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Birth:          1028 Flanders, France
Death:          2 Nov 1083 Caen, Normandy

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matilda_of_Flanders
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 or ten children who survived to adulthood, including 
two kings, William II and Henry I.

As a niece and granddaughter of kings of France, Matilda was of grander birth than 
William, who was illegitimate, and, according to some suspiciously romantic tales, she 
initially refused his proposal on this account. Her descent from the Anglo-Saxon royal 
House of Wessex was also to become a useful card. Like many royal marriages of the 
period, it breached the rules of consanguinity, then at their most restrictive (to seven 
generations or degrees of relatedness); Matilda and William were third-cousins, once 
removed. She was about 20 when they married in 1051/2; William was some three 
years older, and had been Duke of Normandy since he was about eight.

The marriage appears to have been successful, and William is not recorded to have 
had any bastards. Matilda was about 35, and had already produced most of her 
children, when William embarked on the Norman conquest of England, sailing in his 
flagship Mora, which Matilda had given him. She governed the Duchy of Normandy in 
his absence, joining him in England only after more than a year, and subsequently 
returning to Normandy, where she spent most of the remainder of her life, while William 
was mostly in his new kingdom. She was about 51 when she died in Normandy in 
1083.

Apart from governing Normandy and supporting her brother's interests in Flanders, 
Matilda took a close interest in the education of her children, who were unusually well 
educated for contemporary royalty. The boys were tutored by the Italian Lanfranc, who 
was made Archbishop of Canterbury in 1070, while the girls learned Latin in Sainte-
Trinité Abbey in Caen, founded by William and Matilda as part of the papal 
dispensation allowing their marriage.
Marriage[edit]

Matilda, or Maud, was the daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Flanders and Adèle of 
France, herself daughter of Robert II of France.[1]

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.[a] 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[2] by refusing to marry anyone but 
William;[3] 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.[4] A papal dispensation was finally awarded in 1059 by Pope Nicholas 
II.[5] Lanfranc, at the time prior of Bec Abbey, negotiated the arrangement in Rome 
and it came only after William and Matilda agreed to found two churches as penance.
[6]

Rumored romances[edit]

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[7]) 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.[8]
Duchess of Normandy[edit]

When William was preparing to invade England, Matilda outfitted a ship, the Mora, out 
of her own funds and gave it to him.[9] 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.[10]

Even after William conquered England and became its king, it took her more than a 
year to visit the kingdom.[11] Despite having been crowned queen, she spent most of 
her time in Normandy, governing the duchy, supporting her brother's interests in 
Flanders, and sponsoring ecclesiastic houses there. Only one of her children was born 
in England; Henry was born in Yorkshire when Matilda accompanied her husband in 
the Harrying of the North.[12]

Queen[edit]
Matilda was crowned queen on 11 May 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.[13][14]

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.[15]

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.
[16] 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.[17]

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.[18]

Matilda fell ill during the summer of 1083 and died in November 1083. Her husband 
was present for her final confession.[19] 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.
Height[edit]

Over time Matilda's tomb was desecrated and her original coffin destroyed. Her 
remains were placed in a sealed box and reburied under the original black slab.[20] In 
1959 Matilda's incomplete skeleton was examined and her femur and tibia were 
measured to determine her height using anthropometric methods. Her height was 5 
feet (1.52m), a normal height for the time.[21] However, the result of this examination 
has been misreported as being 4 feet 2 inches (1.27m)[22] and as a result there is a 
myth that she was extremely small.

Family and children[edit]

Matilda and William had four sons and at least five daughters.[23] The birth order of 
the boys is clear, but no source gives the relative order of birth of the daughters.[23]
1.Robert, born between 1051–1054, died 10 February 1134.[24] Duke of Normandy, 
married Sybil of Conversano, daughter of Geoffrey of Conversano.[25]
2.Richard, born c. 1054, died around 1075.[24]
3.William Rufus, born between 1056 and 1060, died 2 August 1100.[24] King of 
England, killed in the New Forest.
4.Henry, born late 1068, died 1 December 1135.[24] King of England, married Edith of 
Scotland, daughter of Malcolm III of Scotland. His second wife was Adeliza of 
Louvain.[26]
5.Agatha, betrothed to Harold II of England, Alfonso VI of Castile, and possibly 
Herbert I, Count of Maine, but died unmarried.[b][27]
6.Adeliza (or Adelida,[28] Adelaide[26]), died before 1113, reportedly betrothed to 
Harold II of England, probably a nun of St Léger at Préaux.[28]
7.Cecilia (or Cecily), born c. 1056, died 1127. Abbess of Holy Trinity, Caen.[27]
8.Matilda,[28] "daughter of the King", born around 1061, died perhaps about 1086,
[26] or else much later (according to Trevor Foulds's suggestion that she was identical 
to Matilda d'Aincourt[29]).
9.Constance, died 1090, married Alan IV Fergent, Duke of Brittany.[27]
10.Adela, died 1137, married Stephen, Count of Blois.[27] Mother of King Stephen of 
England.

There is no evidence of any illegitimate children born to William.[30]

William was furious when he discovered she sent large sums of money to their exiled 
son Robert.[31] She effected a truce between them at Easter 1080.

Parents
DE LILLE Baldwin V (19 Aug 1012 - 1 Sep 1067)
____ Adela (Adele) (Alix) (Adelaide) (ABT 1009 - 1079)

Siblings
OF FLANDERS Maud (Matilda) (1028 - 2 Nov 1083)
____ Baldwin VI (I) (1030 - 17 Jul 1070)
____ Robert (Robrecht) I "de Fries" ("the Frisian") (ABT 1033 - 3 Oct 1093)

Marriage To ____ William I "the Conqueror" (14 Oct 1024 - 9 Sep 1087)
    m. 1053 

Notes

Parents
____ Robert II "the Magnificent" (ABT  998 - 2 Jul 1035)
DE FALAISE Herleve (Harlette) (Arlotta) (ABT 1003 - ABT 1050)

Children by ____ William I "the Conqueror" 14 Oct 1024 - 9 Sep 1087
____ Robert II ("Curthose") (ABT 1054 - 2 Oct 1134)
OF NORMANDY Gundrada (ABT 1060 - 27 May 1085)
OF NORMANDY Adele (Alice) (ABT 1062 - 8 Mar 1137)
____ Henry I "Beauclerc" (1070 - 1 Dec 1135)

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