See also

Family of Geoffrey V + PLANTAGENET and Matilda +

Husband: Geoffrey V + PLANTAGENET (1113-1151)
Wife: Matilda + (1102-1169)
Children: Henry II + (1133-1189)
Marriage 22 May 1127 Le Mans, Sarthe, Loire, France

Husband: Geoffrey V + PLANTAGENET

Name: Geoffrey V + PLANTAGENET
Sex: Male
Nickname: The Handsome
Father: Fulk V + of JERUSALEM (1092-1143)
Mother: Ermengarde + (1096-1126)
Birth 24 Aug 1113 Anjou, Isere, Rhone-Alpes, Loire, France
Occupation Count of Anjou
Title frm 1129 to 7 Sep 1151 (age 15-38) Count of Anjou
Death 7 Sep 1151 (age 38) Chateau, France

Wife: Matilda +

Name: Matilda +
Sex: Female
Father: Henry I * + (1068-1135)
Mother: Matilda + (1079-1118)
Birth 5 Aug 1102 London, Middlesex, England
Occupation Empress of Germany
Title frm 7 Jan 1114 to 23 May 1125 (age 11-22) Holy Roman Empress, Queen of Germany
Death 10 Sep 1169 (age 67) Notre-Dame, Rouen, Seine-Maritime, France

Child 1: Henry II +

picture

Henry II +

picture

Spouse: Eleanor of AQUITAINE

Name: Henry II +
Sex: Male
Spouse 1: unknown ( - )
Spouse 2: Eleanor of AQUITAINE (1121-1204)
Spouse 3: unknown ( - )
Spouse 4: Rosamond + of CLIFFORD (1136-1176)
Spouse 5: Ida + of TOENI (1153- )
Birth 5 Mar 1133 LeMans, Sarthe, France
Occupation King of England
Title frm 1151 to 1153 (age 17-20) Count of Mortain
Title frm 1151 to 1189 (age 17-56) Duke of Normandy
Title frm 1151 to 1189 (age 17-56) Count of Anjou
Title frm 1151 to 1189 (age 17-56) Count of Maine
Title frm 1152 to 1189 (age 18-56) Duke of Aquitane
Title frm 1152 to 1153 (age 18-20) Count of Poitiers
Title frm 1154 to 1189 (age 20-56) King of England
Death 6 Jul 1189 (age 56) Chinon, Indre-de-Loire/France

Note on Husband: Geoffrey V + PLANTAGENET

Geoffrey V (24 August 1113 – 7 September 1151), called the Handsome (French: le Bel) and Plantagenet, was the Count of Anjou, Touraine, and Maine by inheritance from 1129 and then Duke of Normandy by conquest from 1144. By his marriage to the Empress Matilda, daughter and heiress of Henry I of England, Geoffrey had a son, Henry Curtmantle, who succeeded to the English throne and founded the Plantagenet dynasty to which Geoffrey gave his nickname.

 

Geoffrey was the elder son of Fulk V of Anjou and Eremburga of La Flèche, heiress of Elias I of Maine. Geoffrey received his nickname for the yellow sprig of broom blossom (genêt is the French name for the genista, or broom shrub) he wore in his hat as a badge. King Henry I of England, having heard good reports on Geoffrey's talents and prowess, sent his royal legates to Anjou to negotiate a marriage between Geoffrey and his own daughter, Matilda. Consent was obtained from both parties, and on 10 June 1128 the fifteen-year-old Geoffrey was knighted in Rouen by King Henry in preparation for the wedding. Interestingly, there was no opposition to the marriage from the Church, despite the fact that Geoffrey's sister was the widow of Matilda's brother (only son of King Henry) which fact had been used to annul the marriage of another of Geoffrey's sisters to the Norman pretender William Clito. This fact is understandable considering the opposition to the marriage between Clito and Sibylla came from King Henry himself, not the church.

 

[edit] MarriageOn 17 June 1128 Geoffrey married Empress Matilda, the daughter and heiress of King Henry I of England by his first wife Edith of Scotland, and widow of Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor. The marriage was meant to seal a peace between England/Normandy and Anjou. She was eleven years older than Geoffrey, very proud of her status as an Empress (as opposed to being a mere Countess). Their marriage was a stormy one with frequent long separations, but she bore him three sons and survived him.

 

[edit] Count of AnjouThe year after the marriage Geoffrey's father left for Jerusalem (where he was to become king), leaving Geoffrey behind as count of Anjou. John of Marmoutier describes Geoffrey as handsome, red-headed, jovial, and a great warrior; however, Ralph of Diceto alleges that his charm concealed his cold and selfish character.

