She Wolves (10 page)

The Empress Matilda, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of Angouleme, Eleanor of Provence, Eleanor of Castile and Isabella of France were famous and powerful women in their own lifetimes. Although the recorded stories of their lives vary, they are mostly remembered for their political activities. For their contemporaries, women were not expected to seek any political role for themselves and so this was unacceptable. The conquest changed the role of queen because the empires of the Norman and Angevin kings required trustworthy regents. These were often queens who were consequently expected to take on a prominent political role. Society does not appear to have accepted this change and the political queens of the period will always be remembered as notorious. The period between the Norman conquest and the end of the fourteenth century saw some of the most notorious queens that England has ever produced and this is a direct reflection of the fact that they were also amongst the most powerful.

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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Matilda probably grieved for her husband when he died in May 1125.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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This oath was repeated at Northampton in 1131 with all the leading nobles of England agreeing to accept Matilda’s claim.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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:

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.
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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.
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Matilda 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.
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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:

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.
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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.
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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’.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Matilda quickly made the West Country her base, receiving homage there as queen and making laws and minting coins.
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She would always have been painfully aware, however, that she was not the only person claiming to rule England.