In a new assessment of Empress Matilda, Elisabeth van Houts argues that she should be remembered not for a failed coronation, but for a lifetime of political achievement.
By Elisabeth van Houts
Who was Empress Matilda, the only English monarch known by an imperial rather than royal title? Her imperial title derived from her early marriage to Emperor Henry V (d. 1125) of the Holy Roman Empire, comprising Germany and Northern Italy. However, it is important to realise that, unlike her husband, there was never an imperial coronation by the pope in Rome. How did she come to live in the empire?
Aged only eight years old, she was sent to Germany for her betrothal and coronation as queen. The marriage followed four years later when she had reached the canonical age of twelve. The couple never had children and perhaps this is the reason why Matilda was so involved in her husband’s government.
12th-century depiction of Matilda and Henry’s wedding feast
During a three-year spell in Northern Italy Matilda followed in the footsteps of the famous Countess Matilda of Tuscany (d. 1115), who had ruled the territory in her own right. Our Matilda was an extremely well-educated woman, who was multilingual in English, French, German, as well as Latin and probably Italian. Highly unusually she acted three times as judge in public Italian courts (like Countess Matilda had done before her) but in a role that was unheard of in Germany. Empress Matilda did act as regent for Henry in Germany but in circumstances that were uncommon for a royal spouse without children.
Yet, her life in the empire came to a halt when in May 1125 her husband died, the nobles were preparing to elect a new king, and her father King Henry I of England recalled her home. Crucial for an understanding of Matilda as a person is that, as far as her life in the empire is concerned, she was liked by everyone and seen as capable and trustworthy by her husband and his court.
Heir to the English Throne
Depiction of Matilda in the 12th-century Gospels of Henry the Lion
Deeply reluctant, but in obedience to her father (so she later reminisced to friends), Matilda returned to the Anglo-Norman realm. As a mature twenty-three-year-old woman, used to the imperial court, intelligent and experienced as ruler she made a deep impression on her father and the Anglo-Norman nobility. In the absence of a male heir (her younger brother had died a few years earlier in a shipwreck) it is therefore not surprising that, given her demonstrable experience and skills of governing, King Henry chose her as his successor even though she was a woman.
In fact, as far as we know contemporaries never raised the issue of her sex. In 1127 Henry I designated his only surviving child Matilda as his heir and successor and his nobles supported this decision by promising an oath of allegiance to her. In order to secure his dynasty further the king then married his daughter off to Geoffrey of Anjou, eleven years her junior in a marriage that initially was a disaster. Matilda was appalled and within a few months returned to her father’s court remaining there for two years. But, of course, as a failed bride who refused to sleep with her husband, she could hardly maintain the argument that she was her father’s heir and successor. In 1131, at a second oath session, she was persuaded to return to Anjou. There the couple, now two years older, made up and produced three sons in the next five years.
Disaster struck in December 1135 when upon the death of her father King Henry Matilda’s cousin Stephen, count of Boulogne, crossed to England and persuaded the archbishop of Canterbury to crown him king. As one of the nobles who had sworn an oath to Matilda he became a perjurer and Matilda, pregnant with her third child in Anjou, had lost her crown. She was determined not to let Stephen get away with his perjury. Emboldened by growing disquiet in England with Stephen’s rule, especially in the south-west of the country where Matilda’s half-brother Earl Robert was in charge, Empress Matilda crossed to England to challenge Stephen. A war ensued and Stephen was captured in February 1141. For nine months Matilda, acclaimed as queen regnant, ruled England. Her coronation at Westminster in June, however, failed as a result of the breakdown in negotiations with the Londoners. A revolt broke out and Matilda retreated. She spent the next seven years mostly at her castle in Devizes (Wiltshire) waiting for her eldest son Henry to be old enough to take over from her. When in 1148 he became fifteen Matilda withdrew to Normandy and from there supported his claim to the English throne.
