Wife Of The Conqueror, Queen of England | Matilda of Flanders | PART 3

after the Norman conquest of England in 1066 Matilda of Flanders once merely Duchess of Normandy was now also Queen of England far from being a passive Gentile wife to William the Conqueror Matilda would in fact be a forced to be reckoned with in her own right continuing as Regent in Normandy at times supporting William's most brutal decisions as king at times being brave enough to go against his decisions and even influencing matters long after her death by 1068 Matilda was finally ready to join her husband in England she had remained in Normandy for 2 years as Regent partly because she was pregnant with their daughter Adela in William's absence Matilda had held on to the DUI with an iron fist ensuring it lost no territory the economy blossomed and dealing with the inevitable political infighting or Derk vitales described how the various Nobles left in Normandy fell to arguing with each other using the situation to try and oust others from their positions at court but Matilda smoothed over every conflict medieval Noble women at this time were known as the peacemakers of Their Kingdoms and so it was a role Matilda would easily have taken on but this was no small achievement being in firm control of Normandy allowed William to completely Focus his attention on bringing England under his boot Matilda's grip of Normandy one heard the admiration and respect of its nobility she would have had to travel constantly across the various strongholds of the duche often taking her children with her however some writers such as William of puer snarkily pointed out that the peace that fell over Normandy was less to do with Matilda and more to do with the fear of Williams return in the spring of 1067 the new king of England returned to Normandy delighted with the way his wife had run the show in his absence however English sources then report another story one that does not appear in any Norman sources and is based in next to no fact supposedly a knight named grimo dupy told William that Matilda had been unfaithful to him while he was away confronting Matilda with this rumor William dragged her out of bed and tied her hair to a horse's tail forcing her to walk naked through the streets of KH as punishment until she reached the abay do home he then locked her up in a dungeon and only let her out when she repeated her in innocence to the Knight who had lied to him William told his men to hunt grimal down and skin him alive before quartering him aside from anything else this was impossible as grimal was long dead before 1067 he was a rebel who had once fought against William dying in Ruan shortly after 10:47 20 years before it's also highly unlikely that Matilda would have risked her husband's temper especially as she rarely had privacy anyway while ruling as Regent it's possible this story was based on some truth perhaps there were rumors of Matilda's infidelity but no proof perhaps those who were her or Williams enemies spread these rumors we will never know but there is another story this time involving Matilda in a more dominant place that is also reported in English sources brri who had spurned her offer of marriage two decades earlier had his manner of chesy given to Matilda and he himself was thrown into prison apparently he spent 2 years there until he mysteriously died and it was largely thought it was Matilda who had arranged his murder however yet again this is only shown in English sources and there may even be evidence that goes contrary to this tale there is a charter granted by William to the bishop of Welles that was likely given at Matilda's coronation in 1068 amongst the last signatures is that of brri himself suggesting he was not only alive at the time but also present at her crowning and to be honest it's probably far more likely that Matilda couldn't care less about an aging Anglo-Saxon Noble while she was married to a man she clearly found attractive who had just taken an entire Kingdom by force ensuring she was now a queen but again there's perhaps a kernel of Truth to the idea of Revenge certainly Matilda did end up with a lot of brri lands giving some away and keeping many for for herself it's far more likely the pragmatic new Queen took away what she knew would hurt him the most his family's lands and wealth if she had any desire to do so equally as one of the largest landholders in England it's also possible Matilda ended up with so many of his properties simply because brri held so many in the first place brri would also have been in his 60s by this time an age at which many people at the time died simply of natural causes either way Way by early 1068 William sent Messengers that Matilda was now to join him in his new kingdom there is no record of her Voyage but it was the first time Matilda had ever traveled Beyond French borders and she was accompanied by a large and impressive retinue that signified her new status she arrived just after Easter sometime in late March and her reception by the English people was lukewarm at best they weren't pleased at having a Norman ruler at all and they were even less impressed with a woman known as a ruler in her own right back in Normandy but for William he didn't care about the English people's feelings towards Matilda only that he could now use her Regal ancestry to press his own legitimacy particularly as Matilda was probably heavily pregnant from his last visit to Normandy this would be her last child but in her mid-30s she had given birth to an impressive number of children who had survived to adulthood her coronation was planned for wit Sunday on the 11th of May at Westminster Abbey a hugely important religious Festival this date emphasized the message that both Matilda and William had been chosen by God to lead cemented by the fact that she would be the first queen consort of England to be styled Regina the ceremony was a mixture of traditional Anglo-Saxon and modern Norman the same ritual as her English predecessors would have been carried out with Matilda praying at the altar being Anointed with holy oil and given a ring to symbolize marriage to the kingdom and support for her husband the king but Matilda also had special loudes written for her coronation ritual chance and this was a Norman practice designed to impress those watching these laes also stated that Matilda was to share in the power of her husband in ruling the English