Ancestral Trails 2016 » Matilda of TUSCANY (1046-1115)

Persoonlijke gegevens Matilda of TUSCANY 

• Zij is geboren in het jaar 1046 in Lucca, Toscana, Italy.
• Titel: Countess of Tuscany, Duchess of Lorraine
• (Alternative Name) : Matilda of Canossa, La Gran Contessa.
• (Ancestry) : House of Guelph.
• Zij is overleden op 24 juli 1115 in Bondeno di Roncore, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, zij was toen 69 jaar oud.
• Zij is begraven in het jaar 1115 in St Peter's Basilica, Rome, Lazio, Italy.
• Een kind van Boniface III of TUSCANY en Beatrice de LORRAINE

Gezin van Matilda of TUSCANY

(1) Zij is getrouwd met Godfrey de LORRAINE.

Zij zijn getrouwd in het jaar 1089, zij was toen 43 jaar oud.

• Het echtpaar heeft gemeenschappelijke voorouders.



(2) Zij is getrouwd met Guelph von BAVARIA.

Zij zijn getrouwd in het jaar 1089, zij was toen 43 jaar oud.

• Het echtpaar heeft gemeenschappelijke voorouders.



Notities over Matilda of TUSCANY

Matilda of Tuscany (Italian: Matilde di Canossa, Latin: Matilda, Mathilda; 1046 - 24 July 1115), was a powerful feudal ruler in northern Italy and the chief Italian supporter of Pope Gregory VII during the Investiture Controversy; in addition, she was one of the few medieval women to be remembered for her military accomplishments, thanks to which she was able to dominate all the territories north of the Church States.

In 1076 she came into possession of a vast territory that included present-day Lombardy, Emilia, the Romagna and Tuscany, and made the castle of Canossa, in the Apennines south of Reggio, the centre of her domains. Between 6 and 11 May 1111 she was crowned Imperial Vicar and Vice-Queen of Italy by Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor at the Castle of Bianello (Quattro Castella, Reggio Emilia).

Sometimes called la Gran Contessa ("the Great Countess") or Matilda of Canossa after her ancestral castle of Canossa, was certainly one of the most important and interesting figures of the Italian Middle Ages: she lived in a period of constant battles, intrigues and excommunications, and was able to demonstrate an extraordinary force, even enduring great pain and humiliation, showing an innate leadership ability.

Matilda was the youngest of the three children of Margrave Boniface III of Tuscany, ruler of a vast territory in Northern Italy and one of the most powerful vassals of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry III. Matilda's mother, Beatrice of Lorraine, was the Emperor's first cousin and closely connected to the imperial household. Renowned for her learning, Matilda was literate in Latin, as well as reputed to speak German and French. The extent of Matilda's education in military matters is debated. It has been asserted that she was taught strategy, tactics, riding and wielding weapons, but recent scholarship finds these claims contentious.

Following the death of their father in 1052, Matilda's brother, Frederick, inherited the family lands and titles under the regency of their mother. Matilda's sister, Beatrice, died the next year, making Matilda heir presumptive to Frederick's personal holdings. In 1054, determined to safeguard the interests of her children as well as her own, her mother married Godfrey the Bearded, a distant kinsman who had been stripped of the Duchy of Upper Lorraine after openly rebelling against Emperor Henry III.

Henry was enraged by Beatrice of Lorraine's unauthorised union with his most vigorous adversary and took the opportunity to have her arrested, along with Matilda, when he marched south to attend a synod in Florence on Pentecost in 1055. Frederick's rather suspicious death soon thereafter made Matilda the last member of the House of Canossa. Mother and daughter were taken to Germany, but Godfrey successfully avoided capture. Unable to defeat him, Henry sought a rapproachment. The Emperor's death in October 1056, which brought to throne the underage Henry IV, seems to have accelerated the negotiations. Godfrey was reconciled with the crown and recognized as Margrave of Tuscany in December, while Beatrice and Matilda were released. By the time she and her mother returned to Italy, in the company of Pope Victor II, Matilda was formally acknowledged as heir to the greatest territorial lordship in the south of the Empire.

