Show 1 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + f THE HERALDS t i Home Study Circle + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + ± + + + + + + + + + + + Copyright ill by Seymour Eton I I Directed by Prof Seymour Eaton ROYAL WOMEN OF EUROPEAN HISTORY By CHARLOTTE BREWSTER JORDAN MATILDA OF FLANDERS 103110S3 Matilda daughter of Baldwin V count of Flanders has the distinction of being the first consort of an English king accorded the title of queen Her husband known as William the Conqueror I Con-queror had no patience with the An gloSaxon law the result of Edburgas having poisoned her husband the king of Wessex which debarred the wives of kings from a share in royalty and substituted the tjtle of The Lady His Companion for the more regal one In fact the bold William respected no laws or omens except those of his own creation Upon his arrival on the coast of Englqnd he stumbled and fell and I his superstitious followers immediately J I construed his unexpected prostration into forewarning of disaster But the unconquerable knight then known merely as the duke of Normandy holding hold-ing out to them the soil which had clung to his hands exclaimed I have seized England with my two hands and what I have seized I will maintain a prophecy which he most terribly fulfilled at the sanguinary battle of Hastings In 1066 Shortly after his coronation at Westminster West-minster abbey upon Christmas day he sent for Matilda acting in his absence as duchessregent of Normandy and a few days after Easter he had himself recrowned at Winchester that Matilda might be made queen At this coronation corona-tion the ollice of champion was first introduced olce c1ampon troduced An armored knight named Marmion rode into the great banqueting banquet-ing hal and declared I any person denies that our sovereign lord William Wil-liam and his spouse Matilda are king Matilda of Flanders and queen of England he is a false hearted traitor and liar and I as champion do here challenge him to single sin-gle combat No one deeming it advisable advis-able to accept this thricerepeated challenge chal-lenge Matilda held undisputed posses sion of the title la reine The invincible William big in frame and will permitted no obstacles to defeat de-feat his purposes I was largely owing ow-ing to his indomitable will that he gained gain-ed Matilda of Flanders for his wife This very beautiful princess so much preferred the Saxon lord of Gloucester to all her suitors that for seven years she looked most disdainfully upon the suit of her cousin William whom she I dubbed because of his birth as > the son I of Robert le DIable and a tanners I daughter the Doubtful Duke of Normandy Nor-mandy Always infuriated by allusions allu-sions to his illegitimacy the frenzied lover punished her for her taunts by I rolling her in a muddy pool where he jleft het to reflect upon the masterful I temper of her cousin Matildas father I Wft7JjtJrI I Abbey Church of St Stephen at Caen Burial place of William the Conoueror Matilda Is burled at the Church of the Holy Trinity Caen Indignant at this high jjded uncluv nrcm treatment of his Daughter un denoek l to wage war against his neii ew tu was soon oblhjfd to acknuw1 edgcj the superiority of his powerful sword As the Saxon Gloucester still remained re-mained indifferent to the profound affection af-fection of Matilda she concluded to marry her valiant wooer from pique and summoned him again to her court gracefully complimenting the Intrepidity Intrepid-ity of the knight who dared to besiege and take her heart in her fathers city Soon after followed the magnl ent display dis-play of their wedding festivities and of their triumphal entry mb o Rou n Here another obstacle interposed itself The archbishop of Rouen declaring their marriage Illegal on account of their couslnship proceeded to excommunicate excommuni-cate the royal bride and groom William Wil-liam undaunted appealed to the pope who upon presentation of certain rf ligious and philanthropic buildings deemed it expedient to nullify the archbishops arch-bishops decree and sanction the marriage mar-riage In the years following the people of Normany knew unusual prosperity and felt in consequence a great affection for their king and queen William and Matilda had meanwhile given shelter to Harold the Saxon a brotherinlaw of Matilda who had been imprisoned by Guy earl of Ponthleu After demanding demand-ing his release and heaping upon him all the hospitalities of the Norman court William formally I betrothed Har t 1 if ra 1 5w1 I Mm 2 WN TWO SECTIONS OF THE F AMOUS BAYEUX TAPESTKY old to his daughter In recognition of the many kindnesses shown to him in I Normandy Harold thereupon swore to aid William in securing the throne of England which Edward the Confessor had promised upon his death to the duke of Normandy Scarcely had the English king breathed his last however how-ever when Harold turned traitor to those who had befriended him disputed the succession which William claimed and undertook to place the crown upon his own head Outraged by this treachery William hastened to England to make good his claim by dispossessing Harold His success suc-cess at the battle of Hastings where Harold was slain won for him the priv William the Conqueror leg of candidacy to the English throne and gave him the title of William Wil-liam the Conqueror His original intention