Matilda

Matilda was born in 1102, a fact that was probably only noted because of the presence of her twin brother, William. Regardless of the attitudes of the various chroniclers, it was to be Matilda who was to prove the more significant twin. Of course this only came about after the death of William in 1120. Matilda was the daughter of HenryI and his first wife, Matilda.

In 1110, at the age of eight, Matilda was sent to Germany, where she was to marry the Emperor - a significant coup for the English royal family, but it is unlikely that Matilda understood the true importance of her role in promoting her family's interests. She seems, however to have adapted to her role, and appears to have had a reasonably happy marriage to Emperor Henry IV, until his death in May of 1125. Had she borne the Emperor a son, her role in Germany would have been assured, but her amrriage to the Emperor had been childless, so she was summoned back to England by her father, who appears to have decided to name her as his heir.

The idea of a queen in her own right was not totally unprecedented, but it may as well have been, so it unlikely that Henry truly believed that she would succeed him. He may have been using her presence primarily to reassure the barony that he had provided for the future, while he sought to produce a better choice within the confines of his second marriage.

In the meantime, Henry treated Matilda as any sensible father of the time would have, he used her as a bargaining counter with the Count of Anjou, who had been causing him difficulties on the southern borders of Normandy. She was married, in 1128 to Geoffrey, the son of Fulk of Anjou, and then aged 14. It is unlikely that Geoffrey would ever have been accepted as king, or even prince-consort by the large majority of the English and Norman barony. The English would have rejected him for being French, being French already being a problem when they chose it to be, and the Normans would definitely have reacted badly to being ruled by one of their traditional enemies, an Angevian. So it appears that even after seven childless years, Henry was still confident that his second marriage would yet yield him a male heir.

In the event, it did not, and on his deathbed in 1135, Henry was forced to confirm Matilda as his chosen successor.

However, events then escaped from Matilda. While she was in Angers, with her husband when her father died, her cousin, Stephen was in London, and he was able to have himself crowned as king before she could even leave the continent.

Despite never being able to truly wrest the crown from Stephen's grasp, Matilda did eventually emerge victorious, with her son Henry II succeeding Stephen in 1154.

timn_from_oz

© 1997 t.neame@trl.telstra.com.au

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