Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Editor's Note
- Abbreviations
- 1 Four Windows on Early Britain
- 2 Violence, Penance, and Secular Law in Alfred's Mosaic Prologue
- 3 Summary Justice and Seigneurial Justice in Northern Iberia on the Eve of the Millennium
- 4 Before She Was Queen: Matilda of Flanders and the Use of Comitissa in the Norman Ducal Charters
- 5 A Feast for the Eyes: Representing Odo at the Banquet in the Bayeux Embroidery
- 6 The Count of the Côtentin: Western Normandy, William of Mortain, and the Career of Henry I
- 7 Between Plena Caritas and Plenitudo Legis: The Ecclesiology of the Norman Anonymous
- 8 On the Abbots of Le Mont Saint-Michel. An Edition and Translation
- 9 Rural Servitude and Legal Learning in Thirteenth-Century Catalonia
4 - Before She Was Queen: Matilda of Flanders and the Use of Comitissa in the Norman Ducal Charters
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Editor's Note
- Abbreviations
- 1 Four Windows on Early Britain
- 2 Violence, Penance, and Secular Law in Alfred's Mosaic Prologue
- 3 Summary Justice and Seigneurial Justice in Northern Iberia on the Eve of the Millennium
- 4 Before She Was Queen: Matilda of Flanders and the Use of Comitissa in the Norman Ducal Charters
- 5 A Feast for the Eyes: Representing Odo at the Banquet in the Bayeux Embroidery
- 6 The Count of the Côtentin: Western Normandy, William of Mortain, and the Career of Henry I
- 7 Between Plena Caritas and Plenitudo Legis: The Ecclesiology of the Norman Anonymous
- 8 On the Abbots of Le Mont Saint-Michel. An Edition and Translation
- 9 Rural Servitude and Legal Learning in Thirteenth-Century Catalonia
Summary
On 18 June 1066 Matilda of Flanders, the wife of William the Conqueror, was involved in the foundation of the abbey of La Trinité of Caen. Her activity was recorded in the abbey's foundation charter which gives the details of many grants made to the new abbey, and Matilda is described as acting in a variety of roles within it. Together with her husband William she made donations of land and gave her daughter Cecilia to the abbey as an oblate. She also independently donated her own land, purchased land on behalf of her foundation, interceded with others to influence them to donate, and made a counter-gift to one of the donors. Finally, Matilda subscribed the charter along with her husband and her three sons.
There is much of interest in this document, not least the different roles that Matilda plays, and the different ways that Matilda is described: as a daughter of the count of Flanders when she is founding the abbey; as a wife when she and William give their daughter Cecilia as an oblate; but most frequently as comitissa, or countess. Matilda is given the title when she acts as a donor, as an intercessor, as a counter-gifter, and as a subscriber, but the fact that the title comitissa is not consistently used at all times raises questions about the meaning of the description. Was the title an indication of a female office? Was a distinction made between the role of a wife and the role of a countess?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Haskins Society Journal 222010 - Studies in Medieval History, pp. 59 - 82Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2012