Matilda of Tuscany

Miniature of Matilda from the early twelfth-century manuscript of Donizo’s Vita Mathildis (Codex Vat. Lat. 4922, fol. 49r.). The image emphasises Matilda’s key role in the absolution of Henry IV at Canossa. Matilda is depicted seated. Henry IV kneels at her feet in supplication. Abbot Hugh of Cluny points towards Matilda. The script underneath reads: Rex rogat abbatem. Mathilim supplicat atq; (The king prays to the abbot, and pleads with Matilda).

Matilda of Tuscany (Italian: Matilde, Latin: Matilda, Mathilda; 1046 – 24 July 1115), was a powerful feudal lady and the principal Italian supporter of Pope Gregory VII during the Investiture Controversy; in addition, she was one of the few medieval women to be remembered for her military accomplishments, and able to dominate all the northern territories of the Papal States.

In 1076 she came into possession of a vast territory that included Lombardy, Emilia, the Romagna and Tuscany, and made the center of her domains the city of Canossa, in the reggian Apennines. Between 6 and 11 May 1111 she was crowned Imperial Vicar and Vice-Queen of Italy by Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor at the Castle of Bianello (Quattro Castella, Reggio Emilia).

Sometimes called la Gran Contessa ("the Great Countess") or Matilda of Canossa after her ancestral castle of Canossa, was certainly one of the most important and interesting figures of the Italian Middle Ages: she lived in a period of constant battles, intrigues and excommunications, and was able to demonstrate an extraordinary force, even enduring great pain and humiliation, showing an innate leadership ability.

Life

Childhood

Born probably in Mantua in March 1046, she was the third and youngest child of Boniface III, Margrave of Tuscany, a grandson of Adalbert Atto and ruler of many counties (among them Reggio, Modena, Mantua, Brescia, and Ferrara) and owner of a great estate on both sides of the Apennines, though the greater part was in Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna.

Her mother was Beatrice of Bar, who belonged to one of the the most noble imperial families, closely related to the Dukes of Swabia and Burgundy as well with the Holy Roman Emperors Henry III and Henry IV, of which Matilda was respectively niece and first-cousin, as well as with Pope Stephen IX.

As the daughter of the Lord of Tuscany, Matilde used the title of Margravine. The Germanic word Markgraf could be translated to "Count of the Border". However Tuscany at that time of the Middle Ages was circunscribed to the Lombard Kingdom, and as such defined as a "Duchy". That's why Matilda are attributed both the title of Margravine and Duchess.

Little is known about the childhood of Matilda, because the chronicles of the time preferred to deal with the childhood of her two older brothers, Frederick (the legitimate heir of Boniface) and Beatrice, and the sources of current knowledge focus primarily on business carried out by adults. However, it can be said with certainty that her name, as for the brothers, was impossed by her mother Beatrice, who in this way intended to assert her superiority of blood over her husband; in fact the House of Ardennes-Bar, to which she belonged, was undoubtedly of royal blood.

Matilde spent her youth between the cold lakes and snowy forests of the Po and unlike many noblewomen of his time, she spent a lot of her time devoted to the literary culture. In this regard, Donizo says:

Even as a child she could speak the Teuton tongue (German) and the garrulous language of the Franks (French).

Also, she wrote in Latin. Under the tutelage of Arduino della Padule, however, she did learn the military arts, such as horseriding and arms. According to Lodovico Vedriani, there were two suits of her armour in the "Quattro Castelli" until 1622, when they were sold in the market of Reggio.

Matilda spent the first years of her existence in comfort and serenity at Canossa Castle, the scene of major banquets and sumptuous feasts organized by her father. However, only 6 years old, Matilda attended the first event which radically changed the course of her life: on 6 May 1052, her father was betrayed and killed during a hunt by one of his vassals, who stabbed him in the throat with a poisoned arrow. The agony of Margrave Boniface III lasted a few hours; in the late evening of the same day he died. The next tragedy came one year later (1053) when her oldest sister Beatrice also died.

In order to protect her children's inheritance, Matilda's mother married Godfrey the Bearded, a cousin who had been Duke of Upper Lorraine before rebelling against the Emperor Henry III. The two were married in mid-1054 in the church of San Pietro at Mantua by Pope Leo IX himself as he returned from a trip to Germany. A clause in the marriage contract stipulated that Godfrey the Hunchback (a son of Godfrey the Bearded by a previous marriage), would marry Matilda, in order to consolidate his own power and to avoid having to later divide the possessions of their families. Godfrey the Hunchback was not only Matilda's stepbrother but also her cousin in the fourth degree.

