She Wolves (11 page)

Matilda’s return to England sparked a civil war that would last for the next fifteen years. Although Matilda never led an army, she was probably intimately involved in planning her campaign. It seems likely that Matilda hoped for a swift campaign and, according to John of Worcester, she was ‘ecstatic’ in early 1141 when she heard that Stephen had been captured by her supporters at Lincoln.
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Stephen was brought to Matilda at Bristol and she must have felt that the crown was finally within her grasp.
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Certainly, many of Stephen’s supporters made their peace with the Empress and Stephen’s own brother, the Bishop of Winchester, became an important supporter. The Bishop of Winchester was also the papal legate in England and his support was essential in establishing Matilda’s rule in England. She travelled to see him at Winchester soon after Stephen’s capture and the pair made a pact. According to the
Gesta Stephani
:

On that day in Winchester, Matilda was accepted as England’s first reigning queen. This was her greatest moment of triumph. However it is also at this time that many sources begin to turn overtly hostile towards Matilda and this sudden unpopularity is often attributed to her conduct as queen.

The
Gesta Stephani
describes how following her accession Matilda quickly showed herself to be capricious and headstrong.
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Stephen’s wife, Matilda of Boulogne, came to Matilda personally and begged for the release of her husband in order that he could live quietly in retirement with her.
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Instead of heeding the woman’s pleas, Matilda abused her in ‘harsh and insulting language’, causing Stephen’s wife to take up arms on her husband’s behalf.
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Regardless of any promises he made to her, it is to be expected that Matilda would not have willingly released Stephen, a known oath-breaker, from captivity. There is no doubt that this source, which is a life of King Stephen, was deeply biased. However, this and other charges of arrogance may have thwarted her attempts to fully establish herself in 1141. In the sources Matilda ungraciously received those lords who had supported Stephen, even though they came offering their allegiance and this may well have caused these men to turn once again to Stephen.
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Even more damningly, she apparently began to behave in a proud and disdainful manner towards even her own most loyal supporters. In the
Gesta Stephani
she insisted on remaining seated even when her greatest supporters King David of Scotland, Robert of Gloucester or the Bishop of Winchester entered, requesting them to kneel in her presence.
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Furthermore she:

As a reigning queen, Matilda was in a difficult position. It was natural for the monarch to receive supporters on bent knee while remaining seated, and to expect to rule themselves rather than be ruled. It is certainly hard to imagine Matilda’s grandfather, William the Conqueror, for example, receiving criticism for similar behaviour and a kingly manner in male rulers was praised. However, as a woman, any attempt by Matilda to behave in the manner of a ruler was seen as both unwomanly and insufferably arrogant. Matilda’s understandable attempts assert her authority as a monarch therefore damned her queenship in the eyes of her contemporaries It was accusations of arrogance that led to the ultimate loss of all she had won in England.

Although she had been recognised as ruler in England in 1141, Matilda still needed to be crowned to ensure her position. She therefore travelled to London soon after her meeting with the Bishop of Winchester, to prepare for her coronation and consequent formal recognition as queen. London had been loyal to Stephen throughout the early years of the civil war and Matilda must have realised that she faced a struggle to win the Londoners’ support. However most sources claim that instead of approaching the situation in a conciliatory manner Matilda stormed into the city and alienated the population almost immediately. For example in the
Gesta Stephani
, Matilda arrived in London with an army, but was welcomed by the Londoners, anxious to create good relations with their new queen.
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Matilda was in no mood to be sympathetic to the supporters of her enemy and demanded large amounts of money from the city. When the Londoners aswered that they could not pay, Matilda acted in the following way:

Matilda was justified in pointing out that the Londoners had spent all their funds for the sake of a usurper. Kings were expected to display fortitude and Stephen for example was often criticised for being too soft on his enemies. Matilda, however, could never be a king in the eyes of her contemporaries and to the churchmen who recorded history she was dangerously unwomanly. The Londoners were probably also seeking any excuse to abandon their new queen and Matilda’s reply to them was not the most tactful. Her behaviour certainly alienated the Londoners and the city’s leaders instead joined with Stephen’s wife, who was busy raising an army in Kent.
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Matilda does not appear to have noticed the increasing ill feeling towards her in London and continued making the arrangements for her coronation. Her likely opinion was that she was acting exactly as a ruler should. Nevertheless this behaviour in a queen was unacceptable in a male-dominated society.

Matilda’s relationship with the Londoners became apparent one day as she was sitting down to have dinner at her base outside the city walls.
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According to the
Gesta Stephani
, suddenly:

Matilda was apparently caught completely unawares by this dramatic assault on her camp and was forced to flee the city, leaving her belongings to be plundered.
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Matilda’s expulsion from London signalled the end of her hopes of a coronation and soon after she had gone Stephen’s queen took possession of the city for the king. In retaliation, Matilda ordered Stephen to be placed in chains in his dungeon.
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Although Matilda had suffered a setback at the hands of the Londoners, Stephen was her prisoner and she could still lay a claim to the title of ‘Lady of the English’. She must have been angered to hear that soon after the fall of London, the Bishop of Winchester also abandoned her cause. Matilda and her supporters moved quickly to Winchester and besieged the bishop in his castle.
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This proved to be the greatest mistake of Matilda’s brief reign. Hearing of the bishop’s situation, Stephen’s wife mustered a force of Londoners and rushed to attack the besiegers.
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Matilda was able to flee but her half-brother, and most important supporter, Robert of Gloucester, was captured by Stephen’s queen.
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For all the accusations of arrogance against Matilda, she recognised the fact that she relied on her brother and he was ransomed for Stephen in November 1141, bringing Matilda’s reign to an end.
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In spite of Stephen’s release and re-establishment as king, Matilda did not end her campaign to win the English throne and she returned to the West Country to gather her forces, still determined to assert her authority as queen. Stephen was equally determined to capture his rival. In September 1142 Matilda found herself besieged in Oxford Castle.
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Matilda had no intention of surrendering to her cousin and it was during the siege that she showed something of her courage and determination. A number of sources state how Matilda decided to make her escape one snowy December night. Dressed in white as camouflage against the snow, Matilda and three knights left the castle, sneaking through the ranks of the besiegers.
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This journey must have been an ordeal for the whole group and they walked six miles through the snow to Wallingford, crossing the frozen River Thames on foot.

