A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Matilda
MATILDA (THE EMPRESS).
On the death of Prince William, only son of Henry I, king of England, the latter had no legitimate issue, except his daughter Matilda, whom he had betrothed when a child to the emperor Henry V. who also dying without children, the king gave his daughter to Geoffry Plantagenet, eldest son of the count of Anjou, and endeavoured to secure her succession, by having her recognized heiress to all his dominions; and obliged the barons, both of Normandy and England, to swear fealty to her. After six years, A. D. 1133, she was delivered of a son, and the king, farther to ensure the succession, made all the nobility renew the oath of fealty, which they had already sworn to her, to her son.
Matilda was dear to the English, as being descended from their Saxon kings by Matilda of Scotland, her mother; and to the Anglo-Normans, as the grand-daughter of William the conqueror. Dear as this daughter was to Henry, he had hastened to sacrifice her in marriage to Geoffy, to whom she had personal repugnance, as her proud spirit could ill brook the change. The birth of her son was preceded by quarrels and reconciliation between her and Geoffry, who was of a cold and slow nature. She had quitted her husband and followed her father into England. Geoffry wished to make Henry purchase the liberty of his daughter: he demanded either her or Normandy; and Matilda was sent back to him. A year after Henry II. was born, and she had soon two others, Geoffry and William.
The joy of this event, and the pleasure of his daughter's company, made Henry take up his residence in Normandy, the education of her children being his only business, where he died 1135, leaving his daughter heiress of all his dominions; and, from the steps which had been taken to secure her inheritance, she had reason to expect to succeed to both. But the aversion of the feudal barons to female succession prevailed over their good faith, and made way for Stephen of Blois, grandson of William the first, by his daughter Adela, who accordingly usurped the sceptre. But her uncle David, king of Scotland, who at first was a competitor, appeared in her defence, 1138, at the head of a considerable army, penetrated as far as Yorkshire, and laid the whole country waste. These barbarous outrages enraged the Northern nobility, who might otherwise have been inclined to join him, and proved fatal to Matilda's cause. The earl of Albemarle, and other powerful nobles, assembled a great army, gave battle to and routed the Scots with great slaughter, and their king narrowly escaped.
Stephen, however, believing his throne secure, engaged in a contest with the clergy; and Matilda, encouraged by the discontents it occasioned, and invited by the malcontents, landed in England, accompanied by Robert, earl of Gloucester, natural son of the late king, and a retinue of one hundred and forty knights. She fixed her residence at Arundel Castle, whose gates were opened to her by Adelais, the queen dowager, now married to William de Albini, earl of Sussex. Her party daily increased; she was joined by several barons: war raged in every quarter of the kingdom, and a grievous famine desolated the land.
But in the year 1141, the royal army was defeated, Stephen taken prisoner, and Matilda declared queen; but she abused her good fortune by cruelly loading him with chains in his prison, and when his wife made an offer of renouncing the crown, his leaving the kingdom, or even retiring into a convent, if they exacted it, to recover his liberty, she received her with scorn. She had indeed reason to be diffident of the oath he offered to take, as he had already broken very sacred ones, as well as the ties of gratitude. The bishop of Winchester, who offered himself as guarantee of these promises, indignant at her rigour, turned secretly to his brother; and the inhabitants of London, excited by him, demanded of Matilda the amelioration of the tyrannic laws imposed by the Norman princes. This was far less than they had exacted from Stephen; but the hard despotism of her forefathers was wedded to her heart, and she refused them with firmness. The people gave a cry of indignation, and the bishop of Winchester brought forward Eustace, the son of Stephen, at the head of a party of the revolted. They thought to have susprised her in London, from whence she escaped with difficulty, and where her goods were pillaged, and her name covered with opprobrium by the populace. They pursued her from city to city, and it was only by favour of a thousand disguises, by undergoing a thousand fatigues, that she at last arrived in a place of security. In passing from Devizes to Glocester, in the middle of a country occupied by her enemies, she was obliged to put herself into a bier, and be conducted by her guards, disguised as priests. During this perilous flight, she was accompanied by the king of Scotland; but her most faithful and valiant defender, Robert, earl of Glocester, wishing to retard the pursuers, was taken, and every method practised to entice him to leave her party; but he remained faithful, and at last was exchanged for Stephen, Matilda did not lose hope, when she had recovered her champion. She tried to persuade her husband to pass the sea to succour her; he, who had more ambition than activity, wished first to confer with the duke of Glocester, who would not leave England while Matilda was in danger, and perhaps this was what Geoffry wished. But after, by his bravery and good conduct, having a little assured the fate of Matilda, he hastened into Normandy, to shew Plantagenet the necessity of his coming to head the party of his wife; but this indolent prince still alledged excuses, and the earl at last ceased to press it, and only demanded his son, which was granted, and the young Henry from that moment began his career of glory. They found Matilda besieged in the castle of Oxford by Stephen. But whilst they attempted her deliverance by force of arms, they learned she had escaped. Accustomed to disguises and peril, she had imagined a new stratagem, which had succeeded. The river was frozen, the country covered with snow. So rude a season made the assailants relax in their vigilance; Matilda, who had remarked it, went out in the night, dressed in white, with four knights who accompanied her; so that they could not easily be distinguished. She crossed the river, walked to the town of Abingdon, from whence she was transported to Wallingford. She forgot all her perils and fatigues in finding again her brother and her son; but her good fortune became soon again inconstant, and the earl of Glocester dying, she was obliged to quit England; from whence her son was also recalled by his father.
