Matilda of Boulogne
Matilda of Boulogne was the countess of Boulogne in her own right from 1125 and queen of England as the wife of King Stephen from 1135 until her death. She supported Stephen in the Anarchy-his struggle for the English throne against their mutual cousin Empress Matilda. Historians attribute Stephen's continued hold on the throne to her courage and determination.
Matilda was the daughter of Count Eustace III of Boulogne, from whom she inherited the French County of Boulogne as well as vast estates in England. Her maternal uncle King Henry I of England arranged for her to marry his nephew Stephen of Blois. Henry had intended to be succeeded by his daughter Empress Matilda, but when he died in 1135, Stephen took the throne. Matilda of Boulogne was consequently crowned queen in 1136. Civil war broke out in 1138 when Earl Robert of Gloucester, King Henry's illegitimate son, renounced his allegiance to King Stephen and declared for his half-sister. Matilda joined her husband in an attempt to quell the rebellion, leading a successful siege of Dover. The conflict intensified in 1139 when Empress Matilda arrived in England to press her claim. Queen Matilda's initial role in the war was primarily that of a diplomat: she treated with her uncle King David I of Scotland, who supported his other niece the empress; and she concluded an alliance with King Louis VII of France.
After Stephen's capture at the battle of Lincoln in 1141, Matilda took up the leadership of their faction and began assembling an army. Despite her efforts, the kingdom's clergy recognized the empress as ruler. The empress established herself in London and was on the verge of victory when the queen allied with dissatisfied citizenry and led her army to retake the capital. The queen soon besieged the empress in Winchester and, in the subsequent rout, captured the earl of Gloucester, crippling her cousin's war effort. By the end of 1141, she had traded her prisoner for her husband. She continued to advise Stephen and take part in his government, and came to involve herself closely with Church affairs. She probably pushed Stephen to secure the succession of their son Eustace; after she died, Stephen recognized the empress's son Henry as his heir, ending the Anarchy.
Early life
Matilda was born between 1102 and 1110. She was the only known child of the count of Boulogne, Eustace III, and Mary of Scotland. As such, she was the heir to the counties of Boulogne and Lens in northern France and estates in England known as the honour of Boulogne. Eustace was the elder brother of the first two rulers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Godfrey of Bouillon and King Baldwin I. On her mother's side, Matilda descended from the royal family of Scotland and was a great-great-granddaughter of King Edmund II of England, thus descending from the Anglo-Saxon monarchs who were supplanted by the Normans in 1066. Matilda's father had at least two illegitimate sons, Ralph and Eustace.It is likely that Matilda spent much of her childhood in England; its queen, Matilda of Scotland, was her mother's sister, and her father regularly participated in King Henry I's military actions and witnessed royal charters. The young Matilda was probably educated at a monastery, perhaps Wilton Abbey, under the supervision of the countess or the queen, who had both received their education there. King Henry and Queen Matilda had two children: Empress Matilda, who lived in Germany as a result of her marriage to Emperor Henry V, and William Adelin, who was expected to succeed his father as king of England and duke of Normandy. Countess Mary died in 1115 or 1116; the death of Queen Matilda followed in 1118.
When his brother Baldwin died in 1118, Eustace was a candidate for the kingship of Jerusalem and set off to claim the throne; because he was far away, the kingdom's nobles elected Baldwin II instead, and Eustace returned to Boulogne. In 1123, Baldwin II was captured in battle, and his vassals began seeking a new king. Eustace was by this time old and his heir, Matilda, unmarried; the nobles desired a king who could lead their army in the field and turned to Charles the Good.
Matilda's illegitimate half-brothers, Ralph and Eustace, are last mentioned as living in 1122; their deaths cemented Matilda's position as heir. Around 1125, Count Eustace and King Henry arranged for Matilda to marry the king's nephew Stephen of Blois. Since the death of Matilda's cousin William Adelin in the White Ship disaster in 1120, Stephen was one of the potential successors to King Henry, and the king may have arranged Stephen's marriage to Matilda with the aim of strenghtening Stephen's claim. Though not related to one another, both Stephen and Matilda were first cousins of King Henry's daughter Empress Matilda, Stephen paternally and Matilda maternally.
