The Catholic Historical Review

The Empress Matilda is a pivotal figure in English medieval history. She came close to becoming the only female outright ruler of England in the Middle Ages, and she was the founder of the Plantagenet dynasty that was to rule the kingdom for three centuries. Yet this book by Catherine Hanley is only the second major biography of Matilda, after Marjorie Chibnall’s scholarly work of 1991. As the first significant book-length work on Matilda in over thirty years, Hanley’s work is a welcome addition to the literature.

Although published by a university press, the book is aimed at a general audience, and Hanley does not claim to supplant Chibnall’s work. But it is a well-researched and scholarly work nonetheless. The book follows a biographical structure: Hanley addresses the years in which Matilda was struggling for control of England against its crowned king, Stephen of Blois, but also covers the lesser-known periods when she was married to the emperor Henry V (hence the title “empress,” which she retained all her life) and when she was mother and mentor of a king (her son Henry II).

Hanley is well versed in recent scholarship on queenship, and argues that Matilda’s negative portrayal in many chronicles is based on gendered stereotypes about women in authority. Aristocratic women often wielded effective power in this period (Matilda’s aunt Adela of Blois is a good example), and queens often governed on behalf of an absent husband or minor son (notably Matilda of Boulogne, wife of King Stephen, who kept his cause alive after he had been captured). However, a queen regnant was very rare in twelfth-century Europe, and Matilda struggled throughout her war with Stephen to find an appropriate title for a woman “king.” Hanley argues convincingly that she was aiming for the throne and a coronation, and that her title “Lady of the English” was intended to represent a status of queen-in-waiting. She further reinforced her royal status by retaining the title “empress,” even though it was acquired by marriage. Ironically, an epitaph for Matilda remembered her solely in relation to male rulers: “daughter, wife and mother of Henry” (Henry I; Emperor Henry V; Henry II).

Hanley addresses the alleged arrogance of Matilda, which has often been used to explain her failure to take the throne in 1141 as she alienated the people of London. The author compares the vocabulary used by chroniclers to describe the Empress and her rival Matilda of Boulogne. Both women had to take on “male” attributes of rulership and military strategy, yet Empress Matilda was condemned for doing so, while Queen Matilda was praised. None of this is new to scholars of [End Page 146] medieval gender and queenship, but to have the argument summed up so lucidly and presented to a general audience should help challenge the stereotype of the arrogant Matilda.

Hanley’s account of the civil war is clearly set out, making sense of what can appear a complicated conflict, as nobles and prelates swapped sides or sat on the sidelines. Hanley accepts the idea that England was devastated by the war, as “Christ and his saints slept,” in the famous words of the Peterborough chronicler, and does not address the debate about how far the war really affected the kingdom. Maybe this is outside the scope of a popular biography, and, to be fair, the author deliberately avoids using the anachronistic Victorian term “the Anarchy.”

This book is a welcome addition to the literature on this medieval woman ruler. While aimed at a general readership, there is much in it that scholars will find useful, and Hanley has a sound grasp of the scholarship around medieval women and gender. Hopefully, the work will challenge stereotypes around Matilda and encourage further study of this fascinating figure.