Henry III was enraged by Beatrice's unauthorized marriage to his enemy and he descended into Italy in the early spring of 1055, arriving at Verona in April and then Mantua by Easter. Beatrice wrote to him seeking a safe-conduct to explain herself; this granted, she travelled with her young son Frederick, now Margrave of Tuscany. Matilda was left in either Lucca or Canossa and she may have passed the next few years between those two places in the custody of her stepfather. Initially, Henry III refused to see Beatrice, but eventually he had her imprisoned in rough conditions; the young Frederick was treated more appropriately, but he died in Henry's custody nonetheless (the rumours that he was murdered are baseless). The death of her brother made the eight-year-old Matilda the sole heiress of the vast lands of her father, under her stepfather's guardianship.

With his wife now imprisoned, Godfrey the Bearded returned to Germany to stir up rebellion and draw Henry III out of Italy, but the emperor merely took Beatrice and Frederick with him. Some later historian aver that Beatrice went willingly to see her former homeland. Whatever the case, Godfrey and his ally, Baldwin V of Flanders, had forced the emperor to come to terms of peace by mid-1056 and Godfrey was permitted to return to Italy to administer his stepdaughter's estates. Henry III soon died and the council which was held under the direction of Pope Victor II at Cologne formally restored Godfrey to imperial favour. He and Beatrice were back in Italy by late that year.

Matilda's family became heavily involved in the series of disputed papal elections of the last half of the eleventh century. Her stepfather's brother Frederick became Pope Stephen IX, while both of the following two popes, Nicholas II and Alexander II had been Tuscan bishops. Matilda made her first journey to Rome with her family in the entourage of Nicholas in 1059. Her parents' forces were used to protect these popes and fight against antipopes. Some stories claim the adolescent Matilda took the field in some of these engagements, but no evidence supports this.

Marriage with Godfrey the Hunchback

In May 1069 at Verdun Matilda finally married her stepbrother Godfrey the Hunchback, for whom she had great disdain. The wedding ceremony took place at the insistence of her stepfather, who was dying. By the end of that year (30 December) he died in the presence of both Matilda and Godfrey.

Matilda's husband was a young brave soldier but plagued by some physical defects (among others he suffered from goitre and Kyphosis); however, aware of the duties for which the women of high nobility had been educated and after the persuation of her mother, she reluctantly remained in Lotharingia, cohabiting with her husband and eventually becoming pregnant. In late 1070 or early 1071 Matilda gave birth to a daughter, Beatrice. The childbirth was extremely difficult, and a few days later the baby died, on 29 January 1071. On 29 August, Matilda's mother erected the monastery of Frassinoro, in the Modenese Apennines, as was the custom among the nobles, for a grazia dell'anima della defunta Beatrice mia nipote.

The stay of Matilda in Lower Lotharingia was both brief and difficult. She not only risked her life in a difficult childbirth, which in the Middle Ages often ended with the death of the mother, but also was subjected to the wrath and disdain of people who blamed her for neglecting to fulfill the main task of noble wives at the time: delivering a male heir. She fled as soon the circumstances offered her a chance, and in January 1072 she went to Canossa, at her mother's side.

Between 1073 and 1074 her husband Godfrey descended on the Italian peninsula to regain the favor of his wife offering her possessions and arms, but the Matilda's refusal was steadfast. This attitude built the myth of a woman without weakness.

Godfrey the Hunchback was murdered in his estate of Vlaardingen, near Antwerp. Lambert of Hersfeld reports that during the night, driven by bodily needs, he went to the toilet. An assassin who was lurking there stuck a sword between the buttocks leaving the weapon planted in the wound. He survived the attack only to die a week later, on 26 February 1076, leaving Matilda a widow. Many contemporary sources accused her of having personally ordered the crime; however the order was most likely from Robert I, Count of Flanders. Matilda didn't make a donation to the clergy for the soul of her killed husband, or ordered a Mass or even dedicated a monastery, as was the custom among the nobility of that time.

40 Years of reign

On 18 April 1076 Beatrice of Bar, Matilda's mother, died. From this moment, even though earlier she had already reigned alongside her mother, Matilda became the undisputed sovereign of all lands ranging from Corneto (now Tarquinia) to the Lake Garda, in addition to some lands in Lorraine.

