Matilda of Flanders (c. 1031 – 2 November 1083) was Queen consort of the Kingdom of England and the wife of William the Conqueror.
She was the daughter of count Baldwin V of Flanders, and Adela Capet (1000-1078/9), daughter of Robert II of France.
A spoiled young lady accustomed to speaking her mind and getting her way, the 4'2"-tall (Britain's smallest queen) Matilda (or "Maud") told the representative of William, Duke of Normandy (later king of England as William the Conqueror), who had come asking for her hand, that she was far too high-born (being descended from King Alfred the Great of England) to consider marrying a bastard. When that was repeated to him, William, all 5'10" of him, rode from Normandy to Bruges, found Matilda on her way to church, dragged her off her horse (some said by her long braids), threw her down in the street in front of her flabbergasted attendants, and then rode off. After that, she decided to marry him, and even a papal ban (on the grounds of consanguinity) did not dissuade her. They were married in 1052.
There were rumors that Matilda had been in love with the English ambassador to Flanders, a Saxon so pale he was nearly an albino, named Brihtric (but nicknamed "Snow"), who was already married. Whatever the truth of the matter, years later when she was acting as Regent for William in England, she used her authority to confiscate Brihtric's lands (without even any formal charges, much less a trial) and throw him into prison, where he died under suspicious circumstances consistent with poisoning.
When William was preparing to invade England, Matilda outfitted a ship, the Mora, out of her own money and gave it to him. For many years it was thought that she had something to do with creating the Bayeux Tapestry, but historians no longer believe that; it seems to have been commissioned by William's half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, and made by Saxons in Kent.
Matilda bore William ten children, and he was believed to have been faithful to her, at least up until the time their son Robert rebelled against his father and Matilda sided with Robert against William. After she died, in 1083 at the age of 51, William became tyrannical, and people blamed it on his having lost her. She was buried at St. Stephen's in Caen, Normandy (then, France now), where William was also eventually buried. Years later, their graves were opened and their bones measured, proving their physical statures.
Matilda was descended from Alfred the Great as follows:
-6. Alfred the Great
-5. Aelfthryth
-4. Arnulf I, Count of Flanders
-3. Baldwin III of Flanders
-2. Arnulf II, Count of Flanders
-1. Baldwin IV, Count of Flanders
0. Baldwin V, Count of Flanders
1. Matilda of Flanders
Name Suffix:
[Queen England]
Ancestral File Number: 8XHZ-T2
Weis' "Ancestral Roots. . ." (121:23), (162:23), (169:23).
An interesting story is told in Cokayne's "Complete Peerage"(Gloucester). According to the Tewkesbury Abbey Chronicle, Brictric, sonof Algar, otherwise known as Brictric Mawr, a greatthegn of the time ofEdward the Confessor, held, with Tewkesbury, various lordships inWorcester, Gloucester, Somerset, and other counties. Maud [Matilda],afterwards wife of WILLIAM THE CONQUERER, in her youth wished tomarry Brictric, whorefused her. When she became Queen, sheimprisoned him, and on his death shortly afterwards his manors, the
(later) honour of Gloucester, were given to her.
For many years it was assumed that Gundred, who married William de Warrene, was a daughter of William I and Matilda (as indicated in The Plantagenet Ancestry). However it is now known that Gundred was a daughter of Gherbod the Fleming (as indicated in Ancestral Roots). The following information strongly suggeststhat Gundred's mother was Matilda (thus the mistaken notion that she was daughter of William I).
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copied from Bill Crawford's ancestry: crawfolk data base on World Connect Project, rootsweb.com
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Had Matilda of Flanders as many husbands as Adelaide, Countess of Ponthieu, and, like her, issue by each? What was the real cause of the inhibition of her marriage with William, Duke of Normandy, its delay for six years? What truth is there inthe story of her unreturned affection for the Angio-Saxon Brihtric Meaw, and of her vindictive conduct to him after she became Queen of England? I have hesitated to believe in the popular tradition that Duke William grossly assaulted the daughter of Baldwin in the street or in her own chamber, not that I have any doubt about his being capable of such an outrage, but because he was too politic to commit it, and she was not the woman to have forgiven it, assuming that the offence was the simple refusal of his hand on the ground of his illegitimacy.It is obvious, however, that the early life of Matilda is involved in mystery,and it is highly probable that a clearer insight into it would enable us to account for much which we now reject as legend, or fail to reconcile with acknowledged facts. If there be any foundation for the story of William's brutality, the outburst of ungovernable fury might have been due to a much greater provocation than has been assigned for it. Brihtric, the son of Algar or Alfar, sumamedMeaw (Snow), from the extreme fairness of his complexion, an Anglo-Saxon Thegn, possessor of large domains in England, had been sent on an embassy from King Edward the Confessor to the Connt of Flanders. Matilda, we are told, fell desperately in love with him, and offered herself to him in marriage! Either disgusted by her forwardness, or preferring another, he declined the flattering proposal. "Hell hath no fury like a woman foiled," and she kept her wrath warm till she was in a position to ruin the man she had so passionately loved. She had no sooner become the Queen of England than she induced William to confiscate, on some pretence, all Brihtric's estates, and obtained the greater proportion for herself. The unfortunate Thegn was arrested at his house at Hanley, in Worcestershire, on the very day Saint Wulfstan had consecrated a chapel of his building,dragged to Winchester, and died in a dungeon! The truth of this story is supported by the impartial evidence of Domesday, in which Hanley and the principal manors held by Brihtric in the time of King Edward are recorded as the possessions of Queen Matilda, and the remainder passed to Fitz Hamon.
After her hand had been rejected by the noble Saxon, it is presumed she became the wife of a Fleming, named Gherbod, who appears to have held t
SURNAME: Also shown as Flanders
GIVEN NAMES: Also shown as Matilda (Maud)
BIRTH: Also shown as Born Flanders, Belgiurm.
BIRTH: Also shown as Born 1032
BURIAL: Also shown as Buried Church Of Holy Trinity, Caen.