Matilda's mother and stepfather became heavily involved in the series of disputed papal elections during their regency, supporting the Gregorian Reforms. Godfrey's brother Frederick became Pope Stephen IX, while both of the following two popes, Nicholas II and Alexander II, had been Tuscan bishops. Matilda made her first journey to Rome with her family in the entourage of Nicholas in 1059. Godfrey and Beatrice actively assisted them in dealing with antipopes, while the adolescent Matilda's role remains unclear. A contemporary account of her stepfather's 1067 expedition against Prince Richard I of Capua on behalf of the papacy mentions Matilda's participation in the campaign, describing it as the "first service that the most excellent daughter of Boniface offered to the blessed prince of the apostles."

First marriage
In 1069, Godfrey the Bearded lay dying in Verdun. Beatrice and Matilda hastened to reach Lorraine, anxious to ensure a smooth transition of power. Matilda was present at her stepfather's deathbed, and on that occasion she is for the first time clearly mentioned as the wife of her stepbrother, Godfrey the Hunchback, to whom she had been betrothed since childhood. The marriage proved a failure; the death of their only child (a daughter called Beatrice) shortly after birth in August 1071 and Godfrey's physical deformity may have helped fuel deep animosity between the spouses.

By the end of 1071, Matilda had left her husband and returned to Tuscany. Matilda's bold decision to repudiate her husband came at a cost, but ensured her independence. Beatrice started preparing Matilda for rule by holding court jointly with her and, eventually, encouraging her to issue charters on her own as countess (comitissa) and duchess (ducatrix).

Godfrey fiercely protested the separation and demanded that Matilda come back to him, which she repeatedly refused. The Duke descended into Italy in 1072, determined to save the marriage. He sought the help of both Matilda's mother and her ally, the newly elected Pope Gregory VII, promising military aid to the latter. Matilda's resolution was unshakable, and Godfrey returned to Lorraine alone. He had lost all hope by 1074. Rather than supporting the Pope as promised, Godfrey turned his attention to imperial affairs. Meanwhile, the conflict later known as the Investiture Controversy was brewing between Gregory and Henry, with both men claiming the right to appoint bishops and abbots within the Empire. Matilda and Godfrey soon found themselves on opposing sides of the dispute, leading to a further detoriation of their difficult relationship. German chroniclers, writing of the synod held at Worms in January 1076, even suggested that Godfrey inspired Henry's allegation of a licentious affair between Gregory and Matilda.

Matilda became a widow on 26 February 1076. Godfrey the Hunchback was assassinated in Flanders while "answering the call of nature". Having been accused of adultery with the Pope the previous month, Matilda was suspected of ordering her estranged husband's death. She could not have known about the proceedings at the Synod of Worms at the time, however, since the news took three months to reach the Pope himself, and it is more likely that Godfrey was killed at the instigation of an enemy nearer to him. Within two months, Beatrice was dead as well. Matilda's power was considerably augmented by these deaths; she was now the undisputed heir of all her parents' allodial lands. Her inheritance would have been threatened had Godfrey survived her mother, but she now enjoyed the privileged status of a widow. It seemed unlikely, however, that Henry would formally invest her with the margraviate.

Between 1076 and 1080, Matilda travelled to Lorraine to lay claim to her husband's estate in Verdun, which he had willed (along with the rest of his patrimony) to his sister Ida's son, Godfrey of Bouillon. Godfrey of Bouillon also disputed her right to Stenay and Mosay, which her mother had received as dowry. The quarrel between aunt and nephew over the episcopal county of Verdun was eventually settled by Theoderic, Bishop of Verdun, who enjoyed the right to nominate the counts. He easily found in favor of Margravine Matilda, as such verdict happened to please both Pope Gregory and King Henry. Matilda then proceeded to enfeoff Verdun to her pro-reform relative, Albert III of Namur. The deep animosity between Matilda and her nephew is thought to have prevented her from travelling to Jerusalem during the First Crusade, led by him in the late 1090s.