 

When King Henry I died in 1135, Matilda at once entered Normandy to claim her inheritance. The border districts submitted to her, but England chose her cousin Stephen of Blois for its king, and Normandy soon followed suit. The following year, Geoffrey gave Ambrieres, Gorron, and Chatilon-sur-Colmont to Juhel de Mayenne, on condition that he help obtain the inheritance of Geoffrey's wife. In 1139 Matilda landed in England with 140 knights, where she was besieged at Arundel Castle by King Stephen. In the "Anarchy" which ensued, Stephen was captured at Lincoln in February, 1141, and imprisoned at Bristol. A legatine council of the English church held at Winchester in April 1141 declared Stephen deposed and proclaimed Matilda "Lady of the English". Stephen was subsequently released from prison and had himself recrowned on the anniversary of his first coronation.

 

During 1142 and 1143, Geoffrey secured all of Normandy west and south of the Seine, and, on 14 January 1144, he crossed the Seine and entered Rouen. He assumed the title of Duke of Normandy in the summer of 1144. In 1144, he founded an Augustine priory at Chateau-l'Ermitage in Anjou. Geoffrey held the duchy until 1149, when he and Matilda conjointly ceded it to their son, Henry, which cession was formally ratified by King Louis VII of France the following year.

 

Geoffrey also put down three baronial rebellions in Anjou, in 1129, 1135, and 1145-1151. He was often at odds with his younger brother, Elias, whom he had imprisoned until 1151. The threat of rebellion slowed his progress in Normandy, and is one reason he could not intervene in England. In 1153, the Treaty of Wallingford allowed Stephen should remain King of England for life and that Henry, the son of Geoffrey and Matilda should succeed him.

 

[edit] DeathGeoffrey died suddenly on 7 September 1151. According to John of Marmoutier, Geoffrey was returning from a royal council when he was stricken with fever. He arrived at Château-du-Loir, collapsed on a couch, made bequests of gifts and charities, and died. He was buried at St. Julien's Cathedral in Le Mans France.

 

[edit] ChildrenGeoffrey and Matilda's children were:

 

Henry II of England (1133–1189)

Geoffrey, Count of Nantes (1 June 1134 Rouen- 26 July 1158 Nantes) died unmarried and was buried in Nantes

William X, Count of Poitou (1136–1164) died unmarried

Geoffrey also had illegitimate children by an unknown mistress (or mistresses): Hamelin; Emme, who married Dafydd Ab Owain Gwynedd, Prince of North Wales; and Mary, who became a nun and Abbess of Shaftesbury and who may be the poetess Marie de France. Adelaide of Angers is sometimes sourced as being the mother of Hamelin.

 

[edit] HeraldryThe first reference to Norman heraldry was in 1128, when Henry I of England knighted his son-in-law Geoffrey and granted him a badge of gold lions (or leopards) on a blue background. (A gold lion may already have been Henry's own badge.) Henry II used two gold lions and two lions on a red background are still part of the arms of Normandy. Henry's son, Richard I, added a third lion to distinguish the arms of England.

 

[edit] Fictional portrayalsGeoffrey was portrayed by actor Bruce Purchase in the 1978 BBC TV series The Devil's Crown, which dramatised the reigns of his son and grandsons in England.

 

Geoffrey is an important character in Sharon Penman's novel When Christ and His Saints Slept, which deals with the war between his wife and King Stephen.

Note on Wife: Matilda +

Empress Matilda (c. 7 February 1102 – 10 September 1167), also known as Matilda of England or Maude, was the daughter and heir of King Henry I of England. Matilda and her younger brother, William Adelin, were the only legitimate children of King Henry to survive to adulthood. William's early death in the White ship disaster in 1120 made Matilda the last heir from the paternal line of her grandfather William the Conqueror.

 

As a child, Matilda was betrothed to and later married Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, acquiring the title Empress. The couple had no known children. After being widowed for a few years, she was married to Geoffrey count of Anjou, with whom she had three sons, the eldest of whom became King Henry II of England.

 

Matilda was the first female ruler of the Kingdom of England. The length of her effective rule was brief, however — a few months in 1141. She was never crowned and failed to consolidate her rule (legally and politically). For this reason, she is normally excluded from lists of English monarchs, and her rival (and cousin) Stephen of Blois is listed as monarch for the period 1135-1154. Their rivalry for the throne led to years of unrest and civil war in England that have been called The Anarchy. She did secure her inheritance of the Duchy of Normandy — through the military feats of her husband, Geoffrey — and campaigned unstintingly for her oldest son's inheritance, living to see him ascend the throne of England in 1154.

