“A Chronicle of England – Page 149 – Matilda is Permitted to Retire from Arundel” (Engraving by Edmund Evans in “A Chronicle of England” by James William Edmund Doyle. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons)
The Anarchy, 12th Century England
When most people think of English queens, they think of Queen Elizabeth (I or II) and Queen Victoria. Sometimes they remember Queen Mary Tudor, or occasionally Queen Anne. But few remember that these weren’t the first women to sit on England’s throne. No, the first female ruler in England attempted to take her crown back in early 1100s.
To be fair, the Empress Matilda (or Maude, depending on who you’re asking) was never actually crowned. Though she was the only surviving legitimate child of King Henry I, and her father attempted to have her officially installed as his heir, her cousin Stephen of Blois seized the throne instead. (Unsurprisingly, female rights of inheritance were…murky at best, during this time.) Thus began an English civil war known as the Anarchy, in which Matilda and Stephen battled for the crown. The war dragged on for nearly twenty years and featured plenty of daring escapes, near misses, French rebellions and all sorts of dramatic events. The Anarchy was finally ended when Stephen agreed to recognize Matilda’s son Henry as his heir. (He would indeed go on to become King Henry II.) Unfortunately, Matilda was never able to claim the crown in her own right,
Historical people we might meet: Matilda is not only a female trailblazer, she’s one hardly anyone ever remembers to talk about. She had to fight literal battles, not just the patriarchy. And even after she was forced to give up her dreams of ruling in her own right, she served as an advisor and ambassador in her son’s court. Her supposedly arrogant and overbearing personality is often to blame for why her subjects never warmed to or supported her, but is that actually the case? Or is it just yet another example of history needing to put an unconventional woman in a box?
Potential stories: Now that we have a female Doctor, it seems a perfect time to tell a story about the issue of male primogeniture – the idea that any male heir pretty much anywhere would be favored over a female one even if she’s the oldest – seems worth tackling. The royal family has only just ditched this practice, after all. (Which would be a lot more interesting if the young Princess Charlotte didn’t already have an older brother.)