Search results
Matilda's younger and only full brother, William Adelin, died in the White Ship disaster of 1120, leaving Matilda's father and realm facing a potential succession crisis. Upon her widowhood in the Holy Roman Empire, Matilda was recalled to Normandy by her father, who arranged for her to marry Geoffrey of Anjou to form an alliance to protect his ...
- 8 April 1141 – 1148
- Henry I of England
- Stephen (as King of England)
- Matilda of Scotland
- Early Life
- Papal Alliance & The Investiture Controversy
- The Walk to Canossa
- Civil War
- Campaign Against Henry IV
- The First Crusade & Later Years
- Conclusion
Matilda was a descendent of the House of Canossa, a noble family established by her great-grandfather Atto Adalbert of Lucca (d. 988), a 10th-century Lombard military leader from Lucca and vassal to the German kings of Italy. Adalbert and his son Boniface expanded their domain and by 1027, the Canossa family's influence encompassed the counties of ...
Matilda returned to Italy without Godfrey and governed alongside her mother from their court at Mantua and presided over the land despite Godfrey’s inheritance of the domain. Matilda maneuvered over the following years to establish her influence in Italy with aid from her close ally, Hildebrand of Sovana (c. 1015-1085). Matilda had a strong persona...
In early January 1077 CE, Henry IV crossed the Alps into Lombardy with an army escorting him. Matilda and Gregory VII, upon news of his approach, rerouted to Matilda’s castle at Canossa. After arriving shortly before Henry IV, Matilda and Gregory VII watched the penitent Henry arrive at the Canossa’s walls seeking papal absolution. The events that ...
Later in 1077, Matilda relocated to Rome along the Tiber. As civil war engulfed the empire, she and Gregory VII aligned themselves with Rudolf’s rebellious faction of nobles. The pope issued a second excommunication to Henry IV in 1080, to which the German king again denounced the pope citing, among other things, his alleged adulterous transgressio...
Emperor Henry IV returned to Italy in 1090 to silence Pope Urban II and his openly-rebellious vassals, including the insurgent Matilda. Henry’s imperial army marched south, capturing much of Matilda’s Po Valley holdings. Though peace was offered to Matilda by Henry IV, entailing her submission to his authority and to Clement III, she rejected it ou...
In November 1095, at the behest of the Byzantines, Pope Urban II decreed the launch of the First Crusade (1095-1102) to recapture the holy city of Jerusalem from Muslim control. Years earlier, Matilda supported Pope Gregory VII’s advocacy for Christian intervention in the eastern Mediterraneanagainst Muslim influence. The devout Matilda of Canossa ...
Matilda of Canossa died on 24 July 1115. After her death, Henry V claimed her northern Italian possessions, while the Church claimed the Duchy of Tuscany. Some local leaders in her lands, citing Matilda’s release of towns from their feudal obligations, used the vacuum of power to establish a variety of city-states free of both imperial and church c...
- Michael Griffith
People also ask
Did Matilda marry Henry V?
Did Matilda give birth to Henry II?
Why was Matilda a second cousin of Henry IV?
Why did Matilda marry Wulf?
In September 1131, the barons swore fealty to her a second time as Henry's heir before she returned to her husband in Anjou. In March 1133, Matilda gave birth to the couple's first son, the future Henry II of England. A second son, Geoffrey, was born the following spring, and Matilda was seriously ill after this birth.
Matilda of Tuscany Facts. Known for: She was a powerful medieval ruler; for her time, the most powerful woman in Italy, if not through Western Christendom. She was a supporter of the papacy over the Holy Roman Emperors in the Investiture Controversy. She sometimes fought in armor at the head of her troops in the wars between the Pope and the ...
Matilda’s first marriage with Emperor Henry V was childless, and there is ambiguity over her coronation as the Empress. Her second marriage was to Geoffrey of Anjou, who became the Count of Anjou and Maine soon after their marriage and later the Duke of Normandy by conquest.
The years which followed saw some significant deaths: Urban II in 1099, the anti-pope Clement III in 1100 and, in 1106, the death of Matilda's old enemy Emperor Henry IV. Matilda's relations with Henry V were better, partly because of Henry's somewhat more conciliatory attitude towards the question of church reform. While she continued to ...
Matilda of Tuscany (Italian: Matilde di Canossa [maˈtilde di kaˈnɔssa], Latin: Matilda, Mathilda; c. 1046 – 24 July 1115 or Matilda of Canossa after her ancestral castle of Canossa), also referred to as la Gran Contessa ("the Great Countess"), was a member of the House of Canossa (also known as the Attonids) in the second half of the ...