According to a legend, the widowed Matilda lost her wedding ring in a spring, to her great distress. When she prayed for the return of the ring, a trout appeared on the surface of the water with the ring in its mouth. She exclaimed "Truly this place is a Val d'Or (Golden Valley)", from which the name "Orval" is derived, and in gratitude made available the funds for the foundation of the Orval Abbey here. The abbey arms show the trout and ring. The spring still supplies water to the monastery and its brewery.

Conflict between Henry IV and the Papacy

Main article: Walk to Canossa

Miniature of Matilda from the frontispiece of Donizo’s Vita Mathildis (Codex Vat. Lat. 4922, fol. 7v.). Matilda is depicted seated. On her right, Donizo is presenting her with a copy of the Vita Mathildis, on her left is a man with a sword (possibly her man-at-arms). The script underneath reads: Mathildis lucens, precor hoc cape cara volumen (Resplendent Matilda, please accept this book, oh you dear one.)

In 1073 Hildebrand of Soana assumed the Papacy with the name of Gregory VII. In the same year the new Emperor Henry IV, having reorganized the German territory, turned to his possessions in Italy. A strong enmity between both figures existed, a reflection of the struggle for supremacy between the Church and the Holy Roman Empire (the so-called Investiture Controversy). In 1076 the Pope decided to excommunicate the Emperor, who in this way suffered a double loss, being both forbidden from practicing religious rites and diminished in the eyes of his subjects.

Matilda was then free to act according to her will, and resolutely decided to be on the side of Pope Gregory VII, despite the Emperor being her cousin. The excommunication forced Henry IV to come to terms with the Pope; he came personally to Italy to speak with Gregory VII, who received him in January 1077 at Matilda's Canossa Castle. On the occasion the Emperor, to obtain the lifting of the excommunication against him, was forced to wait three days and three nights at the doors of the castle on his knees with his head covered with ashes. Finally a compromise was reached in 28 January 1077: the Pope revoked the excommunication against the Emperor, but not the declaration of forfeiture of the German throne.

In 1079 Matilda gave the Pope all her domains, in open defiance to Henry IV, who as a feudal lord and close relative had rights over them. However, two years later the confrontation between the Papacy and the Empire turned again: in 1080 Henry IV summoned a council in Brixen, in which Gregory VII was deposed. The following year the Emperor decided to travel again to Italy in order to reafirm his overlordship over his territories. In addition, he declared Matilda formally deposed and banished from the Empire; although this wasn't enough to eliminate her as a source of trouble, for she retained substantial allodial holdings. On 15 October 1080 near Volta Mantovana the Imperial troops (with Guibert of Ravenna as the newly elected Antipope Clement III) defeated the troops loyal to Gregory VII and controlled by Matilda, guilty of having donated in 1079 all her domains to the Church. This was the first serious military defeat of Matilda (Battle of Volta Mantovana).

However, Matilda didn't give up. While Gregory VII was forced into exile, she, thanks to her control over all the western passages over the Apennines, forced Henry IV to approach Rome via Ravenna; even with this route open, the Emperor would have difficulties besieging Rome with a hostile territory at his back. In December 1080 the citizens of Lucca, then the capital of Tuscany, had revolted and driven out her ally Bishop Anselm. She is believed to have commissioned the renowned Ponte della Maddalena where the Via Francigena crosses the river Serchio at Borgo a Mozzano just north of Lucca.

Matilda remained as Pope Gregory VII's chief intermediary for communication with northern Europe even as he lost control of Rome and was holed up in the Castel Sant'Angelo. After Henry IV had obtained the Pope's seal, Matilda wrote to supporters in Germany only to trust papal messages that came though her.

Henry IV's control of Rome enabled him to enthrone Antipope Clement III, who in turn crowned him as Emperor. After this, Henry IV returned to Germany, leaving it to his allies to attempt Matilda's dispossession. These attempts floundered after Matilda (with help of the city of Bologna) defeated them at Sorbara near Modena on 2 July 1084.

Gregory VII died in 1085, and Matilda's forces, with those of Prince Jordan I of Capua (her off and on again enemy), took to the field in support of a new pope, Victor III. In 1087, Matilda led an expedition to Rome in an attempt to install Victor, but the strength of the imperial counterattack soon convinced the pope to retire from the city.

Marriage with Welf V

In 1088 Matilda was faced a new invasion of Henry IV, and decided to be prepared with a political marriage. She chose the 15-years-old Welf V, heir of the Duchy of Bavaria and member of a family (the Welfs) whose very name was later to become synonymous with alliance to the popes in their conflict with the German emperors (see Guelphs and Ghibellines). The wedding was part of a network of alliances approved by the new pope, Urban II, in order to effectively counter Henry IV.

