Page:The Queens of England.djvu/19

MATILDA OF FLANDERS. 9 misery, so affected the queen, that she sank into a lingering illness, which ended in her death. On the first tidings of her sickness, the king hastened to Normandy, and arrived in time to see her expire, on the 2d of November, 1084, in the seventeenth year of the Conqueror's reign. The death of Matilda caused the sincerest grief to her husband; he wept bitterly, and even renounced his favorite amusement of hunting. He had, in, fact, ever evinced toward her the sincerity of friendship as well as the most devoted affection. The old chronicles assure us that "the counsels of Matilda more than once tempered the harsh and cruel dis- position of the Conqueror toward his English subjects, and inclined him to clemency; but that after her death William gave himself up wholly to his tyrannical temper." The four years which he survived her were to him years of trouble and anxiety. Notwithstanding the occasional causes of displeasure which the queen gave her husband, she enjoyed a state of much conjugal felicity with him during thirty-three years, and brought him four sons and five daughters. Of the former, Richard died during his father's lifetime, Robert was Duke of Normandy, and William Rufus and Henry successively mounted the throne of England. Of the daughters, Caroline became Abbess of the Church of the Holy Trinity at Caen, Constance married the Duke of Bretagne, Margaret died young, Alice was united to the Earl of Blois, and Eleanor to the King of Navarre. The remains of Queen Matilda were interred in the abbey of the Holy Trinity at Caen, which she had herself erected. A magnificent monument was raised to her memory, and an epitaph in Latin verse, emblazoned in gold letters, set forth her high descent, marriage, and noble qualities. Her estates and property, which were inconsiderable, became the property of her son Henry. Old historians all agree in the character of this queen ; that she was amiable, accomplished, refined in manners, and remark- able for her learning ; which last seems proved by her patron- age of learned establishments. She was the founder of many charitable institutions, where the hungry were fed, the naked clothed, and where the weary pilgrim was sheltered. -Hers was not alone a charity of words, but of deeds.