page_title: Matilda of Scotland
section_title: Childhood
hierarchical_section_title: Matilda of Scotland / Early life / Childhood
caption_attribution_description: English: Detail from a mural by William Hole in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery
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: She was born on 1080, in Dunfermline, Scotland. Her parents were King Malcolm III and Princess-Margaret of Wessex, making her descendant from both the Scottish and the Anglo-Saxon royal family since she was the great-granddaughter of Edmund Ironside and henceforth descended from Alfred the Great. The Scottish princess was christened Edith, with the Anglo-Norman prince Robert Curthose standing as godfather at the ceremony. English Queen Matilda of Flanders was present at the baptismal font and served as her godmother. Edith then pulled at Queen Matilda's headdress, which was seen as an omen that the infant would be Queen one day.
  Edith, her sister, and her brothers were raised by a loving but strict mother who didn't spare the rod when it came to raising her children in virtue, which some presupposed was the reason for the good behaviour the royal siblings displayed, and Margaret also stressed the importance of piety. When she was about six years old, Edith and her sister Mary were sent to be educated in Romsey Abbey, near Southampton in southern England, where their maternal aunt Cristina was abbess. Their studies went beyond the standard feminine pursuits, which wasn't surprising since her mother was a great lover of books. The princesses learned the languages English, French, and Latin, which were sufficiently to read St. Augustine's works and the Bible. It is presumed that Edith learned financial management and geometry as well.
caption: The Meeting of Edith's parents: King Malcolm greeting Saint Margaret at her arrival in Scotland by Victorian artist William Hole.
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