Though Adelicia had so many children by her second marriage, her tender affection for her father's family caused her to send for her younger brother, Joceline of Louvaine, to share in her prosperity and happiness; and the munificent earl, her husband, to enable this landless prince to marry advantageously, gave him the fair domain of Petworth on his wedding Agnes, the heiress of the Percies; "since which," says Camden," the posterity of that Joceline, who took the name of Percy, have ever possessed it: a family certainly very ancient and noble, the male representatives of Charlemagne, more direct than the dukes of Guise, who pride themselves on that account. Joceline, in a donation of his which I have seen, uses this title: Joceline of Louvaine, brother to Queen Adelicia, Castellaine of Arundel."1

Two ducal peers of England are now the representatives of the imperial Carlovingian line, namely, The Duke of Norfolk, the heir of Queen Adelicia, and the Duke of Northumberland, the lineal descendant of her brother Joceline of Louvaine.

The two most unfortunate of all the queens of England, Anna Boleyn and Catherine Howard, were the lineal descendants of Adelicia, by her second marriage with William de Albini.

1 Camden.

257

MATILDA OF BOULOGNE.

THE QUEEN OF STEPHEN.

Matilda's descent from Saxon Kings-Eustace of Boulogne, father to Matilda-Godfrey of Boulogne, her uncle-Matilda espoused to Stephen of Blois-Stephen's early life-Residence at Tower Royal, in London -Matilda's popularity in London-Stephen seizes the English throne -Birth of Prince Eustace-Coronation of Matilda-Invasion of King David of Scots, uncle to the Queen-Dangerous illness of StephenKing's departure to Normandy-Queen left regent-Disasters--Second Scotch invasion-Matilda besieges Dover Castle-Mediates peace with her uncle-Empress lands in England-Stephen's chivalric conduct-Treachery of his brother-Henry of Blois-Civil warMatilda goes to France-Her alliance with Louis VII.-Marriage of her young heir-Raises an army-Battle of Lincoln-Stephen captured-Arrogance of Empress-Queen's grief-Her return to England -Exertions in Stephen's cause-Efforts of Londoners in her cause- -Queen writes to Bishop Blois-He decides in favour of the Empress Queen Matilda's supplication for Stephen's liberty—Obduracy of Empress-Queen appeals to arms-Empress in WinchesterHer seal-Insults Londoners-Driven from London-Successes of Matilda the queen-Takes Winchester-Escape of Empress-Earl of Gloucester taken-Exchanged for Stephen-Illness of King Stephen

-Empress escapes from Oxford-Her son-Death of Earl of Gloucester-Decline of Empress's cause-Stephen re-crowned in Lincoln -Queen founds St. Katherine by the Tower-Abbey of Feversham -Death of the Queen-Burial at Feversham-Tomb-EpitaphChildren-Eustace-Invasion of Henry of Anjou-Settlement of crown on Henry-Rage and death of Eustace-Death of King StephenBurial by his Queen-Exhumation of their bodies.

MATILDA of Boulogne, the last of our Anglo-Norman queens, was a princess of the ancient royal line of English monarchs. Her mother, Mary of Scotland, was the second daughter of Malcolm Canmore and Margaret Atheling, and sister, to Matilda the Good, the first queen of Henry Beauclerc. Mary of Scotland was educated with her elder sister, in the royal monasteries of Wilton and Rumsey, under the stern tutelage of their aunt Christina, and was doubtless, like the princess Matilda, compelled to assume the habit of a votaress. Whether the youthful Mary testified the same lively antipathy to the consecrated black veil that was exhibited by her elder sister, no gossiping, monkish chronicler has recorded; but she certainly forsook the cloister for the court of England, on Matilda's auspicious nuptials with Henry I., and exchanged the badge of celibacy for the nuptial ring soon afterwards, when her royal brother-inlaw gave her in marriage to Eustace Count of Boulogne.

The father of this nobleman was brother-in-law to Edward the Confessor, having married Goda, the widowed Countess of Mantes, sister to that monarch; and both himself and his son Eustace had been powerful supporters of the Saxon cause. The enterprising temper of the Counts of Boulogne, and the contiguity

of their dominions to the English shores, had rendered them troublesome neighbours to William the Conqueror and his sons, till the chivalric spirit of crusading attracted their energies to a different channel, and converted these pirates of the narrow seas into heroes of the cross, and liberators of the holy city.

Godfrey of Boulogne, the hero of Tasso's "Gierusaleme Liberata," and his brother Baldwin, who successively wore the crown of Jerusalem, were the uncles of Matilda, Stephen's queen. Her father, Eustace Count of Boulogne, was also a distinguished crusader. He must have been a mature husband for Mary of Scotland, since he was the companion in arms of Robert of Normandy, and her uncle Edgar Atheling. Matilda, or, as she is sometimes called for brevity, Maud of Boulogne, was the sole offspring of this marriage, and the heiress of this illustrious house.

There is every reason to believe Matilda was educated in the abbey of Bermondsey, to which the Countess of Boulogne, her mother, was a munificent benefactress, and who died in this abbey while on a visit to England in the year 1115, and was buried there. We gather from the Latin verses on her tomb that she was a lady of very noble qualities, and that her death was very painful and unexpected.1

Young as Matilda was at this period, she was certainly espoused to Stephen de Blois before her mother's decease, for this plain reason, that the charter by which the Countess of Boulogne, in the year 1114, grants to the Clugniac monks of Bermondsey her manor of Kyne

1 Hist. Bermondsey Abbey.

wardstone, is, in the year she died, confirmed by Eustace her husband, and Stephen her son-in-law. Stephen, the third son of a vassal peer of France, obtained this great match through the favour of his royal uncle, Henry I. He inherited from the royal Adela, his mother, the splendid talents, fine person, and enterprising spirit of the mighty Norman line of sovereigns.

A very tender friendship had subsisted between Adela Countess of Blois and her brother Henry Beauclerc, who at different periods of his life had been under important obligations to her; and when Adela sent her landless boy to seek his fortunes at the court of England, Henry returned the friendly offices which he had received from this faithful sister, by lavishing wealth and honours on her son.

Stephen having received the spurs of knighthood from his uncle King Henry, previous to the battle of Tinchebraye, where he took the Count of Mortagne prisoner, and received the investiture of his lands, was farther rewarded by his royal kinsman with the hand of Matilda, the heiress of Boulogne.2

"When Stephen was but an Earl," says William of Malmsbury, "he gained the affections of the people, to a degree that can scarcely be imagined, by the affability of his manners, and the wit and pleasantry of his conversation, condescending to chat and joke with persons in the humblest stations, as well as with the nobles, who delighted in his company, and attached themselves to his cause from personal regard.

1 Annales Abbata de Bermondsey.

2 Ordericus Vitalis.

3 W. Malmsbury. Ordericus Vitalis.