Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/590

576 came over, and reduced Stephen to the necessity of making an agreement, by which he secured the crown during his own life, but left the succession to him. It is pretended that Matilda persuaded Stephen to this treaty, in recalling to his mind, in a private conference, that they were formerly lovers, and that this Henry, whom he persecuted, was his own son. There seems, however, little or no room for this supposition.

The weakness of both parties at last produced a tacit Cessation of arms, and the empress Matilda retired into Normandy. But an event soon happened, which threatened the revival of hostilities in England, Prince Henry had reached his sixteenth year, and was anxious to receive the honour of knighthood from his uncle, the king of Scotland. For this purpose he passed through England with a great retinue, and was visited by the most considerable of his partizans, whose hopes he roused by his dexterity in all manly exercises, and his prudence in every occurrence. He staid some time in Scotland, where he increased in reputation; and on his return to Normandy, was invested with that duchy with the consent of his mother. His father died the following year, 1151.

Stephen dying soon after, Matilda ceded to her son the right of reigning, reserving only that of aiding him by her councils. Instructed by experience of the sorrows of ambition, and the nothingness of grandeur, she consecrated herself to penitence, virtue, and beneficence.

She saw through the character of Becket, and opposed the king's making him archbishop of Canterbury. But so well known was her probity and knowledge, that even the pope and the archbishop solicited her mediation in their subsequent quarrels; but she died during the contest. She