7
The Empress Matilda could have been the first ruling queen of England. This was certainly the cause to which she devoted her life. Apart from a few brief months of power, she was ultimately doomed to failure. By claiming the crown of England, Matilda thrust herself into a man’s world and she quickly discovered that very different standards were expected of women. Although Matilda enjoyed considerable success in her quest to win the crown of England, ultimately it was the way that her contemporaries perceived her character that led to disappointment. Matilda is remembered as a hard, proud and unwomanly queen and her ‘reign’ was used for over four hundred years as evidence for how women were not fit to rule. Crucially her contemporaries failed to understand that in seeking to claim the crown Matilda was trying to assert her rule because she was queen regnant, not simply a queen, and that such a role demanded the characteristics of a king. To be hard, proud and masculine were characteristics admired in a king but for Matilda as a woman they brought only criticism. Clearly, the characteristics deemed virtuous in a king could easily make a woman notorious, as Matilda found to her cost.
The Empress Matilda was forced by circumstances to enter a man’s world, but to begin with her life followed the pattern of a normal medieval princess. Matilda was born on 7 February 1102, the eldest child of Henry I and his wife, Matilda of Scotland.1 For a brief time in her infancy, therefore, she was actually heiress to England, although this changed the following year with the birth of a brother, William. No evidence survives of Matilda’s early childhood. She may have been raised by her mother and it is likely that Matilda of Scotland’s influence remained with her for the rest of her life. Many considered Henry’s marriage to the Scottish princess to have legitimised his kingship in England and, as the great-great niece of Edward the Confessor, Matilda of Scotland brought another element of royalty to the status of her daughter. She would also have provided a powerful role model to the young Matilda since she frequently ruled England as regent during Henry’s absences. Matilda of Scotland would also have been an important example to her daughter of how a woman might be able to hold and transfer a claim to the throne.
The young Matilda emerges suddenly from obscurity at the age of seven in 1109. In that year, the Germanic Emperor, Henry V, sent envoys to England to ask for the hand in marriage of Henry I’s only daughter, Matilda.2 This was a flattering offer and one that Matilda’s father leapt at, lavishing a rich dowry and train on his young daughter to prepare her for the marriage. The marriage negotiations moved quickly and early in 1110 Matilda left England accompanied by an Imperial escort.3 At the age of eight, Matilda must have been apprehensive about leaving home to marry a man old enough to be her father. She would have known that she was unlikely ever to return to her home and she never saw her mother again.
If Matilda was nervous about meeting her husband and adapting to life in the Germanic states, she was to prove more fortunate than many other medieval princesses. The Emperor, Henry V, was notorious across Europe for his part in the deposition and murder of his father. However, he proved himself to be a kind and loving husband to his little wife, apparently going through a wedding ceremony with Matilda upon her arrival in 1110, before sending her to be raised in a way fitting for a Germanic empress.4 Matilda must have been relieved to find her husband personable and she quickly adapted to Germanic ways. In 1114, when she was finally judged old enough for a full marriage, Henry and Matilda enjoyed a grand second wedding.5 The couple quickly became close and in 1116 they travelled to Rome together. Matilda remained in Italy after her husband left, ruling the kingdom as regent for two years and gaining her first experience of rulership.6 Matilda probably grieved for her husband when he died in May 1125.7 It is possible that the couple, who had appeared so mismatched at the start of their union, had grown to love each other; Matilda was popular with the Germanic peoples and retained a reputation for goodness for many years after she had left the empire.8
In 1125, Matilda was twenty-three years old and a childless widow. She had lived in the German Empire for most of her life and she must have been tempted to remain there, perhaps accepting one of the numerous offers of marriage that she received following her husband’s death.9 However circumstances conspired against her and soon after Henry V’s death, Matilda’s father sent an escort to bring her to Normandy. Her only brother, William, had drowned five years earlier and Henry I’s second marriage had proved barren, leaving Matilda, as Henry’s only legitimate child, of immeasurable value to him.
