, Count of those Regions). He was thirteen, she twenty-three. It isthought that the two never got on. However, despite this unhappysituation they had had three sons in four years.

Being absent in Anjou at the time of her father's death on 1st December1135, possibly due to pregnancy, Matilda was not in much of a position totake up the throne which had been promised her and she quickly lost outto her fast-moving cousin, Stephen. With her husband, she attempted totake Normandy. With encouragement from supporters in England though, itwas not long before Matilda invaded her rightful English domain and sobegan a long-standing Civil War from the powerbase of her half-brother,Robert of Gloucester, in the West Country.

After three years of armed struggle, she at last gained the upper hand atthe Battle of Lincoln, in February 1141, where King Stephen was captured.However, despite being declared Queen or "Lady of the English" atWinchester and winning over Stephen's brother, Henry of Blois, thepowerful Bishop of Winchester, Matilda alienated the citizens of Londonwith her arrogant manner. She failed to secure her coronation and theLondoners joined a renewed push from Stephen's Queen and laid siege tothe Empress in Winchester. She managed to escape to the West, but whilecommanding her rearguard, her brother was captured by the enemy.

Matilda was obliged to swap Stephen for Robert on 1st November 1141. Thusthe King soon reimposed his Royal authority. In 1148, after the death ofher half-brother, Matilda finally returned to Normandy, leaving her son,who, in 1154, would become Henry II, to fight on in England. She died atRouen on 10th September 1169 and was buried in Fontevrault Abbey, thoughsome of her entrails may possibly have been later interred in herfather's foundation at Reading Abbey

. Matilda (Maud the Empress). See below.

In addition to these legitimate births, Henry is reported to have hadnineteen or twenty illegitimate children, the highest number of spuriousoffspring for a King of England to have acknowledged. The best known ofthem all is Robert the Consul, Earl of Gloucester, father of Maud, wifeof Ranulph de Meschines, 2nd Earl of Chester. Another was Reginald, anatural son from a relationship between Henry I. of England and hismistress, Elizabeth Beaumont, daughter of Robert de Beaumont, Count ofMeulent and Earl of Leicester, (son of Roger de Beaumont and his wife,Adelina, Countess of Meulent) and his wife Elizabeth Vermandois, youngerdaughter of Hugh Magnus, the Great, of France, Count of Vermandois.Reginald, married Beatrix, daughter of William Fitz Richard, a potentlord in Cornwall. They had a daughter, Matilda, who married Robert, Countof Meulent, son of Waleran II., Count of Meulent, who married Agnes deMontfort. Waleran II. was a son of the aforementioned Robert Beaumont,and his wife, Elizabeth Vermandois. Robert and Matilda had two children:Waleran III. and Mabel de Beaumont, who married William de Vernon, Earlof Devon, who had three children: Baldwin, Mary Vernon and Joan. Theirdescendants are not identified.


Henry I. also married (2) Adeliza of Lorraine, daughter of GeoffreyBarbatus, Duke of Lorraine and Count of Barbant. Adeliza of Lorraine,upon the death of Henry I., married (2) William de Albini. See thecontinuation of that lineage under the Albini Line in Volume II.


12. Matilda (Maud the Empress) of England (1102-1167), was left the solelegitimate child of Henry I. by the loss of his son in the White Ship(1120). She married (1) Emperor Henry V, Emperor of Rome, and was crownedat Mainz (1114), but was widowed in 1125 and married (2) Geoffrey IV. leBel, Plantaganet, 10th Count of Anjou and Maine, Duke of Normandy, havingwon the Duchy from Stephen, son of Fulk V. the Younger, 9th Count ofAnjou, King of Jerusalem, and his wife, Ermengarde. See their ancestrallineage elsewhere in Vol. I. Her first husband was thirty years older,her second husband, ten years younger than herself. Henry made the baronsrecognize the Empress as his heir (1126, 1131, and 1133), but when hedied Stephen ignored her claim to rule England by hereditary right. TheNormans preferred his chivalrous geniality to her haughtiness and theydisliked the House of Anjou as much as they did the House of Blois, intowhich Stephen's mother, the Conqueror's daughter Adela, had married. TheEmpress appealed to the Pope in vain (1136) and Archbishop Thurstan ofYork defeated her uncle and champion, David I., King of Scotland(1084-1153) at the Battle of the Standard (1138); but at last she landedin England. Geoffrey was the original Plantaganet, so named by hiscompanions for the broom corn he wore on his person. Matilda and Geoffreyhad two sons as follows:


1. Henry II. See below.

2. Geoffrey, died in 1158.

It is through Geoffrey that the Plantaganet line from France was broughtinto the British royalty (see the lineage of the Counts of Anjouelsewhere). He died in 1151. After Geoffrey's death Matilda lived inNormandy, charitable and respected. Matilda died in 1167. Geoffrey wassucceeded by his eldest son, Henry.