“The little work-tables of women’s fingers are
the playgrounds of women’s fancies, and their
knitting-needles are fairy wands by which they
transform the whole room into a spirit isle of
dreams.”—RICHTER.
MATILDA of Flanders deserves mention for three reasons. First, because
she was the wife of William the Conqueror; secondly, because she was
the first consort of the kings of England who was crowned and who
received the title of _la reine_. For, on account of the crime of
Edburga in poisoning her husband, Brihtric, king of Wessex, a law was
made debarring the consorts of Anglo-Saxon kings from sharing in the
honors of royalty. Previously to the time of William the Conqueror,
who chose to ignore this law, the wife of the king had simply held the
title of “The Lady, his Companion.”
The third reason which has made Matilda of Flanders worthy of mention
is on account of the famous Bayeux Tapestry, the work of her own royal
fingers, which is still preserved in the cathedral of Bayeux.
[Illustration: MATILDA OF FLANDERS.]
Cleopatra and Zenobia are illustrious for their warlike valor
and remarkable learning; but Matilda of Flanders has made famous
the needle, rather than the sword; and with that little domestic
instrument, the industrious fingers of the first Norman queen, assisted
by her attendant ladies, gave to the world a very important historical
document, whereon was pictorially chronicled the famous Norman
conquest of England. And thus the sword of the king and the needle of
the queen have become indissolubly associated in the history of this
momentous mediæval event.
Matilda was directly descended from Alfred the Great. She was the
daughter of Baldwin V., count of Flanders. Her mother was Adelais,
daughter of Robert I., king of France.
Matilda was born about the year 1031, and was possessed of much grace
of form, as well as an attractive face.
In those days, skill in needle-work was held as the highest
accomplishment for ladies of rank, and the remarkable skill in this
handicraft, displayed by the four sisters of King Athelstan, is said
to have secured for them the addresses of the most eligible princes in
Europe.
Matilda had several suitors, but she fixed her heart upon a young Saxon
noble named Brihtric, who on account of the fairness of his complexion
was called _Meaw_, meaning “snow.” He was the Lord of Gloucester, and
was made envoy at the court of Flanders by King Edward the Confessor.
But he did not return Matilda’s love, and he afterwards married
another; this slight Matilda never forgot, and in time she retaliated.
But Matilda, though ignored by the Saxon, was most chivalrously loved
by the bravest prince of all the courts—William of Normandy. This
prince was the son of Duke Robert, though his mother was of humble
birth; but as his father had no other heirs, he declared this child his
lawful successor to the ducal throne, and then Duke Robert departed
upon his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, from which he never returned.
William was educated at the court of Henry I. of France, where he
remained until the Normans sent to claim him as their duke.
At the time when William sought the hand of Matilda of Flanders in
marriage, he asserted that Edward of England had named him his heir;
but some looked upon this as an idle boast, and fair Matilda seems
to have been so little in love with her warlike cousin, that he sued
for her for seven years in vain. At last, determining to prove that a
“faint heart never won a fair lady,” he resorted to a most uncommon and
hazardous mode of courting.
For seven long years he had wooed Matilda, who, absorbed in her vain
fancy for the indifferent Lord of Gloucester, turned a deaf ear to
brave William’s glowing ardor, until at length he was roused to
desperate boldness.
One morning, as Matilda was returning from early mass in the city of
Bruges, she was suddenly confronted by the unexpected appearance of
Prince William, who, with glaring eyes and lips quivering with intense
passion, accused her of loving Brihtric of Gloucester; and as she
disdained to deny it he cried in bitter tones:—
“Edward, England’s king, has named me his heir, and by the holy cross,
the Saxon churl who dares aspire to thy hand, shall ere long be crushed
by the vengeance of our royal resentment.”
“Mighty words, easily spoken, and verily proof neither of greatness
nor of valor,” replied the princess; then, laughing aloud in his face
with disdainful manner, she continued: “The doubtful Duke of Normandy,
monarch of England!—truly, a most excellent joke! But why does not my
aspiring and politic cousin declare himself the future emperor of all
Christendom?”
Stung by her sarcastic words and the implied insult regarding his
birth, Prince William was driven to a frenzy of anger; he seized
Matilda, rolled her in a muddy pool near by, and even struck her, in
his wild fury, and leaving her fainting upon the ground, he leaped upon
his charger, and galloped out of town. Strange wooing, surely! and
yet after-events would seem to imply its efficacy. Truly, none but a
William the Conqueror would ever again have dared to enter Matilda’s
presence. Matilda’s father, incensed at the treatment his daughter had
received, made war upon William of Normandy; but the king of Flanders
was so badly beaten in the contest that he was glad to make terms of
peace with his Norman conqueror. As Brihtric, the Saxon lord, refused
to marry the princess of Flanders, Matilda’s love turned to hate,
and she received the victor, William, when, with amazing boldness,
he renewed his suit, with every mark of courteous forgiveness, and
consented to accept him, declaring “that she thought the duke must be
a man of the highest courage and most daring spirit, to come and beat
her in her father’s city.” “So faithful in love and so dauntless in
war,” this brave knight won his bride; and never was wooing so fiercely
bold, nor fair lady so strangely won. King Baldwin V. of Flanders
was only too ready to receive this brave knight as a son-in-law, and
quickly concluded the marriage contract, having already had sufficient
experience of the powerful sword of this fierce wooer. Matilda and
William were married at Château d’Eu, in Normandy; and her father
gave her a rich dower, in lands, money, jewels, and costly trousseau.
