Matilda the Empress
1102 – 1167 · Generation X · Lady of the English · House of Normandy
Matilda the Empress (1102–1167). Lady of the English. Married Geoffrey Plantagenet in 1128. One of their children is recorded in this archive. Fought her cousin Stephen through the civil war called the Anarchy; never crowned, but her son took the throne. The only surviving daughter of Henry I and Matilda of Scotland, she went to Germany at eight as the future Emperor Henry V’s bride; crowned German queen at Mainz, she married him at Worms in 1114 and later acted as his regent in Italy. Widowed and childless in 1125, she was recalled by her father, who had lost his only legitimate son in the White Ship disaster; he made his court swear loyalty to her as heir and matched her with Geoffrey of Anjou. After Stephen seized the crown, she landed in England in 1139 with her half-brother Robert of Gloucester. Her forces took Stephen prisoner at Lincoln in 1141, but hostile Londoners drove her out before she was crowned at Westminster, and in late 1142 she slipped out of besieged Oxford across the frozen Thames. From 1148 she governed Normandy from near Rouen, counselling her son Henry II.
Place in the family
- Matilda the Empress was the elder of 2 children of King Henry I and Matilda of Scotland recorded in this archive.
- The archive records 144 of her descendants, across 30 generations.
One of 7 people of House of Normandy (until 1154) in this archive. The conqueror’s house — William I took the English crown in 1066 and his sons held it after him.
Line of descent: King William I The Conqueror → King Henry I → Matilda the Empress.
Parents
- King Henry I (1068 – 1135)
- Matilda of Scotland (1080 – 1118)
Siblings
- William Adelin (1103 – 1120)
Partners
- Married Geoffrey Plantagenet (1113 – 1151) in 1128 — one child together
Children
- King Henry II (1133 – 1189)
Life
- 1102 — Born
- 1128 — Married Geoffrey Plantagenet
- 1167 — Died