Queen of the Conqueror

by Tracy Joanne Borman

  I have been very fortunate to have had the help and encouragement of my friend and fellow historian Alison Weir, who generously shared her research notes on Matilda with me, as well as her extensive collection of images. I would also like to thank Nicola Tallis for her valuable insights into the castles and abbeys of Normandy that are connected with Matilda’s history. Sincere thanks are also due to Julian Humphrys for sharing his expertise on eleventh-century warfare and for assisting with translations.

  My colleagues at the Sandford Award have continued to encourage my writing career, and I am particularly grateful to Jean MacIntyre, John Hamer, and Gareth Fitzpatrick. I also owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the staff at Historic Royal Palaces with whom I have been lucky enough to work, notably Michael Day, John Barnes, David Souden, Ruth Gill, Rhiannon Goddard, and Sam Brown. I would also like to express my thanks to Dr. David Musgrove, editor of BBC History Magazine, and Hugh Alexander of the National Archives.

  In a short acknowledgments section such as this, I cannot possibly do justice to the many kindnesses that I have received from the friends who contributed—in different ways—to the crafting of this book. They include Honor Gay, for her infectious enthusiasm about the book and for being such a wonderful playmate for Eleanor. Likewise, Maura and Howard Davies have continued to provide support with everything from babysitting to publicity. It is thanks to Lucinda and Stuart Eggleton that I was able to do much of the editing in Cyprus, and to Lisa, Rob, Lily, Zoe, Matthew, and Frances Cameron for letting me stay in their beautiful home in northern France while undertaking the research. I have been greatly touched by the kindness and support of my former headmaster Len Clark and his wife, Jeanne. It has also been a delight to become reacquainted with Judi Jones, the teacher who inspired my interest in history to begin with and who has shown great enthusiasm for my writing career.

  I would also like to thank the following friends for their kindness, patience, and encouragement during the writing of this book: Rosie Fi-field, Carol Scoones, Margot Ducat, Jess Goon, Tina Ingram, Lon Gibbons, Doreen Cullen, Siobhan Clarke, Helen Dawson, Jean Franczyk, Chris Hall, Richard and Lizzie Knight, Nina Newbery, Leora Leboff, Anna Scott, Alice Burton, Philippa Treavett, Helen Durham, Janet Clarke, Mary Wackerbarth, John Moses, Chris Warwick, Brian and Elinor James, my fellow “History Girls,” Sarah Gristwood and Kate Williams, and the “NCT Girls,” Liesel Alexander, Paula Alvarez, Louise Groves, Susan Porter, Joanne Tresidder, and Katie Whitmarsh.

  Finally, I would like to thank my daughter, Eleanor, for bringing me such joy over the past two years … and for going to bed (more or less) on time so that I could get this book written.

  TRACY BORMAN

  NOVEMBER 2011

  NOTES

  ASC Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

  GG Gesta Guillelmi, William of Poitiers

  GRA Gesta Regum Anglorum, William of Malmesbury

  GND Gesta Normannorum Ducum, William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigni

  OV Ecclesiastical History, Orderic Vitalis

  INTRODUCTION

  1. Barlow, William I, p. 185; Clay.

  2. C.N.L. Brooke, “ ‘Both Small and Great Beasts’: An Introductory Study,” in Baker, p. 1.

  3. OV, I, p. 35; III, p. 213.

  4. Musset, Les actes de Guillaume le Conquérant, p. 38. It was customary for a scribe to distinguish between the crosses by writing the name of the witness next to each one.

  1: “OF KINGLY LINE”

  1. The spelling of names was by no means consistent in the eleventh century. Baldwin was also known as Baudouin, and Adela as Adelais.

  2. Jumièges began his account, Gesta Normannorum Ducum (The Deeds of the Norman Dukes), in the 1050s and completed it in 1070–71. Although it is of great value as the earliest and most detailed of the eleventh-century histories, the Gesta is not wholly reliable and exaggerates the Normans’ achievements. Despite its short-comings, Jumièges’s account became one of the most influential of the Norman period. It was subsequently added to and revised by other chroniclers, notably Orderic Vitalis and Robert of Torigni, and was widely available in the Middle Ages. No fewer than forty-seven manuscript copies exist in libraries and archives across Europe.

  3. OV, II, p. 281. Orderic lists the children as Robert the Frisian, Arnulf, Baldwin, Odo Archbishop of Trier, Henry the clerk, Matilda, and Judith, wife of Earl Tostig. But Orderic’s account of Flemish affairs is riddled with mistakes, and he had no direct experience of events there. In fact, Judith was the daughter of Baldwin IV, Arnulf was the son of Baldwin VI, and there is no record of an Odo of Trier among Baldwin and Adela’s offspring.