people and the female saints normally invoked in a queen's chant were replaced by male Apostles further showing her place as an equal by William's side this was a turning point for hundreds of years of English Queen consorts to come and eventually Queen regnant from this point on Queens would not merely be expected to provide heirs and shirts although that remained part of their identity and duties but also to be involved politically as a supportive role to their King to be involved religiously in the systems of their country as well as financial matters a Grand Banquet for followed the coronation and both the ceremony and the banquet were attended not only by Norman but also by Anglo-Saxon nobility in contrast to Williams ceremony 2 years earlier this was partly due to Matilda's English ancestry to Alfred the Great and was partly a sign of Williams control over the English Nobles this attempt at merging the cultures together was mirrored elsewhere as William arranged marriages between Saxon ayses and his Norman Knights and Nobles which incidentally also gave him more control over their lands with Matilda remaining in England to await the birth of their last child William Now set about fortifying several towns across his new lands to help prevent Rebellion starting with York the royal couple also took over the deceased King Edward's Palace at Westminster and would add to it with a magnificent extension by 1069 Matilda went to join her husband in Yorkshire partly because she probably wanted to see him and partly because giving birth in York would help Inspire the Loyalty of the people there as it turned out making the arduous Journey North while heavily pregnant seems to have set Matilda's labor off earlier than planned and she gave birth to their fourth son Henry in Selby a town south of the city but unfortunately this wouldn't Inspire the Loyalty the royal couple hoped for feeling as though they had obviously impressed themselves enough on the local population William and Matilda returned to Normandy for Christmas but it was a misjudged move in the new King's absence Anglo-Saxon forces had risen behind Edgar eing who was now steadily heading south through North Umbria and targeting Williams new castles throughout 1069 the north of England was somewhat removed from the south despite being the same country with the people there descended from a mixture of Saxon danne and Norwegian people and they may even have spoken a different dialect of English to those in the South but most importantly they had often been given something close to autonomy over the region for many decades it was probably easy for Edgar to encourage them to rise against a ruler who demanded absolute control over them Matilda was left in Normandy as Williams sailed once again to England by April 1069 he had retaken York and he paid the Danes to stand down and leave but the remaining Rebels refused to surrender William enacted a terrible revenge for this light in order to force them out to fight him the king decided to use scorched Earth tactics burning crops Villages and homes looting and slaughtering many of the inhabitants he removed the northern Nobles replacing them with Normans he could trust some historians quite understandably are uncertain as to whether William could actually have mustered the force needed to carry out this attack which became known as the harrying of the north but the Doomsday Book years later showed that as much as 75% of the population of Yorkshire and North Umbria may have perished through famine or outright murder while it's likely the attack was highly exaggerated in the centuries afterwards this was only because of the horror it gave birth to at the time even William himself would regret his actions in years to come and it alienated many who had come to be sympathetic to the Norman cause all chroniclers reported the events with obvious shock appalled at the devastation fought upon the north especially on so many people innocent of the crime of being Rebels instead simply living in the wrong place at the wrong time Simeon of Durham writing around 40 years later recorded how people had fallen down with hunger in the roads while leaving their homes others had sold themselves into slavery to try and survive and others still had resorted even to cannibalism to Stave off their hunger but William wasn't alone in England Matilda had returned also by the spring of 1069 and while she wouldn't be as brutal as her husband her actions would support him in his tactics in the north this was completely about public relations and she set up in London as William harassed the north of the country she was joined by their son Richard and later by William himself in a show of family solidarity Matilda would have been the main orchestrator of events at Easter Christmas and witson yet more opportunities for the royal family to show off their wealth and power she would have been responsible for the dishes served the roles given out to servants and for annual gifts given out to the various Nobles present but it wasn't just the food and entertainment that was lavish Matilda herself made sure she matched them with her appearance contemporary accounts stated that she dressed in purple and gold and she paid English seamstresses considered at that time the best in Europe to make dresses for her but by the summer of 1069 despite smoothing things over in the South William sent Matilda back to Normandy to ensure his realm there was kept safe when the queen returned to the duche she found it in a worse position than it had been left M had broken out in rebellion and normandy's hold over it vanished to make matters worse King Philip I of France and hoel II Duke of Britany decided to take advantage of the situation and attack Normandy whatever mil AR Matilda had at her disposal wasn't enough as she had to urgently send a message to William to send men which he did with all haste to defend both his wife and duy but another conflict was about to happen which was very much a family affair for Matilda in July 1070 her brother count Baldwin I 6 who had been in charge of Flanders since their father's death died suddenly himself his son and Heir Arnold was only 15 and just like in England when Ed had only been a teenager others took advantage of his youth but the person who tried to take Flanders for himself was none other than the boy's Uncle Robert the fian Matilda's other brother Matilda immediately sent