William then conducted his bride with much pomp to his duchy; and she
made her public entry into Rouen in magnificent array. The bridal
mantles of William and Matilda, richly adorned with jewels, were long
preserved in the treasury of Bayeux Cathedral. As William and Mary
were cousins, the Archbishop of Rouen declared that their marriage
was illegal, and excommunicated them. But the dauntless William was
not to be terrified by any monkish bulls, and appealed to the Pope,
who nullified the sentence of the archbishop, and sanctioned their
marriage, on condition that they should each build an abbey at Caen,
and found a hospital for the blind. This they willingly agreed to do;
and Matilda, who possessed much taste in architecture, took great
delight in the erection of the stately abbeys of St. Stephens and the
Holy Trinity; the former was endowed by William, for the monks, and the
latter by Matilda, for the nuns.
Normandy enjoyed peace and prosperity under the wise rule of William
and Matilda, who were much beloved by their subjects. Their children
were remarkable for beauty and promise, and were carefully educated
under their mother’s supervision.
About this time, Harold, brother to Queen Edith of England, was taken
prisoner by the sovereign of Ponthieu; and as a brother of Harold had
married a sister of Matilda, William compelled the Earl of Ponthieu to
release Harold, and then he invited the Saxon prince to Normandy, where
he was betrothed to one of the young daughters of William and Matilda,
after which Harold returned to England; but no sooner had Edward, king
of England, breathed his last, than Harold seized upon the sovereign
power, notwithstanding he had made a promise to William of Normandy to
assist him in gaining his rights as heir to King Edward.
William thereupon invested Matilda with the regency of Normandy,
and associated with her their eldest son, Robert, and prepared to
invade England, and assert his claims as the successor of Edward the
Confessor.
Unknown to her husband, Matilda had ordered a magnificent ship of war
to be built; and when William arrived at the port of St. Vallery, he
found this splendid present from his wife awaiting him, and gorgeously
adorned in his honor. This ship was called the _Mora_, and in it
William embarked at the head of his fleet.
The Norman fleet reached the port of Pevensey, on the coast of Sussex,
in safety; but as Duke William was landing, he fell headlong upon the
ground. “An evil sign is this!” exclaimed the superstitious Normans in
affright. But the duke, rising with his hands full of sand, cried: “I
have seized England with my two hands, and that which I have seized
I will maintain.” And most truly did he fulfil this prophecy; and by
the bloody battle of Hastings the proud realm of England became the
dominion of the Norman conqueror.
Matilda, the Duchess Regent of Normandy, received the welcome news
of her husband’s victory while at worship in the Church of Nôtre
Dame, near St. Sever. She thereupon ordered that the cathedral should
henceforth be called the “Church of Our Lady of Good Tidings.”
William re-embarked for Normandy to rejoin Matilda, in March, 1067; but
scarcely had he arrived in his dukedom, ere tidings reached him of a
revolt in England. He immediately returned, quelled the insurrection,
and then sent for Matilda and their children to join him in England.
Matilda arrived in England with her family soon after Easter. William
now made preparations for her coronation. As I have mentioned, former
wives of the sovereigns of England had not received this honor. But
William the Conqueror would allow no obstacles to defeat his purposes.
Although William had already been crowned in Westminster Abbey, he
chose to be now re-crowned at Winchester, that Matilda might be made
queen.
It was during the ceremony of Matilda’s coronation that the office of
champion was first instituted. During the banquet, a brave cavalier
named Marmion, clad in complete armor, rode into the hall and
pronounced this challenge:—
“If any person denies that our sovereign lord, William, and his spouse,
Matilda, are king and queen of England, he is a false-hearted traitor
and liar; and I, as a champion, do here challenge him to single combat.”
This challenge was repeated three times, but no one accepted it; and
henceforth Matilda was always addressed as _la reine_.
But Matilda had never forgiven the slight she had received, as a girl,
from the proud Lord of Gloucester; and no sooner had she become queen
of England than she determined to take an unworthy revenge, which ever
after tarnished her fame.
