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 person, and on 8 May she was crowned at Mainz by the Archbishop of Cöln, the Archbishop of Trier holding her ‘reverently’ in his arms. Henry dismissed all her English attendants, and had her carefully trained in the German language and manners. On 6 or 7 Jan. 1114 ( a. 1114;, a. 1114; Ann. Hildesheim, a. 1110) he married her and had her crowned again at Mainz. As Robert of Torigni says that ‘once and again, in the city of Romulus, the imperial diadem was placed on her head by the supreme pontiff’ (Contin., p. 306), she may have accompanied her husband to his crowning at Rome in 1111. She certainly went with him to Italy in 1116 (, a. 1116, in, vi. 250); and he seems to have left her there as his representative during part of the winter of 1118, when she and the chancellor decided a law-case at Castrocaro, near Forlì, 14 Nov. (, Ann. Camaldul. iii. 178). On 22 May 1125 she was present at her husband's death at Utrecht. Her father at once summoned her back to his own court; she joined him in Normandy, and in September 1126 returned with him to England. The emperor when dying had placed his sceptre in her hands, as if bequeathing to her his dominions—where, indeed, she was so much beloved, that some of the princes of the empire followed her over sea to demand her back as their sovereign; a demand to which she would gladly have acceded. But Henry of England had other plans for the daughter who was now his only legitimate child. At Christmas 1126 he made his barons and bishops swear that if he should die without lawful son, they would acknowledge her as lady of England and Normandy. According to William of Malmesbury, he in return swore that he would not give her in marriage to anyone outside his realm. In spite, however, of this promise, of her own reluctance, and of the general resentment of his subjects, he sent her over sea soon after Whitsuntide 1127, under the care of Brian FitzCount [q. v.] and her half-brother, Robert, earl of Gloucester [q. v.], with instructions to the Archbishop of Rouen to make arrangements for her marriage with Geoffrey Plantagenet, son of the Count of Anjou. A year later, on the octave of Whitsunday, 17 June 1128, the wedding was solemnised in Le Mans Cathedral by the Bishop of Avranches (cf. Hist. Gaufredi Ducis, in, Chron. des Comtes d'Anjou, pp. 234–6; p. 889; Acta Pontif. Cenoman., in , Vet. Anal. p. 321; and , Princesses, i. 107).

Matilda's first husband had been thirty years older than herself; the second was ten years younger—a boy scarce fifteen, the heir of an upstart race whose territory, insignificant in extent, was so placed as to make their hostility a perpetual thorn in the side of the ruler of Normandy, until it was bought off with Matilda's hand. The empress and her boy-husband soon quarrelled; and in July 1129 Geoffrey, now Count of Anjou, drove his wife out of his dominions. She withdrew to Rouen (, a. 1129), and remained there till July 1131, when she went with her father to England. Geoffrey soon afterwards sent a message to recall her; a council held at Northampton, 8 Sept., decided that she should return to him, and the barons renewed their homage to her as her father's heir. Thenceforth community of political interest seems to have kept the ill-matched couple on friendly terms. Their first child was born at Le Mans on 5 March 1133 [see ], and the king immediately caused his barons to swear fealty to Matilda for the third time, as well as to her infant son (, ed. Stubbs, i. 187). Another son, Geoffrey, was born at Rouen on 1 June 1134 (Chron. S. Albin. Andeg. a. 1134, in, Eglises d'Anjou). Matilda remained in Normandy with her father till the autumn of 1135, when a quarrel broke out between him and Geoffrey; she now sided with her husband, and went back to Angers after parting in anger from the king. On 1 Dec. Henry died. Matilda at once re-entered Normandy to claim her inheritance; the border-districts submitted to her, but England chose her cousin Stephen for its king, and Normandy soon adopted England's choice. Matilda appealed at Rome against Stephen for his breach of his oath to her; the case was tried before Innocent II early in 1136, but she obtained no redress (cf. ‘Historia Pontificalis,’ in, Mon. Germ. Hist. xx. 543–4; , Ep. p. lxxix; and , Geoffrey de Mandeville, App. B). She, however, maintained her position at Argentan, and there her third child, William, was born, 21 July 1136 (ib. a. 1136). On 2 Oct. she brought a body of troops to reinforce Geoffrey at the siege of Le Sap; but Geoffrey was disabled by a wound, and they were compelled to retreat. Matilda now devoted herself to stirring up opposition to Stephen in England through her brother Earl Robert, her great-uncle David [q. v.], king of Scots, and other friends of her father. On 30 Sept. 1139 she landed, with Robert and a hundred and forty knights, at Arundel. Her stepmother, Queen Adeliza, received her into the castle; Stephen besieged her there, but soon allowed her to join her brother at Bristol. The barons of the west rallied round her; she removed to Gloucester, and