in-tention was merely to assert his right based upon the commendation of the Confessor to be elected by the people but the irreconcilable race antagonism resulting from the complete suppression suppres-sion of Saxon customs and powers fol i t r dP lowing the 1 election caused many uprisings up-risings which he quelled in most peremptory per-emptory fashion declaring thenceforth that it was necessary for him to be a most absolute monarch In order to suppress revolt and maintain the power he had gained The people rebelled for Instance at being driven from the j t forests which William and his retinue preserved strictly for game and they I also complained bitterly of the establishment estab-lishment of the old Norman custom of ringing the curfew bell at S oclock in I the evening when all lights had to be extinguished Their remonstrances however were of no avail with the stark king who brooked no suggestions sugges-tions whose whims became iron laws and who commanded largely by might of the fear which he inspired Matildas share of the martial glory with which her husband covered himself him-self in the conquest of England lay in I her famous perpetuation of these deeds In the tapestries of Bayeux Having surprised her husband by a fully j equipped war vessel the Mora in which to undertake this expedition she awaited news from his camp with the I greatest enthusiasm The news of his overwhelming victory reached her as j she was praying in the cathedral whose name she Instantly changed from j I that of Notre Dame to that of Our 1 Lady of Good Tidings When her husbands I hus-bands conquest became an assured fact she made haste to chronicle with her needle the great Norman epic Summoning to her aid the ready pencil of Turold the Dwarf she ordered him to make cartoons or working draughts of the stirring events In which her lord figured a herolnchief Then with the aid of her ladles in waiting wait-ing she copied these patterns in cross stitches of woolen thread upon strips of canvas 20x36 Inches This wonderful tapestry depicts in historic his-toric sequence the series of events beginning be-ginning with Harolds Imprisonment and ending with his death seventytwo compartments in all each containing an explanatory Latin Inscription When the 216 feet of embroider were finally completed they were presented to the cathedral of Bayeux as a testimonial of the great services which its bishop Odo half brother to the king had rendered ren-dered him at the battle of Hastings These tapestries are still exhibited on certain days of the year In the nave of the cathedral around which they exactly ex-actly fit Those who were privileged to see the exhibition of the Bayeux tapestries at the Worlds Fair In 1S93 found it difficult to believe that they were facsimiles of events nearly 1000 years old Although somewhat faded they have withstood the ravages ot time far better than the canvases of the great masters less than half their age ageNapoleon had thpse precious memo c rials transferred to the National museum mu-seum at Paris where they excited much curious comment At the time of the French revolution they would have been entirely destroyed by a mob which wished the tapestries as a covering cov-ering for their guns had not a priest hastily concealed them It was originally orig-inally supposed that they were Ma tildas handiwork alone but it has since been computed that it would not IIifl r Herman Tower South Edmundsbury have been possible for one person to have crossstitched the 1512 figures and I accessories within the time between the death of Harold and that of Matilda in 10S3 She was undoubtedly the mainspring spring of the undertaking however and made her needle tell a more realistic real-istic and enduring story than did the quills of the court chroniclers Notwithstanding the general fear which William the Conqueror inspired Matilda seemed to stand in no awe of him When her oldest son Robert came of age he took up arms against his father for possession of the duchy f of Maine of which he considered himself him-self unjustly deprived Matilda always al-ways devoted to this son so warmly espoused his cause that she advanced all her income and then pawned her jewels to equip him with effective arms The father and son fought on the battlefield of Archembraye where Robert unhorsed his father and was I about to disnatch him when he discerned I dis-cerned the identity of his victim Shocked at the crime which he was about to commit he fell at his fathers feet and begged his forgiveness Afterward After-ward however the feud broke out again and greatly embittered the last days of Matilda She died at Caen In 10S3 worn out with domestic sorrow and trouble Her gigantic husband who was a head taller than any of his subjects survived her but four years Of their five children Robert died in prison William Rufus and Henry became be-came kings of EnglanI Adela the youngest daughter became the mother of King Stephen and the death of Constance hastened her mothers decline de-cline The monument erected to her memory mem-ory by William the Conqueror was destroyed de-stroyed by the revolutionists of France but the faded handiwork of Matilda the pioneer new woman of the dark ages has proved a more lasting memorial me-morial and may still be seen in the library li-brary at Bayeux Note Catharine of Aragon will be presented in this series on Saturday next |