Empress Maude

Empress Maude

If you go back in history you see the marks made by men. Women were meant to be silent and bear children. Therefore are the women who made into the pages of history books the more remarkable.

A queen or an empress was to be a thing to look up to and to emulate. They set the fashion for the rest of the court. Laden in the finest of fabrics and the best of the jewelry they were an ornament with one sole responsibility, to produce an heir.

Some of these queens ruled behind the scenes, fought to keep the power for their children and ruled by themselves. The woman on the picture above was Empress Maude or as she is also known, Matilda born in 1102.

She was the daughter of Henry I of England and Matilda of Scotland. At the age of seven she was engaged to Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, and when she was eight she was sent to Germany. They married when she was twelve. The Emperor died eleven years later and then Maude was married to Geoffrey of Anjou.

Maude was next in line to the throne but had to fight with her cousin, Stephen of Blois for the power. There was a civil war in England with much unrest. For a few months in 1141 Maude was the first female ruler over England but she was never crowned.

Stephen was king of England for a few years. The throne then went to Maude's son who became Henry II and in 1157 she became grandmother to Richard, who became Richard the Lionheart. Maude died in 1167.

And 805 years later one of her offsprings was born - Me.

//P.