Matilda of Scotland: Peacemaker and Perfect Princess

Abstract

At the time of her death in 1118, the Warenne chronicler eulogised Matilda of Scotland in the following manner: “From the time when England was first subject to kings, of all the queens none was found like her, nor will a similar queen be found in coming ages, whose memory will be held in praise and whose name will be blessed for centuries.” This encomium follows a lengthy passage describing the elaborate funeral service for Matilda, Queen consort to England’s Henry I, who died on 1 May 1118. Matilda has continued to be remembered as Matilda bona regina, or “Matilda the Good Queen,” and has, as the chronicler predicted, been held up as the very model of the perfect Queen. Agnes Strickland, the nineteenth-century biographer of England’s queens consort, wrote that Matilda’s cognomen implies that she not only possessed “the great and shining qualities calculated to add lustre to a throne, but that she employed them in promoting the happiness of all classes of her subjects, affording at the same time a bright example of the lovely and endearing attributes that should adorn the female character.” Modern scholarly treatments have nuanced these near-hagiographic treatments, but Matilda remains an exemplum of ideal mediaeval queenship, renowned for her learning, piety, charitable works, and governing and diplomatic abilities as well as a personal life virtually unmarked by scandal and characterised by a co-operative and harmonious partnership with Henry I. Thus, an examination of the life of the woman originally named Edith, but known best as Matilda of Scotland, illuminates not only the circumstances of her life and reign, but also allows scholars to interrogate the ideals for good queenship in the opening years of the twelfth century.