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GERMANY Matilda (Maud) Empress Of
Bef 1102 - 1169

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• Birth	Bef 5 Aug 1102	London, Middlesex, England
  Gender	Female
  Died	10 Sep 1169	Notre Dame, Rouen, Seine-Maritime, France
  Buried	Bec Abbey, Le Bec-Hellouin, Eure, France
  Notes	Matilda, daughter of King Henry I of England, *was* her father's heiress. Henry had 22-24 bastards and a legitimate son, William The Aetheling, who was drowned in the Wreck of the White Ship on 25 November 1125 ---- ten years before Henry's death. So, Henry I had no surviving legitimate son to succeed to the throne. Matilda, his legitimate daughter, had married Henry V, The Holy Roman Emperor and was styled as The Empress Matilda in English, as she preferred. Her husband, Henry V died in 1125 of cancer. The couple had no issue. Matilda returned to England after the death of her husband and Henry I began to groom her for succession to the throne. She was widowed and childless as well as pretty well Germanised [read arrogant and pretentious, in English eyes], having first gone to the Continent when she was eight years old and having married Henry V when she was 11. The British nobles and bishops did not particularly cotton to this Jennie-foreigner as their future queen ---- but Henry I did his best to secure their oaths of support that they would loyally defend her claims if she outlived her father and he left no legitimate son. Matilda married Geoffrey 'le Bel' comte d'Anjou, Touraine et Maine in 1127. Now she was Brunhilde with a frog husband in the minds of many of the stalwart British nobles and bishops. Henry I died in 1135 without fathering a legitimate son. His death led to a disputed succession just as had the deaths of the two previous Norman kings of England, William I 'The Conqueror' and William II 'Rufus'. When Henry I died on 1 Dec 1135, of a surfeit of lampreys as some say, Matilda was out of pocket on the Continent. Stephen, a grandson of William The Conqueror, quickly seized the initiative and crossed to England to seize the crown where he was accepted as King by the worthies of London, whose trading connections with Stephen's lands in Boulogne helped to win them to his side. Stephen pressed on to Winchester, where his brother, Bishop Henry of Winchester, persuaded an initially reluctant Archbishop of Canterbury to crown Stephen as King, the custodian of the treasure to hand over the keys, and the magnates who were present to accept him as monarch. Some of the nobles and clerics seem to have abandoned Matilda because they construed their oath to Henry I to have held only if Henry did not give his daughter Matilda in marriage to anyone outside the Kingdom without consulting them. A Great Civil War ensued when Matilda tried to fight back and reclaim the throne in 1139. This Civil War lasted until 1153 when Stephen finally agreed to allow Matilda's son Henry to succeed him on the throne as Henry II 'Curtmantle'. Yes, the one who was married to Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richardson. Henry II also inherited his father Geoffrey's lands and titles. Geoffrey was quite a dashing figure, the Antonio Banderas of his day.
  Person ID	I839	Royal Family of Europe
  Last Modified	9 Mar 2003

  
  

  Father	ENGLAND Henry I "Beauclerc" King Of,   b. 1068, Selby, Yorkshire, England ,   d. 1 Dec 1135, St Denis, Seine-St Denis, France
  Mother	SCOTLAND Matilda "Atheling" Princess Of,   b. Abt 1079/1080, Dunfermline, Fifeshire, Scotland ,   d. 1 May 1118, Westminster, Middlesex, England
  Married	11 Nov 1100	Westminster, London, Middlesex, England
  Family ID	F364	Group Sheet

  
  

  Family	PLANTAGENET Geoffrey V "le Bon",   b. 24 Aug 1113, Anjou, France ,   d. 7 Sep 1151, Chateau, France
  Married	22 May 1127	, Le Mans, Sarthe, France
  Children	1. PLANTAGENET Agnes,   b. Abt 1130, <, Le Mans, Sarthe, France> ,   d. 1192, Of, Anyore, , England > 2. ENGLAND Henry II "Plantagenet" King Of,   b. 5 Mar 1133, Le Mans, Sarthe, France ,   d. 6 Jul 1189, Chinon, Indre-Et-Loire, France   3. PLANTAGENET Geoffrey VI "Mantell",   b. 3 Jun 1134, Rouen, Seine-Maritime, France ,   d. 27 Jul 1157, Nantes, Loire-Atlantique, France   4. PLANTAGENET Guillaume,   b. 22 Jul 1136, Argentan, Orne, France ,   d. 30 Jan 1163/1164, Rouen, Seine-Maritime, France   5. PLANTAGENET Emma,   b. Abt 1138, Of Normandy, France
  Family ID	F393	Group Sheet