Empress Matilda

Matilda of England (1102–67), was the daughter of Henry I of England and granddaughter of William the Conqueror; her first marriage to the German Henry V made her Holy Roman Empress in 1114. Widowed and childless in 1125, Matilda returned to England. After her brother William perished in the wreck of the White Ship, her father named Matilda his heir to the English throne and the Duchy of Normandy, forcing all the Anglo-Norman barons and clergy to swear fealty to her. He then arranged her marriage to Geoffrey of Anjou, by whom she had three sons, Henry (later Henry II), Geoffrey, and William.

On the death of her father she was in Anjou, and Henry I's nephew Stephen of Blois seized the throne; Matilda invaded England in 1139. The civil war that followed was bitter and prolonged, with neither side prevailing. In 1148, Matilda returned to Normandy, but her son Henry took over the campaign for England, and in the 1153 Treaty of Wallingford, Stephen acknowledged Henry as his heir. Matilda spent her final years in Normandy presiding over the duchy in her son's absence. She died in 1167 and was buried in the abbey church of Bec-Hellouin.

Matilda was the first female ruler of the Kingdom of England, although she ruled only briefly and remained uncrowned. Matilda had dynastic claims to the English throne from both sides as the only living legitimate child of Henry I and his wife, Matilda of Scotland. Her failure to secure that throne for herself can be attributed to a number of factors. Her father obtained oaths of allegiance to his daughter from all his bishops and magnates in 1127 to defend her against all others if she outlived her father and he left no legitimate son. However, many reneged on these oaths when Stephen presented himself as an alternative. The Church (including Pope Innocent II), nobles, and people believed only a male ruler could reestablish authority.

Furthermore, the popular view of women as “daughters of Eve,” promoted by the church of medieval Europe as part of a tradition stretching back to the Greeks and Romans, was that women were “bearers of evil,” rebels, treacherous, and vindictive. The chroniclers paint a picture of Matilda as keenly conscious of her high status as empress, [Page 349]and as behaving autocratically. Although the same could be said of both her father and her eldest son, in her this aroused more hostility because of the “feminine softness” it was said she lacked. She made some crucial errors of judgement, but she did not act arbitrarily or alone. Once she accepted what was possible for a woman claimant to the throne of England in the feudal society of the 12th century, when rules of inheritance were in flux and the success of a putative heir depended on quick action and armed force, she worked with a courage and fortitude that were praised even by her enemies to secure the throne for her son. Medieval society was held together by gendered hierarchies that placed women of all social classes outside the formal and public realms of royal politics and government. Much greater leeway was granted to a royal mother, and it was in that role, rather than on her own behalf, that Matilda finally triumphed.

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