See also

Family of Henry V and Matilda +

Husband: Henry V (1086-1125)
Wife: Matilda + (1102-1169)
Marriage 7 Jan 1114 Mainz Oder, Ingelheim, Rheinland, Germany

Husband: Henry V

Name: Henry V
Sex: Male
Father: Henry IV + (1050-1106)
Mother: Bertha + of SAVOY (1051-1087)
Birth 11 Aug 1086 Gosler, Germany
Occupation Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
Title frm 1098 to 1125 (age 11-39) King of Italy
Title frm 1099 to 1125 (age 12-39) King of Germany
Title frm 13 Apr 1111 to 23 May 1125 (age 24-38) Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
Death 23 May 1125 (age 38) Utrecht, Friesland
Burial Speyer Cathedral

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

Note on Husband: Henry V

Henry V (11 August 1086[1] – 23 May 1125) was King of Germany (from 1099 to 1125) and Holy Roman Emperor (from 1111 to 1125), the fourth and last ruler of the Salian dynasty. Henry's reign coincided with the final phase of the great Investiture Controversy, which had pitted pope against emperor. By the settlement of the Concordat of Worms, he surrendered to the demands of the second generation of Gregorian reformers.

 

Assumption of powerHe was a son of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor and Bertha of Savoy. His maternal grandparents were Otto of Savoy and Adelaide of Susa.

 

On 6 January 1099, his father Henry IV had him crowned King of Germany at Aachen in place of his older brother, the rebel Conrad.[2] He took an oath to take no part in the business of the Empire during his father's lifetime, but was induced by his father's enemies to revolt in 1104, securing a dispensation from the oath by Pope Paschal II,[3] and some of the princes did homage to him at Mainz in January 1105. Despite the initial setbacks of the rebels, Henry IV was forced to abdicate and died soon after.[4] Order was soon restored in Germany, the citizens of Cologne were punished with a fine, and an expedition against Robert II, Count of Flanders, brought this rebel to his knees.[5]

 

In 1107, Henry undertook a campaign to restore Borivoi II in Bohemia, which was only partially successful. Henry summoned Svatopluk the Lion, who had captured Duke Borivoi.[6] Borivoi was released at the emperor's command and made godfather to Svatopluk's new son. Nevertheless, on Svatopluk's return to Bohemia, he assumed the throne. In 1108, Henry went to war with Coloman of Hungary on behalf of Prince Álmos. An attack by Boleslaus III of Poland and Borivoi on Svatopluk forced Henry to give up his campaign. Instead, he invaded Poland to compel them to renew their accustomed tribute, but was defeated at the Battles of Glogów and the Hundsfeld.[7] In 1110, he succeeded in securing the dukedom of Bohemia for Ladislaus I.

 

[edit] First Italian expeditionThe main interest of Henry's reign was the settling of the controversy over lay investiture, which had caused a serious dispute during the previous reign. The papal party who had supported Henry in his resistance to his father hoped he would assent to the papal decrees, which had been renewed by Paschal II at the synod of Guastalla in 1106. The king, however, continued to invest the bishops, but wished the pope to hold a council in Germany to settle the question. After some hesitation, Paschal preferred France to Germany, and, after holding a council at Troyes,[8] renewed his prohibition of lay investiture. The matter slumbered until 1110, when, negotiations between king and pope having failed, Paschal renewed his decrees and Henry invaded Italy with a large army.

 

The strength of his forces helped him to secure general recognition in Lombardy where archbishop Grossolano crown him with Iron Crown of Lombardy,[9][10] and at Sutri he concluded an arrangement with Paschal by which he renounced the rite of investiture in return for a promise of coronation, and the restoration to the Empire of all Christendom, which had been in the hands of the German state and church since the time of Charlemagne.[11] It was a treaty impossible to execute, and Henry, whose consent to it is said to have been conditional on its acceptance by the princes and bishops of Germany, probably foresaw that it would occasion a breach between the German clergy and the pope.

 

Having entered Rome and sworn the usual oaths, the king presented himself at St Peter's Basilica on 12 February 1111 for his coronation and the ratification of the treaty. The words commanding the clergy to restore the fiefs of the crown to Henry were read amid a tumult of indignation, whereupon the pope refused to crown the king, who in return declined to hand over his renunciation of the right of investiture.[12] Paschal, along with sixteen cardinals, were seized by Henry's soldiers[13] and, in the general disorder which followed, an attempt to liberate the pontiff was thwarted in a struggle during which the king himself was wounded. A Norman army sent by Prince Robert I of Capua to rescue the papists was turned back by the imperialist count of Tusculum, Ptolemy I of Tusculum.

 

[edit] Return to GermanyHenry left Rome carrying the pope with him; and Paschal's failure to obtain assistance drew from him a confirmation of the king's right of investiture and a promise to crown him emperor.[14] The coronation ceremony accordingly took place on 13 April, after which the emperor returned to Germany, where he sought to strengthen his power by granting privileges to the inhabitants of the region of the upper Rhine.[15]

 

In 1112, Lothair of Supplinburg, Duke of Saxony, rose in arms against Henry, but was easily quelled. In 1113, however, a quarrel over the succession to the counties of Weimar and Orlamünde gave occasion for a fresh outbreak on the part of Lothair, whose troops were defeated at the Battle of Warnstadt,[16] though the duke was later pardoned.