Matilda must have been relieved to return to the relative safety of her own territory in the West Country and she would have been cheered by the arrival soon after her escape from Oxford of her eldest son, Henry.
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. Henry was still too young to play an active role in the campaign but as Matilda’s heir his presence must have boosted morale amongst Matilda’s supporters. By the late 1140s, Henry was almost an adult and Matilda appears to have decided that it was time to pass her claim on to the next generation. In 1148, she left England for the last time and sailed to Normandy, where she would remain for the rest of her life. She probably followed the course of Henry’s wars in England closely and must have felt triumphant when, on 6 November 1153, Henry was finally recognised as heir to the throne by Stephen.
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She must also have felt that her activities in England were vindicated when on the death of Stephen just under a year later Henry was proclaimed King of England. Remembering her own problematic relationship with England however, Matilda acted wisely and did not attend Henry’s coronation in England.

Matilda lived out the rest of her life in Rouen, effectively ruling Normandy as an unofficial regent for her son.
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She remained a strong influence over her son until her death and she must have felt proud of all she had done to secure the throne of England for him. We can speculate that Matilda privately regretted that she had been unable to secure her own coronation. According to one chronicler, ‘she was swollen with insufferable pride by her success in war, and alienated the affections of nearly everyone’.
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Perhaps in her old age she came to regret the way she behaved when the crown was within her grasp but realistically it is doubtful that she could have acted in any other way. The facts of Matilda’s life proved clearly that a woman could not be both a queen regnant and enjoy a spotless reputation. Matilda found herself in a unique position as a female claimant to the throne and she discovered, to her cost, that women were simply not expected to behave in the same way as men.

Matilda died on 10 September 1167 at the venerable age of sixty-five. Her attempts to fulfill what was considered a man’s role wrecked her reputation and she remains notorious today. For four hundred years after her death her story was held up to demonstrate the dangers of female rule and even today she is portrayed as an unnatural and unwomanly figure. The actions of Empress Matilda have been damned through allegations of arrogance and pride. In the twelfth century, England was simply not ready for a reigning queen and, in the end, the best Matilda could do was keep the voice of legitimacy alive long enough for her son to grow into a man and claim the throne. As a queen regnant, Matilda was unable to rule through a male relative, at least nominally, and was therefore held up as an oddity and an unnatural woman. This is a view that still persists and the her name will always bear this notoriety. This can also be seen with the reputation of Matilda’s daughter-in-law and contemporary, the famous Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Eleanor of Aquitaine was the most famous woman of her generation. No other medieval woman has commanded such enduring interest and numerous biographies have been written about her. Certainly, her fame exceeded even that of her mother-in-law, Empress Matilda, and Eleanor became a legend in her own lifetime. Like Matilda, Eleanor’s fame was perhaps not entirely welcome and even to this day she retains a slightly unsavoury reputation. In her youth, Eleanor was portrayed as a selfish and domineering woman, who would become an adulteress, then a rebellious and disloyal wife and finally simply a woman who did not know her place and would not let go of the empire she had ruled for nearly fifty years. Eleanor’s long and active life defied attempts to classify her, so to the conservative chroniclers she was someone to be feared. Eleanor was a woman living in a man’s world and unlike many other queens of England, she excelled in it, to the chagrin of many of her contemporaries.

Much of Eleanor of Aquitaine’s notoriety comes from her marriages and relationships with husbands and children. It is probable that much of her behaviour was a result of her unorthodox upbringing. Eleanor’s childhood would have been dominated by her grandfather, Duke William IX of Aquitaine. A flamboyant figure, he overshadowed her father, William X. William IX was notorious across Europe for his abduction of the beautiful Viscountess of Chatelerault, who appears to have been more than willing to accept the position of the Duke’s official mistress, driving his wife to seek refuge in a nunnery. Despite the protests of the duchess, William’s relationship with his Viscountess was lasting and after several years his mistress was able to persuade him to marry his son to her daughter.
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Eleanor’s mother, Aenor, is a shadowy figure and was probably very young at the time of her marriage. Nonetheless, she bore William three children; Eleanor in 1122, followed by Petronilla and William Aigret. In 1130 when Eleanor was eight, both her mother and her brother died, leaving Eleanor as her father’s heir.
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It is unlikely that William X intended to be succeeded by his daughter. In 1136 he became engaged to Emma of Limoges but before the wedding could occur, she was kidnapped and forced to marry her abductor, William of Angouleme – yet another example of an unconventional marital arrangement in Eleanor’s childhood.
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In 1137, William X, who had still not remarried, died suddenly of food poisoning.
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