word to William to send troops and while he was initially reluctant to get involved in a family squabble that posed little threat to his lands the king did send William Fitz osbor one of his most trusted men with a small force of soldiers equally Matilda's mother Adella lent on her connections to French royalty and asked King Phillip to also lend Aid to the young arnolf it was Robert who was triumphant in the end and both Fitz osbor and Arnold died in battle William had no choice but to accept his brother-in-law Robert as the new count of Flanders Adela managed to find a place for herself at Flanders court and Phillip decided to wash his hands of the whole Affair for Matilda she was beyond upset with Robert seeing his actions as not only a stain on their family but also for the fact he had killed their nephew it also destroyed the alliance between their two lands when Arnold's mother richildis fled with her remaining son Baldwin to heot and began to plan on taking Flanders back both William and Matilda supported them as for Robert no love was lost between him and William despite being brothers-in-law and he would later become a pain in William's backside by assisting in invading England with King Kut the for of Denmark his son-in-law and by allowing Anglo-Saxon refugees to settle in Flanders nevertheless the whole event showed that Matilda was both ambitious and had a sense of justice although it's possible she also felt she had a right to govern flas herself over the following years she would continue to go back and forth across the English Channel a total of eight times from her first journey and she was Regent in Normandy several times but she saw a lot more of William as well as from around 1072 after settling a truce with king of the Scots Malcolm III he spent most of his time in Normandy rather than England however the royal couple had to ensure they were always in the memory of the English people and they did this with regular Crown wearing ceremonies Matilda was present for all of Williams Crown wearings which generally involved the couple being prominently seen in public at festivals such as Easter and Christmas wearing as the name suggests their crowns these EV would have had great pump and opulence an all important nobility Gentry and clergy were invited the whole thing about showing off William and Matilda's legitimacy as king and queen consort of England it was something that would be continued for centuries afterwards with monarchs of England and later of Great Britain only wearing their crowns for important events just as she had in Normandy Matilda also encouraged the Arts into court and became a patron to many English poets and authors such as Godfrey of Winchester not only that but Matilda continued to expand on her role as adjudicator of Justice by overseeing cases one such example was of a Norman official Ali who complained that the Abbot of Abingdon Abby had beaten him and driven off his oxen it turned out the official had been taking the oxen from the local populace and taking from their Woodland and the Abbot had simply had enough Aly must have hoped the queen would find in his favor as a fellow countrywoman but the Abbot cleverly offered a large sum of money in exchange for his violent Behavior as a result Matilda ordered that there should be no more exploiting land or Goods by Royal officials this had a great bearing on the entire country now not only a small local area and it also shows once again that Matilda's sense of justice was stronger than any favoritism she may have had towards Norman subjects over the years Matilda also increasingly leaned into religion more than she ever had she gave several expensive gifts of jewels money and chales to abies and monasteries in both Normandy and England and although Matilda seems to have spoken to few people outside of Normandy or England she did strike up a correspondence with Pope Gregory iith from 1074 he mostly seems to have asked her to use her influence with William to encourage him to be more Pious something which shows Not only was Matilda seen as a deeply religious woman but as a woman who had a calming influence over her husband however sometime around this period possibly earlier but certainly by 1075 tragedy struck matild and William's Second Son Richard had accompanied his father to England he especially loved hunting and spent much of his time in the New Forest and area created by William himself but Richard was involved in a severe riding accident in which he either died instantly or of his injuries he was certainly young probably around 19 or 20 the entire family was hit hard by his death and Matilda grieved deeply at the death of one of her children her Pious donations increasing at the same time in a possible reaction not long after they also lost their eldest daughter adeliza who may have entered a nunery in her late teens again Matilda was racked with grief especially as there appears to have been something of a rift between adeliza and her parents due to several proposals that never happened but one of their children would cause a split between William and Matilda their eldest son Robert he had been left mainly in Normandy with his mother acting as Regent but when she traveled to England he was left in charge however by the late 1070s Robert was impatient for some authority of his own and William was reluctant to give it this was partly because of the animosity between them and partly because while Robert was considered generous and brave he was also easily LED impulsive and was more fond of entertainments than ruling effectively however in 1077 events came to a dramatic head Robert's Brothers William Rufus and Henry poured the contents of a chamber pot over him Furious he raised an argument with them and when their father got involved was angered further that they received no punishment the next day Robert rode off with his companions to take the castle at Ruan and when this failed they fled to Robert's Uncle of the same name in Flanders count Robert was of course glad to receive his nephew and cause problems for King William Robert Certo caused such a problem attacking various lands on the way to Flanders that William actually Allied himself with King Phillip but the bond between mother and son was so great that Matilda secretly not only kept in contact with Robert during his Exile but she also sent him money while this obviously shows her maternal love was stronger