William of Malmesbury relates how Matilda was reluctant to leave the Germanic states when summoned and it is possible that she extracted a promise from Henry that she would be recognised as his heir if she agreed to his demands.10 Henry quickly set about establishing her as his heir, and, at Christmas 1127, everyone present at court was induced to swear allegiance to Matilda as heir to the throne.11 This oath was repeated at Northampton in 1131 with all the leading nobles of England agreeing to accept Matilda’s claim.12 Henry also set about arranging a second marriage for Matilda in the hope that she would provide him with grandsons to continue his line. Matilda must have realised that she would be required to marry again and she was given no more say in her second marriage than in her first.
Henry opened marriage negotiations for Matilda in early 1127 with the thirteen year-old son of the Count of Anjou, Geoffrey.13 Matilda was furious when she heard the news of the match her father had arranged for her. This is hardly surprising for, at twenty-five, Matilda was a mature woman, already widowed, and had been the wife of an emperor. She used her title of Empress until the end of her life and it was something of which she was justifiably proud. Matilda probably felt humiliated by the news that not only was she to marry a child, but the son of a mere count. The events surrounding Matilda’s second marriage give us the first hint of her fiery character. According to reports, she argued and fought against her father when she was informed, finally being locked in her room by her father until she gave in to his demands.14 This must have been deeply humiliating for Matilda, who took out her inevitable resentment on her young husband rather than her more intimidating father.
In June 1128 Matilda was forced to travel with her father to Normandy where she was married to Geoffrey. The first meeting between the couple cannot have been easy, and Matilda, probably still seething with resentment, made no effort with her young husband. She apparently disdained her husband for his youth and inferior rank; Geoffrey himself found her proud and frosty.15 He may also have been irked by her refusal, to the end of her life, to use the title of Countess of Anjou, instead favouring the title of her first husband.16 Given the circumstances in which Matilda’s consent for this marriage was obtained, Matilda’s behaviour is hardly surprising and Geoffrey was an entirely unsuitable husband for her. It was probably little surprise to anyone when the couple spent a difficult year together in Anjou following their marriage and, in June 1129, Matilda returned to her father in Normandy. It seems likely that after a year of childless and stormy marriage, both were hoping for a divorce and Matilda must have entreated her father to help end her unendurable marriage.
Henry, who had forced the marriage upon his daughter in the first place, was at a loss as to what to do with his determined daughter and allowed her to stay with him for two years. No moves seem to have been made towards a divorce and by 1131, both Henry and Geoffrey had decided that action was necessary. Henry of Huntingdon writes:
In the summer, Henry returned to England, bringing his daughter with him. There was a great assembly at Northampton at the Nativity of St Mary. All the leading men of England gathered there, and it was decided that his daughter should be restored to her husband, the Count of Anjou, who was asking for her. After this, the king’s daughter was sent to her husband, and was received with the pomp that befitted such a great heroine.17
By 1131, Geoffrey was older and more mature and he must have reasoned that marriage with the greatest heiress in Europe was worth having to put up with a haughty wife. Matilda may also have reasoned that she was unlikely to be provided with any husband other than Geoffrey and, approaching thirty, she was concerned at her lack of an heir. Certainly, both Geoffrey and Matilda seem to have been determined to try to make their marriage work and on 5 March 1133, Matilda gave birth to her first child, a healthy son whom she named Henry, after her father.18 Matilda wept throughout her son’s christening and she must have felt exonerated from the stigma of childlessness. A second son, Geoffrey, was born in 1134 and two years later Matilda bore a third son, William.19Matilda and Geoffrey seem to have felt that, with William’s birth, their family was complete and they ceased to live together, probably to both their relief.
