Matilda PRINCESS OF ENGLAND

1102 - 1167  (65 years)

• Name	Matilda PRINCESS OF ENGLAND
  Nickname	Maud
  Born	7 Feb 1102	Winchester, Hampshire, England
  Gender	Female
  Buried	Sep 1167	Rouen Cathedral, Rouen, France
  Died	10 Sep 1167	Abbey de Notre Dame, Rouen, Seine-Maritime, France
  Person ID	I5734	adkinshorton
  Last Modified	2 Jan 2013

  
  

  Father	Henry I 'Beauclerc' KING OF ENGLAND,   b. Sep 1068, Selby, Yorkshire, England ,   d. 1 Dec 1135, St. Denis-le-Fermont, Near Gisors, France  (Age ~ 67 years)
  Mother	Matilda OF SCOTLAND,   b. 1 Jun 1079, Dunfermline Abbey, Fife, Scotland ,   d. 1 May 1118, Westminster Palace, London, Greater London, England  (Age 38 years)
  Married	11 Nov 1100	Westminster Abbey, London, Greater London, England
  Family ID	F25188	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Geoffrey V "the Fair" PLANTAGENET, Count of Anjou,   b. 24 Aug 1113, Anjou, Pays-de-la-Loire, France ,   d. 7 Sep 1151, Chateau-dut-Loire, France  (Age 38 years)
  Married	22 May 1128	Cathedral of St. Julian of Le Mans, Le Mans, Sarthe, Pays de la Loire, France
  Children	+ 1. Henry II 'Curtmantle' PLANTAGENET, King of England,   b. 25 Mar 1133, Le Mans, Sarthe, Pays de la Loire, France ,   d. 6 Jul 1189, Chinon Castle, Chinon, Indre-Et-Loire, France  (Age 56 years)   2. Geoffrey VI D'ANJOU,   b. 1 Jun 1134,   d. 26 Jul 1158, Nantes, Brittany, France  (Age 24 years)   3. William Plantagenet OF ENGLAND,   b. 1136,   d. 30 Jan 1164, Rouen, Normandy, France  (Age 28 years)
  Family ID	F25175	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  Matilda is the Latin form of Maud, who was the only surviving legitimate child of King Henry I. In something of a political coup for her father, Matilda was betrothed to the German Emperor, Henry V, when she was only eight. They were married on 7 January 1114. She was twelve and he was thirty-two. Unfortunately there were no children and on the Emperor's death in 1125, Matilda was recalled to her father's court. Matilda's only legitimate brother had 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 barons swore allegiance to the young Princess and promised to make her queen after her father's death. But she needed heirs and in April 1127, Matilda found herself obliged to marry Prince Georffrey of Anjou and Maine. He was thirteen and she twenty-three. It is thought that the two never got on. However, despite this unhappy situation, they had three sons in four years. Matilda was absent in Anjou at the time of her father's death on 1 December 1135, possibly due to pregnancy. Matilda 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 husband, she attempted to take Normandy. With encouragement from supporters in England though, it was not long before Matilda invaded her rightful England domain and so began a long-standing Civil War from the power base of her half-brother, Robert of Gloucester, in the West Country. After three years of armed struggle, she at last gained the upper hand at the Battle of Lincoln, in February 1141, where King Stephen was captured. However, despite being declared Queen or "Lady of the English" at Winchester and winning over Stephen's brother, Henry of Blois, the powerful Bishop of Winchester, Matilda alienated the citizens of London with her arrogant manner. She failed to secure her coronation and the Londoners joined a renewed push from Stephen's Queen and laid seige to the Empress in winchester. She managed to escape to the West, but while commanding her rear guard, her brother was captured by the enemy. Matilda was obliged to swap Stephen for robert on 1st November 1141. Thus the King soon 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 the 10th of September 1169 and was buried in Fontevrault Abbey. Matilda (Maud the Empress) of England (1102-1167), was left the sole legitimate 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 crowned at Mainz (1114), but was widowed in 1125 and married (2) Geoffrey IV. le Bel, Plantaganet, 10th Count of Anjou and Maine, Duke of Normandy, having won the Duchy from Stephen, son of Fulk V. the Younger, 9th Count of Anjou, King of Jerusalem, and his wife, Ermengarde. See their ancestral lineage elsewhere in Vol. I. Her first husband was thirty years older, her second husband, ten years younger than herself. Henry made the barons recognize the Empress as his heir (1126, 1131, and 1133), but when he died Stephen ignored her claim to rule England by hereditary right. The Normans preferred his chivalrous geniality to her haughtiness and they disliked the House of Anjou as much as they did the House of Blois, into which Stephen's mother, the Conqueror's daughter Adela, had married. The Empress appealed to the Pope in vain (1136) and Archbishop Thurstan of York defeated her uncle and champion, David I., King of Scotland (1084-1153) at the Battle of the Standard (1138); but at last she landed in England. Geoffrey was the original Plantaganet, so named by his companions for the broom corn he wore on his person.