MATILDA OF FLANDERS, QUEEN CONSORT OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. CHAPTER I. Mother! 'Tis past-thy care-worn spirit's fled; CHRONICLES OF NORMANDY. MATILDA OF FLANDERS, the subject of our present memoir, was born about the thirty-first or thirty-second year of the eleventh century. History is silent as to the exact date of her birth; but, judging from contemporary writers who have spoken of this princess, we cannot be far wrong in the period we have assigned. Her father, Baldwin V., reigned over the fertile country of Flanders; her mother was Adelais, a daughter of the royal house of France. Although the sovereign of Flanders possessed no higher title than earl, the country over which he reigned was owing to his enlightened government, and the commercial and industrial spirit of its people-one of the most wealthy in Europe. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at, that the hand of Matilda was sought in marriage by several of the neighboring princes; for, according to William of Malmesbury, she was no less accomplished than beautiful. Amongst these was her own cousin, William, Duke of Normandy, surnamed the Bastard, the future conqueror of England -according to all accounts, one of the handsomest men of the age. But the tenure by which he held his ducal crown was con sidered uncertain by the politic Earl of Flanders; and his daughter had a yet stronger objection to the match-her affections having been given to a Saxon noble, named Brihtric, the Earl of Gloucester, who had visited the court of her father as ambassador from Edward the Confessor. William of Normandy-Matilda's cousin and rejected suitor -was the son of Duke Robert, surnamed the Devil, of whom so many fanciful legends are current in the land he reigned overand Arlotta, the daughter of a skinner of Falaise. His beauty, when a child, induced his father to acknowledge him; and when he set out for his unfortunate pilgrimage to the Holy Land-from which he never returned-the duke left his infant son in the guardianship of his suzerain, the King of France, after having previously obtained from the warlike nobles of Normandy their acknowledgment of the infant as his successor. For some years Henry I., King of France, seems to have performed his duty as guardian to the youthful prince intrusted to his charge; but no sooner had he resigned him to a deputation of Norman nobles, who demanded the presence of their sovereign, than he prepared to attack the dominions of his ward, who, during the contest, displayed those energies and talents which eventually rendered him the most renowned sovereign in Europe. It was during a short interval of peace, that William found time to court the beautiful Matilda. Independent of the many political advantages which the alliance presented, William seems to have been passionately enamored of his fair cousin; and the means by which he eventually carried off the prize from so many competitors, are no less curious, as characteristic of the manners of the age, than the indomitable temper of the suitor. In the year 1047, Baldwin V. held his court in the ancient city of Bruges. If we may judge from the monuments and inscriptions in that quaint city, it seems to have been the favorite residence of the earls of Flanders. Matilda was returning at an early hour from hearing mass in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre-upon whose site the con. vent of the English Ursulines now stands-when her cousin-his handsome countenance flushed with passion-suddenly presented himself before her. The ladies who attended her were alarmed by his wild demeanor, but the princess appeared calm and undismayed. True, she was in a city, every inhabitant of which would rise in her defence; but she had not yet felt the excess to which jealousy and despair were capable of exciting an ardent nature like that of her unhappy lover. "The Duke of Normandy in Bruges !" she said, in a tone of surprise, not unmingled with displeasure. 66 Ay, lady," replied William, his eyes flashing fire as he uttered the words; "but not to sue, and weep, and sigh at the feet of one whose heart no tears can melt--whose ears no prayers can reach!" 66 Reason, it would seem, has dawned at last!" replied the princess, with a slightly mocking smile. ner; "It has !" replied her cousin, stung to desperation by her man"and with it has dawned resentment. Wed the Saxon churl, who will one day be my vassal: it will be some consolation to see the husband of Matilda at my feet, and know that I can crush him!" "I do not understand you!" quietly observed Matilda. "But you soon will!" said her cousin, bitterly; "Edward, the English monarch, has adopted me as his heir: I shall know how to maintain my claim,” he added, "with the sweet hope of vengeance to nerve me!" So wild and improbable did the tale appear to the princess, that she burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter; which so augmented the fury of her cousin, that he forgot the respect due alike to her sex and station, and, seizing her in his arms-we blush while we record the fact-dragged her to a pool of water by the side of the street, and rolled her in the mud-to the destruction of her rich apparel, and the terror of her attendants, who fled, loudly shrieking for assistance. "Now will you believe it, Matilda ?" he said; have seen and felt what I dare do ?" 66 now that you Half fainting from the treatment she had received, the terrified girl sank unresisting in his arms, her countenance pale as death. "Matilda!" he frantically exclaimed, pressing her at the same time passionately to his breast; "see what a wretch your cruelty and scorn have made me! Say but the word, and I will pour out my life's blood to atone !-One word!" he added: "but one word! O God! did you know the agony your heartlessness has inflicted, you would pity and forgive me!" Tears-hot, burning tears-fell, as the words escaped him, upon her cheek and neck. "Fly!" faintly sobbed the princess; "fly! The alarm is given : I would not have your blood upon my head, deeply as you have outraged me !" The tramp of the approaching guard warned the desperate Duke of Normandy that he had but a few moments to lose, if he would escape with life. Pressing a hasty kiss upon the lips of his cousin, he laid her gently upon the steps of a neighboring church, and, springing upon his horse, which a page had held, galloped from the town, before orders could be given to raise the bridges, and prevent his departure. Matilda was so ill from the shock and the treatment she had received, that she was obliged to be assisted into the church till a litter could be procured from the palace to convey her homewhere a still more painful surprise awaited her. No sooner was she in the privacy of her chamber, than her favorite attendant placed a packet in her hands; it contained a few cold words of adieu from the Saxon ambassador, who had quitted Bruges that very morning, at daybreak, for Ostend, where a vessel was waiting to convey him to England-and a signet ring which Matilda had given him in token of her love. "I am punished!" she exclaimed, as the scrap of parchment upon which the few hasty words had been written fell from her hands; "Brihtric never loved me! William-William !" she added, bitterly; "thou art amply avenged!" CHAPTER II. There is no pain like love to hatred turned; THERE is nothing more difficult to analyze than the heart of woman if it has its weaknesses, it is not without its strength; the brighter the sunshine, the deeper the shade. For several hours Matilda sat brooding over the insult she had received—not from her cousin, but the ungrateful and inconstant Brihtric. 66 'He rejects me as his wife!" she murmured, with a fearful smile; "good! I will be his queen! He has rejected my love -let him escape my hate!" Raising the silver call to her lips, she summoned her atten dants, who had remained conversing in whispers in the ante-chamber, thinking that their mistress slept. The bevy of noble maidens who surrounded her were loud in their expressions of indignation at the conduct of the Duke of Normandy. "Ungenerous knight !" "Degraded prince!" were the mildest epithets which their fair lips bestowed upon him. Matilda alone remained silent, till one of the ladies observed, that the earl and his nobles were about to meet in council, to concert measures for taking summary vengeance upon Duke William, for his outrage. "When?" demanded the princess, hastily. 66 Directly after the hour of dinner," replied her informantwho was no other than the daughter of Arnold of Ypres, the seneschal of Flanders-"so be consoled, sweet princess; before a week has passed, a thousand lances will be laid in rest, to punish the unknightly prince!" "What better could have been expected from the son of Robert the Devil ?" observed one. “And Arlotta, the tanner's daughter ?" added a second. |