MATILDA OF FLANDERS.

CHAPTER I.

THE QUEEN OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

Title of Queen-Regina-Matilda first so called-Her descent from Alfred-Parents- Education-Learning-Beauty-Character Skill in embroidery-Sought in marriage by William of Normandy-His passionate love Unsuccessful courtship - Brihtric Meaw, the English envoy-Matilda's love for him-Perseverance of William of Normandy-Objections against his birth-Interdict on account of relationship-Seven years delay-William surmounts obstacles-Furious conduct of William to Matilda-Their marriage-Rich apparelWilliam's early life-William's life saved by his Fool-Matilda's father -William and Matilda excommunicated-Dispensation obtained by Lanfranc-Matilda's taste for architecture - Conjugal happinessWilliam's visit to Edward the Confessor Matilda's sister married to Tostig - Birth of Matilda's eldest son Children rold's visit to Normandy Betrothed to Matilda's daughterBreaks his contract William's wrath-William's meditated invasion of England-Letter to Matilda's brother-Comet—Matilda's delineation of the Comet in her embroidered chronicle-Matilda appointed Regent of Normandy-Her son Robert-Happy arrival of Matilda in

VOL. I.

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the Mora-Ship presented by her-William sails in it to EnglandLands-Matilda's delineations- Her husband's courser-Battle of Hastings-Death of Harold-News of victory brought to MatildaOur Lady of Good Tidings-William's Coronation at Westminster Abbey-Harold's banner.

MATILDA, the wife of William the Conqueror, was the first consort of a king of England, who was called regina.1 This was an innovation in the ancient customs of the land, for the Saxons simply styled the wife of the king the lady his companion," and to them it was displeasing to hear the Normans speak of Matilda, as la reine, as if she were a female sovereign, reigning in her own right. So distinct in those days was the meaning attached in this country to the lofty title of reine, or regina, from that of queen, which, though at present the highest female title of honour used in England, then only signified companion.

The people of the land murmured among themselves at this unprecedented assumption of dignity

1 Thierry's Anglo-Normans. In the Doomsday-book, Matilda, the wife of the Conqueror, is called Matilda Regina.

2 Hlafdige se cuene is the Saxon phrase. Hlafdige, or lady, means th giver of bread. Cwene, or Quen, was anciently used as a term o equality, indiscriminately applied to men or women. In the old Norman chronicles and poems, instead of the Duke of Normandy and his peers, the phrase used is the Duke of Normandy and his Quens; likewise, the Quen di Flandres, the Quen de Leicestre. So late as the thirteenth century, a collection of poems, written by Charles of Anjou and his courtiers is quoted as the songs of the Quens of Anjou. Also in a chant of the twelfth century, enumerating the war-cries of the French provinces, we find

in the wife of their Norman sovereign, yet "the strange woman," as they called Matilda, could boast of royal Saxon blood. She was, in fact, the direct descendant of the best and noblest of their monarchs, Alfred, through the marriage of his daughter, Elstrith, or Elstrude, with Baldwin II. of Flanders, whose son, Arnold the Great, was the immediate ancestor of Matilda,—an interesting circumstance, which history passes over in silence. Few of the queens of England, indeed, can claim a more illustrious descent than this princess. Her father, Baldwin V., surnamed the Gentle Earl of Flanders, was the son of Baldwin IV. by Eleanora, daughter of Duke Richard II. of Normandy; and her mother was Adelais, daughter of Robert, King of France, and sister to Henry, the reigning sovereign of that country; and she was nearly related to the emperor of Germany, and most of the royal houses in Europe.

Matilda was born about the year 1031, and was very carefully educated. She was possessed of fine natural talents, and was no less celebrated for her learning than for her great beauty. William of Malmsbury, when speaking of this princess, says, "She was a singular mirror of prudence in our days, and the perfection of virtue."

Among her other acquirements, Matilda was particularly famed for her skill in ornamental needlework, which, in that age, was considered one of the most important and desirable accomplishments which princesses and ladies of high rank could possess. We are told by

1 See Matilda's pedigree in Ducarel's Norman Antiquities.

a worthy chronicler,1 "that the proficiency of the four sisters of king Athelstane, in spinning, weaving, and embroidery, procured these royal spinsters the addresses of the greatest princes in Europe."

The fame of this excellent stitchery is, however, all the memorial that remains of the graceful labours of Matilda's industrious Saxon cousins; but her own great work, the Bayeux tapestry, is still in existence, and is, beyond all competition, the most wonderful achievement in the gentle craft of needlework that ever was executed by fair and royal hands. But of this we shall have occasion to speak more fully in its proper place, as a pictorial chronicle of the conquest of England.

The Earl of Flanders, Matilda's father, was a rich, powerful, and politic prince, equally skilled in the arts of war and of peace. It was to him that the town of Lille, which he rebuilt and greatly beautified, owed its subsequent greatness; and the home manufactures of his native country, through his judicious encouragement, became a source of wealth and prosperity to Flanders. His family connexion with the King of France, his suzerain and ally, and his intimate relationship to most of the royal houses in Europe, rendered his alliance very desirable to several of the reigning princes, his neighbours, who became suitors for the hand of his beautiful daughter.

The most distinguished of these was the young Duke William of Normandy, who was not only desirous of tnis union in a political point of view, but passionately enamoured of his fair cousin. But William, though

1 Malmsbury, vol. i. book 2, p. 26.

no less remarkable for the manly beauty of his person, than for his knightly prowess in the field, and his great talents as a legislator, had, in the first instance, the mortification of receiving a very discouraging reply to his suit, not only from the parents and kindred of the young lady, but also from herself. The fact was,

that Matilda had bestowed her first affections on a young Saxon nobleman, named Brihtric Meaw, who had visited her father's court in the quality of ambassador from Edward the Confessor king of England.1

Brihtric, surnamed Snaw or Snow from the fairness of his complexion, was the son of Algar, the lord of the honour of Gloucester, and possessed of very extensive domains in that county. He appears, however, to have been insensible to the regard with which he was distinguished by Matilda. This, together with the dark sequel of the tale, which will be related in its proper place, is one of those authentic but obscure facts which occasionally tinge the page of history with the semblance of romance.

It is more than probable that the passion which Matilda cherished for the fair-haired English envoy, was the most formidable of all the obstacles with which her cousin, William of Normandy, had to contend during the tedious period of his courtship.

A less determined character would have given up the

1 Chronicle of Tewkesbury, Cotton. MSS. Cleopatra, c. 111, 220. Leland's Collections, vol. i. p. 78. Monasticon, 111, 59. Palgrave's Rise and Progress, vol. i. p. 294. Thierry's Anglo-Normans, vol. i. p. 335.