If Matilda was pleased with the birth of her sons, her father, King Henry, was overjoyed and Matilda with her eldest two sons spent much time with him during the last years of his life.20 However the relationship between Matilda and her father does not appear to have mellowed and their relationship remained tempestuous. Henry of Huntingdon, for one, even suggests that Matilda’s behaviour was partly responsible for Henry’s sudden death on 1 December 1135:
In the thirty-fifth year, King Henry stayed on in Normandy. Several times he planned to return to England, but he did not do so, being detained by his daughter on account of various disputes, which arose on a number of issues, between the king and the Count of Anjou, due to the machinations of none other than the king’s daughter. The king was provoked by these irritations to anger and bitter ill-feeling, which was said by some to have been the origin of the chill in his bowels and later the cause of his death.21
The charge that Matilda contributed to her father’s death is unjustified. Matilda, as Henry’s heir, but Geoffrey’s wife, was in a difficult position and would have been expected to obey both men – an impossible task when they were in conflict. In leaving her father, Matilda was criticised when he died but, if she had stayed with her father, she would almost certainly have been accused of disobeying her husband. Despite the criticism of the chroniclers, Henry does not appear to have blamed Matilda and, as he lay dying, he confirmed to those present that he wished his daughter to succeed him.22
England had never had a female ruler before Matilda and Henry, aware of the difficulties that she would face, had tried to prepare the way for Matilda’s accession through requiring oaths in her favour from his court. One of the most prominent of the oath takers was Henry’s nephew, Stephen of Blois, who was the son of his sister Adela. In spite of his oaths in support of Matilda, Stephen appears to have had his eye on the English throne for some time and, as soon as word reached him of his uncle’s death, he hastened to England and had himself crowned king.23 News of Stephen’s actions caught Matilda by surprise and Stephen may have been the last person Matilda suspected of betraying her. Stephen appears to have been an affable man, with one chronicler praising him as ‘rich and at the same time unassuming, generous, courteous; moreover, in all the conflicts of war or in any siege of his enemies, bold and brave, judicious and patient’.24 Stephen and Matilda may have been closer than usual for cousins and a legend exists that Matilda’s eldest son, Henry, was the product of an adulterous affair between them.25 If so Stephen’s betrayal would have been doubly hard for Matilda to accept. However, once again, it would seem that this story was an invention designed to blacken Matilda’s name rather than represent the truth. Certainly, Geoffrey never seems to have doubted that Henry was his child and Matilda later displayed a savagery towards Stephen that belied any proximity between them. Stephen’s betrayal must have deeply angered Matilda, but there was little she could do. At the time of her father’s death she was expecting her third son and unable to return to England to personally claim the crown. All she could do in 1135 was occupy a small number of castles in Normandy and allow Stephen to consolidate his position almost unopposed.
In spite of Stephen’s actions, Matilda was not prepared to simply return to Anjou and forget her grand inheritance. It was for England and Normandy that she had consented to leave her comfortable life in the Germanic states and she was not prepared to relinquish her royal prerogative. She was, however, forced to bide her time whilst Stephen enjoyed an initial surge of popularity in England. By 1138 certain English lords had tired of Stephen’s rule and once again began looking to Matilda. In that year her illegitimate half-brother, Robert, Earl of Gloucester came to her in Normandy and offered his help in securing the English crown.26 Earl Robert was one of the most powerful lords in England and Matilda was eager to receive his help, sailing with her brother to England in October 1139.27 Matilda went directly to Arundel Castle, which was being held by her stepmother, Queen Adeliza. There she was besieged by Stephen who eventually however was true to his affable and often foolish nature. He was persuaded to allow Matilda to leave and travel to her brother’s supporters at Bristol.28 Matilda quickly made the West Country her base, receiving homage there as queen and making laws and minting coins.29 She would always have been painfully aware, however, that she was not the only person claiming to rule England.
Matilda’s return to England sparked a civil war that would last for the next fifteen years. Although Matilda never led an army, she was probably intimately involved in planning her campaign. It seems likely that Matilda hoped for a swift campaign and, according to John of Worcester, she was ‘ecstatic’ in early 1141 when she heard that Stephen had been captured by her supporters at Lincoln.30 Stephen was brought to Matilda at Bristol and she must have felt that the crown was finally within her grasp.31 Certainly, many of Stephen’s supporters made their peace with the Empress and Stephen’s own brother, the Bishop of Winchester, became an important supporter. The Bishop of Winchester was also the papal legate in England and his support was essential in establishing Matilda’s rule in England. She travelled to see him at Winchester soon after Stephen’s capture and the pair made a pact. According to the Gesta Stephani:
When they had jointly made a pact of peace and concord he [Winchester] came to meet her in cordial fashion and admitted her into the city of Winchester, and after handing over to her disposal the king’s castle and the royal crown, which she had always eagerly desired, and the treasure the king had left there, though it was very scanty, he bade the people, at a public meeting in the market-place of the town, salute her as their lady and their queen.32
On that day in Winchester, Matilda was accepted as England’s first reigning queen. This was her greatest moment of triumph. However it is also at this time that many sources begin to turn overtly hostile towards Matilda and this sudden unpopularity is often attributed to her conduct as queen.
