page_title: Mathilde, Abbess of Essen
section_title: Last years, death, and burial
hierarchical_section_title: Mathilde, Abbess of Essen / Last years, death, and burial
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Der Siebenarmige Leuchter, erleuchtet am 5. November 2010, dem 999ten Todestag seiner Stifterin Äbtissin Mathilde
context_page_description: Mathilde was Abbess of Essen Abbey from 973 to her death. As granddaughter of Holy Roman Emperor Otto the Great she was a member of the Liudolfing dynasty and became one of the most important abbesses in the history of Essen. She was responsible for the abbey, for its buildings, its precious relics, liturgical vessels and manuscripts, its political contacts, and for commissioning translations and overseeing education. In the unreliable list of Essen Abbesses from 1672, she is listed as the second Abbess Mathilde and as a result, she is sometimes called "Mathilde II" to distinguish her from the earlier abbess of the same name, who is meant to have governed Essen Abbey from 907 to 910 but whose existence is disputed.
context_section_description: The death of Otto III, who had strongly supported Essen Abbey, was probably a watershed for Mathilde. Otto's successor was the Henry II, the son of Henry the Wrangler. Henry did confirm the privileges of Essen Abbey in a document of 1003, but disputes probably arose over Mathilde's personal possessions inherited from her brother and mother. None of Mathilde's donations to the Essen Treasury can be dated to the period after 1002. There are clear signs that construction stopped on the westwerk, so it is assumed that Mathilde's income from the Swabian-Ottonian line had suddenly been reduced with the coronation of Henry II.  In that case, Henry had prematurely appropriated the inheritance, which would have come to him anyway after the death of Mathilde since he was the last member of the Ottonian dynasty. Therefore, Mathilde had probably been involved in the opposition to his succession, which had been especially strong in the Lower Rhine. The leaders of this opposition were Heribert, Archbishop of Cologne, and particularly Ezzo, Count Palatine of Lotharingia, the husband of Otto III's sister Matilda who had been educated in Essen, who probably made claims to the throne on behalf of his children. Ezzo was in a similar situation to Mathilde, since he claimed that the dynastic property of the Ottonian line fell to him on account of his marriage to a sister of the childless Otto III, a proposition which Henry II refused to accept. This succession dispute lasted until 1011, when Henry must have given in. If Mathilde also got her property back, it was by then too late to resume the projects she had begun. A penny of Henry II (HENRICVS REX) found in modern Poland in 1996, which names Mathilde on the reverse (+MATHILD ABBATISSA ASNI DENSIS), indicates that Mathilde found such high favour with Henry II, at least for a little while, that she was named on his money. This coinage might therefore have been created after 1002, perhaps a commemorative series created after Mathilde's death to effect a reconciliation between Henry II and the Rheinish opposition led by the Ezzonids.
  Mathilde, under whom Essen Abbey had enjoyed a great period of prosperity, died at Essen on 5 November 1011. In the Annals of Quedlinburg Abbey, a foundation of Mathilde's grandfather Otto the Great it is stated:
  Abstulit [sc. mors] et de regali stemmate gemmam Machtildam abbatissam, Ludolfi filiam.
  ([death] took Abbess Mathilde, Luidolf's daughter, the gem of the royal line).
  Since the grave of Mathilde in Rellinghausen has been determined to be a fake, she was probably buried in a prominent place in the crypt of Essen Minster. During excavations in the church in 1952, a grave was discovered in the crypt in front of the high altar, a position in which important people were often buried. At the time this grave was identified as that of the Abbess Suanhild who died in 1085 and was known to have been buried in front of this altar. However, according to late Medieval records, the members of the Abbey thought that two Abbesses were buried there, of which one was not identified by name. Therefore, it has subsequently been suggested that Suanhild was buried in a high grave on top of the grave of Mathilde and that the location of Mathilde's burial place fell into obscurity as a result.
caption: The Seven-armed candelabrum which Mathilde donated for the maintenance of her memory. This picture, taken in 2010, shows the candelabrum lit up in her memory on the 999th anniversary of her death.
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