Queen of the Conqueror: The Life of Matilda, Wife of William I (47 page)

14.
Musset,
Les Actes de Guillaume le Conquérant
, p. 15.

15.
GG, p. 85.

16.
Freeman,
History of the Norman Conquest
, III, p. 109.

17.
Bates,
William the Conqueror
, p. 90. Orderic Vitalis inaccurately claims that William built both churches, completely overlooking Matilda’s role in commissioning La Trinité. OV, II, pp. 11, 191. It is true that William had more involvement in the foundation of La Trinité than Matilda did in St.-Étienne, judging from the frequency of his name on its charters. But the sources make it abundantly clear that La Trinité was very much Matilda’s project.

18.
OV, II, p. 11.

19.
OV, VI, p. 451. This would be completed by her youngest son, Henry, who turned it into the priory of Le Bec. His heart was later buried there, which may have been intended as a compliment to his mother. The rest of his remains were buried at his father’s abbey of St.-Étienne in Caen.

20.
Bates,
Regesta Regum
, p. 93.

21.
The wording used was
“Hoc viderunt Guillelmus Rex et Mathildis regina.”
Bates,
Regesta Regum
, pp. 183–87, 271–95, 302, 530–33, 625–27, 750–51, 767–69; Round, pp. 141, 429, 431; Davis,
Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum
, I, pp. 8, 30, 33, 41.

22.
Bates,
Regesta Regum
, pp. 176–78, 632–33, 643–46, 722–23, 750–51, 759–62, 774–75; Fauroux, pp. 343–44, 375–76, 377–78, 396–98, 408–9, 442–46.

23.
The lands included Bures-en-Bray, Maintru, and Osmoy-St.-Valéry. For the contention that Matilda was comparatively poor before the Conquest, see Musset, “La Reine Mathilde,” p. 193. As well as the dowry that a woman brought to her marriage, which represented her share of her family’s inheritance, she was also endowed with dower rights in her husband’s lands.

24.
Bates,
Regesta Regum
, pp. 530–33.

25.
Musset,
Les Actes de Guillaume le Conquérant
.

26.
OV, III, pp. 135–39.

27.
GRA, I, p. 501.

28.
Strickland, p. 37.

29.
Carey, p. 79.

30.
Round, pp. 341–42; Fauroux, p. 432.

31.
GRA, I, p. 501.

32.
Ibid.

33.
OV, III, pp. 103, 105.

34.
Round, p. 425.

35.
Carey, p. 16.

36.
Turgis, p. 10 (author’s translation).

37.
There was also a portrait of Matilda’s future husband, William, and their sons, Robert and William. She commissioned the paintings when the abbey was built. They survived until the seventeenth century, when the room in which they were housed was demolished. The engravings were reproduced in a work by the French Benedictine monk Bernard de Montfaucon, in
Les monuments de la monarchie française
, 5 vols. (Paris, 1729–33).

38.
Turgis, p. 10n.

39.
GG, p. 149; GRA, I, p. 501.

40.
GRA, I, p. 277.

41.
Laing, III, p. 94.

42.
Morris, vol. V, no. 67:1. This is corroborated by the mortuary roll of Abbess Matilda of the abbey of La Trinité, Caen, which includes a request that prayers be said for Duchess Matilda and three of her daughters, including the younger Matilda. Delisle,
Rouleaux des Morts
, pp. 181–82. If William and Matilda had as many daughters as the sources imply, it would have been unusual if none of them had shared their mother’s name, so this lends the accounts credibility.

43.
Fauroux, Hilton, p. 38.

44.
GG, p. 63.

45.
GRA, I, p. 441.

46.
GND, II, p. 151; GRA, I, p. 441.

47.
GRA, I, p. 337.

6:
EARL HAROLD

  
1.
GRA, I, p. 417.

  
2.
An excellent summary of the unification of England is given in Bates,
William the Conqueror
, p. 91. See also Fletcher, pp. 13–24.

  
3.
Loyn, p. 315.

  
4.
GRA, I, p. 419. Eadmer, meanwhile, attests that Harold and his men were stripped of all their most valuable possessions before being released. Eadmer, p. 6.

  
5.
GRA, I, p. 417.

  
6.
GG, p. 69.

  
7.
Eadmer, p. 6.

  
8.
GRA, I, p. 419.

  
9.
GND, II, p. 161.

10.
GRA, I, p. 441.

11.
OV, II, p. 137.

12.
Barlow,
Life of King Edward
, p. 49.

13.
Laing, III, p. 76.

14.
Carey, p. 14.

15.
Laing, III, p. 76.

16.
Ibid.

17.
GG, p. 71.

18.
OV, II, pp. 135, 137.

19.
Eadmer, p. 7.

20.
GRA, I, p. 419. Eadmer, p. 7, also mentions this, but does not name the girl. There is a great deal of confusion among the contemporary sources about which daughter was betrothed to Harold. The girl’s name is variously given as Agatha, Adela, Adeliza, and Adelida. The chroniclers differ not only from each other, but also within their own accounts. In his
Ecclesiastical History
, Orderic Vitalis refers to the girl as Agatha, but as Adelaide in his additions to the
Gesta Normannorum Ducum:
OV, III, p. 114n, 115. Wace’s account is more confused still. He claims that Matilda had just two daughters, Cecilia and Adela, and he is the only chronicler who attests that Adela was betrothed to Harold: Burgess and Holden, pp. 199, 223. We can be reasonably certain that Adeliza, Adelida, and Agatha were one and the same girl, and given that Adela was not even born when Harold visited Normandy, his intended bride must have been Adeliza. As William and Matilda’s eldest daughter, she was the most suitable candidate for a betrothal of this significance.