The Gesta Stephani describes how following her accession Matilda quickly showed herself to be capricious and headstrong.33 Stephen’s wife, Matilda of Boulogne, came to Matilda personally and begged for the release of her husband in order that he could live quietly in retirement with her.34 Instead of heeding the woman’s pleas, Matilda abused her in ‘harsh and insulting language’, causing Stephen’s wife to take up arms on her husband’s behalf.35 Regardless of any promises he made to her, it is to be expected that Matilda would not have willingly released Stephen, a known oath-breaker, from captivity. There is no doubt that this source, which is a life of King Stephen, was deeply biased. However, this and other charges of arrogance may have thwarted her attempts to fully establish herself in 1141. In the sources Matilda ungraciously received those lords who had supported Stephen, even though they came offering their allegiance and this may well have caused these men to turn once again to Stephen.36 Even more damningly, she apparently began to behave in a proud and disdainful manner towards even her own most loyal supporters. In the Gesta Stephani she insisted on remaining seated even when her greatest supporters King David of Scotland, Robert of Gloucester or the Bishop of Winchester entered, requesting them to kneel in her presence.37 Furthermore she:
Repeatedly sent them away contumely, rebuffing them by an arrogant answer and refusing to hearken to their words; and by this time she no longer relied on their advice, as she should have, and had promised them, but arranged everything as she herself thought fit and according to an arbitrary will.38
As a reigning queen, Matilda was in a difficult position. It was natural for the monarch to receive supporters on bent knee while remaining seated, and to expect to rule themselves rather than be ruled. It is certainly hard to imagine Matilda’s grandfather, William the Conqueror, for example, receiving criticism for similar behaviour and a kingly manner in male rulers was praised. However, as a woman, any attempt by Matilda to behave in the manner of a ruler was seen as both unwomanly and insufferably arrogant. Matilda’s understandable attempts assert her authority as a monarch therefore damned her queenship in the eyes of her contemporaries It was accusations of arrogance that led to the ultimate loss of all she had won in England.
Although she had been recognised as ruler in England in 1141, Matilda still needed to be crowned to ensure her position. She therefore travelled to London soon after her meeting with the Bishop of Winchester, to prepare for her coronation and consequent formal recognition as queen. London had been loyal to Stephen throughout the early years of the civil war and Matilda must have realised that she faced a struggle to win the Londoners’ support. However most sources claim that instead of approaching the situation in a conciliatory manner Matilda stormed into the city and alienated the population almost immediately. For example in the Gesta Stephani, Matilda arrived in London with an army, but was welcomed by the Londoners, anxious to create good relations with their new queen.39 Matilda was in no mood to be sympathetic to the supporters of her enemy and demanded large amounts of money from the city. When the Londoners aswered that they could not pay, Matilda acted in the following way:
With a grim look, her forehead wrinkled into a frown, every trace of a woman’s gentleness removed from her face, she blazed into unbearable fury, saying that many times the people of London had made a very large contribution to the king, that they had lavished their wealth on strengthening him and weakening her.40
Matilda was justified in pointing out that the Londoners had spent all their funds for the sake of a usurper. Kings were expected to display fortitude and Stephen for example was often criticised for being too soft on his enemies. Matilda, however, could never be a king in the eyes of her contemporaries and to the churchmen who recorded history she was dangerously unwomanly. The Londoners were probably also seeking any excuse to abandon their new queen and Matilda’s reply to them was not the most tactful. Her behaviour certainly alienated the Londoners and the city’s leaders instead joined with Stephen’s wife, who was busy raising an army in Kent.41 Matilda does not appear to have noticed the increasing ill feeling towards her in London and continued making the arrangements for her coronation. Her likely opinion was that she was acting exactly as a ruler should. Nevertheless this behaviour in a queen was unacceptable in a male-dominated society.
