My Genealogy Home Page:Information about Matilda Countess of Flanders
Matilda Countess of Flanders (b. 1031, d. 03 Nov 1083)
Notes for Matilda Countess of Flanders:From “Women in Power:” “She was married to William I the Conqueror of England (1066-87) and duke of Normandy. He depended heavily on her and she acted as regent whenever he was absent after their marriage in 1051. With him in England 1066-69 until she went back to Normandy, where she remained in Charge. Mother of around 10 children, one of the last being king Henry I. She lived (ca. 1031-83).”
Jim Weber’s notes state: “For many years it was assumed that Gundred, who married William de Warrene, was a daughter of William I and Matilda (as indicated in The Plantagenet Ancestry). However it is now known that Gundred was a daughter of Gherbod the Fleming (as indicated in Ancestral Roots). The following information strongly suggests that Gundred's mother was Matilda (thus the mistaken notion that she was daughter of William I).”
Jim Weber’s notes state: “Had Matilda of Flanders as many husbands as Adelaide, Countess of Ponthieu, and, like her, issue by each? What was the real cause of the inhibition of her marriage with William, Duke of Normandy, — its delay for six years? What truth is there in the story of her unreturned affection for the Angio-Saxon Brihtric Meaw, and of her vindictive conduct to him after she became Queen of England? I have hesitated to believe in the popular tradition that Duke William grossly assaulted the daughter of Baldwin in the street or in her own chamber, not that I have any doubt about his being capable of such an outrage, but because he was too politic to commit it, and she was not the woman to have forgiven it, assuming that the offence was the simple refusal of his hand on the ground of his illegitimacy. It is obvious, however, that the early life of Matilda is involved in mystery, and it is highly probable that a clearer insight into it would enable us to account for much which we now reject as legend, or fail to reconcile with acknowledged facts. If there be any foundation for the story of William's brutality, the outburst of ungovernable fury might have been due to a much greater provocation than has been assigned for it. Brihtric, the son of Algar or Alfar, sumamed Meaw (Snow), from the extreme fairness of his complexion, an Anglo-Saxon Thegn, possessor of large domains in England, had been sent on an embassy from King Edward the Confessor to the Connt of Flanders. Matilda, we are told, fell desperately in love with him, and offered herself to him in marriage! Either disgusted by her forwardness, or preferring another, he declined the flattering proposal. "Hell hath no fury like a woman foiled," and she kept her wrath warm till she was in a position to ruin the man she had so passionately loved. She had no sooner become the Queen of England than she induced William to confiscate, on some pretence, all Brihtric's estates, and obtained the greater proportion for herself. The unfortunate Thegn was arrested at his house at Hanley, in Worcestershire, on the very day Saint Wulfstan had consecrated a chapel of his building, dragged to Winchester, and died in a dungeon! The truth of this story is supported by the impartial evidence of Domesday, in which Hanley and the principal manors held by Brihtric in the time of King Edward are recorded as the possessions of Queen Matilda, and the remainder passed to Fitz Hamon.
After her hand had been rejected by the noble Saxon, it is presumed she became the wife of a Fleming, named Gherbod, who appears to have held the hereditary office of Advocate of the Abbey of Saint Bertin, in St. Omers, and by whom she had at least two children, viz., Gherbod, to whom William gave the earldom of Chester, and Gundred, "the sister of Gherbod," and wife of William de Warren. Was this a clandestine or an informal marriage, which, as it has never been acknowledged by any chronicler, contemporary or other, might have been unknown to the Duke of Normandy, when he proposed to one whom he believed to be the maiden daughter of the Count of Flanders, and the corporal chastisement inflicted, however unworthy of a man, passed over, sub silentio, for prudential reasons, by the parties wlio had been guilty of a disgraceful suppression of facts? The subsequent marriage under such circumstances will awaken no surprise in any one who has studied the character of William. Utterly unscrupulous, destitute of every generous, noble, or delicate feeling, every action of his life was dictated by POLICY alone. An alliance with the Count of Flanders might be considered by the crafty schemer sufficiently advantageous to warrant his overlooking any objectionable antecedents in the conduct of a granddaughter of a king of France, his first discovery of which had provoked his savage nature into a momentary ebullition of fury. Her being the mother of two children was a point in her favour with a man whose sole motive for marrying was the perpetuation of a dynasty, and the fair prospect of legitimate issue, in whose veins the blood of the Capets should enrich that of the Furrier of Falaise, would overcome any hesitation at espousing the widow of an Advocate of St. Bertin. On the other hand, Count Baldwin would be too happy to embrace the opportunity of reinstating his daughter in a position befitting her birth, and, as well as the lady herself, gladly condone past insults for future advantages and the hope of smothering, in the splendour of a ducal wedding, the awkward whispers of scandal.