  4. Ibid., p. 105.

  5. Ducarel, p. 64, provides an illustration of Matilda’s Flemish and French descent, tracing her ancestors back to the seventh century.

  6. The name took various forms, including Mathilde, Mahtild, Mahault, Molde, and Maud. Matilda herself was often referred to as Maud.

  7. D. Nicholas, p. 89.

  8. Ibid.

  9. Hilton, p. 22.

  10. R. A. Brown, pp. 31–32.

  11. D. Nicholas, p. 51.

  12. GG, pp. 31, 33.

  13. GRA, I, p. 437. The Gesta was an extraordinarily ambitious work, spanning more than eleven hundred years: from the Roman invasion of England to the last decade of Henry I’s reign. The account is riddled with scandal and hearsay, but is still invaluable as a source of social and political history, and the fact that the author was born of Anglo-Norman parents made his history more balanced. Malmesbury was one of the few chroniclers who lived and worked in England. He was also one of the youngest: he was just twenty-nine or thirty years old when the Gesta was completed.

  14. Strickland, p. 22.

  15. A. Campbell, p. 47.

  16. Barlow, Life of King Edward, p. 83.

  17. ASC, pp. 160–61; A. Campbell, p. 47.

  18. Hilton, p. 26.

  19. Ibid., p. 27.

  20. OV, II, p. 225; Aird, Robert Curthose, p. 36.

  21. Hilton, p. 25.

  22. Corinthians 7:13.

  23. Cowdrey, Register of Pope Gregory VII, pp. 219–20. Gregory later wrote in the same vein to Matilda. See below, pp. 173–74.

  24. GG, p. 33.

  25. Cowdrey, Register of Pope Gregory VII, p. 228.

  26. GG, p. 33.

  27. ASC, p. 134.

  28. Starkey, p. 80.

  29. ASC, p. 154.

  30. GRA, I, p. 323.

  31. ASC, p. 158. Much doubt was cast by contemporary chroniclers upon Harold’s legitimacy. The author of the Abingdon Manuscript for the year of his accession claims that he was in fact the bastard son of a shoemaker. Jumièges, meanwhile, claims that Harold was Cnut’s bastard son by his concubine, Aelfgifu. GND, II, p. 105.

  32. ASC, p. 160. This was not the first time that Emma had been forced to flee her adopted country. Following a raid upon London by Sweyn “Forkbeard” in 1013, after which he usurped the throne, she had “turned across the sea” to her brother Richard II, the duke of Normandy. GRA, I, p. 305. Her then husband, King Aethelred, had dispatched their sons Edward and Alfred across the Channel soon afterward. ASC, p. 144; GND, II, p. 7.

  33. GRA, I, p. 337.

  34. ASC, pp. 160–61; A. Campbell, p. 47.

  35. ASC, pp. 160–61; A. Campbell, pp. 51, 53.

  36. ASC, p. 161.

  37. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle implies it was poison: “Harthacnut died as he stood at his drink, and he suddenly fell to the earth with an awful convulsion.” ASC, p. 162.

  38. Ibid., pp. 162–63.

  39. Ibid., p. 172.

  40. Most English exiles who sought refuge in Flanders were accommodated first at St.-Omer because it was the closest major town to the Channel coast. This was the case when Tostig again sought refuge in Flanders shortly before the Norman invasion of England in 1066.

  41. Barlow, Life of King Edward, p. 37.

  42. The two brothers spent the next ten years in Flanders, and they would remain fr
iends with Matilda for the rest of her life. Both men fought on Duke William’s side in the Battle of Hastings and were rewarded richly for it. When she became queen of England, Matilda gave Baldwin thirty acres of land in Shalford, Essex. He married Emma, a kinswoman of William’s, who was evidently acquainted with Matilda, because she appeared in charters relating to La Trinité, the abbey that Matilda later founded.

  43. OV, II, p. 225. In common with other monastic chronicles, the Historia began as a history of Orderic’s own religious house, St.-Évroult in southern Normandy, but it rapidly grew into a work of staggering ambition that encompassed the entire history of the Norman dynasty. The range and vibrancy of the material that it contains is truly remarkable. As well as drawing upon earlier histories, documentary sources, and oral traditions, Orderic also included some of his own memories from his childhood in England. The result is a rich and engaging narrative that brings the Norman period vividly to life. Admittedly, at times Orderic is too prone to peddling anecdotes, rumors, and legends, and it is not always clear whether he has based these upon a lost source or simply hearsay. But the fact that, like Malmesbury, he was born of Anglo-Norman parentage gave him a greater objectivity than the likes of Poitiers and Jumièges, and as he wrote his account during the reign of William and Matilda’s youngest son, Henry, he evidently felt at liberty to explore the more shadowy aspects of his protagonists’ lives.

