Matilda, the Empress Maud

Claimant to the throne of England as daughter of Henry I. In 1127 Henry forced the barons to accept Matilda, his only surviving legitimate child since the death of his son, as his successor as monarch of England. However, there had never been a woman ruler in either England or Normandy, and most of the barons, supported by the church, elected her cousin Stephen to be king on Henry's death in 1135. Matilda invaded England in 1139 and captured Stephen at Lincoln in 1141. She entered London to be crowned, but was driven out when she demanded money from the Londoners. Civil war followed until Stephen acknowledged Matilda's son, the future Henry II, as his successor in 1153.

On one occasion during the civil war, Matilda was trapped in Oxford Castle (in 1142) but escaped over the ice of the frozen River Thames.

Matilda was married to the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V in 1114 and returned to England as the ‘Empress Maud’ after his death in 1125. In 1128 she married Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou (1113–51) in northwest France, by whom she had a son, the future Henry II. Having returned to England to lay claim to the throne, she rejoined her son in Normandy in 1148.

Matilda's case is sometimes used to suggest that women in medieval times could not rule a kingdom, but in fact Matilda retained control of Normandy after 1148, and ruled the duchy effectively on behalf of her son when he became king of England in 1154.