Page:The Queens of England.djvu/25

 MATILDA OF SCOTLAND. 15 music ; and her after-history shows that she must have pos- sessed a mind of the highest order, cultivated in a manner which throws no discredit on the system of female education pursued by Abbess Christina. This stern but not ill-intentioned woman, while she held .forth to her nieces the monastic life to which they were destined, did not shut them out from all society ; for, about this time, Matilda received two proposals of marriage, one from her former s.uitor, Alan of Bretagne, both of which, however, she declined. Henry's first act on coming to the throne was to confirm to his Saxon subjects the laws and privileges granted by their beloved king Alfred ; his second, to declare that he had resolved upon a union with a princess of Saxon lineage, one of that royal race still so fondly remembered. This was the Princess Matilda. Wild was the joy that rang through the length and breadth of the land when the Saxons knew that a descendant of the revered Alfred was again to reign over them. But the effect of this intelligence on Matilda herself has been variously stated by historians, some alleging that she consented joyfully to this union with one she had long loved ; and others, that she was only persuaded to espouse Henry for the sake of the peace of the nation, which such a marriage would secure, and that she never loved her husband. But it is impossible to reconcile this statement with Matilda's own conduct in refusing William Warren ; in desiring to quit the nunnery, and with her own frank manner when called upon to decide for herself on this royal marriage. But many hindrances rose up to prevent this auspicious union. Henry had formally asked his bride of her uncle, Edgar Atheling, who eagerly and joyfully consented ; but when the king wished to remove Matilda from the nunnery of Romsey, Christina, the abbess, violently withstood him. She declared that the marriage was a sacrilege, that her niece was a pro- fessed nun, having been vowed to the altar by her parents in early youth, and having afterwards herself voluntarily confirmed the vows. These asseverations from so saintly a personage seemed at first a death-blow to Henry's wishes ; for even to contemplate marriage with a nun was held to be a most heinous crime in the sight of God and man Even the Saxons dared not hazard the advice of such a thing, much as they desired to have Matilda for their queen. But the king