than the sense of Duty and possible love Matilda felt for William there were also clear benefits to Robert being in charge of Normandy for her as he now spent so much more time in Normandy it's likely William did not allow Matilda the autonomy she once enjoyed as Regent and yet if Robert was in charge it was likely she would be able to get a greater hold of power however it wasn't long before her husband found out what she had done and the Norman King was furious with his Queen he ordered Matilda to never do such a thing again but surprisingly the issue went no further despite the fact she had gone behind his back and essentially committed treason however when she was found to have once again sent money to Robert William humiliated her in front of the entire court Matilda didn't beg for her life instead kneeling at his feet and pleading the strength of her maternal feelings she claimed that she could not possibly have held on to her own wealth as her eldest son starved that she would give up her own life to see him live and that her husband had no right to demand she give up feeling this way in Fury William ordered that one of her servants be caught and blinded possibly a servant who had transported the money to Robert but luckily Matilda managed to help the poor man flee to an Abbey before his punishment for all of this the queen did finally manage to enact a truce between William and Robert at Easter int 80 and the truce would last between them until her death in late 1080 William would return to England and take his wife an eldest son with him probably indicative of his dwindled trust in both towards Christmas of that year Queen Margaret of Scotland asked Matilda to be godmother to her newly born daughter Edith she traveled with Robert to Scotland for the ceremony and there is a story that juring it little Edith pulled her Godmother's headdress down upon herself this was seen as a sign that one day the small baby would herself become a queen of England the sources that tell this story may have done so with hindsight as Edith would indeed become Queen of England by later marrying Matilda and William's son Henry changing her name to Matilda or M of Scotland but by this point Matilda had lived a long life had gone through several pregnancies much later than most women of her time and had continued traveling throughout her life by 1082 she was in ill health and the fact she wrote her willing this year suggests Matilda also thought she might not Bel long for This World by the winter of 1083 Matilda's Health declined further and in the early hours of the 2nd of November she died William remained by his wife's side the entire time and it was one of the few times he was ever publicly recorded as weeping his grief was deep and instant and he described mattilda as my own son Soul professing his love for her and falling into a deep depression from which he never really recovered William also swore he would give up his favorite sport hunting to express his grief Normandy and England were plunged into mourning for her and mass was spoken in her name in churches abies and Cathedrals across both chroniclers of the time had nothing but good things to say about her and Matilda's recent dealings with Robert were forgotten in the face of a lifetime of piety patronage good deeds and fair dealings with those she ruled her body was conveyed to the abay odam and William gave her a grand funeral that lasted 2 days the sources don't State exactly which of their children attended the funeral but as a none at the Abbey it's likely Cecilia was there and also Robert considering the bond between his mother and himself Matilda's body would suffer various indignities in death during the 15th century religious wars in France her effigy on top of her tomb was destroyed and her tomb plundered although her remains would be reburied in the early 18th century with a new monument this was destroyed during the French Revolution it wasn't until the 19th century Matilda's coffin would be moved to its final resting place amazingly still with the original 11th century Tombstone carved from black and white torai marble in honor of her Flemish Origins her Epitaph remains carved in gold as William instructed a reminder of her Regal ancestry after her death bereft of her soothing presence William became more of a tyrant than ever before for the next four years until his own death in 1087 his greed also apparently grew unchecked but it was also this greed that made him carry out the largest survey of England at that point the Doomsday Book the hostilities between between her sons and especially between Robert and his father also hint at how much of a unifying Source Matilda had been for them and with her death it crumbled any hopes at them getting along in years to come this would end in open fights with one another and Robert was banished forever to Normandy with no hope of claiming England eventually after their father's death the bitter resentments between the brothers would lead to the youngest Henry claiming both England and Normandy for himself Matilda's life was an astounding one she had begun life with Regal ancestry but only as the daughter of a account in a principality that was not important or strong enough in its own right at the time of her birth watching her mother as well as her father taught Matilda how to use her intelligence and sheer force of will to change this and her ambition and strength of character meant she would succeed not only as a duchess but as a queen as William's wife she is often pushed to one side in history a shadow standing beside her husband's more well-known and bloody accomplishments but she was a formidable woman in her own right calculating intelligent Pious and a calming and sensible influence on her hot-headed husband and Sons as well as a cultivated woman who understood the importance of politics and making relationships within their new lands importantly she she had become the first queen of England to be recognized as a formerly crowned ruler second only to the king to wield political and religious power in her own right something that would be continued in later centuries we should remember Matilda a longside William as his equal in many areas of their lives and recognize that the conqueror's Reign was successful at least in part because of Matilda if if you enjoyed this video don't forget to like And subscribe so you don't miss any new documentaries [Music]