Weary of years of fighting and warfare, in 1153 the Anglo-Norman nobility came to an agreement with King Stephen (who had lost his capable wife Queen Matilda of Boulogne and his eldest son Eustace) and Henry FitzEmpress whereby Stephen accepted that Henry would succeed him but not until after his death. Stephen died the following year and Henry was crowned King of England. It was the first peaceful transition in the royal succession since January 1066. Matilda was delighted. In the years that followed she acted as her son’s enforcer and regent many times until in September 1167 she died. Henry II always acknowledged that he owed his kingship to his mother’s strategies and tenacity.
Rethinking Empress Matilda
Empress Matilda depicted in British Library MS Cotton Nero D. VII fol. 7
The historiographical debate on Empress Matilda has been dominated by scholars who studied her career exclusively for her period in England as uncrowned queen regnant and her struggle against Stephen. Many followed in the footsteps of King Stephen’s apologist, the contemporary author of the Gesta Stephani, whose misogynistic judgement of Matilda as arrogant, inflexible and not up to a man’s task, has been very influential. Few are willing to take her whole career into consideration. Though the first academic biography by Marjorie Chibnall (1992), however, is a notable exception.
Over the last few decades many more sources have come to light, especially charters for Matilda’s time in the empire and the Anglo-Norman realm. They allow fresh light to be shed on her career. The charters act as a corrective to deeply biased chronicle texts. As I argue in my new biography of Matilda, she was an immensely capable woman with a proven record of successful negotiations, winning strategies and excellent interpersonal skills. She should not be defined by the one disastrous and consequential episode with the Londoners at Westminster. That debacle, I argue, was not a failure of Matilda personally or because she was a woman; it was the result of a structural problem. Never before had the nobility faced a situation when a crowned and consecrated king was in prison while a rival, acclaimed by the same nobility as ruler, expected to be crowned. In the empire kings and anti-kings (or indeed popes and anti-popes) were a regular occurrence. In England they were not.
Elisabeth van Houts is Emeritus Honorary Professor of Medieval European History at the University of Cambridge and a leading expert on the Anglo-Norman world. She has written extensively on the history of Normandy and England in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, including Empress Matilda: Queen of the Romans, Ruler of the English.
In a new assessment of Empress Matilda, Elisabeth van Houts argues that she should be remembered not for a failed coronation, but for a lifetime of political achievement.
By Elisabeth van Houts
Who was Empress Matilda, the only English monarch known by an imperial rather than royal title? Her imperial title derived from her early marriage to Emperor Henry V (d. 1125) of the Holy Roman Empire, comprising Germany and Northern Italy. However, it is important to realise that, unlike her husband, there was never an imperial coronation by the pope in Rome. How did she come to live in the empire?
Aged only eight years old, she was sent to Germany for her betrothal and coronation as queen. The marriage followed four years later when she had reached the canonical age of twelve. The couple never had children and perhaps this is the reason why Matilda was so involved in her husband’s government.
During a three-year spell in Northern Italy Matilda followed in the footsteps of the famous Countess Matilda of Tuscany (d. 1115), who had ruled the territory in her own right. Our Matilda was an extremely well-educated woman, who was multilingual in English, French, German, as well as Latin and probably Italian. Highly unusually she acted three times as judge in public Italian courts (like Countess Matilda had done before her) but in a role that was unheard of in Germany. Empress Matilda did act as regent for Henry in Germany but in circumstances that were uncommon for a royal spouse without children.
Yet, her life in the empire came to a halt when in May 1125 her husband died, the nobles were preparing to elect a new king, and her father King Henry I of England recalled her home. Crucial for an understanding of Matilda as a person is that, as far as her life in the empire is concerned, she was liked by everyone and seen as capable and trustworthy by her husband and his court.
Heir to the English Throne
Deeply reluctant, but in obedience to her father (so she later reminisced to friends), Matilda returned to the Anglo-Norman realm. As a mature twenty-three-year-old woman, used to the imperial court, intelligent and experienced as ruler she made a deep impression on her father and the Anglo-Norman nobility. In the absence of a male heir (her younger brother had died a few years earlier in a shipwreck) it is therefore not surprising that, given her demonstrable experience and skills of governing, King Henry chose her as his successor even though she was a woman.
