Queen of the Conqueror: The Life of Matilda, Wife of William I (46 page)

32.
Bates,
William the Conqueror
, p. 42.

33.
Licquet claims that it was celebrated at Rouen: Turgis, p. 22n. Wace, meanwhile, asserts that the venue was Eu: Burgess and Holden, p. 199.

34.
Turgis, p. 23.

35.
“Cronique attribuée à Baudoin d’Avesnes.” See also Strickland, pp. 27–28.

36.
GND, II, p. 131.

37.
Bates,
Normandy Before 1066
, pp. 199–201. See also Bates,
William the Conqueror
, pp. 55–56; GND, II, p. 148n. A recent biography of Lanfranc supports this theory, and cites a letter from Pope Nicholas to Lanfranc implying that the prelate had
not visited Rome during the early part of 1059, when the ban was lifted. Gibson, pp. 69n, 109–10.

38.
They were Robert Champart, abbot of Jumièges, and Jean de Ravenne, abbot of Fécamp.

39.
Freeman,
History of the Norman Conquest
, III, pp. 105–6.

40.
GRA, I, p. 495.

4:
BIRTH OF A DYNASTY

  
1.
GND, II, pp. 129, 131.

  
2.
GG, p. 33.

  
3.
OV, III, p. 36.

  
4.
Bates,
William the Conqueror
, p. 56.

  
5.
Burgess and Holden, p. 199.

  
6.
Not to be confused with the chronicler William of Jumièges, with whom there was apparently no connection.

  
7.
Wulfnoth and Haakon would remain in Normandy for the next thirteen years. Another theory is that they were there as part of a bargain struck between Earl Godwine and King Edward. The English king had apparently demanded that the two men be placed under Duke William’s guardianship to ensure that the earl would not rebel against him.

  
8.
GRA, I, p. 355.

  
9.
Ibid., p. 417.

10.
Brown,
Normans and the Norman Conquest;
Wright,
Chronicle of Pierre de Langtoft
, I, p. 413.

11.
Bradley, p. 348.

12.
Bates,
William the Conqueror
, p. 137.

13.
The date of Richard’s birth is cited as c. 1055 in GND, II, pp. 216n, 290–91. This is the earliest account to mention Matilda’s second son. One source claims that William Rufus was born as early as 1056. However, his biographer, Professor Barlow, places his date of birth at around 1060. He quotes Malmesbury’s statement that William’s death occurred when he was
major quadragenario
(above the age of forty), although he admits that this phrase may have simply meant that William was no longer young. Barlow,
William Rufus
, p. 3n. William’s nickname is assumed to refer to his red hair, which may have recurred in his father’s family due to its Viking ancestry. But contemporary writers agree that his hair was “yellow” or “blond,” and variously claim that it was his red beard or ruddy complexion that earned him his nickname. See, for example, GRA, I, pp. 566–67. This is discussed further in Mason,
William II
, pp. 9–11.

14.
OV, II, p. 225.

15.
The exception is Orderic Vitalis, who, in his revision of the
Gesta Normannorum Ducum
, completely ignored Jumièges’s paragraph about William and Matilda’s offspring and the succession. This may have been a tactful omission because he was conscious of the turbulent relationship between William and his eldest son.

16.
GND, II, p. 131. In his later revision of this work, Robert of Torigni provides a little more detail, saying that Matilda’s children by William included “Robert, who after him held the duchy of Normandy for some time, and William who ruled the kingdom of England thirteen years, and Richard who died in his youth … and four daughters.” Torigni, who was writing in the 1130s, was a methodical and conscientious historian, more concerned with recording the information as he found it than with dramatizing it for the benefit of his audience. As prior of Le Bec and later abbot of Mont-Saint-Michel, he played a much more active role in the secular world than either Jumièges or Orderic had been able to, and the insights that he provides into the political world of Normandy are therefore of value.

17.
GND, II, pp. 261, 263; GRA, I, p. 505; OV, II, pp. 105, 225; IV, p. 351; GG, pp. 59, 61, 95, 96, 157; Burgess and Holden, pp. 199, 223. Historians have differed almost as much as contemporary chroniclers in their accounts of William and Matilda’s daughters. Some of the most useful analyses include Barlow,
William Rufus
, pp. 88–92, Appendix A; Freeman,
History of the Norman Conquest
, III, pp. 666–70; D. C. Douglas,
William the Conqueror: The Norman Impact upon England
(London, Folio Society, 2004), Appendix C; OV, III, pp. 114–15n; Barlow,
William Rufus
, pp. 441–45; Pryde et al.,
Handbook of British Chronology
, p. 31. See also Madden, p. 31.

18.
Also referred to as Adelais, Adelida, and Aelgiva.

19.
OV, IV, p. 351.

20.
See, for example, Douglas,
William the Conqueror
, p. 383; Bates,
William the Conqueror
, p. 151.

21.
The only account that contradicts this is the nineteenth-century poem written in Matilda’s honor by H. M. Carey. She claims that “several of Matilda’s children died in their infancy” and cites Orderic Vitalis as her source, even though there is nothing in his account to substantiate it. Carey, p. 16n.

22.
The ministrations of doctors often did more harm than good. For example, the treatment advocated for a woman who suffered excessive bleeding after childbirth was to bleed her first from one ankle and then the other. Leyser, p. 281.

23.
R. V. Turner, p. 21.

24.
The names that were chosen for William and Matilda’s daughters cast further doubt upon the separate existence of Agatha. There is no known source for this name from either side of the family, nor does it have any other obvious connections. Indeed, its absence from most contemporary sources suggests that it was a
highly unusual name. Only Orderic Vitalis refers to it: once as the name of William and Matilda’s daughter, and once as a third-century virgin and martyr who was commemorated at Catania in Sicily. OV, III, p. 86.

