Queens Consort by Lisa Hilton Read Free Book Online Page B

liberated to travel to Winchester, where he freed Earl Robert. Robert then returned to Bristol to release the Queen, leaving his son William at Winchester with the King, who freed him when his own wife and child were released. During this exchange, Stephen and Gloucester had time for a polite, rather sportsmanlike chat, agreeing that neither should take the situation personally.
    Support for the Empress among the barons now began to decline. A general proposition for their disenchantment has been termed ‘neutralism’, meaning that the self-interest of the magnates was no longer felt to be secure with the Empress and that they thought it wiser simply to withdraw. They had not come to her side out of chivalry, and they were not gallant now ‘Matilda had shown at the height of her power that she had neither the political judgement nor the understanding of men to enable her to act wisely in a crisis.’ 15 The Empress was also dealing with a cunning politician in Matilda of Boulogne. To recover the loyalty of Geoffrey de Mandeville, Matilda granted him a charter at Canterbury, promising that he could retain the advantages bestowed on him by the Empress if he returned to the King’s side. Although Queen Matilda was an experienced diplomat who had commanded military campaigns, she was always careful to present herself as a supplicant: a mother seeking justice for her son, a loving wife concerned for her husband. She was conciliatory where the Empress was harsh, and she knew that a display of apparent weakness could count as a strength. As she sat beside him in her gold crown at their Christmas court at Canterbury, Stephen had every reason to be grateful for the intelligence and fortitude of his wife.
    The King relied even more heavily on Matilda early in the next year, 1142. Although the Empress’s hopes had received a serious setback, the uprisings continued. Stephen and Matilda made a progress to York, where they were reconciled with Ranulf of Chester, but the King was ill throughout much of the spring and summer, suffering from lassitude and depression. A great army was mustered at York and then had to be sent home again because the King was too listless to determine how they should advance. Faced with her husband’s debilitation, Matilda became more active than ever. She travelled alone across the Channel and on 23 June held a court at Lens, in her county of Boulogne, in an attempt to raise funds and men. By the autumn, Stephen had recovered sufficiently to besiege Oxford, where the Empress was staying. He was no longer in aposition to be gentlemanly, as he had been at Arundel three years before. The siege continued until December but the Empress made yet another escape, creeping out of the wintry city in a white cloak, invisible against the snow, and making her way to Abingdon accompanied by just a handful of knights. The Empress Matilda may have had unappealing manners, but she was gloriously brave.
    From 1141 to 1147, Matilda of Boulogne based herself mainly in London. Her presence was important in retaining the loyalty of the city, and she was conveniently close to Dover to ensure that the crucial communications between Dover and Wissant remained accessible. During this period, 56 per cent of Matilda’s attested and independent charters were made within forty miles of London and none more than eighty miles away. While Stephen trailed from siege to siege, Matilda supervised government business, and it has been judged probable that she was also responsible for the collection of revenues at the Westminster exchequer.
    Oxford had surrendered after the Empress’s escape, but still the war dragged on. The next summer Stephen was defeated at Wilton by Earl Robert, who now controlled the territory to the west of Winchester. In Normandy, the King’s imprisonment after Lincoln had prompted the magnates to seek terms with the Empress’s husband, Geoffrey of Anjou, who was still pushing her cause along the duchy’s borders.