The Girl Empress Synopsis
Here be spoilers!
This is the story of Mathilda, daughter of England’s King Henry I, granddaughter of William the Conqueror, and wife to both a German emperor a French count. Through her second marriage, the Plantagenet dynasty of English kings was founded, and her descendants have held the throne of England ever since. However, Mathilda is best known to history as the woman who dared to stake her own claim to the English throne at a time when a female ruler was all but unthinkable.
In this first of three planned novels, we meet Mathilda (also known by the Anglo-Saxon version of her name, Maud) in her old age. Living in a kind of political retirement, she looks back on her life with a tinge of regret and longs for a sense of inner peace. Great chroniclers have written her story to serve their own ends, often portraying her in very negative terms. With her son, Henry II, now King of England, she decides to write her own account of what she has done.
She begins by telling us of her childhood in England, where she enjoyed a close relationship with her mother, Queen Mathilda, and her brother, William Æthling, the heir to the throne. Her father travels through his dual realms of England and Normandy, seeking to secure the still recent Norman Conquest, along with his own hold on the crown. Seeing France as his country’s natural enemy, the king arranges for his eight-year-old daughter to marry the much older king of Germany, Henry V.
Mathilda travels to her new homeland filled with trepidation. She is about to marry a man she has never met and become queen to a people whose language she cannot speak. To make matters worse, the German king is engaged in a long-running feud with the pope that threatens to weaken his authority and give new momentum to the Saxon rebellion that has raged against the imperial family for years.
In this first of three planned novels, we meet Mathilda (also known by the Anglo-Saxon version of her name, Maud) in her old age. Living in a kind of political retirement, she looks back on her life with a tinge of regret and longs for a sense of inner peace. Great chroniclers have written her story to serve their own ends, often portraying her in very negative terms. With her son, Henry II, now King of England, she decides to write her own account of what she has done.
She begins by telling us of her childhood in England, where she enjoyed a close relationship with her mother, Queen Mathilda, and her brother, William Æthling, the heir to the throne. Her father travels through his dual realms of England and Normandy, seeking to secure the still recent Norman Conquest, along with his own hold on the crown. Seeing France as his country’s natural enemy, the king arranges for his eight-year-old daughter to marry the much older king of Germany, Henry V.
Mathilda travels to her new homeland filled with trepidation. She is about to marry a man she has never met and become queen to a people whose language she cannot speak. To make matters worse, the German king is engaged in a long-running feud with the pope that threatens to weaken his authority and give new momentum to the Saxon rebellion that has raged against the imperial family for years.
In the four years before the formal marriage takes place, her fiancé travels to Italy to force a deal with the pope, while Mathilda receives her education from the influential Archbishop Bruno of Trier. Her idealistic notions are tempered but not destroyed by Bruno’s pragmatic, even cynical worldview. When the news reaches Germany that Henry has taken the pope prisoner and pressured the Holy Father into crowning him as Holy Roman Emperor, events start to go downhill fast.
One of the new emperor’s chief advisors turns against him and becomes a deadly enemy. Emperor Henry’s initial success against the Saxon rebellion is undone when his army suffers a crushing defeat. Mathilda is torn between her loyalty to her husband and her sense that he ought to compromise with his enemies in order to avoid bloodshed. She recalls the devotion that her mother showed to the Church and wonders how the emperor’s defiance and even violence against the pope can be in line with proper Christian behavior.
The news that the powerful and rich Duchess Mathilda of Tuscany has died, leaving all of her lands and possessions to either the pope or the emperor (depending on whose story you believe), convinces Emperor Henry that he and his young wife must return to Italy to solidify his hold over the northern regions and force a better deal with the pope, who has backed away from some of his earlier commitments. Their journey is fraught with tension, including an literal earthquake, and though the emperor is able to enter Rome at the front of a victorious procession, the pope is nowhere to be found and the remaining cardinals stand firm in their opposition.
One of the new emperor’s chief advisors turns against him and becomes a deadly enemy. Emperor Henry’s initial success against the Saxon rebellion is undone when his army suffers a crushing defeat. Mathilda is torn between her loyalty to her husband and her sense that he ought to compromise with his enemies in order to avoid bloodshed. She recalls the devotion that her mother showed to the Church and wonders how the emperor’s defiance and even violence against the pope can be in line with proper Christian behavior.
The news that the powerful and rich Duchess Mathilda of Tuscany has died, leaving all of her lands and possessions to either the pope or the emperor (depending on whose story you believe), convinces Emperor Henry that he and his young wife must return to Italy to solidify his hold over the northern regions and force a better deal with the pope, who has backed away from some of his earlier commitments. Their journey is fraught with tension, including an literal earthquake, and though the emperor is able to enter Rome at the front of a victorious procession, the pope is nowhere to be found and the remaining cardinals stand firm in their opposition.
Around this time, Mathilda notices that her husband is suffering some kind of ailment. When she finally manages to have a physician examine the emperor, he makes a worrisome discovery. As the imperial party returns to the north and Henry attempts to make peace with a fast succession of popes, his health starts to worsen and Mathilda fears that they will not be able to produce an heir. Perhaps worst of all, she learns that her beloved mother, Queen Mathilda, has passed away.
Another planned face-to-face meeting with the pope is called off when negotiations break down. There is no obvious solution that will grant peace to both the empire and Christendom as a whole. Then comes the most distressing news of all: Mathilda’s brother, the crown prince of England, is killed in a shipwreck. The book ends with Mathilda’s realization that she is now the only surviving child of the king, and thus the rightful heir to the throne.
The planned second and third novels will deal with the remaining events in the life of Mathilda, including her return to England, her second marriage to Count Geoffrey of Anjou, the births of three sons, and the ultimate showdown with her cousin Stephen for the throne of England during the period popularly known as “The Anarchy”.
The Chronicle of Maud is likely to interest fans of British and medieval history, as well as those who enjoy political intrigue and the history of Christianity. It takes place during the beginnings of the European Renaissance period, which was also the time of the Crusades. Novels in this genre would include works by Ken Follett, Philippa Gregory, Elizabeth Chadwick, Hilary Mantel, and others. Those who enjoy television series such as The Tudors, The White Queen, Game of Thrones, Wolf Hall, Vikings, The Pillars of the Earth, and The Borgias might be interested in this novel.
Another planned face-to-face meeting with the pope is called off when negotiations break down. There is no obvious solution that will grant peace to both the empire and Christendom as a whole. Then comes the most distressing news of all: Mathilda’s brother, the crown prince of England, is killed in a shipwreck. The book ends with Mathilda’s realization that she is now the only surviving child of the king, and thus the rightful heir to the throne.
The planned second and third novels will deal with the remaining events in the life of Mathilda, including her return to England, her second marriage to Count Geoffrey of Anjou, the births of three sons, and the ultimate showdown with her cousin Stephen for the throne of England during the period popularly known as “The Anarchy”.
The Chronicle of Maud is likely to interest fans of British and medieval history, as well as those who enjoy political intrigue and the history of Christianity. It takes place during the beginnings of the European Renaissance period, which was also the time of the Crusades. Novels in this genre would include works by Ken Follett, Philippa Gregory, Elizabeth Chadwick, Hilary Mantel, and others. Those who enjoy television series such as The Tudors, The White Queen, Game of Thrones, Wolf Hall, Vikings, The Pillars of the Earth, and The Borgias might be interested in this novel.