  44. GRA, I, p. 437.

  45. Burgess and Holden, p. 199.

  46. Strickland, p. 24.

  47. GND, II, p. 129.

  48. Delisle, Receuil de Travaux d’Érudition, pp. 223–24, 224–25.

  49. Ibid., pp. 223–24 (author’s translation).

  50. Laing, III, p. 76.

  51. Chronique Rimée de Philippe Mouskes, p. 174. See also Lair, p. 15.

  52. This was carried out by Professor Dastugue, director of the anthropology laboratory of the Regional University Hospital in Caen.

  53. A thegn was a recognized grade of nobility in eleventh-century England. It described a wealthy landowner who was a dependent of the king or an earl and who was wealthy enough to support a prestigious estate and a retinue of men. Brihtric and his peers were referred to in pre-Conquest sources as optimates (“best men”) or procures (“chief men”). His great-grandfather may have been Aelfgar, “the king’s kinsman,” a Devon landowner whose death in 962 is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

  54. “A West-Country Magnate of the Eleventh Century: The Family, Estates and Patronage of Beorhtric son of Aelfgar,” in Keats-Rohan, Family Trees, p. 50. A hide was a measurement used to calculate the amount of land tax due from its owner. There is no precise definition of the size of a hide. In Anglo-Saxon times, it simply meant enough land to support a household.

  55. Freeman, History of the Norman Conquest, III, p. 86. Strickland, p. 23, claims that his surname of “Meaw” or “Snaw” may have derived from his fairness.

  56. Dugdale, II, p. 60; Turgis, p. 11.

  2: WILLIAM THE BASTARD

  1. One of the foremost authorities on William and the Norman Conquest, D. C. Douglas, states that it was most likely in the autumn of 1028. He bases this upon the early narrative De Obitu Willelmi, which claims that in September 1087, William was in the fifty-ninth year of his life. This, together with the broad agreement by contemporary chroniclers that William was in his eighth year when his father died, has led Douglas to this conclusion. Douglas, William the Conqueror, p. 368. For an alternative view, see Planché, I, pp. 77–82.

  2. Malmesbury rejects as “very doubtful” the theory that Robert’s later pilgrimage to Jerusalem was in repentance for this evil deed. GRA, I, p. 309.

  3. GND, II, pp. 39 and 41.

  4. Also known as Herleve, Arlette, Arletta, and Arlotte.

  5. A useful analysis of the subject is provided by Houts, “Origins of Herleva.”

  6. GRA, I, p. 427.

  7. Another version has Herleva dreaming that a tree grew out of her womb and stretched out over Normandy and England. Burgess and Holden, p. 167.

  8. GRA, I, p. 427. This tale is repeated in Burgess and Holden, p. 167.

  9. GRA, I, p. 427.

  10. Adelaide married Enguerrand II, count of Ponthieu; Lambert II, count of Lens; and Odo II of Champagne.

  11. See, for example, GND, II, p. 96n.

  12. Herleva also had at least two daughters by Herluin (Muriel and Isabella), and possibly two others. However, the evidence for their lives is sketchy.

  13. GND, II, p. 97. He also referred to him as “William the Bastard” in his Ecclesiastical History. See OV, IV, p. 111.

  14. Poitiers was archdeacon of Lisieux, one of the most important cathedrals in Normandy. As such, he was well acquainted with the ducal family and the workings of the Norman court. Like Jumièges, he was writing at the same time as the events that he described, but his account, the Gesta Guillelmi Ducis Normannorum et Regis Anglorum (The Deeds of William, Duke of the Normans and King of the English), which was completed in around 1077, was hardly a balanced appraisal. Written at the duke’s command, it was little more than a propaganda piece to praise—and, more important, to justify—William’s actions.

  15. GRA, I, p. 427.

  16. GND, II, p. 81. Although William’s date of birth is most often assumed to be 1027 or 1028, Robert of Torigni claims that he was only five years old when his father left him in charge of the duchy. It seems unlikely that Robert would have entrusted his kingdom to one quite so young.