 

[edit] War with Cologne

Archbishop Ruthard of Mainz hands over the Sphaira to Henry V.Having been married at Mainz on 7 January 1114 to Matilda, the daughter of Henry I of England, the emperor was confronted with a further rising, initiated by the citizens of Cologne, who were soon joined by the Saxons and others.[17]

 

Initially, Henry took the fortified town of Dütz, which lay across the Rhine from Cologne. His control of Dütz allowed him to cut Cologne off from all river trade and transportation. At this point, the citizens of Cologne assembled a large force, including bowmen, and crossed the river, formed their ranks and prepared to meet Henry's army.[18] The Cologne bowmen were able to break the armor of Henry's soldiers; it was summer, the weather was sultry, and the soldiers had removed their armor to find relief from the heat. Henry subsequently withdrew. He turned south, and sacked Bonn and Jülich; on his return to Duetz, he was met by Archbishop Frederick, Duke Gottfried of Lorraine, Henry of Zutphen, and Count Theodoric of Aar, Count Gerhard of Julich, Lambert of Mulenarke, and Eberhard of Gandernol, who put up a stout resistance in which the latter was killed, and Theodoric, Gerhard and Lambert were taken prisoner.

 

When Frederick, Count of Westphalia arrived with his brother, also named Henry, and their substantial force, the emperor withdrew, barely escaping capture.[19] Finally, in October 1114, the two armies met on the plain at Andernach. After an initial skirmish in which Duke Henry of Lorraine was forced to withdraw, the citizen army and the emperor's force of Swabians, Bavarians, and Franconians clashed. The young men of Cologne, including many journeymen and apprentices, created a fearful din of noise, slashing at all who came near them. Theodric threw his force into the fight, and the emperor's army was forced back.[20]

 

Henry failed to take Cologne, and Lothair of Supplinburg defeated his forces at the Battle of Welfesholz (11 February 1115).[21] Eventually, complications in Italy compelled him to leave Germany to the care of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, Duke of Swabia, and his brother Conrad, afterwards the German king Conrad III.

 

[edit] Second Italian expeditionAfter the departure of Henry from Rome in 1111 a council had declared the privilege of lay investiture, which had been extorted from Paschal, to be invalid. Guido, Archbishop of Vienne excommunicated the emperor,[22] calling upon the pope to ratify this sentence. Paschal, however, refused to take so extreme a step; and the quarrel entered upon a new stage in 1115 when Matilda of Tuscany, died leaving her vast estates to the papacy.[23] Crossing the Alps in 1116, Henry won the support of town and noble by granting privileges to the one and giving presents to the other. But the papist Jordan, Archbishop of Milan, excommunicated him at San Tecla. He took possession of Matilda's lands, and was gladly received in Rome. By this time Paschal had withdrawn his consent to lay investiture[24] and the excommunication had been published in Rome; but the pope was compelled to flee from the city. Some of the cardinals withstood the emperor, but by means of bribes he broke down the opposition, and was crowned a second time[25] by Burdinas, Archbishop of Braga.

 

Meanwhile the defeat at Welfesholz had given heart to Henry's enemies; many of his supporters, especially among the bishops, fell away; the excommunication was published at Cologne, and the pope, with the assistance of the Normans, began to make war.[26] In January 1118, Paschal died and was succeeded by Gelasius II. The emperor immediately returned from northern Italy to Rome. But as the new pope escaped from the city, Henry, despairing of making a treaty, secured the election of the Antipope Gregory VIII,[27] who was left in possession of Rome when the emperor returned across the Alps that same year.

 

[edit] Concordat of Worms

Grave of Henry V in the cathedral of Speyer.After the second Italian expedition, the opposition in Germany was gradually crushed and a general peace declared at Tribur,[28] while the desire for a settlement of the investiture dispute was growing. Negotiations, begun at Würzburg, were continued at Worms, where the new pope, Callistus II,[29] was represented by Cardinal Lambert, Bishop of Ostia.

 

In the Concordat of Worms, signed in September 1122, Henry renounced the right of investiture with ring and crozier, recognized the freedom of election of the clergy, and promised to restore all church property.[30] The pope agreed to allow elections to take place in presence of the imperial envoys, and the investiture with the sceptre to be granted by the emperor as a symbol that the estates of the church were held under the crown. Henry, who had been solemnly excommunicated at Reims by Callistus in October 1119,[31] was received again into the communion of the church, after he had abandoned his nominee, Gregory, to defeat and banishment.

 

The emperor's concluding years were occupied with a campaign in Holland, and with a quarrel over the succession to the margraviate of Meissen, two disputes in which his enemies were aided by Lothair of Saxony. In 1124, he led an expedition against Louis VI of France,[32] turned his arms against the citizens of Worms, and on 23 May 1125 died at Utrecht[33] and was buried at Speyer. His heart and bowels are buried at the Cathedral of Saint Martin, Utrecht. Having no legitimate children, he left his possessions to his nephew, Frederick II of Swabia,[34] and on his death the line of Franconian, or Salian, emperors became extinct. Henry and Matilda had no surviving children, though the chronicler Hériman of Tournai mentions a child who died soon after birth. Henry's illegitimate daughter Bertha married Ptolemy II of Tusculum, son of the first Ptolemy, in 1117.

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.