https://epistolae.ctl.columbia.edu/letter/394.html
Letters of royal and illustrious ladies of Great Britain, from the commencement of the twelfth century to the close of the reign of Queen Mary, volume 1, edited by Mary Anne Everett Wood, H. Colburn, London, 1846
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433075905988&view=1up&seq=33
Above: Matilda of Scotland, Queen of England, 19th century engraving by W. H. Mote after J. W. Wright.
Matilda of Scotland (originally christened Edith, born 1080, died May 1, 1118), also known as Good Queen Maud or Matilda of Blessed Memory, was Queen of England and Duchess of Normandy as the first wife of King Henry I. She acted as regent of England on several occasions in her husband's absence.
Daughter of the King Malcolm III of Scotland and Princess-Saint Margaret of Wessex, Matilda was sent to be educated in a convent in southern England, where her aunt Cristina was abbess. According to Wilton Abbey's traditions in the 1140s, her aunt ordered her to take the veil in order to protect her from the lust of William II of England, which angered her father because of the affect it might have on her prospects of marriage. In 1093, Matilda was engaged to an English nobleman until her father and her brother Edward were killed in a minor raid. A messy succession conflict in Scotland followed between her uncle Donald III, her half-brother Duncan II and her brother Edgar until 1097, when the latter assumed the throne.
Upon the accession of Henry I in 1100, following his brother William's death while hunting, the English King quickly proposed marriage to Matilda, who possessed the Anglo-Saxon royal blood, which the Norman dynasty largely lacked. Furthermore, her brother offered the prospect of better relations between the two countries. However, there was a difficulty about the marriage: a special church council was called to be satisfied that Matilda hadn't taken vows as a nun, but her firm testimony managed to convince them of.
As Queen of England since late 1100, Matilda embarked on several building projects for transportation and health, took a role in government as mediator to the Church, and led a literary court. She acted as regent when her husband was away, with many surviving charters signed by her. Matilda and Henry had two children: Matilda and William Adelin, Duke of Normandy. She lived to see her daughter become Holy Roman Empress, but died two years before her son's drowning. Her widower remarried, but had no further legitimate children, which caused a succession crisis resulting in a long civil war known as The Anarchy. Queen Matilda was buried in Westminster Abbey and was fondly remembered by her subjects. There was an attempt to have her canonized, which wasn't pursued.
The letter:
Pie colendo patri et digne reverendo domino suo, ANSELMO archiepiscopo: MATHILDIS, dei gratia regina Anglorum, minima sanctitatis eius ancilla, perpetuam in Christo salutem.
Indesinenti vestrae bonitati, quae, mei non immemor, litteris praesentatis absentis vestri praesentiam exhibere dignata est, gratias innumeras refero. Tristitiae quippe nebulis quibus obvolvebar expulsis, verborum vestrorum me rivulus, tamquam novae lucis radius, perlustravit. Cartulam quidem a vobis missam loco patris amplector, sinu foveo, cordi quoad possum propius admoveo, verba de dulci bonitatis vestrae fonte manantia ore relego, mento retracto, corde recogito, recogitata in ipso cordis arcano repono.
Ubi digne laudatis omnibus hoc solum miror, quod de nepote vestro excellentia vestrae discretionis inseruit. Non enim mihi iudico quicquam facere aliter, vestris, aliter meis; aliter scilicet meis quam meis. Vestri quippe genere sunt mei adoptione et dilectione.
Vestrae vero scripturae consolatio patientiam mihi corroborat, spem facit et servat, quae relevat me cadentem, sustinet labentem, laetificat dolentem, mitigat irascentem pacatque, flentem. Ea namque mihi frequenter secretoque consulens spondet reditum filiae patris, ancillae domini, ovi pastoris.
Spondet autem itidem confidentia quam in orationibus bonorum hominum habeo, et benevolentia quam ex corde domini mei sollerter investigans perpendo. Est enim illi erga vos animus compositior quam plerique homines aestiment, qui deo annuente et me qua potero suggerente vobis fiet commodior atque concordios. Quod vero vobis in praesenti de redditibus vestris fieri permittit, idem et melius ampliusque in futurum, cum ex re et tempore postulaveritis, fieri permittet. Ubi quamvis amplius quam aequum iudicem sibi teneat: oro tamen vestrae pietatis affluentiam, ut excluso amaritudinis humanae rancore, qui vobis inesse non assolet, dilectionis vestrae dulcedinem ab illo non avertatis; immo vero apud deum pro ipso et me et communi sobole et regni nostri statu pium vos intercessorem exhibeatis. Valeat vestra semper sanctitas.
English translation:
To her piously remembered father and worthily reverenced lord, Anselm the archbishop, Matilda, by the grace of God queen of England, the least of the handmaidens of his holiness, wishes perpetual health in Christ.
I give unnumbered thanks to your unceasing goodness, which, not unmindful of me, has condescended, by your letters presented to me, to shew forth your mind, though absent. The clouds of sadness in which I was wrapped being expelled, the streamlet of your words has glided through me like a ray of new light. I embrace the little parchment sent to me by you, as I would my father himself: I cherish it in my bosom, I place it as near my heart as I can; I read over and over again the words flowing from the sweet fountain of your goodness; my mind considers them, my heart broods over them; and I hide the pondered treasures in the very secret place of my heart. Yet, while I praise all you have said, at one thing alone I wonder; that is, at what your discreet excellency has said about your nephew. Yet I do not think I can deal otherwise with your friends than my own. I might say with mine than my own, for all who are yours by kindred are mine by love and adoption. Truly the consolation of your writing strengthens my patience, gives and preserves my hopes, raises me when falling, sustains me when sliding, gladdens me when sorrowful, softens me when angry, pacifies me when weeping. Farther, frequent, though secret, consultation promises the return of the father to his daughter, of the lord to his handmaiden, of the pastor to his flock. I am encouraged to hope the same thing from the confidence which I have in the prayers of good men, and from the good will which, by skilfully investigating, I find to be in the heart of my lord. His mind is better disposed towards you than many men think; and, I favouring it, and suggesting wherever I can, he will become yet more courteous and reconciled to you. As to what he permits now to be done, in reference to your return, he will permit more and better to be done in future, when, according to time and opportunity, you shall request it. But even though he should persist in being an unjust judge, I entreat the affluence of your piety, that, excluding the bitterness of human rancour, which is not wont to dwell in you, you turn not from him the sweetness of your favour, but ever prove a pious intercessor with God for him and me, our common offspring, and the state of our kingdom. May your holiness ever fare well.
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