Matilda’s relationship with the Londoners became apparent one day as she was sitting down to have dinner at her base outside the city walls.42 According to the Gesta Stephani, suddenly:
The whole city, with the bells ringing everywhere as the signal for battle, flew to arms, and all, with the common purpose of making a most savage attack on the Countess [Matilda] and her men, unbarred the gates and came out in a body, like thronging swarms from beehives.43
Matilda was apparently caught completely unawares by this dramatic assault on her camp and was forced to flee the city, leaving her belongings to be plundered.44 Matilda’s expulsion from London signalled the end of her hopes of a coronation and soon after she had gone Stephen’s queen took possession of the city for the king. In retaliation, Matilda ordered Stephen to be placed in chains in his dungeon.45
Although Matilda had suffered a setback at the hands of the Londoners, Stephen was her prisoner and she could still lay a claim to the title of ‘Lady of the English’. She must have been angered to hear that soon after the fall of London, the Bishop of Winchester also abandoned her cause. Matilda and her supporters moved quickly to Winchester and besieged the bishop in his castle.46 This proved to be the greatest mistake of Matilda’s brief reign. Hearing of the bishop’s situation, Stephen’s wife mustered a force of Londoners and rushed to attack the besiegers.47 Matilda was able to flee but her half-brother, and most important supporter, Robert of Gloucester, was captured by Stephen’s queen.48 For all the accusations of arrogance against Matilda, she recognised the fact that she relied on her brother and he was ransomed for Stephen in November 1141, bringing Matilda’s reign to an end.49
In spite of Stephen’s release and re-establishment as king, Matilda did not end her campaign to win the English throne and she returned to the West Country to gather her forces, still determined to assert her authority as queen. Stephen was equally determined to capture his rival. In September 1142 Matilda found herself besieged in Oxford Castle.50 Matilda had no intention of surrendering to her cousin and it was during the siege that she showed something of her courage and determination. A number of sources state how Matilda decided to make her escape one snowy December night. Dressed in white as camouflage against the snow, Matilda and three knights left the castle, sneaking through the ranks of the besiegers.51 This journey must have been an ordeal for the whole group and they walked six miles through the snow to Wallingford, crossing the frozen River Thames on foot.
Matilda must have been relieved to return to the relative safety of her own territory in the West Country and she would have been cheered by the arrival soon after her escape from Oxford of her eldest son, Henry.52. Henry was still too young to play an active role in the campaign but as Matilda’s heir his presence must have boosted morale amongst Matilda’s supporters. By the late 1140s, Henry was almost an adult and Matilda appears to have decided that it was time to pass her claim on to the next generation. In 1148, she left England for the last time and sailed to Normandy, where she would remain for the rest of her life. She probably followed the course of Henry’s wars in England closely and must have felt triumphant when, on 6 November 1153, Henry was finally recognised as heir to the throne by Stephen.53 She must also have felt that her activities in England were vindicated when on the death of Stephen just under a year later Henry was proclaimed King of England. Remembering her own problematic relationship with England however, Matilda acted wisely and did not attend Henry’s coronation in England.
Matilda lived out the rest of her life in Rouen, effectively ruling Normandy as an unofficial regent for her son.54 She remained a strong influence over her son until her death and she must have felt proud of all she had done to secure the throne of England for him. We can speculate that Matilda privately regretted that she had been unable to secure her own coronation. According to one chronicler, ‘she was swollen with insufferable pride by her success in war, and alienated the affections of nearly everyone’.55 Perhaps in her old age she came to regret the way she behaved when the crown was within her grasp but realistically it is doubtful that she could have acted in any other way. The facts of Matilda’s life proved clearly that a woman could not be both a queen regnant and enjoy a spotless reputation. Matilda found herself in a unique position as a female claimant to the throne and she discovered, to her cost, that women were simply not expected to behave in the same way as men.
Matilda died on 10 September 1167 at the venerable age of sixty-five. Her attempts to fulfill what was considered a man’s role wrecked her reputation and she remains notorious today. For four hundred years after her death her story was held up to demonstrate the dangers of female rule and even today she is portrayed as an unnatural and unwomanly figure. The actions of Empress Matilda have been damned through allegations of arrogance and pride. In the twelfth century, England was simply not ready for a reigning queen and, in the end, the best Matilda could do was keep the voice of legitimacy alive long enough for her son to grow into a man and claim the throne. As a queen regnant, Matilda was unable to rule through a male relative, at least nominally, and was therefore held up as an oddity and an unnatural woman. This is a view that still persists and the her name will always bear this notoriety. This can also be seen with the reputation of Matilda’s daughter-in-law and contemporary, the famous Eleanor of Aquitaine.