21.
Laing, III, p. 76. See also Forester, p. 206.

22.
Eadmer, p. 7.

23.
Laing, III, p. 76.

24.
Hill, pp. 24–26; Grape, p. 40. An earlier proponent of this theory is Turgis, pp. 41–42.

25.
Andrew Bridgeford provides a compelling account of this mystery, alongside a myriad of others that the tapestry poses, in his excellent study.

26.
GND, II, p. 161.

27.
Eadmer, p. 8.

28.
Ibid.

29.
Carey, p. 46.

30.
GRA, I, p. 447.

31.
Eadmer, p. 8.

7:
CONQUEST

  
1.
OV, II, p. 137.

  
2.
ASC, p. 194.

  
3.
GND, II, p. 167; OV, II, p. 171.

  
4.
GRA, I, p. 447.

  
5.
OV, II, p. 145.

  
6.
GRA, I, p. 449.

  
7.
Strickland, p. 45.

  
8.
Their sons Robert, Richard, and William witnessed the document confirming Cecilia’s entry. Musset,
Les Actes de Guillaume le Conquérant
, p. 53; Fauroux, pp. 442–46; Dugdale, p. 1072.

  
9.
Around twenty young girls entered La Trinité with Cecilia that day. The endowments that they brought with them made the abbey so prosperous that it was able to survive with no other income until the French Revolution.

10.
Freeman, however, argues that Cecilia must have been William and Matilda’s firstborn daughter for their relinquishing of her to the abbey to have been a sufficient sacrifice. None of the contemporary sources corroborate this theory, and the evidence is stronger that Adeliza was the eldest. Freeman,
History of the Norman Conquest
, III, p. 385. Meanwhile, M.A.E. Green, I, p. 5, asserts that Cecilia did not enter the cloister until 1074, and that the ceremony in 1066 was merely to pledge her as a future novice of the abbey. “In the summer of 1075, after completing a year’s trial, the girl expressed her steadfast desire to take the monastic vows.” However, Green probably confused this with the fact that in 1075 Cecilia took her vows as a fully ordained nun, having spent the previous nine years as a novice in the abbey.

11.
GND, III, p. 149. See also OV, III, p. 9; IV, p. 47.

12.
OV, III, pp. 9, 11; IV, p. 47. Orderic cites the date of Cecilia’s entry to La Trinité as 1075. OV, III, p. 9n; Walmsley, p. 429.

13.
GND, II, p. 261.

14.
The tapestry depicts ten men in the ship, but this was undoubtedly representative of many more.

15.
Another account describes the sails as being painted in several places with three lions—the device of the Norman ensign—although this is doubtful, because armorial ensigns were not introduced until much later.

16.
The figure was also thought to represent their third son, William Rufus. Burgess
and Holden, p. 239. See also Houts, “The Ship List of William the Conqueror”; Houts,
Normans in Europe
, pp. 130–31.

17.
GG, pp. 175, 177, 181; Houts, “The Echo of the Conquest in Latin Sources,” pp. 149–51. Figureheads had long been believed to have a magical as well as a symbolic function. For this reason, it was customary to remove them from ships before they arrived at their destination, because the inhabitants of the land that received them were afraid of being cursed. The Bayeux Tapestry shows that this happened with the ships of William’s fleet when it arrived on England’s shores.

18.
Other theories for the ship’s name include “foolish” or “foolish woman,” a less common meaning derived from the Latin translation. This could have been a jest implying that Matilda was unwise to let her husband embark upon such a risky enterprise. Houts, “The Ship List of William the Conqueror,” p. 172.

19.
The evidence suggests that Matilda chose one of her own servants to captain the ship. Orderic Vitalis names him as Stephen, son of Airard. This may have been the same man who is listed as “Stephanus seruiens comitisse” in the foundation charter of the duchess’s abbey at Caen, La Trinité. Ibid., pp. 172–73. Fifty-four years later, Stephen’s son commanded the White Ship when it was shipwrecked off the coast of Normandy. Among those lost was Matilda’s grandson, the heir to England, and her granddaughter Matilda, daughter of Adela.

20.
Burgess and Holden, p. 235.

21.
ASC, p. 194. This “star” was Halley’s comet, and the Bayeux Tapestry represents it as coinciding with Harold’s coronation, which was a case of dramatic license, for it could only have been seen in England between April 24 and 30. For other English commentaries on the phenomenon, see Riley, pp. 137–38; Darlington and McGurk, II, p. 601.

22.
GND, II, pp. 162n, 163.

23.
OV, II, p. 135. In a similar vein, Jumièges claimed “it portended, as many said, a change in some kingdom.” GND, II, pp. 162n, 163.

24.
GG, p. 103. Edward III took ten thousand men to France in 1346, and Henry V’s force in 1415 probably comprised around fifteen to twenty thousand men.

25.
Jumièges also cites this figure, although Douglas claims that it was more likely to have been around one thousand at most:
William the Conqueror
, pp. 183–4n. Brown’s estimate is more conservative still, at six or seven hundred:
Normans and the Norman Conquest
, p. 130. See also Barlow,
Carmen de Hastingae Proelio
, pp. xv–xvi.