royalrory:Royal Couples: Matilda, Empress of the Holy Roman empire, Queen of Germany, Lady of the
royalrory: Royal Couples: Matilda, Empress of the Holy Roman empire, Queen of Germany, Lady of the English, and Geoffrey Plantagenet, Duke of the Normans, Count of Anjou, Main, and Mortain * On the 23rd of May 1125 the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry V, died and with him the entire dynasty of Franconian Emperors ended. The Empress Matilda, daughter to Henry I of England, had given him no children. She was barren, they said. Yet, she was the most prominent woman of the Empire. And so, so much more than that. Because Matilda was foremost the first woman to whom the entire court of England had sworn an oath of allegiance to: at her father’s death she would become Queen, the first woman to ever be a monarch in her own right. Even her cousin, Stephen of Blois, swore his fealty- his belief of being the rightful heir not forgotten, just put aside in that moment. So, when her father announced she was to marry Geoffrey Plantagenet, son to Fulk V of Anjou, little good did the fact that he was called ‘Le Bel’- ‘The Handsome’- and that he was known for his wit and bravery. He was a fifteen-years-old boy whose station was far beneath her own. Eleven years of difference were surely too much. The Empress and the young Count were married at Le Mans on June 1128. A long separation followed. She couldn’t have done anything to prevent this marriage but, for everything that is holy, no one could have forced her to live with him. Soon enough her temper and his roguish manners clashed and Matilda left for Rouen. At the end of 1131, Matilda received another oath of fealty in England- with Stephen always so true, always the first to swear his loyalty- and in that same occasion a council decided that Matilda was to return to her husband. Apparently, they could force her to live with him. At the beginning of 1132, Matilda rode back to the continent and to her nineteen-years-old husband. A year later, on March 1133, Matilda gave birth to a son, Henry. And then, another son. And then, another. -- source link
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