The 42-years-old Matilda sent a letter to her future husband:

Not for feminine lightness or recklessness, but for the good of all my kingdom, I send you this letter accepting that you accept me and the whole government of Longobardia. I'll give you so many cities many castles, noble palaces, gold and silver that you will have a famous name, if you'll make me dear; and not to write down the boldness because first you have run with the speech. It's reasonable to both male and female to aspire for a legitimate union, and it makes no difference whether the man or the woman to touch the first line of love, only to reach an indissoluble marriage. Goodbye.

After this, Matilda sent thousands of troops to the border of Longobardia to take her groom, welcomed him with honors, and after the marriage took place (mid-1089), she organized a wedding party of 120 days with such splendor that in front of which any medieval ruler would pale.

Cosmas of Prague, author of the Chronicon Boemorum, reports that after the wedding, for two nights, Welf V refused to share the marital bed and the third day, Matilda appeared naked on a table specially prepared with some knights telling him that everything is in front of you and there is no place where you can hide. But the Duke was dumbfounded; Matilda, furious, attacked him and insulted with these words: Get out of here, monster, don't deserve our kingdom, vilest worm, if tomorrow you will show in front of me, you received a miserable death.... The prince fled; for this he was nicknamed Welf the impotent. Matilda and her young husband separated after a few years (1095); obviously the two never had children.

Later Matilda allied with the two sons of Henry IV, Conrad and Henry, who revolts against their father. This forced Henry to return to Italy, where he drove Matilda into the mountains. He was humbled before Canossa, this time in a military defeat in October 1092, from which his influence in Italy never recovered.

The final victory against Henry IV

Matilda's signature ("Matilda, Dei gratia si quid est"), quite tremulous due to her old age. Notitia Confirmationis (Prato, June 1107), Archivio Storico Diocesano of Lucca, Diplomatico Arcivescovile, perg. ++ I29

After several victories, including one againt the Saxons, Henry IV prepared in 1090 his third invasion to Italy, in order to inflict the final defeat to the Church. The route was the usual, Brenner and Verona, in the border of Matilda's possessions who started from the city gates. The battle will centralize at Mantua. Matilda secured the loyalty of the people exempting them from some taxes such as teloneo and ripatico and with the promise of being integrated in the status of the Lombards citizens with the right to hunt, fish and deforestation on both banks of the Tartaro river.

The city stood at the side of Matilda until the called betrayal of Holy Thursday, in which the citizens (in exchange for some additional rights) sided with Henry IV. Matilda escape in 1092 to the Reggiano Apennines around her most inexpugnable castles. Since the times of Adalbert Atto the power of Canossa was based on a network of castles, fortresses and fortified villages located in the Val d'Enza, which constituted a complex polygonal defense that had always resisted any attack from the Apennines. After some intermitent and bloody battles, the powerful imperial army was caught in a vise.

Despite the Imperial army was a worthy threat, was destroyed by Matilda's vassals, among them were small landowners and assignees of fortified villages, which remained completely loyal against the Holy Roman Empire. The perfect knowledge of the places, the speed of information and movement, taking strategic positions in all the high places of the Val d'Enza, broke the intentions of Henry IV. It seems that Matilda personally participated, with a handful of chosen and faithful warriors, to the battle, galvanizing the allies to the idea of fighting a just war. The Imperial army was taken pincer in the valley, but the total defeat was more than a lost war: Henry IV realized it was impossible to penetrate those places, very different from the Po Valley or of Saxony was not more than front of the boundaries drawn by the rivers of Central Europe, but to steep trails, ravines, inaccessible places protected the fortresses, like high tower houses, from which the inhabitants were unloading missiles of all kinds of anyone who approaches: spears, arrows perhaps even boiling oil, javelins, boulders, spades fiery.

After the victory of Matilda many cities such as Milan, Cremona, Lodi and Piacenza sided with her to escape from the Imperial sphere. In 1093 the Emperor's eldest son, Conrad, supported by the Pope, Matilda and a group of Lombard cities, was crowned King of Italy. Matilda freed and even gave refuge to Henry IV's wife, Eupraxia of Kiev, who, at the urging of Pope Urban II, made a public confession before the church Council of Piacenza. She accused her husband of imprisoned her in Verona after forcing her to participate in orgies, and, according to some later accounts, of attempting a black mass on her naked body. Thanks to this scandals and division whitin the Imperial family, the prestige and power of Henry IV was increasingly weakened.

