|
More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
|
Matilda
|
|
(known also as the empress Maud, 1102–67) Daughter of *Henry I, and his only legitimate child after the death of her brother in the *White Ship. Henry persuaded the barons to accept her as his heir, though no woman had then reigned in either England or Normandy. But on his death in 1135 a rapid coup brought her cousin *Stephen to the throne (see the *royal house). She spent the next 13 years in desultory warfare against Stephen before retiring to Normandy, but she survived to see her son succeed to the throne in 1154 as *Henry II (see house of *Plantagenet). She is known as the empress Maud (a variant of Matilda) because her first marriage was to the Holy Roman emperor, Henry V, who died in 1125.
|
|
|
|