25.
Barlow,
William Rufus
, p. 14. See also James, pp. 13–23. The theory continues that youth was from twenty-nine to fifty; dignity from fifty-one to seventy; and thereafter was old age.

26.
Delisle, pp. 224–25.

27.
Fauroux, pp. 434–35, 409–15.

28.
GRA, I, p. 543.

29.
Strickland, p. 80, claims that Roger de Beaumont had played a role in the education of William and Matilda’s children, but there is no contemporary evidence to substantiate this.

30.
Migne, p. 156; Houts, “Norman Conquest Through European Eyes.” The two might have been related through Matilda’s mother, Adela. Matilda also witnessed a grant to Rouen cathedral by Simon in 1075. Bates,
Regesta Regum
, pp. 720–21.

31.
Migne, p. 156; Houts,
Normans in Europe
, p. 199.

32.
GRA, I, p. 543.

33.
Bates,
Regesta Regum
, pp. 94–96; Fauroux, no. 141; Round, p. 421.

34.
Other notable examples of mothers advising their sons on political affairs included Berthe de Blois, who upon the death of her husband, Hugh IV of Maine, advised their young son Herbert to ingratiate himself with Duke William. Meanwhile, Harold Godwinson would have done well to heed his mother Gytha’s advice not to do battle with William at Hastings in 1066. Truax, “From Bede to Orderic Vitalis,” pp. 49–50.

35.
For example, William of Poitiers mentions a daughter of William and Matilda who was betrothed to Count Herbert of Maine. GG, pp. 59, 61.

36.
Foreville, pp. 92, 120.

37.
It has been suggested that William Rufus was close in age to Cecilia and that his parents may therefore have intended to commit him to the duke’s abbey of St.-Étienne at the same time that Cecilia entered her mother’s foundation at La Trinité in 1066. Barlow,
William Rufus
, p. 22.

38.
Round, p. 108.

39.
OV, V, p. 177. He was also known as “Arnulf the grammarian” and was later appointed chaplain and chancellor to Matilda’s eldest son, Robert. He taught Cecilia at La Trinité, the abbey that Matilda founded at Caen, where he was also schoolmaster and chaplain to the other nuns. David, p. 219; GND, II, p. 53n.

40.
For praise of Cecilia and Adela’s beauty, see Abrahams, pp. 199, 255.

41.
K. A. LoPrete, “Adela of Blois as Mother and Countess,” in Carmi Parsons and Wheeler, p. 319.

42.
They included “Ilgerius, pedagogue of Robert,” who is listed among the witnesses to a charter that was confirmed by William shortly before he departed for
the invasion of England. Fauroux, pp. 437–38; Aird,
Robert Curthose
, p. 37; K. A. LoPrete, “Adela of Blois as Mother and Countess,” in Carmi Parsons and Wheeler, p. 315.

43.
GRA, I, p. 493. All the chroniclers attest to Lanfranc’s exceptional intellect and ability. Orderic Vitalis hails him as “remarkably well-versed in the liberal arts, a man full of kindness, generosity, and piety, who devoted much time to alms and other good works.” He also claims that “By intellect and learning Lanfranc would have won the applause of Herodian in grammar, Aristotle in Dialectic, Cicero in rhetoric, Augustine, Jerome, and the other commentators on the Old and New Testaments in scriptural studies.” OV, II, pp. 147, 251. Eadmer, meanwhile, describes him as “a man of energetic character and possessed of outstanding knowledge in studies both sacred and secular.” Eadmer, p. 10.

44.
OV, III, p. 101.

45.
GRA, I, p. 701.

5:
DUCHESS OF NORMANDY

  
1.
Bates,
Regesta Regum
, pp. 638–39.

  
2.
Bates,
William the Conqueror
, p. 149.

  
3.
Ibid., p. 147.

  
4.
Ibid., p. 29.

  
5.
GND, I, p. 5.

  
6.
ASC, p. 221. As king of England, William would be widely criticized for the draconian measures that he introduced to protect game. Malmesbury condemned him for the destruction that was entailed in creating his favorite hunting ground, the New Forest, and Orderic claimed that sixty parishes were laid waste in the process, although this was an exaggeration. William, he said, had “replaced the men with beasts of the forest so that he might hunt to his heart’s content.” OV, V, p. 285. See also Forester, p. 217.

  
7.
Forester, p. 217.

  
8.
GND, II, p. 147. The Lateran Councils of the Roman Catholic Church were so named because they were held in the Lateran Palace, a former papal residence, in Rome between the seventh and the eighteenth centuries.

  
9.
GND, II, pp. 147, 149.

10.
Burgess and Holden, pp. 199, 201.

11.
Ibid. The full verse runs:

Before their union was allowed

A hundred prebends they endowed:

A hundred poor men clothed and fed
,

To sick and crippled gave their bread

At Cherbourg and at Rouen
,

At Bayeux too, no less than Caen–

These pious gifts are with us still

As founded by the ducal will
.

12.
The same stone was later used for building work in England, notably the choir of Canterbury Cathedral.

13.
GND, II, p. 149. The date of La Trinité’s foundation depends upon the length of Abbess Matilda’s tenure. For this we must rely upon Orderic Vitalis, but his accounts leave room for doubt. In the
Gesta Normannorum Ducum
, he claims that Abbess Matilda ruled for forty-eight years, but in his
Historia Ecclesiastica
he says it was forty-seven years. There is some confusion as to when he dated her tenure from—i.e., when the abbey was first operational in 1059, or when it was dedicated in June 1066. GND, II, pp. 148–49n; OV, IV, p. 47. For a further discussion on this point, see Musset, “La Reine Mathilde,” pp. 191–210.