Matilda of Boulogne

1105 – 1152 · Generation X

Matilda of Boulogne (1105–1152). Married Stephen of Blois in 1125. As the only known child of Count Eustace III, she inherited Boulogne — with the key ports on the shortest Channel crossing — and wide English lands, and through her mother she descended from the Anglo-Saxon kings. When Stephen seized the throne in 1135 she became queen, and historians credit her resolve with keeping him on it through the civil war known as the Anarchy. She besieged Dover in 1138 and oversaw the Treaty of Durham with her uncle David I of Scotland. After Stephen was captured at Lincoln in 1141 she rallied his party, won back London as Empress Matilda fled the city, and at Winchester captured Robert of Gloucester, whom she then exchanged for her husband. She founded Coggeshall and Faversham abbeys and Templar houses at Cressing and Cowley. After her death in 1152 Stephen accepted the empress’s son Henry as heir.

Partners

Married King Stephen (1096 – 1154) in 1125

Life

1105 — Born
1125 — Married Stephen of Blois
1152 — Died