Empress Matilda: Queen of the Romans, Ruler of the English is a new biography by the University of Cambridge historian Elisabeth van Houts. The subject of the book, Empress Matilda, is one of the most fascinating and, arguably, one of the most overlooked characters in medieval English history.
The biography is told in three parts. The first part concerns Matilda’s early life when she was sent off to Germany at the age of eight to become wife to Henry V, the Holy Roman Emperor, and runs up to Henry’s death when Matilda was in her early twenties. The second part is about Matilda’s life after Henry with her second husband, Geoffrey of Anjou, which encompasses the period of The Anarchy – the protracted struggle against King Stephen for the English throne. The third part is the period that might be described as Matilda’s active retirement; the last decades of her life during which she continued to wield considerable power and exert political influence throughout Europe.
It is a story of an extraordinary woman who led a remarkable life. Van Houts presents us with a multilingual child of such precocious capability that she was entrusted to be regent of Northern Italy at the age of 16. We then meet a woman with an iron will and the charisma to command steadfast loyalty throughout one of the most chaotic periods of English History. And finally, we meet an elder stateswoman who was so respected that nobility throughout the Anglo-Norman world, including her son King Henry II, continued to seek her guidance well into her notional withdrawal from public life.
The world of this period is complex with dynasties intermarrying, loyalties shifting, and people rising and falling from power in dramatic fashion. It is made all the more complex because – and this is hardly an exaggeration – almost every other noble woman of the period is also called Matilda. Despite this, van Houts maintains a clear and engaging narrative that takes the evidence of many esoteric primary sources and brings out the human stories behind them.
A key theme to the book is the extent of female power during this period. Many readers may be surprised at the number of women in this story exercising considerable authority, either directly like Matilda, as regents for husbands or sons, or via the influence they exerted on family members. It seems we have been conditioned to believe that medieval women were passive actors during this period, but van Houts demonstrates that, although Matilda herself was exceptional, her position as a woman in power was by no means an exception.
Van Houts works hard to reconstruct the personal, female networks that are often not immediately apparent in the source material, and this includes female friends, relatives, confidants, and the wives of powerful noblemen. Understanding how this network was at play gives a much fuller understanding of the motivations behind the power politics of the era.
Although this is a deeply scholarly work, it is also an entertaining read, and I would recommend it to anybody with an interest in medieval European history.
Adam Staten is the author of Crusader, the most recent instalment of the Honour Bound series.
