23. William of Poitiers
10. “The Splendour of the King”
1. Orderic Vitalis
2. William of Malmesbury
3. William of Poitiers
4. William of Jumièges
5. Bates: William the Conqueror
6. Aird
7. William of Malmesbury
8. Orderic Vitalis
9. William of Poitiers
10. Williams: “Godfrey of Rheims”; Hilton: Queens Consort; Fettu: Queen Matilda
11. Houts: “The Echo of the Conquest in the Latin Sources”
12. Extensive foundations of the Norman nave were found beneath the existing one in 1930, and the undercroft of the Confessor’s church still survives.
13. Rose: The Coronation Ceremony
14. Barlow: “The Carmen de Hastingae Proelio”
15. Rose: The Coronation Ceremony
16. William of Jumièges
17. A late-eleventh-century copy of the Laudes Regiae survives in the British Library, and is probably the text used for William’s coronation (Cotton MS. Vitellius, E. xii. Fo. 160v)
18. Orderic Vitalis
19. William of Poitiers
20. Cited Fettu: William the Conqueror
21. William of Poitiers
22. Today it is an impressive ruin.
23. Orderic Vitalis
24. William of Poitiers
25. Orderic Vitalis
26. William of Poitiers
27. William of Jumièges
28. The Cygne de Croix—the Swan’s Cross—stands on the site.
29. Fettu: Queen Matilda; Boüard; Turgis
30. Planché; Borman
31. Orderic Vitalis
32. William of Jumièges; Orderic Vitalis
33. William of Malmesbury
34. Strickland
35. Ibid.; Robert of Gloucester; Borman
36. Hilton: Queens Consort; Borman
37. Crouch: The Normans
11. “Power and Virtue”
1. Stafford: Queen Emma and Queen Edith; Hilton: “Medieval Queens”
2. Hilton: Queens Consort
3. Huneycutt: Matilda of Scotland
4. Asser, Bishop of Sherborne
5. Hilton: Queens Consort; Huneycutt: Matilda of Scotland
6. Stafford: Queen Emma and Queen Edith
7. Orderic Vitalis
8. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
9. Borman
10. Orderic Vitalis
11. Ibid.
12. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
13. William of Malmesbury
14. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states that Matilda was crowned in the Old Minster at Winchester, soon to be demolished to make way for a new Romanesque cathedral. However, a charter of William I is dated the day of the coronation, “when my wife Matilda was consecrated in the church of St Peter at Westminster” (Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum: The Acta of William).
15. The Life of King Edward who rests at Westminster
16. Keynes
17. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
18. Crispin
19. Rose: The Coronation Ceremony
20. Women and Sovereignty
21. Stafford: Queen Emma and Queen Edith
22. Strong: Coronation
23. Ibid.
24. Hilton: Queens Consort
25. Borman
26. Lack; Gathagan: “The Trappings of Power”
27. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
28. Cadell and Davies; Hilliam: Crown, Orb and Sceptre; Dowling; Domesday Book
29. Baudri de Bourgeuil
12. “In Queenly Purple”
1. Turgot, Prior of Durham
2. McNamara and Wemple
3. Hollister
4. Abbott
5. Orderic Vitalis. Godfrey of Winchester, Prior of St. Swithun’s, Winchester, having met Matilda, wrote a short laudatory poem about her in his “Epigrammatica Historia” (The Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets).
6. Ibid.
7. Keynes; Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum: The Acta of William I
8. Crouch: The Normans
9. Norton: England’s Queens
10. Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum: The Acta of William I
11. Turgis
12. Domesday Book
13. Recueil de travaux d’érudition dédiés à la mémoire de Julien Havet
14. Holmes
15. Davey; Scott: Medieval Dress and Fashion
13. “Sword and Fire”
1. Orderic Vitalis; William of Poitiers
2. Some websites state, incorrectly, that Sancho’s wife, Alberta, was William and Matilda’s daughter.
3. William of Poitiers
4. Orderic Vitalis; William of Poitiers
5. Rouleaux des morts du Ixe au Xve siècle
6. Additional MS. 50002, British Library
7. Orderic Vitalis
8. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
9. William of Jumièges
10. Fuller
11. Dugdale: Monasticon Anglicanum
12. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states that Henry’s birth took place “not many days” after Matilda’s coronation, but William of Malmesbury says he was “born in England the third year after his father’s arrival,” that is, after 28 September 1068, while Orderic states he was born “before a year was ended,” meaning within the year after Matilda’s coronation, i.e. before Whitsun 1069. If he was conceived before his father left Normandy on 6 December, he could have been born anytime up to early September 1068; but if he had been conceived late in March, after Matilda arrived in England, he would have arrived around 17 December. As king, in 1122, Henry is said to have celebrated his birthday in York; he was there en route to Carlisle that year, in November, and returned on 6 December (The Historians of the Church of York and its Archbishops; Early Yorkshire Charters).
