Queen of the Conqueror

by Tracy Joanne Borman

  35. The eulogy was entitled Consilii virtus decor.

  36. ASC, p. 215.

  37. Delisle, Receuil de Travaux d’Érudition, pp. 224–25.

  38. GRA, I, p. 503; OV, IV, p. 45.

  39. OV, IV, p. 45.

  40. Carey, p. 79.

  41. Davis, Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum, I, p. 85; M.A.E. Green, I, p. 11.

  42. OV, IV, p. 45.

  43. Ducarel, p. 65; Strickland, p. 104. The abbess gave the ring to her father, the constable of France, when he received Charles IX at Caen in 1563, the year after the riots. It is not clear what became of it afterward. Ducarel, p. 66, claims that “a very curious manuscript” preserved at La Trinité contained an account of Matilda’s wardrobe, jewels, and “toilette,” but noted with some regret that he was not permitted to make a copy of it. This may be the same list referred to above (p. 43), which is still preserved in the abbey today.

  44. The tomb measures three feet high by six feet long. Ducarel, p. 63.

  45. OV, IV, p. 45.

  46. Ibid. pp. 45, 47. Orderic’s version of the epitaph is faithful to the original, with the exception of a few minor variations of spelling. See also Boüard, Histoire de la Normandie, plate 13; Douglas, William the Conqueror, opp. p. 341; Bates, William the Conqueror, p. 153.

  16: “THE STORMS OF TROUBLES”

  1. OV, IV, p. 47.

  2. ASC, p. 218.

  3. GRA, I, p. 509.

  4. ASC, p. 216. See also Riley, pp. 159–60. Domesday Book consists of two volumes—“Great Domesday” and “Little Domesday.” “Great” comprises a survey of all the counties of England south of a line from the river Tees to the river Ribble in North Yorkshire and Lancashire. The land above that line was evidently still too autonomous for the survey to be completed. This larger volume excludes Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, which are covered by “Little.”

  5. GRA, I, p. 509. See also Burgess and Holden, p. 291. Orderic Vitalis agrees that William grew “very corpulent” in his later years. OV, IV, p. 79.

  6. ASC, pp. 217–18.

  7. As Marjorie Chibnall states: “The death of Queen Matilda on 2 November 1083 probably removed the only influence capable of preventing conflict between the two.” OV, III, p. 112n. In a similar vein, Professor Barlow comments: “Queen Matilda’s death on 2 November 1083 probably removed his [Robert’s] last friend at court.” Barlow, William Rufus, p. 38.

  8. OV, III, p. 115.

  9. Orderic Vitalis cities both places at different points of his narrative. OV, II, p. 352; III, p. 115.

  10. Orderic Vitalis claims that the marriage had taken place some ten years earlier, following William’s attack on the province. When he had been unable to take it by force, the “statesman king … devised another plan to profit himself and his heirs. He made a treaty of friendship with Alan Fergant and gave him his daughter Constance in marriage with great ceremony at Caen.” OV, II, pp. 351, 353. However, Orderic’s account of Breton affairs is very confused, and none of the other sources give this date for the marriage. Indeed, Alan Fergant did not become count until 1084. It is possible that Constance had been betrothed to him in 1076, when she was still a child, but there is no evidence to suggest that this was the case. Jumièges differs slightly from the commonly accepted date of 1086, claiming that the marriage took place the following year. GND, II, pp. 254, 261. Although Orderic claims that Constance “lived with her husband as a faithful wife for fifteen years,” she was countess of Brittany for a fraction of that time. Her reign was brought to an abrupt end by her premature death in 1090.

  11. The Vexin was divided into two parts: the Norman Vexin, which lay between the rivers Epte, Andelle, and Seine, and the French Vexin, situated between the Epte, the Seine, and the Oise.

  12. GRA, I, p. 511; GND, II, p. 193. Orderic claims that the duke “fell ill from exhaustion and heat.” OV, IV, p. 79.

  13. GND, II, p. 185.

  14. GRA, I, p. 511.

  15. Malmesbury asserts that William “filled the house with complaints that death should overtake him when he had long been planning to reform his life.” GRA, I, p. 511. By contrast, Jumièges writes that the duke accepted his fate calmly. GND, II, p. 185. From what we know of William’s character, it seems unlikely that he would have been so philosophical, and the image of him fighting death as he would any opponent is more believable. He may have lain in this state for as much as six weeks.

  16. GND, II, p. 185.

  17. Ibid., p. 189.

  18. John of Worcester attests that William, like Matilda, died on a Thursday. Darlington and McGurk, III, p. 47.

  19. OV, IV, pp. 101–3.

  20. It is not clear whether this Herluin was related to the man of the same name who married William’s mother, Herleva. Strickland, p. 101, asserts that it was “in all probability” William’s stepfather himself, although this is unlikely. Quite apart from the fact that he would have been of a very advanced age by 1087, if it had indeed been the original Herluin who arranged William’s funeral, the chroniclers would have named him as such.

  21. Eadmer, p. 26; Burgess and Holden, p. 297.

  22. GRA, I, p. 511.

  23. OV, IV, p. 105.

  24. Burgess and Holden, p. 295.

  25. OV, IV, pp. 101–9.

  EPILOGUE: “MOTHER OF KINGS”

  1. Houts, “Echo of the Conquest,” p. 139; Houts, “Latin Poetry and the Anglo-Norman Court,” pp. 46–47; Abrahams, pp. 198–99, 255–56.

  2. Round, p. 142.

  3. Cecilia died on July 13, 1127. GND, II, p. 149n; OV, III, p. 11; IV, pp. 46n, 47. Jumièges implies that Cecilia’s tenure was rather longer than this, for he claims that she “governed the abbey for many years after the death of Matilda the first abbess of the house.” GND, II, p. 261. GRA, II, cites the date of her death as July 13, 1127 (p. 154). Another source claims that Cecilia was in her seventieth year when she died, although this is not substantiated by any of the contemporary sources. Planché, I, p. 83.

  4. Abrahams, pp. 198–99, 255–56.

  5. Jumièges incorrectly states that Adela bore four sons and one daughter; GND, II, p. 263. Orderic Vitalis also lists four sons (William, Theobald, Stephen, and Henry): OV, III, p. 117. Another account states that she had six sons (William, Theobald, Odo, Stephen, Philip, and Henry) and five daughters (Lucia, Agnes, Eléanore, Alix, and Lithuise). Her biographer, Kimberly LoPrete, claims she had between six and eight children, and she names Theobald, Odo, Stephen, Henry, and Agnes. Carmi Parsons and Wheeler, p. 317.

  6. GRA, I, p. 505.

  7. OV, V, p. 325.

  8. Ibid.

  9. Ibid., VI, p. 43.

  10. GND, II, p. 263; OV, V, p. 325.

  11. Abrahams, pp. 198–99, 255–56.

  12. GND, II, p. 277.

  13. Stafford, “Women and the Norman Conquest,” pp. 226–27.

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