4 - Matilda of Flanders (2): Queen of England, Regent of Normandy

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Following the Norman Conquest, Matilda became the first Norman Queen of England, and while her husband secured his new Kingdom, she kept things ticking over in the Duchy.  Things were going pretty well, until her favourite son and her husband's relationship fell apart, putting her in the middle of a war that ripped the family apart, and threatened to destroy everything she had built. 

Show Notes

For more information on the topics discussed in the show, click on these links!

Harold swears the oath on holy relics from the Bayeux Tapestry

The Mora from the Bayeux Tapestry

The Bayeux Tapestry is not a tapestry

Robert Curthose - Image

Bibliography

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3 - Matilda of Flanders (1): Wife of the Bastard, Duchess of Normandy

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Matilda of Flanders was born to a family that counted as branches of it's family tree practically every important noble house in Northern Europe and so life was expected to be breeze.  But as we'll find out, Matilda rarely did things the easy way.

This episode looks at some of her immediate predecessors as Queen of England, before covering at the great controversy surrounding her marriage to William the Bastard of Normandy, finally looking at some of her actions as Duchess before the Norman invasion of England. 

Show Notes

For more information on the topics discussed in the show, click on these links!

Podcast sites where the show can be found including iTunes

Queens of England Podcast Website - www.queensofenglandpodcast.com

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Twitter Handle

Ancestry of Matilda of Flanders

Nineteenth century picture of Matilda

Map of Eleventh Century France (courtesy of Shepherd, William R. Historical Atlas, (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1929)

Family tree of the Dukes of Normandy up to William

Imperial Papacy (wikipedia)

Abbeys of Sainte-Trinité and St Etienne

2 - What is a Mediaeval Queen?

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What did it mean to be a queen in Mediaeval England? This seems at first to be a really easy question to answer: you had to marry a King.  Simple right?  But when you dig deeper this turns out to be a very superficial answer because it doesn't really answer the fundamental aspect of the question.   

In this episode we discover the traits and qualities that a queen was supposed to have in Mediaeval England, and examine what kinds of power they could wield