She obtained from King William the grant of all the possessions of
Brihtric Meaw, and caused that unfortunate Saxon, whose only crime
had been indifference to her youthful charms, to be imprisoned in
Winchester Castle, where he died. She even deprived the city of
Gloucester of its charter, and brought ruin to its inhabitants,
probably because they had dared bewail the fate of their lord, her
enemy.
Queen Matilda now commenced her famous Bayeux Tapestry, illustrating
the conquest of England by William the Conqueror. In the cathedral of
Bayeux, where it is still preserved, it is called the “Tapestry of
Queen Matilda.”
This remarkable piece of canvas is nineteen inches wide and sixty-seven
yards in length. Upon it are worked in cross-stitch many hundreds of
figures, of men, horses, birds, trees, houses, castles, churches,
ships, and battle scenes.
A dwarf artist, named Turold, is supposed to have made the designs for
Queen Matilda, and he has cunningly introduced his own effigies and
name into the work.
Matilda’s table, while in England, was furnished at the daily expense
of forty shillings; and twelvepence each were allowed for the
maintenance of her attendants. She received from the city of London
oil for her lamp, wood for her hearth, and imports on goods landed at
Queenhithe.
At this time, also, the famous curfew bell was established, which
was the signal that all lights and fires must be extinguished at
eight o’clock in the evening. This was an old Norman custom, but it
occasioned great dissatisfaction among the English.
So frequent were the revolts among his English subjects, that at
length William thought best to send Matilda and their children back to
Normandy, where she resumed the regency. She did not reside in England
after this time.
Robert, the eldest son of William and Matilda, now occasioned his
parents much trouble. At last the quarrel between father and son
resulted in open war.
Matilda, whose excessive partiality for her eldest son much offended
her husband, supplied the rebellious Robert with large sums of money;
and when means failed her, she even parted with her plate and jewels to
aid her favorite child. William was in England when the news reached
him of the rebellion of Robert and the part Matilda was taking in the
matter, and he immediately set out for Normandy. Upon arriving there,
and learning the truth of these rumors, he met his wife with bitter
reproaches. There was stern grandeur, not unmixed with tender pity and
love, in the harsh words which he addressed to Matilda, which were not
entirely unmerited; and there was also a sublime depth of mother’s love
in her reply. Fixing his eyes upon the queen, the Conqueror exclaimed
with trembling voice:—
“The brightest jewel of my bosom hath pierced my heart with the deadly
dart of treachery. Behold, my wife!—the treasure of my soul—to whom
I have confided my wealth, my crown, my greatness, my all. She hath
supported my rebel son in perfidy, and aided him to raise his sword
against his own father.”
“My lord!” replied Matilda, “far be from me to do you wrong. But when
you spurn our firstborn and retain from him his rights, you drive him
to wretchedness and distraction. Be not surprised if I feel a mother’s
tenderness for her child. Nay, so much do I love him, that for his dear
sake I would dare any danger, do any deed. Ask me not to enjoy the pomp
of royalty while he is pining in want and misery; as a loving husband,
you have no right to impose such insensibility on a mother.”
Robert and his father met in battle at Archembraye; and in the contest
Robert unhorsed his father, and, unconscious as to whom he had
defeated, was about to pierce him with his sword, when he recognized
his foe, and fell at his feet begging forgiveness, horrified at the
thought of how nearly he had committed the awful crime of parricide. A
reconciliation took place, and Robert accompanied William to England.
Matilda’s last years were embittered by domestic troubles. She
remained in Normandy. The death of her daughter Constance and renewed
quarrels between Robert and his father, added to her own failing
health, quickened her decline. She died at Caen, in November, 1083. Her
husband hastened from England when informed of her danger, and arrived
as she breathed her last. She was interred in the Church of the Holy
Trinity at Caen. William the Conqueror survived her only four years,
when his death was occasioned by an accident during the storming of the
city of Nantes, when his horse stumbled over some burning timber, and
throwing the king violently forward in the saddle, he was so seriously
injured as to result in his death. William the Conqueror was buried in
the Church of St. Stephen at Caen. The portraits of William and Matilda
were painted upon the walls of St. Stephen’s chapel.
William was remarkable for his great strength and imposing beauty. He
was a head taller than all his subjects. The face of Queen Matilda
was beautiful and delicate. Their two sons, William Rufus and Henry,
reigned successively over England. Robert died in prison. Their fourth
daughter, Adela, was the mother of King Stephen.
In 1562 the Calvinist soldiers broke open the tombs of William and
Matilda, hoping to find rich treasures; but finding nothing but a
sapphire ring upon Matilda’s finger, they rudely threw the bones
carelessly around. In 1642 these relics were collected, and their
tombs restored, though at the close of the last century the French
Republicans destroyed the monumental memorial of Matilda, which
had been there erected by her husband before his death. Thus the
needle-work of Queen Matilda has proved to be a more lasting memorial
of her fame than the costly monument of marble erected to her memory.