  17. Ibid.

  18. Malmesbury claims that Robert’s servant, Ralph Mowin, had poisoned him in the hope of assuming control of the duchy. However, when Mowin returned to Normandy, the truth came to light and he was “universally rejected as a monster and departed into lifelong exile.” GRA, I, p. 309.

  19. Malmesbury asserts that in 1086, shortly before William’s own death, he sent a mission to reclaim his father’s remains from Nicaea so that he could have them reburied in his native Normandy. The envoys succeeded in recovering Robert’s body, but had only reached as far as Apulia in Italy when they learned of William’s death and therefore decided to bury Robert in Italy. GRA, I, pp. 505, 507. Further evidence of William’s veneration of his late father is provided by Professor Bates, who points to the fact that William founded an abbey in 1063 and dedicated it to St. Stephen. This saint had been uncelebrated in Normandy until Duke Robert acquired one of his fingers during his pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The relic was sent back to Normandy after the duke’s death and sparked a major cult. Bates, William the Conqueror, p. 43.

  20. GRA, I, p. 427.

  21. GND, II, p. 97.

  22. OV, IV, p. 83.

  23. Le Vaudreuil was on the river Seine south of Rouen.

  24. GND, II, p. 91.

  25. Ibid., p. 121.

  26. GRA, I, p. 335.

  27. GND, II, p. 91.

  28. GRA, I, p. 451.

  29. Ibid., p. 477.

  30. ASC, p. 219.

  31. Southern, Life of St. Anselm, p. 56.

  32. GND, II, p. 125.

  33. The stigma of William’s birth would still be felt by his successors a century later. His great-grandson, Henry II, snubbed the bishop of Lincoln at a picnic one day because they had quarreled. The king was mending a leather bandage on his finger with a needle and thread. Seeing this, the bishop quipped: “How like your cousins of Falaise you do look.” Luckily for him, Henry appreciated the joke. Bates, William the Conqueror, p. 58.

  34. ASC, p. 219; Forester, p. 217.

  35. GND, II, p. 121; GG, p. 9. See also Searle, Chronicle of Battle Abbey, pp. 41, 93.

  36. GND, II, p. 189. This is corroborated by Malmesbury, who claims that William was “a practising Christian as far as a layman could be, to the extent of attending mass every day and every day hearing vespers and matins.” GRA, I, p. 493.

  37. Clover and Gibson, p. 61.

  38. OV, II, p. 239.

  39. ASC, p. 219.

  40. GRA, I, p. 507.

  41. Accord
ing to Malmesbury, the two men were of very different character. He describes Robert of Mortain as “dense and slow-witted,” whereas Odo “was a man of much livelier mind” who was “a great double-dealer and showed great cunning.” GRA, I, p. 507.

  42. The eighteenth-century historian Rapin claims that there were reports that William was “very much addicted to women in his youth,” but there are no contemporary sources to corroborate this. Rapin, p. 81.

  43. Ibid.

  44. GRA, I, p. 501.

  45. GND, II, p. 189.

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

  47. GND, II, p. 189.

  48. GRA, I, p. 509.

  49. Bates, William the Conqueror, pp. 138–39.

  50. GND, II, p. 189.

  51. GRA, I, p. 511.

  52. Ibid., p. 509.

  3: THE ROUGH WOOING

  1. GND, II, p. 129.

  2. GG, p. 31.

  3. Ibid.

  4. GND, II, p. 129.

  5. Fauroux, pp. 275–77.

  6. GND, II, p. 129; Blaauw, p. 109.

  7. Strickland, p. 26.

  8. Chronicon Turonense, p. 348.

  9. “Cronique attribuée à Baudoin d’Avesnes,” p. 559.

  10. Chronicon Turonense, p. 348.

  11. “Cronique attribuée à Baudoin d’Avesnes,” p. 559.

  12. Indeed, another account claims that on a later occasion he killed her instantly by kicking at her from his horse and driving his spur into her breast. See p. 77.

  13. Philippe Mouskes and Baldwin of Avesnes, Chronique Rimée de Philippe Mouskes, pp. 175–77; “Cronique attribuée à Baudoin d’Avesnes,” p. 559.

  14. Strickland, p. 25.

  15. “Interdixit et Balduino comiti Flandrensi, ne filiam suam Willelmo Normanno nuptui daret; et illi, ne eam acciperet.” Mansi, col. 742.

  16. Robert had also repudiated his first wife, Rozala of Italy, when she failed to give him an heir. Ironically, his third wife, Constance of Arles, gave him the sons he had hoped for but incited them to rebel against their father.