Mathilde Plantagenet

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Coronation of Henry the Lion and Mathilda. (from the Gospel Book of Henry the Lion, around 1188)
Mathilde's tomb (around 1230). The vernacular gave her the nickname The Pious .

Mathilde of England , actually Matilda Plantagenêt (* around 1156 Windsor Castle , Berkshire , England ; † June 28, 1189 in Braunschweig ), was the wife of Henry the Lion Duchess of Saxony and Bavaria . She was the third child and the eldest daughter of King Henry II (Henry Plantagenêt) of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine and the sister of the two future English kings Richard the Lionheart and Johann Ohneland .

Youth and Marriage

Mathilde was baptized by Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury in the Trinity Church in Aldgate. Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine traveled with her young daughter to her husband Henry II in Normandy in 1160 . At the beginning of 1163 Mathilde should have returned to England with her parents.

In order to establish good relations between the English king and the German emperor Friedrich Barbarossa , his chancellor and archbishop of Cologne, Rainald von Dassel , traveled to Rouen at the beginning of 1165 in order to establish family ties between the two ruling houses of the Staufer and Plantagenets : Friedrich, the only one-year-old son of the emperor, was betrothed to the English king's daughter Eleanor , and the most powerful German prince and ally of the emperor, Duke Heinrich the Lion of Saxony and Bavaria (who had been divorced from his first wife Clementia von Zähringen in 1162 ), became engaged to Eleonore's sister Mathilde . However, the first-mentioned marriage project did not materialize because the English king apparently did not pursue it any further and at least it became superfluous due to the early death of the emperor's son Friedrich (1170).

Mathilde, who was only around eleven years old, left England in three ships with a large dowry and numerous entourage at the end of September 1167 and traveled, accompanied by her mother to Normandy, to see her bridegroom in Germany, who was almost 30 years older. The couple's magnificent wedding was celebrated by Bishop Werner on February 1, 1168 in Minden Cathedral . The subsequent festivities took place at the Saxon court in Braunschweig . With the large dowry , the Guelph duke rose to become one of the richest German princes.

children

Heinrich and Mathilde's marriage resulted in five children (beyond toddler age):

  • Richenza / Mathilde (* 1172; † 1208/1209)
  1. ⚭ Count Gottfried III. by Le Perche († 1202) ( Châteaudun house )
  2. ⚭ Count Engelram III. by Coucy († approx. 1242)
  • Heinrich V , Count Palatine near the Rhine (* approx. 1173/1174; † 1227)
  1. ⚭ 1194 Agnes von Staufen
  2. ⚭ 1211 Agnes von Landsberg
  • Lothar (* 1174/1175; † 1190)
  • Otto IV. (* 1175/1176; † 1218), German King and Roman Emperor
  1. ⚭ 1212 Beatrix of Swabia († 1212)
  2. ⚭ 1214 Mary of Brabant († 1260)
  • Wilhelm , Duke of Lüneburg (* 1184; † 1212/1213)
  1. ⚭ Princess Helena of Denmark , daughter of the Danish king Waldemar I.

The Duchess Mathilde is the ancestor of all later Guelphs through her youngest son .

Duchess of Saxony and Bavaria

When Henry the Lion made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1172 , his young wife, who had stayed behind in Germany, fulfilled above all representative duties. In contrast, the political interests of the absent duke were represented by two of his confidants. Little is known about Mathilde's later political role in her husband's government. But she made a major contribution to her husband's plans to develop Braunschweig into an almost royal residence.

On Mathilde's intervention with Pope Alexander III. the canonization of Thomas Becket goes back (1173). As the daughter of Henry II of England, Mathilde was on friendly terms with Thomas Becket. The Brunswick Cathedral was also on their own initiative soon after the canonization one of the first churches that carried the patronage of Thomas Becket.

exile

Due to his position of power, Henry the Lion ruled his territory fairly independently of the German Empire and he also placed great emphasis on emphasizing the royal descent of his wife. However, his independent mode of government and expansionist efforts brought him into conflict with other nobles and bishops, and increasingly with the emperor himself. Eventually he was overthrown in 1180. After a lost war, the Duke of Guelph had to bow to the emperor's decisions and in July 1182 go into exile with his father-in-law, the English king. Due to contradicting sources, it is unclear whether Mathilde was banished together with her husband, or whether she declined an offer from the emperor to stay in Germany undisturbed because she did not want to let her husband go alone. In any case, she accompanied him into exile with her daughter Richenza / Mathilde and their sons Heinrich (V) and Otto (IV), while their son Lothar stayed in the empire. Until June 1184 Mathilde stayed in Caen and Argentan in Normandy. It was probably then that she met the French baron and troubadour Bertran de Born , who sang her in courtly style in two love poems as Elena . From mid-1184 Mathilde lived on the British Isles for a year and gave birth to her youngest son Wilhelm, who later became Duke of Lüneburg. She celebrated Christmas 1184 with her husband and father in Windsor.

Return and death

Henry the Lion's Crypt . Left: Heinrich's sarcophagus, Mathilde's right. In the background is a sarcophagus containing the remains of Margravine Gertrude the Elder of Braunschweig , Margrave Ekberts II of Meißen , and Gertrude the Younger of Braunschweig , great-grandmother of Henry the Lion.

After Heinrich the Lion was allowed to return to his homeland after three years of exile, he and his wife set out on their way back to Saxony in October 1185. But at the beginning of 1189 he had to go into exile in England again because he refused to take part in the Third Crusade , referring to his old age . Mathilde stayed behind in Braunschweig to protect the welf's interests, but there she passed away three months after Heinrich's departure at the age of only about 33.

Mathilde is buried next to her husband in the crypt of the Brunswick Cathedral . Examination of her bones revealed that she was small, dark-haired, and had a hip abnormality.

The German chronicler Arnold von Lübeck praised Mathilde as a worthy offspring of the nobility and a very pious woman who was always generous and kind to the poor and sick.

Influence on the court of Henry the Lion

Thanks to her close family ties to England and Normandy, Mathilde was able to give new and important impulses to cultural life at her husband's court. So the knightly poetry of France was able to find its way into the kingdom of Henry the Lion through its influence. Probably at her suggestion, Pfaffe Konrad created the first German-language version of the “ Roland's Song ”, one of the most important medieval epics in France . However, it is not certain whether the verse novel “ Tristrant und Isalde ” - the first German adaptation of the Tristan material by Eilhart von Oberg based on a French model - can also be traced back to her initiative. On the dedication image of the Gospel Book of Henry the Lion , Mathilde is shown with a crown, but her husband without a headgear.

literature

Web links

Commons : Mathilde Plantagenet  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ Arnold von Lübeck : Chronica Slavorum , 11-12.
personal data
SURNAME Mathilde Plantagenet
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mathilde of England; Matilda Plantagenet
BRIEF DESCRIPTION eldest daughter of King Heinrich II.
DATE OF BIRTH around 1156
PLACE OF BIRTH Windsor Castle , Berkshire, England
DATE OF DEATH June 28, 1189
Place of death Braunschweig