General Notes

REFN: 1387AN
Alias:<ALIA> /Adelaide/
REFN: P1387
Empress Matilda (1141 AD)
Matilda is the Latin form of Maud, and the name of the only surviving
legitimate child of K ing Henry I. She was born in 1101, generally it is
said at Winchester, but re cent research indicates that she was actually
born at the Royal Palace in Sut ton Courtenay (Berkshire).
In something of a political coup for her father, Ma tilda was betrothed to
the German Emperor, Henry V, when she was only eight. They were married
on 7th January 1114. She was twelve and he was thirty-two. Unfortunately
there were no children and on the Emperor's death in 1125, Mati lda was
recalled to her father's court.
Matilda's only legitimate brother ha d been killed in the disastrous Wreck
of the White Ship in late 1120 and she was now her father's only hope for
the continuation of his dynasty. The baron s swore allegiance to the young
Princess and promised to make her queen after her father's death. She
herself needed heirs though and in April 1127, Matil da found herself
obliged to marry Prince Geoffrey of Anjou and Maine (the fut ure Geoffrey
V, Count of those Regions). He was thirteen, she twenty-three. I t is
thought that the two never got on. However, despite this unhappy
situa tion they had had three sons in four years.
Being absent in Anjou at the time of her father's death on 1st December
1135, possibly due to pregnancy, Matild a was not in much of a position to
take up the throne which had been promised her and she quickly lost out
to her fast-moving cousin, Stephen. With her hu sband, she attempted to
take Normandy. With encouragement from supporters in England though, it
was not long before Matilda invaded her rightful English d omain and so
began a long-standing Civil War from the powerbase of her half-b rother,
Robert of Gloucester, in the West Country.
After three years of arme d struggle, she at last gained the upper hand at
the Battle of Lincoln, in Fe bruary 1141, where King Stephen was captured.
However, despite being declared Queen or "Lady of the English" at
Winchester and winning over Stephen's brot her, Henry of Blois, the
powerful Bishop of Winchester, Matilda alienated the citizens of London
with her arrogant manner. She failed to secure her corona tion and the
Londoners joined a renewed push from Stephen's Queen and laid si ege to
the Empress in Winchester. She managed to escape to the West, but whil e
commanding her rearguard, her brother was captured by the enemy.
Matilda w as obliged to swap Stephen for Robert on 1st November 1141. Thus
the King soo n reimposed his Royal authority. In 1148, after the death of
her half-brother , Matilda finally returned to Normandy, leaving her son,
who, in 1154, would become Henry II, to fight on in England. She died at
Rouen on 10th September 1169 and was buried in Fontevrault Abbey, though
some of her entrails may pos sibly have been later interred in her
father's foundation at Reading Abbey
. Matilda (Maud the Empress). See below.
In addition to these legitimate births , Henry is reported to have had
nineteen or twenty illegitimate children, the highest number of spurious
offspring for a King of England to have acknowled ged. The best known of
them all is Robert the Consul, Earl of Gloucester, fat her of Maud, wife
of Ranulph De Meschines, 2nd Earl of Chester. Another was R eginald, a
natural son from a relationship between Henry I. of England and hi s
mistress, Elizabeth Beaumont, daughter of Robert De Beaumont, Count of
Me ulent and Earl of Leicester, (son of Roger De Beaumont and his wife,
Adelina, Countess of Meulent) and his wife Elizabeth Vermandois, younger
daughter of Hugh Magnus, the Great, of France, Count of Vermandois.
Reginald, married Bea trix, daughter of William Fitz Richard, a potent
lord in Cornwall. They had a daughter, Matilda, who married Robert, Count
of Meulent, son of Waleran II., Count of Meulent, who married Agnes de
Montfor.