Ancestral Trails 2016 » MATILDA de FLANDERS (1031-1083)

Personal data MATILDA de FLANDERS 

• She was born in the year 1031 in Flanders, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France.
• (Alternative Name) : Matilda Bonnaire.
• She died on November 2, 1083 in Caen, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France, she was 52 years old.
• A child of BALDWIN de FLANDERS and ADELAIDE CAPET

Household of MATILDA de FLANDERS

She has/had a relationship with WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

Child(ren):

1. Cecilia de NORMANDY  1056-1126
2. Richard de NORMANDY  1055-1081
3. Agatha de NORMANDY  1071-< 1080
4. Constance de NORMANDY  1061-1090
5. William Rufus de NORMANDY  1057-1100
6. HENRY I BEAUCLERC OF ENGLAND  1068-1135 
7. ADELA de NORMANDY  1063-???? 
8. Robert Curthose de NORMANDY  1054-???? 
9. Matilda de NORMANDY  1065-???? 

• The couple has common ancestors.



Notes about MATILDA de FLANDERS

She was of very small stature and very little is known about her early years. Being a descendant of the English King Alfred The Great was one reason why William, Duke of Normandy, sought her in marriage. Apparently she refused him as she did not want to be married to a bastard. Furious, William forced entry to her room and gave her a beating. However, this rather unconventional behaviour resulted in her changing her mind and they married in 1051, although they had to wait until 1059 before the papal dispensation arrived. William relied heavily on her and she acted as regent in Normandy whenever he was absent. After the conquest of England, she was crowned William The Conqueror's queen at Winchester. She went to the north of England with him and at Selby gave birth to the future King Henry I, probably their tenth or eleventh child.

In the year 1069 she went back to the Duchy of Normandy where she remained in charge. When she became ill in 1083, William The Conqueror hurried over from England to be with her. However, she died on 2 November 1083 at Caen and was buried there.
SOURCE: Leo van de Pas

Matilda of Flanders (French: Mathilde de Flandre; Dutch: Mathilda van Vlaanderen) (c. 1031 - 2 November 1083) was the wife of William the Conqueror and, as such, Queen of England. She bore William nine children, including two kings, William II and Henry I.

Matilda, or Maud, was the daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Flanders and Adèle of France, herself daughter of Robert II of France. According to legend, when Duke William II of Normandy (later known as William the Conqueror) sent his representative to ask for Matilda's hand in marriage, she told the representative that she was far too high-born to consider marrying a bastard. After hearing this response, William rode from Normandy to Bruges, found Matilda on her way to church, dragged her off her horse by her long braids, threw her down in the street in front of her flabbergasted attendants and rode off. Another version of the story states that William rode to Matilda's father's house in Lille, threw her to the ground in her room (again, by her braids), and hit her (or violently battered her) before leaving. Naturally, Baldwin took offense at this but, before they could draw swords, Matilda settled the matter by refusing to marry anyone but William; even a papal ban by Pope Leo IX at the Council of Reims on the grounds of consanguinity did not dissuade her. William and Matilda were married after a delay in c. 1051-2. A papal dispensation was finally awarded in 1059 by Pope Nicholas II. Lanfranc, at the time prior of Bec Abbey, negotiated the arrangement in Rome and came only after William and Matilda agreed to found two churches as penance,

Rumored romances
There were rumours that Matilda had been in love variously with the English ambassador to Flanders and with the great Saxon thegn Brictric son of Algar, who (according to the account by the Continuator of Wace and others) in his youth declined her advances. Whatever the truth of the matter, years later when she was acting as regent for her husband William in England, she is said to have used her authority to confiscate Brictric's lands and throw him into prison, where he died.

When William was preparing to invade England, Matilda outfitted a ship, the Mora, out of her own funds and gave it to him. Additionally, William entrusted Normandy to his wife during his absence. Matilda successfully guided the duchy through this period in the name of her fourteen-year-old son; no major uprisings or unrest occurred.

Even after William conquered England and became its king, it took her more than a year to visit the kingdom. Even after she had been crowned queen, she would spend most of her time in Normandy, governing the duchy, supporting her brother's interests in Flanders, and sponsoring ecclesiastic houses there. She had just one of her children in England; Henry was born in Yorkshire when Matilda accompanied her husband in the Harrying of the North.

