Matilda

Matilda (1102-1167), wife of Holy Roman Emperor Henry V, and claimant to the English throne, the only daughter of Henry I. In 1114 Matilda (also known as Maud) married Henry V. who died in 1125; and in 1128 wed Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou. After her brother William's death on the White Ship in 1120, her father had compelled the barons to accept her as his heir, but they had stipulated that she should not marry outside England without their consent. Her son Henry was only 2 when the king died in 1135, and a coup brought Stephen, the son of William the Conqueror's daughter Adela, to the throne, supported by the Church and a majority of barons. Matilda's half-brother Robert of Gloucester persuaded her to fight. In 1141, after Stephen was captured at Lincoln, she was elected “Lady of the English” by a clerical council in Winchester, and moved to London. But her actions, and demands for money, caused the citizens to chase her away to Oxford before she could be crowned. Her army was routed at Winchester. In 1142 she escaped from Oxford Castle over the frozen River Thames. Her position was now weak, and in 1148 she fled to Normandy, from where she exercised considerable influence on her son, later Henry II. She died near Rouen on September 10, 1167.