13. Orderic Vitalis
14. Borman
15. Simeon of Durham
16. Borman
17. Orderic Vitalis; Henry of Huntingdon; Robert of Torigni; Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
18. William of Malmesbury
19. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; Bates: William the Conqueror
20. Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum, 1066–1154; Borman
21. Stafford: Queen Emma and Queen Edith. They would not be assigned to Matilda on Edith’s death in 1075 because by then Matilda was already provided for.
22. Walker
23. Orderic Vitalis
24. Hilton: Queens Consort; Lofts
25. “Vita Beati Simonis”; Orderic Vitalis
26. Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum: The Acta of William I; Williams: “A west-country magnate of the eleventh century”; Borman. Matilda later bestowed Tewkesbury on Roger de Busci, and granted other lands formerly owned by Brihtric to the abbeys of Holy Trinity and Saint-Étienne, Caen, and Bec-Hellouin.
27. The Chronicle of Tewkesbury Abbey; Wace; Cotton MS. Cleopatra, British Library; Williams: “A west-country magnate of the eleventh century”
28. Domesday Book
29. Gathagan: “ ‘Mother of Heroes, Most Beautiful of Mothers’ ”
30. Strickland
31. Borman
32. Letters of the Queens of England
33. Domesday Book
34. Borman
35. Saul
36. William of Jumièges
37. Bates: William the Conqueror
38. Steane
39. Domesday Book
40. William of Jumièges
41. Orderic Vitalis
42. John of Worcester
43. Simeon of Durham
44. Orderic Vitalis
14. “Much Trouble”
1. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
2. Orderic Vitalis
3. Green: Henry I, King of England and Duke of Normandy
4. Orderic Vitalis
5. Ibid.; William of Malmesbury
6. Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum: The Acta of William I
7. Ibid.; Couppey
8.
Substantial ivy-clad ruins of the château remain today.
9. Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum: The Acta of William I; Houts: The Normans in Europe. Trials by ordeal lost favor with the Church and the practice began to die out in the twelfth century.
10. Gathagan: “ ‘Mother of Heroes, Most Beautiful of Mothers’ ”
11. Hilton: Queens Consort; Aird
12. Orderic Vitalis
13. Hilton: Queens Consort
14. Baudri de Bourgeuil
15. Orderic Vitalis
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. “The Life of Lanfranc”
19. William of Malmesbury
20. Chronicon Monasterii de Abingdon
21. William of Malmesbury
22. Gathagan: “ ‘Mother of Heroes, Most Beautiful of Mothers’ ”
23. William of Jumièges
24. Orderic Vitalis
25. Douglas
26. Orderic Vitalis
27. Ibid. Matilda would later be reconciled with her brother Robert.
28. William of Jumièges
29. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
30. Ingulph
31. Orderic Vitalis
15. “An Untimely Death”
1. William of Malmesbury
2. Herman the Archdeacon
3. Camden
4. The others were at Berkhamsted, Hertford, Ongar, Rayleigh, Rochester, Tonbridge, Reigate and Guildford.
5. Robinson: Royal Palaces: Windsor Castle
6. Chronicon Monasterii de Abingdon; English Lawsuits from William I to Richard I
7. Ingulph
8. Orderic Vitalis
9. Eadmer
10. Bates: William the Conqueror
11. William of Malmesbury
12. Ibid.
13. Henry of Huntingdon
14. William of Malmesbury
15. Godfrey of Cambrai, Prior of Winchester, recorded the date (The Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets); Robert of Torigni records the year as 1074. After 1073 Richard witnessed no more charters—Rufus was signing them instead. According to a seventeenth-century genealogist, Père Anselme de Guibours, cited by Lane, he died in 1081. Some modern historians suggest he could have died as early as 1069.
16. Later chroniclers claimed that Richard was gored to death by a stag about four years before his father’s death.
17. Orderic Vitalis
18. Godfrey of Cambrai, in The Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets. Robert of Torigni also says that Richard “died in his youth.”
19. William of Malmesbury; Orderic Vitalis
20. Barlow: William Rufus; William of Malmesbury; Orderic Vitalis
21. Stevenson; Keen
22. Williams: The English and the Norman Conquest; Williams: “A west-country magnate of the eleventh century”; Borman; Stafford: Queen Emma and Queen Edith. Matilda exempted a widow, Edgiva of Edmondsham, Dorset, from paying geld, a tax on each hide of land, which was used to raise armies; William gave the town of Tewin, Hertfordshire, to one Halfdane and his mother.
16. “The Praise and Agreement of Queen Matilda”
1. Orderic Vitalis
2. William of Malmesbury
3. Borman
4. Letter 2 in Appendix II
5. Orderic Vitalis. She would be elected abbess of Caen in 1112.
6. Kerr; Borman
7. Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum: The Acta of William I. She was also there when William gave a charter in 1077.
8. Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum: The Acta of William I
9. “Vita Beati Simonis”
10. Lack
11. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
12. William of Malmesbury
17. “Ties of Blood”
1. Orderic Vitalis; William of Malmesbury
2. Orderic Vitalis
3. William of Jumièges; Bates: William the Conqueror
4. Orderic Vitalis
5. Who Made the Bayeux Tapestry?
6. Leete
7. Wace
8. Montfaucon
9. Beech: “Could Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy have owned the Bayeux Tapestry in 1430?”
10. Stenton: The Bayeux Tapestry; Who Made the Bayeux Tapestry?
11. Orderic Vitalis
12. William of Jumièges
13. “Vita Beati Simonis”; Guibert of Nogent-Sous-Coucy. There were supposedly two rival suitors for Adela’s hand: “Anfursus, King of the Spains,” and Robert Guiscard, Prince of Apulia, who was sixty-two and married. The only possible identification of “Anfursus” can be with Alfonso VI of León, who in 1077 was designated “Emperor of all Spain” and was a widower. There appears to have been some confusion with the earlier marriage of Adela’s sister Agatha to Alfonso.
14. The History of the King’s Works. The little castle has long since disappeared, all traces of it swept away by succeeding building works.
15. It was not called the White Tower until Henry III had it whitewashed in 1241.
16. The third floor was not added until the fifteenth century.
18. “A Mother’s Tenderness”
1. Orderic Vitalis
2. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
3. William of Jumièges
4. John of Worcester
5. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
6. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says this happened in 1079, but John of Worcester is more likely to be correct, given the sequence of events.
7. Orderic Vitalis
8. John of Worcester
9. William of Malmesbury
10. John of Worcester
11. Adela, who claimed to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary, was later canonized as a saint.
12. Orderic Vitalis
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. William of Malmesbury
16. Strickland says it was Roger de Beaumont, William’s most trusted counselor and friend, but there is no contemporary evidence to support this (Borman).
17. Orderic Vitalis
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. William of Malmesbury
22. Beech: “Queen Mathilda of England”; Borman; Colbert
23. William of Malmesbury
24. Ibid.
25. Orderic Vitalis
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. The Register of Pope Gregory VII
29. Orderic Vitalis
30. Not to be confused with the Holy Shroud of Turin, it was lost in the French Revolution.
31. “Vita Beati Simonis”; Lack; Simon Valois
32. Orderic Vitalis
33. Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum: The Acta of William I
34. Letter 3 in Appendix II
35. Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum: The Acta of William I
36. LoPrete 36 Baudri de Bourgeuil
37. William of Malmesbury
19. “The Noblest Gem of a Royal Race”
1. Turgot
2. Only foundations of the later stone walls of this rectangular building survive today.
3. Turgot. Margaret’s abbey was rebuilt in the twelfth century, but some remains of her church were found beneath the nave in 1916 (Fawcett).
4. Orderic Vitalis; The Durham Liber Vitae
5. William of Malmesbury
6. Foliot, who had been told this by Edith herself.
7. Turgot
8. Hilton: Queens Consort
9. Turgot
10. Hildebert of Lavardin: “Letters”
11. Turgot
12. Ibid.
20. “Twofold Light of November”
1. Borman
2. Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum: The Acta of William I
3. Lack
4. Borman
5. Orderic Vitalis
6. “Vita Beati Simonis”; Simon Valois
7. Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum: The Acta of William I
8. Ibid.
9. Domesday Book
10. Crouch: The Normans
11. Rege
sta Regum Anglo-Normannorum, 1066–1154
12. Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum: The Acta of William I
13. Ibid.
14. Borman
15. Orderic Vitalis
16. Turgis
17. It was kept, with an inventory of her wardrobe, jewels and toilette, in the archives of Holy Trinity, Caen, and is now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum: The Acta of William I; “Les actes de Guillaume le Conquérant et de la reine Mathilde pour les abbayes caënnaises”).
18. Orderic Vitalis
19. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
20. Orderic Vitalis
21. William of Malmesbury
22. Orderic Vitalis
23. William of Malmesbury
24. Orderic Vitalis
25. Ibid.
26. Another translation of Orderic’s epitaph reads: “The lofty structure of this splendid tomb hides great Matilda, sprung from royal stem; child of a Flemish duke [sic], her mother was Adela, daughter of a king of France, sister of Henry, Robert’s royal son. Married to William joined, most illustrious King, she gave this site and raised this noble house, with many lands and many goods endowed, given by her, or her toil procured. It was here her holiest work was seen, this shrine, this house, where cloistered sisters dwell, and with their notes of praise the anthem swell, endowed and beautified by her earnest care. Comforter of the needy, duty’s friend, her wealth enriched the poor, left her in need. At daybreak on November’s second day, she won her share of everlasting joy.” Another modern translation by Michel de Boüard reads: “This beautiful grave shelters with dignity Matilda, of royal blood and of remarkable moral value. Her father was duke [sic] of Flanders, and her mother, Adela, daughter of Robert, King of France, and sister of Henry, who took seat on the royal throne. United in marriage to the magnificent King William, she founded an abbey and built this church, of so many lands and precious goods, endowed and hallowed by her will. She was providence to the miserable full of goodness; dealing out her treasures, she was poor to herself and rich to the needy. Thus she gained her eternal dwelling, on the first [sic] day of November, following the hour of Prime.” Both the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Orderic Vitalis, transcribing the epitaph, give Matilda’s date of death as 2 November.