30 November marks the anniversary of the death of King
Edmund II ‘Ironside’ in 1016, the eldest surviving son of Aethelred II.
Although king for only a few months, Edmund later became an important political
figure posthumously with the childlessness of his half-brother, Edward the
Confessor. Edmund’s successor was his rival, the Danish invader, Cnut. Cnut
exiled Edmund’s young sons and one of them, Edward the Exile, settled in
Hungary. He was recalled to England by his uncle but died soon afterwards,
leaving a son, Edgar Aetheling, and two daughters. At the Confessor’s death in
1066, Edgar was too young to take the throne. Instead, first Harold Godwinson
and then William of Normandy won the crown.
In 1100 William’s youngest son, Henry I, became king and,
soon afterwards married Matilda, a young Scottish princess. Matilda’s father
was Malcomlm Canmore, King of Scotland, while her mother was St Margaret, the
daughter of Edward the Exile. In spite of his father’s claims to be the heir to
Edward the Confessor, in reality, Henry’s title was based solely on conquest.
At the time of Henry and Matilda’s marriage, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle enthused that she was ‘of the rightful royal
family of England’ and the marriage went some way to healing the wounds created
by the Conquest less than forty years before. Her English royal blood had
always been significant and Malcolm and Margaret pointedly gave their children
English royal names: Matilda was originally called Edith, the same name as the
Confessor’s wife, only later changing her name to a more conventional Norman
one. This change notwithstanding, it was well known in England that Matilda was
a member of the Anglo-Saxon royal house, adding legitimacy to the Norman
dynasty in England.
Henry had to overcome a formidable obstacle to win Matilda
as his bride. Matilda and her sister spent much of their childhoods in England
at the nunneries of Romsey and Wilton and under the care of her aunt,
Christina, Abbess of Romsey. It is possible that, in sending her daughters to
Romsey, St Margaret intended that they would both become nuns. This was
certainly Christina’s hope and she put considerable pressure on her young
nieces to take the veil. According to Matilda’s own account, given to
Archbishop Anselm, Christina was convinced that the veil was the only way to
protect her young charges:
‘For when I was quite a young girl and went in fear of the rod of my
Aunt Christina, whom you knew quite well, she to preserve me from the lust of
the Normans which was rampant and at that time ready to assault any woman’s
honour, used to put a little black hood on my head and, when I threw it off,
she would often make me smart with a good slapping and most horrible scolding,
as well as treating me at being in disgrace. That hood I did indeed wear in her
presence, chafing at it and fearful; but, as soon as I was able to escape out
of her sight, I tore it off and threw it on the ground and trampled on it and
in that way, although foolishly, I used to vent my rage and the hatred of it
which boiled up in me. In that way, and only in that way, I was veiled, as my
conscience bears witness’.
While it may have been intended
that Matilda would become a nun, her royal blood meant that she was the subject
of considerable interest, with rumours that Henry’s brother and predecessor as
king, William Rufus, was her suitor. According to William of Malmesbury,
Matilda would wear the veil in order to reject unworthy suitors who came to her
at the nunnery and this is borne out by Matilda’s own account of one such
occasion. According to Matilda, in 1093 her father arrived unexpectedly at
Wilton with Count Alan, intending that he should marry her. Malcolm, ‘when by
chance he saw me veiled snatched the veil off and tearing it to pieces invoked
the hatred of God upon the person who had put it on me, declaring that he had
rather have chosen to marry me to Count Alan than consign me to a house of
nuns’. Malcolm was so furious that he took Matilda back to Scotland without
taking the time to arrange her marriage. She was soon back in England however
and her use of the veil served to make her marriage a scandalous proposition in
the eyes of the church.
In 1100, when plans for Matilda’s
marriage were announced, Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, believing that she was
a nun, ordered her to return to the convent. Matilda went personally to Anselm
to ask for his help. She vehemently denied that she was a nun and set out the
full story of her childhood with her aunt Christina and the pressure that had
been put upon her. Anselm, to Matilda’s relief and gratitude, believed her
story and called a church court at Lambeth which investigated her claims.
Matilda attended the council and, according to the report of Eadmer, a follower
of Anselm, she offered to swear that she was free to marry. This was enough for
the Archbishop and he declared that she had never been a nun, allowing the
couple to marry a few days later on 11 November 1100. Soon after the ceremony,
Anselm consecrated Matilda as queen.
Matilda proved to be an excellent
queen consort, often serving as regent during her husband’s absences in
Normandy. Her main contribution to history however must be her role in helping
to reconcile the English people to the fact of the Norman Conquest. By virtue
of her English royal blood, Matilda was able to legitimise the Norman kingship
and, also, demonstrate the continuing importance of the indigenous royal family
and way of life to the people of England. Matilda’s children were members of
both the Norman and Anglo-Saxon royal houses. Her daughter, the Empress
Matilda, passed this on to her own son, Henry II, and to all future monarchs of
England. In many respects, Matilda represented a amalgamation of both English
and Norman queenship, something which is symbolised by her change of name – an English
Queen Edith superseded by a Norman Queen Matilda.
You can read more about Matilda
of Scotland in my book, England’s Queens:
The Biography, which was recently released in paperback by Amberley
Publishing.
