ABSTRACT
Orphaned at thirteen, the girl who first was called Edith and later renamed Matilda upon her marriage and coronation came of English, Scottish, and Hungarian forebears rich in saintly and royal blood. By marrying Henry I, the only one of the Conquerer’s sons born on English soil and after his father’s royal coronation, Matilda would significantly strengthen Henry’s otherwise shaky hold on the scepter and restore her own family’s hereditary claim to England. Matilda showed a talent for letters, but no taste for monastic life. Now Matilda—her new Norman name, together with Maud and “Mold the gode Quene”—transformed herself from the impetuous girl of Eadmer’s report into a ruler with a reputation for saintliness and authority. Matilda’s lifelong friendliness toward Anselm, and her concern for the realm, involved her in the controversy over investiture, which Anselm had already waged with the previous king, Henry’s brother William Rufus.
