Matilda of Flanders, Duchess of Normandy, Queen of England († 1083)

Matilda was the daughter of Count Baldwin VI of Flanders, and, at a date unknown (c. 1051), married William, Duke of Normandy. The opposition of the pope to the marriage was lifted in exchange for the foundation of two abbeys in Caen: St Stephen, the ‘Abbaye aux Hommes’, founded by William, and the ‘Abbaye aux Dames’ founded by Matilda, whose daughter Cécile was to be abbess. About the personality of Matilda we know almost nothing. Contemporary historiographers only left physical and moral descriptions which are totally conventional. In 1066 she had built and armed the Mora, a ship used by William for the conquest of England. She represented the Duke in Normandy, supported, in particular, by Lanfranc, Abbot of St Stephen from 1063, and Roger of Montgomery. She again assumed the regency during William's other expeditions. She was only crowned Queen of England in spring 1068, in Westminster. She subsequently seems to have attempted to intervene in the dispute between William and his son Robert Curthose (1077). Matilda died on 3rd November 1083 and was buried in the church of the Holy Trinity in Caen.

Bibliography :

- François Neveux. - La Normandie des ducs aux rois, Xe-XIIe s. - Rennes : Ouest-France, 1998.
- Michel de Boüard. - Guillaume le Conquérant. - Paris : Fayard, 1984.