Historical Hotties: Empress Matilda/Maude

Empress Matilda (also known as Matilda of England or Maude- I prefer Maude) is a pretty awesome historical hottie in my opinion. She predates Eleanor of Aquitaine (who I wrote about a while ago) by a generation or two- maybe this is where Eleanor got all of her ideas?

Maude/Matilda is the granddaughter (and last heir) of William the Conqueror. Her dad was King Henry I of England, who proclaimed her heir presumptive in the event of his death. Born February 7th, 1102, little Maude got down to business fast. She was betrothed to the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V at age 8 and married to him when she was only 12 (that had to have been weird...her dad and her husband had the same name- and her husband was 16 years older than her). She was Empress of the Holy Roman Empire until 1127, when Henry V died. A few years later she married Geoffrey of Anjou in order to create an alliance between Anjou and Normandy (at least his name wasn't Henry). While with Geoffrey, Maude had three kids, one of whom got to be King of England (good work, Mama).

Look at that Medieval vixen- you can even see her hair! What's next- ankles?

Now, it might be true that she was responsible for a succession crisis known as the "anarchy" after the death of her dad, King Henry I, in 1135. Although she had a brother who was supposed to succeed her dad, he died 15 years before in the White Ship Disaster (sounds interesting, doesn't it?). Thus, little Maude (the only legitimate child of King Henry) was named heir. Despite her royal lineage, a lot nobles were pretty ticked off that a woman would rule England; Stephen of Blois was one of those people- he pretty much thought the throne was his. Unfortunately, the succession crises ended with Stephen on the throne of England, not Maude (this plays out as an extremely interesting sub-plot in the awesome Starz mini-series Pillars of the Earth, based on the Ken Follett novel).

After giving up the battle for the throne in 1141 (its cool, her son got to be king anyways), she retired to Normandy until her death in 1167. She was originally buried in the Abbey of Bec-Hellouin, but her body was moved to Rouen Cathedral in the 19th century (Why? Ew! Leave the poor woman alone, she's been dead for 700 years, sheesh.) Her epitaph reads: "Great by Birth, Greater by Marriage, Greatest in her Offspring: Here lies Matilda, the daughter, wife, and mother of Henry." Do you think her son wrote it?