MATILDA OF BOULOGNE, Queen of Stephen. CHAPTER I. Crafty designs of Stephen-He hastens to England on the death of Henry the First -His favourable reception-His accession-Coronation of Matilda of BoulogneHer parentage-Her marriage with Stephen-Stephen's prowess at the battle of Tinchebraye-His avoidance of the fatal White Ship-Matilda's London residence -Stephen signs a charter of Liberties-Immediately violates it-The barons build a castle-Invasion of the Welsh and Scotch-Stephen falls into a lethargy-The partizans of the Empress Matilda raise the standard of revolt-Normany invaded -Matilda besieges Dover castle-The battle of the standard-Matilda mediates peace with the Scotch king-Stephen quarrels with the clergy. S neither the dying fullest prelates of the nation, thunder forth the cry of "Long live King Stephen! down with the Empress! down with the woman monarch!" tottering one. He embarked at the small port of Whitsand, and braving a wintry sea in a frail vessel, landed on the Kentish coast, amidst the ominous welcomes of a thunder-storm, so terrific, that, says Malmsbury, "the world seemed well nigh about to be dissolved." Immediately the life of his royal uncle had departed, Stephen sped to England with a precipitation that betrayed his anxiety to ascend that throne, which_to wept tears of sorrow over the death-him proved indeed a troublesome and a couch of his uncle, they took no precautions to guard against his treachery. Indeed, on the death of her sire so surely did the Empress consider the thricesworn circlet of royalty hers, that she took no immediate steps for embarking for England. Not so, however, with the far-seeing Earl Stephen, for long before fever had closed the eyes of his tooconfiding uncle, King Henry, in death, had his busy emissaries secretly formed an all-powerful party in the land, who waited but for the auspicious moment to unsheath their unyielding swords, and, blessed by the benedictions of the power Dover and Canterbury closed their gates against him in terror; but disregarding these inauspicious incidents, and relying on the distaste of the nation to a female reign, on the influence of his powerful friends, and on his own prestige, as the most popular personage in England, he boldly pushed on to London, whose gates flew open to the tramping sound of his horses, and whose citizens with their myriad voices joyously hailed him as their King. No less favourably was he received by the good citizens of Winchester, who, influenced by his brother, Henry de Blois, their bishop, freely admitted him within the gates of the royal city, and, to crown his good fortune, William de Pont de la Arche resigned to him the keys of the royal castle, which at once put him in possession of the royal jewels and £100,000 in money, a sum equal in the present day to about a million and a half, and which he speedily expended in futile attempts to firmly fix the crown on his usurping brow. Meanwhile, Hugh Bigod, the late king's steward, and a hot partizan of Stephen's, solemnly swore before an assembly of the barons and prelates, that King Henry on his death-bed had disinherited the Empress Matilda, and constituted his favourite nephew, Earl Stephen, his successor. This bold statement of Bigod's-whether true or false -afforded the assembly what they so much desired, a pretext for breaking the oaths of fealty they had thrice sworn to the daughter of the late king. Accordingly the Archbishop of Canterbury absolved them of their vows, which he declared were null and void, as the English had never suffered a woman to reign over them; and on the twenty-sixth of December, the day dedicated to his titular saint, Stephen, after swearing to restore the good laws of the sainted Edward, was crowned at Westminster, amidst the deafening acclamations of his faithful Londoners. Matilda of Boulogne, sometimes styled Maud of Boulogne, the subject of the present memoir, and the consort of Stephen, did not arrive in England till the spring of the succeeding year; when on Easter Sunday, 1136, the solemnization of her coronation took place, accompanied by gorgeous pageants, and succeeded by hearty and long-continued rejoicings, for the people beheld in her a worthy successor to Matilda the Good, whose memory they still fondly cherished. Very little is known of the early life of Matilda. She is said to have received her education in England, and the Abbey of Bermondsey, of which her mother was a munificent patroness, has been pointed to as the school of her childhood, but this is only conjecture. Her mother, Mary of Scotland, was the daughter of Malcolm Canmore, king of the Scots, and sister of Matilda the Good,* first consort of Henry the First of England. Mary of Scotland was educated with her elder sister in the royal nunneries of Rumsey and Wilton, and like the good Matilda, she, in the bloom of her maidenhood, resigned the seclusion of the cloister for the endearments of the married state. In compliance with the wish of her brother-in-law, King Henry, she gave her hand in marriage to Eustace, Count of Boulogne, a knight renowned for deeds of chivalry in the Holy Land, and a possessor of large estates in Essex in addition to the county of Boulogne, and whose brothers, Godfrey and Baldwin, had successively wore the warrior crown of Jerusalem. Matilda of Boulogne, the last of the Anglo-Norman Queens of England, was the sole offspring of the marriage, and Beauclerc, being desirous to secure to his own kindred the valuable possessions to which she was inheritrix, gave her in marriage to his favourite nephew Stephen, then Earl of Blois. After being previously knighted by his uncle Henry, Stephen fought valiantly at the famous battle of Tinchebraye, where, having taken the Count of Mortagne prisoner, he received the titles and lands of Mortagne; and on his marriage with Matilda, which probably took place in 1113, he, in her right, became Count of Boulogne. On the return of King Henry from Normandy, in 1120, Stephen embarked on board the fatal