Queen of England

Home

The
"ROYAL
FAMILY"
Tree

Edmund of
Woodstock
(1301 - 1330)

King
Edward I
(1239 - 1307)

King
Henry III
(1207 - 1272)

King
John
(1166 - 1216)

King
Henry II
(1133 - 1189)

Empress
Matilda of
England
(1102 - 1167)

King
Henry I
(1068 - 1135)

King
William I
"The
Conqueror"
(1027 - 1087)

_______

 

LINKS

History of
NC Counties

CARS

Catawba
Station
Township

Catawba
Elementary
& High School

Cemeteries

The
CIVIL
WAR

Additional
Family
SURNAMES

Genealogy
HUMOR

PHOTO
LINKS

The
"ROYAL"
Lineage

Slavery

Twins

WHERE
TO
FIND 'EM
PAGE

________

FAMILY
NAMES

LOFTIN:
Beatty
Corzine
Cranford
Fisher
Givens
Harwell
Kaiser
Lanier
Lomax
McCorkle
Rudisill
Sherrill
Upright
Washington
Work

SETZER:
Aderholdt
Barringer
Bovey
Bushart
Deal
Heavner
Herman
Ikert
Miller
Motz
Rankin
Witherspoon

GOBLE:
Babst/Bobst
Douglas
Faber
Fink
Fulbright
Hefner
Meinhert
Miller
Muller
Pabst/Bobst
Robinson

JOHNSON:
Corzine
Fink
Hamilton
Kaiser
Leslie
Lewis
Moore
Sherrill
Upright
Wilkinson

 

Empress Matilda of England     Born: 7 February 1102 , Winchester, England Died:10 September 1167, Rouen, France               Reign: April 1141 - November 1141 Royal House: Norman Line   Matilda was born on 7 February 1102 to Henry I of England and his wife Matilda of Scotland. Her maternal grandparents were Malcolm III of Scotland and Saint Margaret of Scotland.  Margaret was a daughter of Edward the Exile and granddaughter of Edmund II of England.         When she was seven years old, Matilda was betrothed to Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, and was sent to the Holy Roman Empire in 1111 to begin her training as his consort. Matilda and Henry were married at Worms on January 7, 1114 in a splendid ceremony. She was  11 or 12 at the time.  In March 1116 Matilda and Henry visited Rome and Tuscany, and she acted as Regent in his absence. When Henry V died in 1125, he left Matilda a childless widow of twenty-three. The Imperial couple allegedly had no surviving offspring. Hermann of Tournai states that Maud bore a child that lived only a short while. Matilda's brother, William Adelin, had perished several years before in the wreck of the White Ship, leaving Matilda the only legitimate heir to the English throne.   Despite being known most popularly by the title of "Empress" due to her first marriage, Matilda's right to the title was dubious. She was never crowned Holy Roman Empress by a legitimate Pope.  Her correct title was "Queen of the Romans" but "Empress" was arguably an appropriate courtesy title for the wife of an Emperor who had been crowned by the Pope.  In later years she encouraged chroniclers to believe that the Pope had crowned her.   Matilda returned to England, where her father named her as his heir.  The Anglo-Norman barons swore to accept her as ruler if Henry I had no son.  For a brief time Matilda was the first female ruler of the Kingdom of England, even though she was never crowned. Her failure to secure that rule meant that her temporary and disputed period of reign in 1141 was extremely brief. She is often excluded from lists of English monarchs, listing Stephen of Blois as monarch from 1135-1154.   On June 17, 1128,  Matilda married Geoffrey of Anjou at Le Mans in Anjou.  Geoffrey was eleven years her junior. He was nicknamed "Plantagenet" from the broom flower which he took as his emblem, hence the name of the line of English kings descended from him. At the time of their marriage, he was Count of Maine and heir to his father Fulk V, Count of Anjou.   Matilda and Geoffrey's marriage was not a happy one.  She eventually left him and returned to her father. Matilda and Geoffrey were reunited in 1131 and their marriage produced three sons: Henry, born 05 Mar 1133, Geoffrey Count of Nantes born in 1134 and William, Count of Poitou born in 1136.  The birth of her second son, Geoffrey, was difficult and Matilda nearly died in childbirth.     Children of Empress Matilda of England and Geoffrey of Anjou Name Birth Date Death Date Spouse King Henry II of England 05 Mar 1133 6 July 1189 Eleanor of Aquitaine Geoffrey VI, Count of Nantes 03 Jun 1134 27 Jul 1158   William, Count of Poitou 22 Jul 1136 30 Jul 1164         On the death of her father, Henry I, in 1135, Matilda expected to succeed to the throne of England, but her cousin, Stephen of Blois, a nephew of Henry I, usurped the throne with the support of most of the barons, breaking the oath they had previously made to defend her rights. The civil war which followed was bitter and prolonged, with neither side gaining the ascendancy for long.  Finally in 1139 Matilda commanded the military strength necessary to challenge Stephen within his own realm. Stephen's wife, the Countess of Boulogne who was also named Matilda, was the Empress's maternal cousin. During the war, Matilda's most loyal and capable supporter was her illegitimate half-brother, Robert of Gloucester. Matilda's greatest triumph came in April 1141, when her forces defeated and captured King Stephen at the Battle of Lincoln (1141). He was made a prisoner and effectively deposed.       Matilda's son, Henry, was showing signs of becoming a successful leader.  She retired to Rouen in Normandy during her last years, where she maintained her own court and presided over the government in the absence of Henry. She intervened in the frequent quarrels between her eldest son Henry and her second son Geoffrey, but peace between the brothers was brief. Geoffrey rebelled against Henry twice before his sudden death in 1158. Relations between Henry and his youngest brother, William, were more cordial, and William was given vast estates in England. Archbishop Thomas Becket refused to allow William to marry the Countess of Surrey and the young man fled to Matilda's court at Rouen. William, who was his mother's favorite child, died there in January 1164, reportedly of disappointment and sorrow. Although she gave up hope of being crowned in 1141, her name always preceded that of her son Henry, even after he became king.   Matilda died at Notre Dame du Pré near Rouen and was buried in the Abbey church of Bec-Hellouin, Normandy. Her body was transferred to the Rouen Cathedral in 1847 where her epitaph reads: "Great by Birth, Greater by Marriage, Greatest in her Offspring: Here lies Matilda, the daughter, wife, and mother of Henry."                                     SOURCES:   Charlemagne's Descendants to George Washington http://www.kareldegrote.nl/charlemagne/George_Washington.htm   Margaret Butler & Sir Lawrence Washington to King Edward I of England http://www.thepeerage.com/p17991.htm#i179904   ROYAL DESCENT The Lanier Family Connection to the Washington Family The Connection to King Edward I of England http://jimserver.net/genealogy/royal_desc.html   The Ancestry of George Washington Sons of Liberty Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution http://www.revolutionarywararchives.org/washancestry.html   Polish History, Heraldry and Genealogy The Lineage of George Washington http://www.angelfire.com/mi4/polcrt/lineageGW.html   Sampson LANIER & Elizabeth WASHINGTON http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~asbellm/genealogy/fam01284.htm   King Edward I, King Henry III, King John http://en.wikipedia.org         If you have photos or additional information, please contact me.