Matilda was crowned queen on May 11, 1068, in Westminster during the feast of Pentecost, in a ceremony presided over by the archbishop of York. Three new phrases were incorporated to cement the importance of English consorts, stating that the Queen was divinely placed by God, shares in royal power, and blesses her people by her power and virtue.

For many years it was thought that she had some involvement in the creation of the Bayeux Tapestry (commonly called La Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde in French), but historians no longer believe that; it seems to have been commissioned by William's half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, and made by English artists in Kent.

Matilda bore William nine or ten children. He was believed to have been faithful to her and never produced a child outside their marriage. Despite her royal duties, Matilda was deeply invested in her children's well-being. All were known for being remarkably educated. Her daughters were educated and taught to read Latin at Sainte-Trinité in Caen founded by Matilda and William in response to the recognition of their marriage. For her sons, she secured Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury of whom she was an ardent supporter. Both she and William approved of the Archbishop's desire to revitalize the Church.

She stood as godmother for Matilda of Scotland, who would become Queen of England after marrying Matilda's son Henry I. During the christening, the baby pulled Queen Matilda's headdress down on top of herself, which was seen as an omen that the younger Matilda would be queen some day as well.

Matilda fell ill during the summer of 1083 and died in November 1083. Her husband was present for her final confession. William died four years later in 1087.

Contrary to the common belief that she was buried at St. Stephen's, also called l'Abbaye-aux-Hommes in Caen, Normandy, where William was eventually buried, she is entombed in Caen at l'Abbaye aux Dames, which is the community of Sainte-Trinité. Of particular interest is the 11th-century slab, a sleek black stone decorated with her epitaph, marking her grave at the rear of the church. In contrast, the grave marker for William's tomb was replaced as recently as the beginning of the 19th century.

Reputed to be 4'2" (127 cm) tall, Matilda was England's smallest queen, according to the Guinness World Records. In 1819 and 1959, Matilda's incomplete skeleton was examined and her bones were measured to determine her height. The 1819 estimate was under five feet, while the 1959 estimate was 5' (152 cm) tall. A reputed height of 4' 2" (127 cm) appeared at some point after 1959 in the non-scientific literature, misrepresenting the 1959 measurement.

Matilda and William had four sons and at least five daughters. The birth order of the boys is clear, but no source gives the relative order of birth of the daughters.

Robert, born between 1051-1054, died 10 February 1134. Duke of Normandy, married Sybil of Conversano, daughter of Geoffrey of Conversano.
Richard, born c.1054, died around 1075.
William Rufus, born between 1056 and 1060, died 2 August 1100. King of England, killed in the New Forest.
Henry, born late 1068, died 1 December 1135. King of England, married Edith of Scotland, daughter of Malcolm III of Scotland. His second wife was Adeliza of Louvain.
Agatha, betrothed to Harold II of England, Alfonso VI of Castile, and possibly Herbert I, Count of Maine, but died unmarried.
Adeliza (or Adelida, Adelaide), died before 1113, reportedly betrothed to Harold II of England, probably a nun of St Léger at Préaux.
Cecilia (or Cecily), born c.1056, died 1127. Abbess of Holy Trinity, Caen.
Matilda, "daughter of the King", born around 1061, died perhaps about 1086, or else much later (according to Trevor Foulds's suggestion that she was identical to Matilda d'Aincourt.
Constance, died 1090, married Alan IV Fergent, Duke of Brittany.
Adela, died 1137, married Stephen, Count of Blois. Mother of King Stephen of England.
There is no evidence of any illegitimate children born to William.

Matilda’s principal attribute was her descent from Charlemagne and her many royal ancestors, her closest being Robert II of France. She was the niece of King Henry I of France, William's suzerain, and at his death in 1060, first cousin to his successor King Philip I of France. A member of the aristocracy she was closely related to most of the royal families of Europe. A marriage to a member of the (Carolingian) royal family was a means of upward mobility for a soldier or nobleman like William. Her descent from Alfred the Great also proved a legitimizing factor as queen of England.

*It is not certain Adeliza and Agatha were not the same daughter, but if they were different daughters William of Jumièges seems to bear the responsibility for confusing the two. None of the daughter's ages are known according to Orderic Vitalis.
SOURCE: Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matilda_of_Flanders


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