Countess
Count Eustace renounced his titles and became a monk shortly after Matilda married Stephen. Stephen was the count of Mortain and held the honours of Eye and Lancaster. As the leading magnates in southeast England, Matilda and Stephen became central figures in Anglo-Norman politics. They governed their lands together and struck coinage with both portraits, but Matilda assumed primary responsibility for day-to-day administration.The same year Matilda and Stephen married, King Henry's daughter Empress Matilda returned to her father as a widow. The king began taking steps to ensure her succession. He had Stephen and other magnates attending his court in January 1127 swear to recognize her as heir; Stephen did so grudgingly. Another royal nephew and contender for the throne, William Clito, was appointed count of Flanders by King Louis VI of France in 1127. Henry was anxious that William be prevented from solidifying his hold on Flanders for fear that he would claim the English throne. He sent Matilda and Stephen to Boulogne to campaign against William; at the same time, he sent the empress to wed Geoffrey of Anjou. The Angevin alliance was unwelcome to much of the Anglo-Norman nobles, including Matilda and Stephen, whose family were rivals of the counts of Anjou. William died in July 1128; Henry, Stephen, and Matilda had good relations with the new count of Flanders, Thierry of Alsace.
The first decade of Matilda and Stephen's marriage saw the birth of most of their children. Historians disagree about the order of their births. Eustace was the eldest son; Heather Tanner dates his birth to around 1127. A daughter named Matilda was born in 1134. Tanner dates the birth of the second son, Baldwin, to around 1131; Patricia Dark suggests that he may have been the twin of Matilda, who was born in 1134. Dark argues that Mary was the eldest daughter, while Tanner considers her the youngest child, born in 1136.
Queen
Years of peace
King Henry I died on 1 December 1135. At that time or shortly after, Matilda gave birth to a son, William. Stephen was in Boulogne when he received the news of his uncle's death and at once sailed to England, while Matilda stayed behind to recover from childbirth. The king's daughter Empress Matilda, to whom succession had been promised, immediately marched to Normandy and took Argentan, Exmes, Domfront, Sées, and other castles. King David I of Scotland, uncle of both the countess and the empress, invaded England in support of the empress's claim. The citizens of London acclaimed Stephen king and his brother Henry, bishop of Winchester, secured the support of the Church. Hugh Bigod, the royal steward, swore that King Henry had changed his mind on his deathbed about leaving the throne to his daughter and that he nominated Stephen instead. Stephen was crowned on 22 December 1135. In February, he marched to the north and concluded treated with David, who recognized him as king in return for Carlisle and the confirmation of David's son Henry as the earl of Huntingdon.With Stephen's coronation, Matilda became queen. She had arrived in England by Easter 1136 and was crowned in Westminster Abbey on 22 March. At the Easter court, the couple's daughter Matilda was betrothed to Count Waleran IV of Meulan. The queen did not accompany her husband while he marched to pacify the kingdom, probably remaining in or near London. Tanner believes that she was pregnant and that her daughter Mary was born in late 1136. Matilda spent much of 1137 in Normandy, but returned to England to take charge in Stephen's stead while he campaigned on the continent. Two of their children-Matilda and Baldwin-died around this time.
The Anarchy
Outbreak of war
The first two years of Stephen's reign were successful, but factions had appeared by 1138. Matilda's active involvement in the political affairs of the realm began in earnest with the outbreak of the Anarchy in 1138. King David of Scotland invaded again, and the defection of King Henry's illegitimate son Robert, earl of Gloucester, to the cause of Empress Matilda ignited a massive rebellion against Stephen. The king lost Hereford, Bristol, Leeds Castle in Kent, Castle Cary, Dudley, Dunster, Wareham, Malton, Dover, and Shrewsbury. Matilda and Stephen set about recovering the lost castles. In mid-1138 the queen laid siege to Dover with a large army on land and at the same time had her allies, relatives, and followers from Boulogne cut Dover off by sea. The rebel Walkelin Maminot surrendered to Matilda in late August or early September. The papal legate Alberic of Ostia arrived in October, and with him Matilda brokered peace between her husband and her Scottish uncle; she oversaw the signing of the Treaty of Durham on 9 April 1139.The arrival in England of Empress Matilda on 30 September 1139 sparked fresh rebellion against King Stephen. Queen Matilda took diplomatic initiative with her brothers-in-law Bishop Henry of Winchester and Count Theobald IV of Blois and arranged for her son Eustace to marry Constance, sister of King Louis VII of France. Matilda escorted her new daughter-in-law to England. A peace conference was held in Bath in August 1140, with Queen Matilda, Bishop Henry, and Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury representing the king and the earl of Gloucester representing the empress; it failed because Stephen would not agree to the clerics' demand that the Church should set the peace terms. Henry came to resent Stephen's refusal to heed his advice.