Of the first four kings of England following the Norman Conquest, one (William II) never got round to marrying before his death in his mid–40s. The wives of the other three were all named Matilda; and a fourth Matilda claimed the throne in opposition to one of those three.
The consort of William I (the Conqueror) was Matilda of Flanders. Her maternal grandfather was Robert II, King of France. She and the Conqueror had ten children together, two of whom became kings of England: William II and Henry I.
Matilda of Scotland was the daughter of the Scottish King Malcolm III, and the consort of Henry I of England. She had been christened Edith, but changed her name to Matilda when she married Henry (presumably in honour of his mother). The marriage took place in the year 1100, after he seized the throne following the untimely death of his elder brother, William II (Rufus). Matilda was also known as Good Queen Maud, or Matilda of Blessed Memory.
Henry and Matilda's first child was also named Matilda. She married the future Holy Roman Emperor Henry V as a child, and became known as the Empress Matilda or Empress Maud. Her only legitimate sibling, William Adelin, died in 1120 when the White Ship struck a submerged rock in the English Channel off Barfleur, Normandy, and sank. According to Wikipedia, much alcohol had been consumed on the vessel before it sailed from Barfleur, and the helmsman was drunk. William boarded a life–dinghy, along with several others, all of whom could have reached safety; but William returned to the ship to rescue his illegitimate half–sister – yet another Matilda (Matilda FitzRoy, Countess of Perche). When they threw themselves into the dinghy it capsized, and all on board were drowned.
This left Henry with a succession problem, as kings of this time did not consider being succeeded by their daughters as queens regnant to be an acceptable option. At one time he considered making his nephew Stephen of Blois his heir, but he later favoured his daughter, the Empress Matilda. Stephen was the grandson of William the Conqueror; his mother was Adela, the youngest of William's four daughters – the younger sister of William II and elder sister of Henry I. Stephen was married to Matilda of Boulogne, whose maternal grandfather was Malcolm III of Scotland – making this Matilda the niece of Matilda of Scotland, the consort of Henry I.
Following Henry's death in 1135, Stephen and the Empress Matilda each tried to assert their claims in a prolonged period of civil war that would become known in Victorian times as The Anarchy (1135–53).
Meanwhile the Emperor Henry V had died in 1125, aged 14, and the Empress Matilda (who was 23 when Henry died) had married Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou. The Anarchy was finally resolved when Stephen agreed to bequeath the crown to Matilda and Geoffrey's eldest son, who thus became Henry II – England's first Plantagenet king – following Stephen's death in 1154. The Empress Matilda died in 1167, aged 65 (Geoffrey predeceased her by 16 years).
© Haydn Thompson 2021