Matilda of Flanders
1031 – 1083 · Generation VIII · Queen consort
Matilda of Flanders (1031–1083). Queen consort. Married William I the Conqueror in 1051. 3 of their children are recorded in this archive. A daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Flanders, and a niece of Henry I of France, she brought the illegitimate Duke William a far grander lineage, reaching back to Charlemagne and Alfred the Great. Pope Leo IX had banned the match on grounds of kinship, and a papal dispensation came only in 1059. She gave William his flagship, the Mora, for the invasion of England and governed Normandy as regent in his absences, six times between 1066 and 1076. She was crowned at Westminster at Pentecost 1068, and two of her sons, William II and Henry I, later wore the English crown. She angered her husband by sending large sums to their exiled son Robert, then reconciled the two in 1080. She was buried at Caen in the Abbaye aux Dames, one of the two abbeys she and William built there.
Place in the family
- The archive records 150 of her descendants, across 32 generations.
Partners
- Married King William I The Conqueror (1028 – 1087) in 1051 — 3 children together
Children
- King William II Rufus (1056 – 1100)
- Adela of Normandy (1067 – 1137)
- King Henry I (1068 – 1135)
Life
- 1031 — Born
- 1051 — Married William I the Conqueror
- 1083 — Died