Matilda of Tuscany
The remarkable Matilda (1046-1115) was the daughter of Margrave Boniface III of Tuscany, and lived through a tumultuous period in Italian history. As a child, Matilda endured the murder of her father, her widowed mother’s illicit marriage to Godfrey the Bearded (an enemy of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry III, who arrested Matilda and her mother as a result), and the deaths of her siblings. The studious and well-educated Matilda was forced into a disastrous marriage with her stepbrother, Godfrey the Hunchback, but left him in 1071, resisted his pleading, and seized his lands when he died in 1076.
Matilda was simultaneously a very pious woman and a fierce warrior. In 1077, after escorting Pope Gregory VII through northern Italy, she managed to make his sworn enemy, Emperor Henry IV, walk barefoot to her castle at Canossa to the Holy Father as penance. She even made Henry wait in the snow for 3 days before letting him visit the Pope. Matilda remained a powerful enemy of Henry and continued to oppose him, defeating the imperial army several times and forcing him to leave Italy altogether in 1097. Along the way, she founded 100 churches, monasteries, and hospices.
Matilda was crowned Imperial Vicar and Vice-Queen of Italy in 1111. She died of gout in 1115, and is one of only 3 women buried in St Paul’s Basilica, Vatican City. Her life is remarkable: surviving a tempestuous childhood and a dreadful marriage to her own stepbrother, she supported the Pope militarily despite her feudal obligation being to the Emperor, and brought about Henry’s downfall. Henry’s barefoot penance to Matilda’s castle pretty much sums her up: a woman who stood up for what she believed in, and proved herself superior to men when given an even playing field.
