The reign of Henry I of England (r. 1100–35) and Matilda of Scotland (r. 1100–18) holds a special place in the medieval English historical imagination. Thanks to the work of authors such as Aelred of Rievaulx, we learn that by the late twelfth century their union had come to represent the unification of England itself, following the traumatic Norman invasion of 1066. The historiographical emphasis placed on this marriage becomes all the more interesting when we consider the fact that it nearly did not happen. Henry chose the Anglo-Scottish princess, born Edith but known to us today as Matilda, to become his wife and queen just a few months after his coronation in August 1100. But Henry's plan met with an early impediment. The new king had asked Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, to officiate the marriage and perform Matilda's coronation. Anselm initially refused the request and advised Henry to find a different wife, because Matilda had been seen publicly wearing a nun's veil at Wilton Abbey, where she had been sent as a child to be educated. The veil marked her as a Bride of Christ and thus denied to any earthly husband. Nevertheless, Anselm eventually agreed to the match, joined Henry and Matilda in marriage, and crowned the new queen in November 1100.

This essay explores the impact of Matilda's reputation on historiographical constructions of Anglo-Norman royal power by examining surviving accounts of the debate which immediately preceded her marriage. Most scholarship has, understandably, focused on her career post-1100. Lois Huneycutt, C. Warren Hollister, and Judith Green have examined at length Matilda's role as queen and her important contributions to Henry's reign. Matilda unquestionably came to wield a ‘great deal of power’ and political influence, but her later success has overshadowed the important dispute which accompanied her rise to power. The current essay, therefore, is an exploration of the controversial beginning of Matilda's reign and how it gave shape to subsequent interpretations and reactions to her as queen. It argues that when her contemporaries recorded the political and religious disagreement over Matilda's veiling as a child they created an important opportunity. The story of the veil allowed medieval thinkers to examine and explain several key developments of royal power.