Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/84

72 word was pledged. The princess was sent for and asked whether she would marry Count Ehrenfried. She said she would. All the Emperor could do to make the marriage less unequal was to give additional rank and estates to his future brother-in-law. They became Count and Countess Palatine. They had three sons distinguished in German history: Ludolph, who died before his parents, Otho, Duke of Swabia, Herman, Archbishop of Cologne and Chancellor of Italy; and seven daughters, one of whom was, queen of Poland, the rest were nuns. It is said that Otho on his death-bed gave the regalia to Archbishop Heribert to give to Ehrenfried.

Ehrenfried and Matilda founded the monastery of St. Nicholas at Bruwylre or Brawiller near Cologne, where their eldest son Ludolph was buried. Ehrenfried survived Matilda about ten years; both died in the odour of sanctity and miracles honoured their tombs. They are commemorated with their daughter Rixa, May 21, and Matilda is honoured alone, Nov. 4. AA.SS., May 21. Giesebrecht. Ditmar.

St. Matilda (4) or, Queen of England, May 1, April 30, June 10, Aug. 7, Sept. 18, Dec. 20, "the Good Queen Maude," "the Holy Queen," c. 1082-1118. It is said that she was christened Edith and took the name of Maud or Matilda on her marriage. Daughter of Malcolm III., king of Scotland, and his second wife,. As soon as possible after the death of Malcolm and Margaret (in 1093) Edgar the Atheling, brother of Margaret, consigned their daughters, Matilda and Mary, to the care of his sister,, in the Benedictine monastery of Rumsey. With her they remained until 1100, when Henry I. succeeded to the throne, and took the politic step of linking himself with the family of the Saxon kings whom his father William the Conqueror had ousted and married Matilda. Christina, who hoped to make both her nieces nuns, strenuously opposed the marriage, but the young princesses never intended to be nuns. William of Malmesbury, who was nearly contemporary, says that they had worn the dress of the cloister by their aunt's wish and for protection, that they might not be given in marriage to any one of inferior rank. When the king's offer was made, Matilda declared that she had never professed nor taken any vows; that her father had never wished her to be a nun, but had said she was to marry; that her aunt, who was a despotic woman, had insisted on her wearing the black veil and had enforced her command with blows and violent language, but that when she was not present, she, Matilda, had torn it off, and trampled on it.

Later writers, Matthew Paris, Robert of Gloucester and others living long after her time, say that she was a nun, and that she married unwillingly and invoked a curse upon her offspring, which was fulfilled in the drowning of her son in 1120.

To go back to 1100, Archbishop Anselm called a chapter in which it was decided that Matilda was free and should be married to the king. The wedding was solemnized with great magnificence. Anselm always remained one of the chief friends of the queen. During the long quarrel between the king and the archbishop she wrote to the latter begging him to come back to England. Dean Hook (Archbishops of Canterbury) says: "The letters of Queen Matilda evince an intimate acquaintance with Scripture; and on scriptural grounds, though in terms the most respectful, she presses upon the archbishop the paramount duty of returning to his diocese." She apologizes for characterizing his conduct as hardhearted, and says that she desires his return with all her heart. The correspondence is preserved in the third and fourth books of Anselm's epistles.

She was universally beloved and "revered for her curtesie, humilitie, scilens, and othir good manneris." She walked in the steps of her holy mother. She was extremely charitable, not only giving to the poor but serving them with her own hands. In 1101, soon after her marriage, she established a hospital for forty lepers, under the patronage of St. Giles, who was much venerated in her