Matilda – often called Maud – changed the course of English history.
She was the eldest child of King Henry I of England and Queen Matilda of Scotland. As a woman, she was passed over for the crown, and her younger brother, William Ætheling, was made heir to the English throne instead.
She was sent off to Germany to cement continental alliances. Aged eight, she was betrothed to the 24-year-old Henry V, King of the Germans and Holy Roman Emperor. She was married shortly before her 12th birthday, and took up her royal and imperial duties.
Two deaths changed her destiny: the death of her brother, William Ætheling, in 1120 and that of her husband, the emperor, in 1125.
Her father convinced his barons to accept Matilda as heir to his throne as all his other sons were illegitimate, and meanwhile he married her off again, this time to Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou.