Mathilde of Flanders

Matilde of Flanders (1170 – 16 October 1210) was the youngest daughter of Marie I, Countess of Boulogne and her husband Matthew, Count of Boulogne. Matilde was Duchess of Brabant, by her marriage to Henry I, Duke of Brabant.

Family

Matilde's maternal grandparents were Stephen of England and his wife Matilda I, Countess of Boulogne. Her paternal grandparents were Thierry, Count of Flanders and Sibylla of Anjou. Matilde's elder sister was Ida, Countess of Boulogne.

Matilde's parents' marriage was annulled the year she was born and her mother became a Benedictine nun at St. Austrebert, Montreuil and died in 1182.^[1] Matilde's father, Matthew continued to reign as Count of Boulogne until his death in 1173, when Ida became Countess.

Marriages and children

When Matilde was only nine years old, she married Henry I, Duke of Brabant in 1179. The couple went on to have seven children:^[1]

• Marie (c. 1190 – May 1260), married in Maastricht after May 19, 1214 Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor, married July 1220 Count William I of Holland
• Adelaide (b. c. 1190), married 1206 Arnulf, Count of Loos, married February 3, 1225 William X of Auvergne (c. 1195–1247), married before April 21, 1251 Arnold van Wesemaele (d. aft. 1288)
• Margaret (1192–1231), married January 1206 Gerard III, Count of Guelders (d. October 22, 1229)
• Mathilde (c. 1200 – December 22, 1267), married in Aachen in 1212 Henry II, Count Palatine of the Rhine (d. 1214), married on December 6, 1214 Floris IV, Count of Holland
• Henry II of Brabant (1207–1248), married firstly before 22 August 1215 Marie of Hohenstaufen; married secondly in 1240 Sophie of Thuringia
• Godfrey (1209 – January 21, 1254), Lord of Gaesbeek, married Marie van Oudenaarde
• child, whose name and sex is unknown

Matilde died in 1210 or 1211. She was buried at St. Peter's in Leuven;^[1] her husband and their daughter, Marie were later laid to rest in the church.

After her death, Henry later married his second wife, Marie of France, daughter of Philip II of France. Henry and Marie had two daughters. Six of Matilde's seven children lived to adulthood and subsequently married.

Ancestry

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Cawley, Charles. Medieval Lands, Flanders, Counts