 

Matilda was the elder of the two children born to Henry I of England and his wife Matilda of Scotland (also known as Edith) who survived infancy; her younger brother was William Adelin.

 

Her maternal grandparents were Malcolm III of Scotland and Saint Margaret of Scotland. Margaret was daughter of Edward the Exile and granddaughter of Edmund II of England. Most historians believe Matilda was born in Winchester, but one, John M. Fletcher, argues for the possibility of the royal palace at Sutton Courtenay in Oxfordshire. Her paternal grandparents were William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders.

 

[edit] Marriages

Emperor Henry V and MatildaWhen she was seven years old, Matilda was betrothed to Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor; at eight, she was sent to the Holy Roman Empire (Germany) to begin training for the life of an empress consort. The eight-year-old Matilda was crowned Queen of the Romans in Mainz on 25 July 1110.[1][2] Aged 12, Matilda was made a child bride as the royal couple were married at Mainz on 7 January 1114. Matilda accompanied Henry on tours to Rome and Tuscany. Matilda later acted as regent, mainly in Italy, in his absence.[3] Emperor Henry died on 23 May 1125. The imperial couple had no surviving offspring, but Herman of Tournai states that Matilda bore a son who lived only a short while.

 

Matilda returned to England. Henry I then arranged a second marriage for Matilda, to ensure peace between Normandy and Anjou. On 17 June 1128, Matilda, then 26, was married to Geoffrey of Anjou, then 15. He was also Count of Maine and heir apparent to (his father) the Count of Anjou — whose title he soon acquired, making Matilda Countess of Anjou. It was a title she rarely used. Geoffrey called himself "Plantagenet" from the broom flower (planta genista) he adopted as his personal emblem. Plantagenet became the dynastic name of the powerful line of English kings descended from Matilda and Geoffrey.

 

Matilda's marriage with Geoffrey was troubled, with frequent long separations, but they had three sons. The eldest, Henry, was born on 5 March 1133. In 1134, she almost died in childbirth, following the birth of Geoffrey, Count of Nantes. A third son, William X, Count of Poitou, was born in 1136. She survived her second husband, who died in Sept. 1151.

 

[edit] Struggle for the throne of EnglandMain article: The Anarchy

Normans

William the Conqueror invades England

[show] William I

 

Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy

 

Richard, Duke of Bernay

 

William II of England

 

Adela, Countess of Blois

 

Henry I of England

 

William II

 

[show] Henry I

 

Empress Matilda

 

William Adelin

 

Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester

 

[show] Stephen

 

Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne

 

William I, Count of Boulogne

 

Marie I, Countess of Boulogne

 

Monarchy of the United Kingdom

v · d · e

In 1120, her brother William Adelin drowned in the disastrous wreck of the White Ship, making Matilda the only surviving legitimate child of her father King Henry. Her cousin Stephen of Blois was, like her, a grandchild of William (the Conqueror) of Normandy; but her paternal line meant she was senior to Stephen in the line of succession.

 

After Matilda returned to England, Henry named her as his heir to the English throne and Duchy of Normandy. Henry saw to it that the Anglo-Norman barons, including Stephen, twice swore to accept Matilda as ruler if Henry died without a male heir of his body.

 

When her father died in Normandy, on 1 December 1135, Matilda was with Geoffrey in Anjou, and, crucially, too far away from events rapidly unfolding in England and Normandy. She and Geoffrey were also at odds with her father over border castles. Stephen of Blois rushed to England upon learning of Henry's death and moved quickly to seize the crown from the appointed heir. He was supported by most of the barons and his brother, Henry, bishop of Winchester, breaking his oath to defend her rights. Matilda, however, contested Stephen in both realms. She and her husband Geoffrey entered Normandy and began military campaigns to claim her inheritance there. Progress was uneven at first, but she persevered. In Normandy, Geoffrey secured all fiefdoms west and south of the Seine by 1143; in January 1144, he crossed the Seine and took Rouen without resistance. He assumed the title Duke of Normandy, and Matilda became Duchess of Normandy. Geoffrey and Matilda held the duchy conjointly until 1149, then ceded it to their son, Henry, which event was soon ratified by King Louis VII of France. It was not until 1139, however, that Matilda commanded the military strength necessary to challenge Stephen within England.

