page_title: Matilda of Scotland
section_title: Queen of England
hierarchical_section_title: Matilda of Scotland / Queen of England
context_page_description: Matilda of Scotland, also known as Good Queen Maud or Matilda of Blessed Memory, was Queen of England and Duchess of Normandy as the first wife of King Henry I. She acted as regent of England on several occasions in her husband's absence.
  Daughter of the King Malcolm III of Scotland and Princess-Saint Margaret of Wessex, Matilda was sent to be educated in a convent in southern England, where her aunt Cristina was abbess. According to Wilton Abbey's traditions in the 1140s, her aunt ordered her to take the veil in order to protect her from the lust of William II of England, which angered her father because of the affect it might have on her prospects of marriage. In 1093, Matilda was engaged to an English nobleman until her father and her brother Edward were killed in a minor raid. A messy succession conflict in Scotland followed between her uncle Donald III, her half-brother Duncan II and her brother Edgar until 1097, when the latter assumed the throne.
  Upon the accession of Henry I in 1100, following his brother William's death while hunting, the English King quickly proposed marriage to Matilda, who possessed the Anglo-Saxon royal blood, which the Norman dynasty largely lacked.
context_section_description: After Edith and Henry were married on 11 November 1100 at Westminster Abbey by Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury, she was crowned as "Matilda," a hallowed Norman name. By courtiers, however, she and her husband were soon nicknamed 'Godric and Godiva', two typical English names from before The Conquest in derision of their more rustic style, especially when compared to William II's flamboyance. Despite this, Matilda's court at Westminster was filled with poets. She was known as a patron of the arts, especially music.
caption: Bow Bridge over the River Lea depicted in the 19th century, built in 1110.
exif: {}