In fact, as far as we know contemporaries never raised the issue of her sex. In 1127 Henry I designated his only surviving child Matilda as his heir and successor and his nobles supported this decision by promising an oath of allegiance to her. In order to secure his dynasty further the king then married his daughter off to Geoffrey of Anjou, eleven years her junior in a marriage that initially was a disaster. Matilda was appalled and within a few months returned to her father’s court remaining there for two years. But, of course, as a failed bride who refused to sleep with her husband, she could hardly maintain the argument that she was her father’s heir and successor. In 1131, at a second oath session, she was persuaded to return to Anjou. There the couple, now two years older, made up and produced three sons in the next five years.
Disaster struck in December 1135 when upon the death of her father King Henry Matilda’s cousin Stephen, count of Boulogne, crossed to England and persuaded the archbishop of Canterbury to crown him king. As one of the nobles who had sworn an oath to Matilda he became a perjurer and Matilda, pregnant with her third child in Anjou, had lost her crown. She was determined not to let Stephen get away with his perjury. Emboldened by growing disquiet in England with Stephen’s rule, especially in the south-west of the country where Matilda’s half-brother Earl Robert was in charge, Empress Matilda crossed to England to challenge Stephen. A war ensued and Stephen was captured in February 1141. For nine months Matilda, acclaimed as queen regnant, ruled England. Her coronation at Westminster in June, however, failed as a result of the breakdown in negotiations with the Londoners. A revolt broke out and Matilda retreated. She spent the next seven years mostly at her castle in Devizes (Wiltshire) waiting for her eldest son Henry to be old enough to take over from her. When in 1148 he became fifteen Matilda withdrew to Normandy and from there supported his claim to the English throne.
Weary of years of fighting and warfare, in 1153 the Anglo-Norman nobility came to an agreement with King Stephen (who had lost his capable wife Queen Matilda of Boulogne and his eldest son Eustace) and Henry FitzEmpress whereby Stephen accepted that Henry would succeed him but not until after his death. Stephen died the following year and Henry was crowned King of England. It was the first peaceful transition in the royal succession since January 1066. Matilda was delighted. In the years that followed she acted as her son’s enforcer and regent many times until in September 1167 she died. Henry II always acknowledged that he owed his kingship to his mother’s strategies and tenacity.
Rethinking Empress Matilda
The historiographical debate on Empress Matilda has been dominated by scholars who studied her career exclusively for her period in England as uncrowned queen regnant and her struggle against Stephen. Many followed in the footsteps of King Stephen’s apologist, the contemporary author of the Gesta Stephani, whose misogynistic judgement of Matilda as arrogant, inflexible and not up to a man’s task, has been very influential. Few are willing to take her whole career into consideration. Though the first academic biography by Marjorie Chibnall (1992), however, is a notable exception.
Over the last few decades many more sources have come to light, especially charters for Matilda’s time in the empire and the Anglo-Norman realm. They allow fresh light to be shed on her career. The charters act as a corrective to deeply biased chronicle texts. As I argue in my new biography of Matilda, she was an immensely capable woman with a proven record of successful negotiations, winning strategies and excellent interpersonal skills. She should not be defined by the one disastrous and consequential episode with the Londoners at Westminster. That debacle, I argue, was not a failure of Matilda personally or because she was a woman; it was the result of a structural problem. Never before had the nobility faced a situation when a crowned and consecrated king was in prison while a rival, acclaimed by the same nobility as ruler, expected to be crowned. In the empire kings and anti-kings (or indeed popes and anti-popes) were a regular occurrence. In England they were not.
Elisabeth van Houts is Emeritus Honorary Professor of Medieval European History at the University of Cambridge and a leading expert on the Anglo-Norman world. She has written extensively on the history of Normandy and England in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, including Empress Matilda: Queen of the Romans, Ruler of the English.
You can learn more about the book from Yale University Press
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