I have said thus much simply to show the view that may be taken of these mysterious circumstances, in opposition to the rose-coloured representations of some modern historians, who, upon no stronger evidence, elevate the Conqueror into a model husband, and describe Matilda as the perfection of womankind. (copied from Bill Crawford's ancestry: crawfolk data base on World Connect Project, rootsweb.com)[Henrya1.ftw]
Born circa 1031 (Williamson, Kings and Queens.). In 1031 Matilda of Flanders. Married William I (----) in 1053 Eu. Died in 1083 Gloucester "On her death in 1083, the king took possession of (Gloucester) and gave it to Robert FitzHamon for services to the king and his father" (Broughton, Dict Med Knt.). Buried in 1083 Abbaye-aux-Dames (Holy Trinity), Caen, Calvados, Basse-Normandie (Williamson, Kings and Queens.). Died on 2 Nov 1083 Caen, Calvados, Basse-Normandie (Ibid.).
Note:
Matilda of Flanders - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Matilda of Flanders (~1031 - 1083) was the daughter of Baldwin (or "Baudouin") V (1012-1066), Count of Flanders, and Adela Capet (1000-1078/9), daughter of Robert II of France.
A spoiled young lady used to speaking her mind and getting her way, the 4'2"-tall Matilda (or "Maud") told the representative of William, Duke of Normandy (later king of England as William the Conqueror), who had come asking for her hand, that she was far too high-born (being descended from King Alfred the Great of England) to consider marrying a bastard. When that was repeated to him, William, all 5'10" of him, rode from Normandy to Bruges, found Matilda on her way to church, dragged her off her horse (some said by her long braids), threw her down in the street in front of her flabbergasted attendants, and then rode off. After that, she decided to marry him, and even a papal ban (on the grounds of consanguinity) did not dissuade her.
There were rumors that Matilda had been in love with the English ambassador to Flanders, a Saxon so pale he was nearly an albino, named Brihtric (but nicknamed "Snow"), who was already married. Whatever the truth of the matter, years later when she was acting as regent for William in England, she used her authority to confiscate Brihtric's lands (without even any formal charges, much less a trial) and throw him into prison, where he died under suspicious circumstances consistent with poisoning.
When William was preparing to invade England, Matilda outfitted a ship, the Mora, out of her own money and gave it to him. For many years it was thought that she had something to do with creating the Bayeux Tapestry, but historians no longer believe that; it seems to have been commissioned by William's half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, and made by Saxons in Kent.
Matilda bore William ten children, and he was believed to have been faithful to her, at least up until the time their son Robert rebelled against his father and Matilda sided with Robert against William. After she died, in 1083 at the age of 51, William became tyrannical, and people blamed it on his having lost her. She was buried at St. Stephen's in Caen, Normandy (then, France now), and William was eventually buried there, too. Years later their graves were opened and their bones measured, which is how we know how tall they were."
Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror, was the daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Flanders (a descendant of King Alfred the Great), and of Adela, Princess of France (daughter of Robert II, "the Pious", and sister of Henry I, King of France). Matilda was married to William while Duke of Normandy, in 1054, crowned Queen of England in 1068, and died in 1083. Of her eleven children, the best known are Robert, who became Duke of Normandy, William Rufus, and Henry Beauclerc, both of whom succeeded to the English crown. She had great influence with her husband, and brought about a reconciliation between him and his son Robert, who had taken up arms against him. To her is attributed the celebrated tapestry, preserved at Bayeux, representing the chief incidents in the Norman Conquest of England.
For many years it was assumed that Gundred, who married William de Warrene, was a daughter of William I and Matilda (as indicated in The Plantagenet Ancestry). However it is now known that Gundred was a daughter of Gherbod the Fleming (as indicated in Ancestral Roots). The following information strongly suggests that Gundred's mother was Matilda (thus the mistaken notion that she was daughter of William I).