In 1095, Henry attempted to reverse his fortunes by seizing Matilda's castle of Nogara, but the countess's arrival at the head of an army forced him to retreat. In 1097, Henry withdrew from Italy altogether, after which Matilda reigned virtually uncontested, although she did continue to launch military operations designed to restore her authority and regain control of the towns that had remained loyal to the emperor. She ordered or commanded successful expeditions against Ferrara (1101), Parma (1104), Prato (1107) and Mantua (1114).

Vice-Queen of Italy

Henry IV died now defeated in 1106; and after the deposition and death of Conrad (1101), his second son and new Holy Roman Emperor, Henry V, began to turn the fight against the Church and Italy. This time the attitude of Matilda against the imperial house had to change and she accepted the will of the Emperor. In 1111, on his way back to Germany, Henry V meet her at the Castle of Bianello, near Reggio Emilia. Matilda confirmed him the inheritance rights over the fiefs that Henry IV disputed her, thus ending a fight that had lasted over twenty years. Henry V gave Matilda a new title: between 6 and 11 May 1111, the Emperor crowned Matilda as "Imperial Vicar and Vice-Queen of Italy". This episode was the decisive step towards the Concordat of Worms.

Foundation of churches

Traditionally, people say Matilda founded some churches, including:

• Sant'Andrea Apostolo of Vitriola, at Montefiorino (Modena).
• Sant'Anselmo, Pieve di Coriano (Province of Mantua).
• San Giovanni Decollato, at Pescarolo ed Uniti (Cremona).
• Santa Maria Assunta, at Monteveglio (Bologna).
• San Martino in Barisano, near Forlì.
• San Zeno, at Cerea (Verona).

It seems that even the foundation of the Church of San Salvaro in Legnago (Verona) is made by Matilda.

Death and legacy

Matilda's death of gout in 1115 at Bondeno di Roncore marked the end of an era in Italian politics. It has been reported that she left her allodial property to the Pope for reasons not known however this donation was never officially recognized in Rome and no record exists. Henry had promised some of the cities in her territory he would appoint no successor after he deposed her. In her place the leading citizens of these cities took control, and the era of the city-states in northern Italy began. In the 17th century, her body was removed to the Vatican, where it now lies in St. Peter's Basilica. A memorial tomb for Matilda, commissioned by Pope Urban VIII and designed by Gianlorenzo Bernini, commemorates her place in St Peter's.

She has been posited by some critics as the origin of the mysterious "Matilda" who appears to Dante gathering flowers in the earthly paradise in Dante's Purgatorio.

The story of Matilda and Henry IV is the main plot device in Luigi Pirandello's play Enrico IV. She is the main historical character in Kathleen McGowan's novel The Book of Love (Simon & Schuster, 2009).

References

Donizone, "Vita di Matilde di Canossa", a cura di P. Golinelli, Milano, Jaca Book, 2008.

• Valerie Eads. "The Last Italian Expedition of Henry IV: Re-reading the Vita Mathildis of Donizone of Canossa." Journal of Medieval Military History 8 (2010) pp. 23–68.
• Hay, David (2008). The Military Leadership of Matilda of Canossa, 1046-1115. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Kahn Spike, Michéle (2004). Tuscan Countess: The Life and Extraordinary Times of Matilda of Canossa. New York: The Vendome Press.
• Eads, Valerie (2002). "The Geography of Power: Matilda of Tuscany and the Strategy of Active Defense". In L. J. Andrew Villalon and Donald Kagay (ed.). Crusaders, Condottieri and Cannon: Medieval Warfare in Societies around the Mediterranean. Leiden: Brill.
• Fraser, Antonia. The Warrior Queens. ISBN 0-679-72816-3.
• Duff, Nora (1909). Matilda of Tuscany: La Gran Donna d'Italia. London: Methuen & Co.
• Arturo Calzona (ed), Matilde e il tesoro dei Canossa: Tra castelli, monasteri e città (Cinisello Balsamo, Milano, Silvana Editoriale. 2008).

Paolo Golinelli, "Matilde e i Canossa", Milano, Mursia, 2009.

External links

• The Lands of Matilde of Canossa
• Castle of Bianello
• Corteo Storico Matildico
• Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Matilda of Canossa" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Women's Biography: Matilda of Tuscany, countess of Tuscany, duchess of Lorraine, contains several letters to and from Matilda.
• *Queens of Italy-Women in Power in Medieval Italy: MATILDA of CANOSSA