[4KC]⇒ Read Gratis Queen of the Conqueror The Life of Matilda Wife of William I Tracy Joanne Borman 9780553808148 Books

Queen of the Conqueror The Life of Matilda Wife of William I Tracy Joanne Borman 9780553808148 Books

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Queen of the Conqueror The Life of Matilda Wife of William I Tracy Joanne Borman 9780553808148 Books

As one goes back in time, it often becomes more and more difficult to create a convincing biography. When I first read about this book, I wondered how a biography of a king's wife could be sustained. But Tracy Borman has accomplished exactly that. Using what sources are available and extrapolating sensibly (not going far beyond what is based on documentation--however uncertain those sources might be), Borman develops a pretty compelling story of Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror, who became England's king after the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

At the outset, we have two genealogical tables, depicting the ancestry of Matilda, daughter of Baldwin V, the Duke of Flanders, and relative of both the King of England and King of France, giving her an impeccable background. William was the illegitimate son of Robert I, the Duke of Normandy.

The book begins with the family backgrounds of both and the story (perhaps apocryphal) of how he reacted when she rejected his offer of marriage. William became Duke of Normandy by being hard-nosed and refusing to accept anything but accession as Duke. A marriage to Matilda was of obvious importance to him, since she had links with two royal families and with the Duke of Flanders (her father). One could scarcely have imagined a more strategic marriage than this for William. Extraordinarily enough, they seemed to have been in love with one another. Matilda became an accomplished partner of William's. Later she would serve as regent while they were apart.

The story tells the tale of William's desire to become King of England and the path that he took to assure that. He had to remain in England to consolidate his status after defeating King Harold at Hastings. In the meantime, Matilda was regent in Normandy, apparently doing well in that role. While their relationship had many strengths, there were subterranean strains that unfolded over time, such as the role of their male children. They disagreed on which child would become the heir to his positions and this led to serious repercussions. That they survived this still leaves me shaking my head.

The book covers their relationship after William became King, her patronage of churches, her management of their households. We read of their lives as they grew older. And we see what happened to their family after the deaths of both Matilda and William.

I am amazed at how solid a narrative that Borman created from often fragmentary documentation. But the author tends not to go far beyond what evidence there is. When speculating, she makes it clear the extent to which her scenarios might be likely.

All in all, a quite satisfying biography.


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Queen of the Conqueror The Life of Matilda Wife of William I Tracy Joanne Borman 9780553808148 Books Reviews

Given there is so little known of Matilda, Borman does a fabulous job of piecing together the evidence to create a comprehensive and engrossing biography of one of history's most fascinating, and forgotten, women. She uses first hand sources for the bulk of the book, avoids taking unreasonable jumps of knowledge to fill in the gaps, and provides a well rounded history. Given the dearth of knowledge of Matilda I would say this is one of the best sources anyone could use as a jumping off point to learn more about the women of the Plantagenet dynasty. I am looking forward to one day reading a novel about her.
Wow. I found out that my ancestry goes back to William and Matilda of Flanders, so I was anxious to read this book. Although I would say that it was very interesting and informational, it was shocking to see how much slashing and burning went into the "conquering." Great info on Matilda and how smart she was. The writing style was good, and even though it was really a biography with facts, it seemed to flow well.
Queen Matilda, small but never diminutive, seems to have cast a large shadow over the pages of history. Beloved by her husband the great William I, strong-willed and intrepid, she demonstrated to Europe how a powerful woman could provide more to her country than just heirs. In many ways she reminded me of Eleanor of Aquitaine one might call her marriage a great love match which eventually went bad; she loved one son to excess and supported him against his father; she was perfectly capable of ruling on her own.

But I felt that Matilda's story was framed by a necessary reliance on too many records that needed to be interpreted. Although it is clear from the bibliography that Tracy Borman did an exhaustive amount of research, it seems that she had a hard time piecing the biography together from charters and snippets of reference material. She often can only speculate; the book is filled with "may have been" and "seemed to have" and "was said to have been" and "had apparently", all of which are technically correct but by the end I was pretty tired of it. Many times, she concluded that Matilda must have had a great influence on this or that, which grew in the telling until by the end, it appeared that she was more powerful than her husband "This side of her character, coupled with a fiercely independent nature, had made her essential to William's rule, giving her unparalleled influence over the king. She had proved such an able and effective ruler that he had come to rely upon her completely." I don't know...sounds like wishful thinking to me.

I did learn a lot of useful information which certainly made the book worthwhile, although it was delivered in a fairly plodding manner which did not live up to its lively introduction. Nonetheless, it fills a vacuum on my historical bookshelf.
I was greatly disappointed by the lack of true information in this biography, until I was halfway through, when suddenly we had some good information. The first half was a problem. I don't mind speculation--so much historical information is lost--the few glimpses of information were repeated more than twice. The author tells you some interesting stories, then claims them to be untrue. So basically the first half of this is book about myth, not Matilda, except for the many comments about her beauty, apparently written by the multitudes, which got old real fast. Then suddenly we had some interesting insights, about Robert and her marriage to William. Though I finished the book with some insights to Matilda, I think the first half was very weak. I am glad I kept reading.
As one goes back in time, it often becomes more and more difficult to create a convincing biography. When I first read about this book, I wondered how a biography of a king's wife could be sustained. But Tracy Borman has accomplished exactly that. Using what sources are available and extrapolating sensibly (not going far beyond what is based on documentation--however uncertain those sources might be), Borman develops a pretty compelling story of Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror, who became England's king after the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

At the outset, we have two genealogical tables, depicting the ancestry of Matilda, daughter of Baldwin V, the Duke of Flanders, and relative of both the King of England and King of France, giving her an impeccable background. William was the illegitimate son of Robert I, the Duke of Normandy.

The book begins with the family backgrounds of both and the story (perhaps apocryphal) of how he reacted when she rejected his offer of marriage. William became Duke of Normandy by being hard-nosed and refusing to accept anything but accession as Duke. A marriage to Matilda was of obvious importance to him, since she had links with two royal families and with the Duke of Flanders (her father). One could scarcely have imagined a more strategic marriage than this for William. Extraordinarily enough, they seemed to have been in love with one another. Matilda became an accomplished partner of William's. Later she would serve as regent while they were apart.

The story tells the tale of William's desire to become King of England and the path that he took to assure that. He had to remain in England to consolidate his status after defeating King Harold at Hastings. In the meantime, Matilda was regent in Normandy, apparently doing well in that role. While their relationship had many strengths, there were subterranean strains that unfolded over time, such as the role of their male children. They disagreed on which child would become the heir to his positions and this led to serious repercussions. That they survived this still leaves me shaking my head.

The book covers their relationship after William became King, her patronage of churches, her management of their households. We read of their lives as they grew older. And we see what happened to their family after the deaths of both Matilda and William.

I am amazed at how solid a narrative that Borman created from often fragmentary documentation. But the author tends not to go far beyond what evidence there is. When speculating, she makes it clear the extent to which her scenarios might be likely.

All in all, a quite satisfying biography.