 

During the war, Matilda's most loyal and capable supporter was her illegitimate half-brother, Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester.

 

Matilda's greatest triumph came in February 1141, when her forces defeated and captured King Stephen at the Battle of Lincoln. He was made a prisoner and effectively deposed. Her advantage lasted only a few months. When she arrived in London, the city was ready to welcome her and support her coronation. She used the title of Lady of the English and planned to assume the title of queen upon coronation (the custom which was followed by her grandsons, Richard and John).[4] However, she refused the citizens' request to halve their taxes and, because of her own arrogance,[4] they closed the city gates to her and reignited the civil war on 24 June 1141.

 

By November, Stephen was free (exchanged for the captured Robert of Gloucester) and a year later, the tables were turned when Matilda was besieged at Oxford but escaped to Wallingford, supposedly by fleeing across snow-covered land in a white cape. In 1141, she escaped Devizes in a similar manner, by disguising herself as a corpse and being carried out for burial.

 

In 1148, Matilda and Henry returned to Normandy, following the death of Robert of Gloucester, and the reconquest of Normandy by Geoffrey. Upon their arrival, Geoffrey turned Normandy over to Henry and retired to Anjou.

 

[edit] Later lifeMatilda's first son, Henry, was showing signs of becoming a successful leader. It was 1147 when Henry, aged 14, had accompanied Matilda on an invasion of England. It soon failed due to lack of preparation but it made him determined that England was his mother's right, and so his own. He returned to England again between 1149 and 1150. On 22 May 1149 he was knighted by King David I of Scotland, his great uncle, at Carlisle.[5] Although the civil war had been decided in Stephen's favour, his reign was troubled. In 1153, the death of Stephen's son Eustace, combined with the arrival of a military expedition led by Henry, led him to acknowledge the latter as his heir by the Treaty of Wallingford.

 

Matilda retired to Rouen in Normandy during her last years, where she maintained her own court and presided over the government of the duchy in the absence of Henry. She intervened in the quarrels between her eldest son Henry and her second son Geoffrey, Count of Nantes, but peace between the brothers was brief. Geoffrey rebelled against Henry twice before his sudden death in 1158. Relations between Henry and his youngest brother, William X, Count of Poitou, were more cordial, and William was given vast estates in England. Archbishop Thomas Becket refused to allow William to marry the Countess of Surrey and the young man fled to Matilda's court at Rouen. William, who was his mother's favourite child, died there in January 1164, reportedly of disappointment and sorrow. She attempted to mediate in the quarrel between her son Henry and Becket, but was unsuccessful.

 

Although she gave up hope of being crowned in 1141, her name always preceded that of her son Henry, even after he became king. Matilda died at Notre Dame du Pré near Rouen in 1167 and was buried in the Abbey of Bec-Hellouin, Normandy. Her body was transferred to Rouen Cathedral in 1847; her epitaph reads: "Great by Birth, Greater by Marriage, Greatest in her Offspring: Here lies Matilda, the daughter, wife, and mother of Henry."

 

[edit] Historical fictionThe civil war between supporters of Stephen and the supporters of Matilda has proven popular as a subject in historical fiction. Novels dealing with it include:

 

Graham Shelby, The Villains of the Piece (1972) (published in the US as The Oath and the Sword)

The Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters, and the TV series made from them starring Sir Derek Jacobi

Jean Plaidy, The Passionate Enemies, the third book of her Norman Trilogy

Sharon Penman, When Christ and His Saints Slept tells the story of the events before, during and after the civil war

Haley Elizabeth Garwood, The Forgotten Queen (1997)

Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth

E. L. Konigsburg, A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver

Ellen Jones, The Fatal Crown (highly inaccurate)

Juliet Dymoke, The Lion's Legacy (Being part of a trilogy, the first being, Of The Ring Of Earls, the second, Henry Of The High Rock)

Indeed, some novels go so far as to posit a love-affair between Matilda and Stephen, e.g. the Janna Mysteries by Felicity Pulman, set during the civil war between Stephen and Matilda.

 

Matilda is a character in Jean Anouilh's play Becket. In the 1964 film adaptation she was portrayed by Martita Hunt. She was also portrayed by Brenda Bruce in the 1978 BBC TV series The Devil's Crown, which dramatised the reigns of her son and grandsons.

 

Finally, Alison Pill portrayed her in the 2010 TV miniseries The Pillars of the Earth, an adaptation of Follett's novel, although she is initially known in this as Princess Maud not Empress Matilda.