Second marriage
In 1088 Matilda was facing a new attempt at invasion by Henry IV, and decided to pre-empt it by means of a political marriage. In 1089 Matilda (in her early forties) married Welf V, who was probably fifteen to seventeen years old. Welf was heir to the Duchy of Bavaria. He was also a member of the Welf dynasty: the Welfs/Guelphs were important papal supporters from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries in their conflict with the German emperors (see Guelphs and Ghibellines). Matilda and Welf's wedding was part of a network of alliances approved by the new pope, Urban II, in order to effectively counter Henry IV.

Cosmas of Prague (writing in the early twelfth century), included a letter in his Chronica Boemorum, which he claimed that Matilda sent to her future husband, but which is now thought to be spurious:-
"Not for feminine lightness or recklessness, but for the good of all my kingdom, I send you this letter: agreeing to it, you take with it myself and the rule over the whole of Lombardy. I'll give you so many cities, so many castles and noble palaces, so much gold and silver, that you will have a famous name, if you endear yourself to me; do not reproof me for boldness because I first address you with the proposal. It's reason for both male and female to desire a legitimate union, and it makes no difference whether the man or the woman broaches the first line of love, sofar as an indissoluble marriage is sought. Goodbye."

After this, Matilda sent an army of thousands to the border of Lombardy to escort her bridegroom, welcomed him with honors, and after the marriage (mid-1089), she organized 120 days of wedding festivities, with such splendor that any other medieval ruler's pale in comparison.

Cosmas also reports that for two nights after the wedding, Welf V, fearing witchcraft, refused to share the marital bed. The third day, Matilda appeared naked on a table especially prepared on sawhorses, and told him that everything is in front of you and there is no hidden malice. But the Duke was dumbfounded; Matilda, furious, slapped him and spat in his face, taunting him: Get out of here, monster,you don't deserve our kingdom, you vile thing, viler than a worm or a rotten seaweed, don't let me see you again, or you'll die a miserable death.... Matilda and her young husband separated a few years later (1095); they had no children.

Later Matilda allied with the two sons of Henry IV, Conrad and Henry, who rebelled against their father. This forced Henry to return to Italy, where he chased Matilda into the mountains. He was humbled before Canossa, this time in a military defeat in October 1092, from which his influence in Italy never recovered.

Death
Matilda's death from gout in 1115 at Bondeno di Roncore marked the end of an era in Italian politics. It is widely reported that she bequeathed her allodial property to the Pope. Unaccountably, however, this donation was never officially recognized in Rome and no record exists of it. Henry V had promised some of the cities in her territory that he would appoint no successor after he deposed her. In her place the leading citizens of these cities took control, and the era of the city-states in northern Italy began.

Matilda was at first buried in the Abbey of San Benedetto in Polirone, located in the town of San Benedetto Po; then, in 1633, at the behest of Pope Urban VIII, her body was moved to Rome and placed in Castel Sant'Angelo. Finally, in 1645 her remains were definitely deposited in the Vatican, where they now lie in St. Peter's Basilica. She is one of only three women who have the honor of being buried in the Basilica, the others being Queen Christina of Sweden and Maria Clementina Sobieska (wife of James Francis Edward Stuart).

A memorial tomb for Matilda, commissioned by Pope Urban VIII and designed by Gianlorenzo Bernini, marks her burial place in St Peter's and is often called the Honor and Glory of Italy.

After her death, an aura of legend came to surround Matilda. Church historians gave her the character of a semi-nun, solely dedicated to contemplation and faith. Some argue, instead, that she was a woman of strong passions of both spiritual and carnal nature (indicated by her supposed affairs with Popes Gregory VII and Urban II).
SOURCE: Wikipedia

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