Lady of the English

This post first published December 17, 2012.

Author: Elizabeth Chadwick
First Published: 2011
Publisher: Sourcebook Landmark
514 pages (paperback)

Lady of the English is about Empress Matilda, from the 12th century. I know the gist of her history — her father, having no male heir, wanted his daughter to have the English crown, but her cousin Stephen (the closest male heir) took it instead. The result was years and years of warring for the throne, ending with Matilda’s son, Henry II, as king. Even though I had a small amount of historical knowledge on Matilda already, the story still felt excitingly unpredictable. I was absorbed into the story and quite addicted.

This book follows two ladies during this time period, actually. The first is Empress Matilda. She is the daughter of King Henry I of England, and had been married off to Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor — this is how she became known as the Empress. Her husband, whom she loved dearly, unfortunately died and the two did not have any children. Her father summoned her back to England where he decided that she will be his heir, as his only son (and Matilda’s brother) had died years ago. All his lords and barons were made to swear fealty to Matilda three times. Matilda herself was married off to Geoffrey, the Count of Anjou, in order to strengthen England and her own power.

However, Matilda and her father fought frequently. When he died, one of the witnesses to his death stated that Henry actually dissolved his lords and barons of their oaths to Matilda. Her cousin, Stephen, quickly took over the throne. No one is a hundred percent sure if Henry truly dissolved the oaths or not, as the witness is questionable, but regardless, what happens now is nearly two decades of conflict and battles for the English throne. Matilda feels robbed of her inheritance, but it is hard to find support when you are a woman in such medieval times.

The other lady this book follows is Adeliza, Henry I’s second wife and Matilda’s stepmother. Adeliza is actually a year younger than Matilda. Adeliza is, in many ways, the complete opposite of Matilda. She is humble, very religious and knows her role as a woman, wife and queen. However, Adeliza can sense that Matilda is destined for the English throne and offers her all the love and support that she can. The contrast between the two women is perfect, showing that there are many ways one can be a queen, and a powerful woman, in the 12th century.

There was a lot of love, lust, betrayal and a whole slew of emotions when reading this novel. One thing I gleaned from reading this book is that it was a difficult time to be a woman back then, especially if you want power. It is so easy to portray Matilda as a villain in history. True, Matilda is portrayed as stubborn with a hardened will in this novel, and I’m sure some of the characters would not hesitate to call her nasty names, but she is also a loving mother and loyal friend. She is intelligent, ambitious and knows exactly what she wants, but she is also aware of the disadvantages she has being a woman in this time period. In this novel, she is aware she may be overcompensating by being “manly” sometimes, but then she is thought of as an unnatural woman. However, if she acts womanly, people see her as weak. She just can’t ever seem to win! I think all of this brings some understanding to Matilda’s character, and why she seems angry all the time.

Between Matilda and Adeliza, Matilda definitely came off as much more interesting to me, although I really liked Adeliza too. Adeliza is so kind-hearted and thoughtful that she seems almost too good to be true. It is hard to dislike Adeliza’s character. However, her part of the story seemed more like background stuff while Matilda was heavily in the forefront.

I really enjoyed this story and portrayal of Matilda, and I feel like I learned a lot in the process, even though this is a fictional novel. I had no idea that when Matilda married the Geoffrey, the Count of Anjou, she was 22 and he was only 14! Wow, talk about awkward.  I was really interested in how their relationship was going to pan out with such a large age difference between the two. The age difference wouldn’t matter as much if they were both adults, but at 14, Geoffrey is pretty much just a kid. Geoffrey seemed to be extremely mature, in that he understood the political significance of his marriage to Matilda, and immature in that he was a bratty wife beater. I was mildly surprised that after their rocky start, they ended up having a rather civil and successful relationship. I don’t think they are quite as different as they think they might be, and their similarities is what what makes the two of them to become a force to be reckoned with.

There’s a lot of political things happening in this book, but it was easy to understand and follow along. The story is very well done and I was absolutely addicted to reading it. Even after reading this book, Matilda’s presence looms large in my mind. The ending was a bit “meh” to me, but overall, the entire book was wonderful and I heartily recommend to others, especially if you love historical royalty fiction like me. I think I have a new favourite author!

My Rating: 5/5