Snippets of French History: Mrs Conqueror

I mean Mathilda of Flanders, Duchess of Normandy, Queen of England, wife of William the Conqueror.

She was born circa 1031 and died circa 1083. She was the daughter of Baldwin of Flanders and Adela of France, and the grand daughter of Robert II of France.  Almost nothing is known about her early life except that she had at least one brother and that she was almost certainly very wealthy**.  Any pictures and portrayals of her are results of the artists’ imaginations, and therefore ficticious.  We do know, after scientists exhumed her bones in the 1990s, that she was barely 5′ tall – but that was quite common for her day.

For this blog in full and more please see http://www.turquoisemoon.co.uk/blog/snippets-of-french-history-mrs-conqueror/