Queen matilda of boulogne biography

Circa 1105 – 3 May 1152

Matilda of Boulogne was the daughter of Eustace III, Count of Boulogne, and his wife Mary of Scotland, daughter of King Malcolm III of Scotland and Saint Margaret.

Through her mother Margaret, the daughter of Edward Atheling, otherwise known as 'Edward the Exile', Mary was a descendant of the Saxon House of Wessex. Her maternal aunt, Matilda of Scotland, the wife of King Henry I, stood as godmother at her baptism and she was named Matilda in her honour.

Matilda was educated, like her mother and aunt before her, at the convents of Wilton and Romsey.

Queen matilda wife of henry 1

In 1125, Matilda married Stephen of Blois, Count of Mortain, the son of Stephen Count of Blois by William the Conqueror's youngest daughter Adela. Stephen had been sent to his Uncle Henry I's court in England as a young boy after his father died in the Holy Land.

In the same year as her marriage to Stephen, Matilda's father Eustace retired to a monastery, and Matild