Page:The Queens of England.djvu/53

MATILDA OF BOULOGNE. 41 sisters' children, and first cousins, opposing each other in civil warfare in a struggle for regal power. Very different in character, however, were those two noble princesses. The fierce, unbending, haughty temper of the Norman kings was developed in that of Matilda, the empress, while the more gentle and domestic virtues of the Saxon-de- scended queen won the homage of all without seeming to court it. Of the mother of Queen Matilda, the Countess of Boulogne, but little is recorded. In the year 11 15, after the nuptials of her daughter, she visited England, and while there was sud- denly taken ill and died in the Abbey of Bermondsey, to which she had been a great benefactress. The Latin verses on her tomb allude to her painful death and attest her noble character. King Henry presented his nephew Stephen, on his marriage, with a fortress in London, called the Tower-Royal, where he resided for some time with his young wife, and during their early union they became much endeared to the Londoners. Matilda, from the universal respect with which her father and uncles were regarded by the Christian world, was thought to have conferred great honor upon her husband by her alliance with the royal blood of England and Scotland ; and Stephen, who possessed great talents, a handsome person, and affable manners, while he rejoiced in the affections of his countess, obtained great popularity with the nation. Many instances, however of Stephen's infidelity have been recorded, which prove that this seemingly happy period had its trials for Ma- tilda ; among other rumors of this kind was that of the passion entertained by the haughty empress for her husband, which has been before alluded to. Another grief, too, had Matilda from the loss of her first two children in their infancy. They were both interred in the Priory of the Holy Trinity, Aldgate- without, and Matilda afterwards founded and endowed the Church and Hospital of St. Katherine by the Tower, in order that prayers should be offered there for their departed spirits. But these fond maternal regrets were stayed by the stirring events which ensued upon King Henry's death, and in which Matilda was compelled to take an active part. Stephen had been one of the foremost in the train of nobles who had sworn fealty to the empress, but when her father was no more, he was the first to desert her ; and if this princess really indulged a tender passion for him, bitter must have been