From Bill Crawford's ancestry: crawfolk data base on World Connect Project, rootsweb.com: Had Matilda of Flanders as many husbands as Adelaide, Countess of Ponthieu, and, like her, issue by each? What was the real cause of the inhibition of her marriage with William, Duke of Normandy, — its delay for six years? What truth is there in the story of her unreturned affection for the Angio-Saxon Brihtric Meaw, and of her vindictive conduct to him after she became Queen of England? I have hesitated to believe in the popular tradition that Duke William grossly assaulted the daughter of Baldwin in the street or in her own chamber, not that I have any doubt about his being capable of such an outrage, but because he was too politic to commit it, and she was not the woman to have forgiven it, assuming that the offence was the simple refusal of his hand on the ground of his illegitimacy. It is obvious, however, that the early life of Matilda is involved in mystery, and it is highly probable that a clearer insight into it would enable us to account for much which we now reject as legend, or fail to reconcile with acknowledged facts. If there be any foundation for the story of William's brutality, the outburst of ungovernable fury might have been due to a much greater provocation than has been assigned for it. Brihtric, the son of Algar or Alfar, sumamed Meaw (Snow), from the extreme fairness of his complexion, an Anglo-Saxon Thegn, possessor of large domains in England, had been sent on an embassy from King Edward the Confessor to the Connt of Flanders. Matilda, we are told, fell desperately in love with him, and offered herself to him in marriage! Either disgusted by her forwardness, or preferring another, he declined the flattering proposal. "Hell hath no fury like a woman foiled," and she kept her wrath warm till she was in a position to ruin the man she had so passionately loved. She had no sooner become the Queen of England than she induced William to confiscate, on some pretence, all Brihtric's estates, and obtained the greater proportion for herself. The unfortunate Thegn was arrested at his house at Hanley, in Worcestershire, on the very day Saint Wulfstan had consecrated a chapel of his building, dragged to Winchester, and died in a dungeon! The truth of this story is supported by the impartial evidence of Domesday, in which Hanley and the principal manors held by Brihtric in the time of King Edward are recorded as the possessions of Queen Matilda, and the remainder passed to Fitz Hamon.
After her hand had been rejected by the noble Saxon, it is presumed she became the wife of a Fleming, named Gherbod, who appears to have held the hereditary office of Advocate of the Abbey of Saint Bertin, in St. Omers, and by whom she had at least two children, viz., Gherbod, to whom William gave the earldom of Chester, and Gundred, "the sister of Gherbod," and wife of William de Warren. Was this a clandestine or an informal marriage, which, as it has never been acknowledged by any chronicler, contemporary or other, might have been unknown to the Duke of Normandy, when he proposed to one whom he believed to be the maiden daughter of the Count of Flanders, and the corporal chastisement inflicted, however unworthy of a man, passed over, sub silentio, for prudential reasons, by the parties wlio had been guilty of a disgraceful suppression of facts? The subsequent marriage under such circumstances will awaken no surprise in any one who has studied the character of William. Utterly unscrupulous, destitute of every generous, noble, or delicate feeling, every action of his life was dictated by POLICY alone. An alliance with the Count of Flanders might be considered by the crafty schemer sufficiently advantageous to warrant his overlooking any objectionable antecedents in the conduct of a granddaughter of a king of France, his first discovery of which had provoked his savage nature into a momentary ebullition of fury. Her being the mother of two children was a point in her favour with a man whose sole motive for marrying was the perpetuation of a dynasty, and the fair prospect of legitimate issue, in whose veins the blood of the Capets should enrich that of the Furrier of Falaise, would overcome any hesitation at espousing the widow of an Advocate of St. Bertin. On the other hand, Count Baldwin would be too happy to embrace the opportunity of reinstating his daughter in a position befitting her birth, and, as well as the lady herself, gladly condone past insults for future advantages and the hope of smothering, in the splendour of a ducal wedding, the awkward whispers of scandal.
I have said thus much simply to show the view that may be taken of these mysterious circumstances, in opposition to the rose-coloured representations of some modern historians, who, upon no stronger evidence, elevate the Conqueror into a model husband, and describe Matilda as the perfection of womankind.
More About Matilda Countess of Flanders:
Burial 1: Holy Trinity Abbey, Caen, Normandy, France.331
Burial 2: 03 Nov 1083, Holy Trinity Abbey, Caen, Basse-Normandie, France.
Title (Facts Pg): Queen of England - Comtesse de Flandre .332
More About Matilda Countess of Flanders and William I The Conqueror KING OF ENGLAND:
Marriage: 1053, Cathedral of Notre Dame d'Eu, Normandy, France.
Children of Matilda Countess of Flanders and William I The Conqueror KING OF ENGLAND are:
- +Gundreda 'The Flaming' Princess De England, b. Abt. 1050, Normandy, France, d. 27 May 1085, Died in childbirth, Castle Acre, Acre, Norfolk, England.
- +Henry I Beauclerc KING OF ENGLAND, b. Sep 1068, in Selby, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom, d. 01 Dec 1135, in St. Denis, Seine-St. Denis, France of Food Poisoning.