White Ship; but perceiving that both the passengers and the crew were young, headstrong, and addicted to riotous carousing, he, with other prudent nobles, left the vessel, declaring that such company greatly increased the perils of the voyage. Had Henry's heir, William, acted as discreetly | * See her Memoir. on this occasion as his cousin, the Earl of Blois, he probably would have lived to sway the sceptre of England. His loss, however, was no unhappy event for the nation, as Brompton says he was so hardhearted and haughty-minded, that he threatened if ever he became king of the English he would make them draw the plough like oxen. The London residence of Stephen and his consort Matilda was that impregnable fortress the Tower Royal, situate on the spot which now forms the little lane so named, lying between Cheapside and Watling Street. When King Henry died, his daughter the Empress was in Anjou, nursing her sorely sick husband. But early in 1136, Geoffrey became convalescent, and King Stephen, to render futile the probable efforts of the Empress to recover her lost crown, now that her hands were unfettered, signed a charter confirming the rights and privileges of the church, abolishing Danegelt, repealing the severe game and forest laws of his Norman predecessors, and generally restoring the Saxon laws of King Edward. But as this liberal policy was only pursued by the newly-elected monarch to secure his seat on the throne, he almost immediately afterwards restored the abominable Norman game laws, and on the demise of Corbet, Archbishop of Canterbury, seized on the princely revenues of that see. These early violations of the solemnly signed charter by the king of their own election, so greatly offended the clergy and the barons, that the latter forthwith built and fortified upwards of a thousand castles, which they filled with sturdy warriors, all ready to join in battle strife when the day should arrive, that England's circlet of royalty must be won and lost by force of arms. Soon was Stephen convinced of the error he had committed by permitting the rude barons to thus fortify the land with strongholds, that rendered them almost independent of the crown. Baldwin de Redvers, Farl of Devonshire, to whom he had denied some slight favour, actually told him to his face that he was an usurper, whom he would no longer obey. Irritated at this insolence, Ste phen proceeded in person to chastise Baldwin, and in the meantime the Welsh carried fire and sword into the countries bordering on their territory; and David, King of the Scots, under the pretence of revenging the wrongs of his niece, the Empress, plundered the northern countries with a band of barbarians. After concluding a hasty peace with the Welsh, Stephen marched to the North. The hostile armies met at Carlisle, but fought not, as the monarchs agreed to a truce of peace, by which Carlisle and Doncaster were resigned to the Scotch king, and the earldom of Huntingdon to his son Prince Henry, who did homage to Stephen for those fiefs in England, in lieu of David his father, who would not violate the oath he had sworn, to acknowledge no one but the Empress as successor to King Henry's crowns. In 1137, shortly after the king and Matilda had celebrated the Easter festival, with more than ordinary splendour, at Westminster, Stephen fell into a lethargy so nearly resembling death, that it was rumoured abroad that he had ceased to exist; on which, all who espoused the cause of the Empress, and who, by promoting dissensions, hoped to enrich themselves by lawless plunder, flew to arms, and rendered both England and Normandy theatres of civil war. Not merely was the standard of revolt raised in favour of the Empress, but for individual aggrandizement, noble warred against neighbouring noble, and in these unrighteous contentions, whole towns and villages were reduced to ashes, and their inhabitants being driven to seek shelter in the forest recess or mountain fastness, formed themselves into bands of ruffians, who, making theft and murder their trade, plundered the churches and public buildings, and cruelly insulted, robbed, and slaughtered every man, woman, and child they met with. In England this horrid state of anarchy existed, with but little intermission, for more than fifteen years. Stephen, however, on recovering from his dangerous stupor, used his best exertions to restore domestic tranquillity to his dominions. He first hastened with his infant heir, Eustace, to Normandy, hands. For months did these fierce invaders devastate the northern counties, where they penetrated even to Yorkshire, without meeting with any serious ob were being too hotly pressed by their foes in the midland counties to send aught but pity and words of encouragement to the terror-stricken inhabitants. where Geoffrey of Anjou, husband of the cattle to captivity, they cruelly put to Empress, was, with a mighty army, en-death every mortal that fell into their deavouring to obtain the dukedom for himself and his spouse. Here he subdued his foes, not by his good sword, but by the all-powerful influence of wealth. By a three-years' pension of two thou-struction, as Stephen and his followers sand marks of silver, he purchased a peace with Geoffrey, who retired to his own earldom; and with a golden bribe he induced the King of France, as lord paramount of Normandy, to receive the liege homage of the baby boy Eustace, whose brow he had encircled with the ducal crown. During Stephen's sojourn in Normandy, his consort, Matilda, remained in England, and although we have no record of her doings at this period, we may presume she used her best exertions in furtherance of the cause of her royal lord. Thus overcome, and without prospects of succour, the barons and the people gave way to despondency, whilst numbers prepared to migrate farther inland. At this crisis, the venerable Thurstan, Archbishop of York, like a true patriot, thundered forth the war-cry against the relentless Scotch; and well did the old man's