Henry, with whom all seemed to succeed, at length came over, and reduced Stephen to the necessity of making an agreement, by which he secured the crown during his own life, but left the succession to him. It is pretended that Matilda persuaded Stephen to this treaty, in recalling to his mind, in a private conference, that they were formerly lovers, and that this Henry, whom he persecuted, was his own son. There seems, however, little or no room for this supposition.
The weakness of both parties at last produced a tacit Cessation of arms, and the empress Matilda retired into Normandy. But an event soon happened, which threatened the revival of hostilities in England, Prince Henry had reached his sixteenth year, and was anxious to receive the honour of knighthood from his uncle, the king of Scotland. For this purpose he passed through England with a great retinue, and was visited by the most considerable of his partizans, whose hopes he roused by his dexterity in all manly exercises, and his prudence in every occurrence. He staid some time in Scotland, where he increased in reputation; and on his return to Normandy, was invested with that duchy with the consent of his mother. His father died the following year, 1151.
Stephen dying soon after, Matilda ceded to her son the right of reigning, reserving only that of aiding him by her councils. Instructed by experience of the sorrows of ambition, and the nothingness of grandeur, she consecrated herself to penitence, virtue, and beneficence.
She saw through the character of Becket, and opposed the king's making him archbishop of Canterbury. But so well known was her probity and knowledge, that even the pope and the archbishop solicited her mediation in their subsequent quarrels; but she died during the contest.
She is called by Lyttleton the greatest lady that Europe had ever seen, empress of Germany by her first marriage, countess of Anjou, Touraine, and Maine by her second, and, by the will of her father, duchess of Normandy and queen of England. Yet she was more truly great in the latter part of her life, when she acted only as a subject, under the reign of her son, than at the time she beheld king Stephen her prisoner, and England at her feet. The violence of her temper and pride, inflamed by success, then dishonoured her character, and made her appear to her friends, as well as her enemies, unworthy of the dominion to which she was exalted: but from the instructions of adversity, age, and reflection, she learned the virtues she most wanted, moderation and mildness. These, joined to the elevation and vigour of her mind, enabled her to become a most useful counsellor and minister to her son, in the affairs of his government, which for some time past had been her sole ambition. There is not in all history another example of a woman who had possessed such high dignities, and encountered such perils for the sake of maintaining her power, being afterwards content to give it up, and, without forsaking the world, live quietly in it; neither mixing in cabals against the state, nor aspiring to rule it beyond that limited province which was particularly assigned to her administration. Such a conduct was meritorious in the highest degree, and more than atoned for all the errors of her former behaviour.
Camden says of her, "She intituled herself empress and Augusta, for that she was thrice solemnly crowned at Rome, as R. de Diceto testitieth, and Anglorum Domina, because she was heir apparent to the crowne of England. She was very happy in her poet, who in these two several verses, contained her princely parentage, match, and issue:
Magna orta, majorque viro, sed maxima partu:
Hic jacet Henrici filia, sponsa, parens.
Great in her birth, greater in her marriage, greatest in her issue-
Here lieth the daughter, wife, and mother of Henries.
Lyttleton's Life of Henry II.; Modern History;
Rivalité de la France et de l'Angleterre, &c.