Page:The Queens of England.djvu/33

MATILDA OF SCOTLAND. 21 young children then ; and her domestic life was supremely happy. She was a devoted mother; her sons were instructed in all the learning of the day, and her only daughter was placed, as were the noble maidens of the time, in a royal convent for her education. As Matilda chose the same in which her own early years had been spent, the Abbess Christina was probably either dead or else now at peace with her royal niece ; and the queen had little fear of the same harsh rule being exercised towards her daughter as towards herself. After a short space of quiet, war broke out between Henry and his brother, but it was for the last time. A short but fearful struggle terminated by a battle fought in Normandy, which decided the fate of the unfortunate Robert. He was taken prisoner, with his only son William, and Edgar Atheling, who had clung to his friend of old time even though his faithfulness involved a contest with his own niece and her husband. Ma- tilda entreated for her uncle : and Henry, either touched by her prayers, or else thinking the weak but good-natured Edgar no dangerous foe, released the Saxon prince, and also freed young William of Normandy. But Duke Robert, whose restless and continual disputings excited the deepest hatred in his brother's heart, was sent to Cardiff Castle ; first as a sort of honorable captive, then as a prisoner of state, who was treated with the utmost rigor. At last, when there was no Matilda to plead for him, Robert perished by a violent and horrible death ; and even the suspicion that his brother was cognizant of the crime, casts a fearful shadow on the reign of Henry Beauclerc. When the royal prisoner was thus safe, there was peace for a long time in England. Henry and his queen pursued their efforts for the benefit of the country, and made progresses, with their children and suite, from province to province, visiting different noblemen, like our own Victoria, of whom, in her do- mestic character and relations, Matilda was the prototype. The palace at Windsor was erected by Henry, and first made a royal residence by his queen. Woodstock is also owing to them ; for Henry enclosed it as a sort of rude zoological garden, where he might indulge the royal hobby of keeping strange animals. So great was Henry's love for natural history, that he used to beg lions, tigers, and wolves of his' brother kings, with which inestimable presents he enriched his menagerie. The two surviving children of Henry and Matilda were betrothed when almost in infancy ; the princess to the Emperor of Germany, and Prince William to Alice of Anjou, whom he