zeal serve the good cause he so eloquently advocated. Inspired by reIn 1138, Stephen returned to Eng-ligion and patriotism, all the male inland, and immediately proceeding to the north, severely chastised the King of the Scots, who, with banner unfurled in support of the rights of the Empress, had again invaded Northumberland. Whilst her royal lord was thus occupied in the north, Matilda of Boulogne, with the courage of an amazon, herself besieged the rebels, who had seized Dover Castle, and aided by a Boulonnois squadron, blockaded the fort by sea and land, and finally reduced her rebellious subjects to subjection. Matters, nevertheless, daily wore a more alarming aspect. Baron after baron deserted to the cause of the Empress, which so exasperated Stephen, that in his wrath he exclaimed, "Since they have chosen me king, why do they now forsake me? By the birth of God, I will never be called an abdicated monarch!" Seldom do misfortunes come single. The revolt of the nobles induced the Scotch King, for a third time, to cross the border, with an army more fierce and formidable than ever. These cruel barbarians marked their track with blood and fire. By them innocent babes were tossed high into the air to be received on the points of murderous swords, with yells of delight; and, excepting a few blooming maidens and stalwart men, whom they drove like habitants of the invaded counties flocked to the prelate's standard, when, after receiving absolution and a blessing from the Archbishop himself, and solemnly vowing to conquer or die, they, with the holy cross in their van, and the consecrated banners of St. Peter, St. Wilfred, and St. John floating over their heads, boldly marched forth, and drove the Scotch before them like chaff before the hurricane. This fearful contest was named, on account of the holy banners that the victors fought under, the "Battle of the Standard." When night closed in, ten thousand Scots lay dead on Cuton Moor, and, in their flight, nearly all the remaining thousands were slain by the exasperated peasantry before they reached the Scottish border. The English lost but one knight and about a hundred soldiers. The Scotch king was so completely overcome by this disastrous defeat, which nearly cost him his life, that, through the mediation of Queen Matilda, he concluded a peace with her lord, that was highly advantageous to both monarchs. Having subdued his foes without, and greatly quelled the rebels within, his kingdom, Stephen fondly believed the crown firmly fixed on his brow for he had yet to learn that the throne of an usurper is ever a tottering one. In imi tation of the lay nobles, the bishops had built, fortified, and garrisoned strong castles, which so greatly annoyed Stephen, that he now endeavoured, with a mighty blow of his royal sceptre, at once to reduce the pride of the prelates, and deprive them of their strongholds. But the attempt, weak as it was futile, cost him that crown which, but for the haughty intolerance of his royal rival, the Empress, he never again would have worn. CHAPTER II. -Queen Matilda goes The Empress Matilda lands in England and claims the crownabroad-Her son Eustace married to Constance of France-She sends over a host of foreign soldiers-Civil war rages-Stephen taken prisoner-Superstition of the times-Henry, Bishop of Winchester, supports the Empress-Boldness of the London citizens-The Queen's letter to the synod-Her troubles-Her exertions to restore Stephen to liberty-Arrogance of the Empress-Her flight from London-The Bishop of Winchester renounces her cause-She besieges the Bishop-The Queen hastens to the Bishop's support-Defeat of the Empress-Capture of the Earl of Gloucester-Narrow escape of the Empress-King David, disappointed and dispirited, returns to Scotland. OBERT, Earl of furthered by his affectionate queen, MaGloucester, believing tilda, who, having crossed the sea, the moment for strik- brought about a marriage between her ing a decisive blow son, Eustace, and Constance, sister of had now arrived, the French King-Matilda paying a boldly threw off his large sum to obtain the bride, and the allegiance to Ste- French King, in return, investing Eusphen, with a chal- tace with the dukedom of Normandy, lenge of defiance, and prevailing on the and assisting him and his mother to Empress to land in England, strenuously maintain the ducal crown in defiance of endeavoured to enforce her royal rights, the partizans of the Empress. and hurl the usurper from the throne. On her arrival, Stephen's good stars were in the ascendancy, for, besides having possessed himself of the enormous wealth of the refractory Bishops of Salisbury, Lincoln, and Ely, he had seized on many of the strong castles of the turbulent barons. But although she had let the critical moment pass, Stephen was no more fortunate, for, by permitting her to depart from Arundel Castle, when he might have made her his prisoner, he heaped his head with a heavy load of future troubles. The landing of the Empress gave new courage to her partizans, who instantly unfurled their proud banners in her support; but whilst, under the judicious guidance of the devoted Earl of Gloucestor, her cause was daily gaining strength, the interests of Stephen were also being Whilst Matilda was in Normandy, she sent over such a host of Breton and Flemish fighting men, that afterwards Stephen's army was composed almost wholly of foreigners. Such an array of foreign troops naturally excited the jealous alarms of the people, and greatly injured the cause they were intended to serve. In 1139, the opposing parties endeavoured to settle matters amicably, but their efforts were vain, as both Stephen and the Empress, relying on the relative strength of their positions, which, indeed, had not yet been tested by a single encounter of importance, determined not to relinquish the highly tempting prize of England's royal circlet without a desperate struggle. After a series of hot contests, the particulars of which belong rather to his |