Matilda of Carinthia
Overview
Biography
(See also Genealogical Table(s): 2.3, 2.4.2.)
Matilda of Carinthia, daughter of Engelbert, Duke of Carinthia and Uta of Passau, and sister of Ida of Carinthia, countess of Nevers, married Thibaut IV of Blois, II of Troyes and Champagne, son of Adela and Stephen, in 1123. Their children included Henry I “the Liberal” of Champagne, Thibaut V of Blois, Adela of Champagne (3rd wife of Louis VII of France and mother of Philip II), Isabelle of Champagne (m. first Roger of Apulia, then William Gouet IV), Marie of Champagne (m. Eudes II, duke of Burgundy, became abbess of Fontevrault), William Archbishop of Reims and cardinal; Stephen I of Sancerre, Agnes of Champagne (m.Renaut II of Bar), Margaret of Champagne, nun at Fontevrault, Mathilde of Champagne (m.Rotrou II of Nogent). Thibaut IV died in 1152.
LoPrete notes that Matilda was niece of the bishop of Regensburg and of the archbishop of Cologne (Adela, Countess and Lord [Dublin: Four Courts, 2007], 562). She mentions a number of document in which Matilda and her son Henry are named giving their consent to Thibaut’s confirmations: a charter recording Thibaut’s confirmation of his forefathers’ grants to Coincy, prob.1126; donations of Adela to St. Foy of Conques, 1132, of Adela to Marcigny, confirmed by Thibaut, issued with consent of wife and son, 1132, implemented by Thibaut and confirmed by Matilda in 1135; a charter exempting the monks of Pontigny from tolls and other sales taxes throughout their domains: “The count of Blois, with the consent of his wife and sons, exempts the monks of Pontigny from paying all tolls and other taxes on their lands, provided the merchandise they buy and sell is entirely for their own use,” “Hoc autem laudaverunt et concesserunt Matildis comitissa, uxor mea, et filii mei, Henricus primogenitus, Theobaudus et Stephanus” (Le Premier Cartulaire de l’Abbaye Cistercienne de Pontigny, Martine Garrigues [Paris: Bibliotheque nationale, 1981], 87-88, #5, 1140). With Heloise, Mathilda sponsored an abbey at La Pommeraye, affiliated with the Paraclete (Theodore Evergates, “Aristocratic Women in the County of Champagne,” Aristocratic Women in medieval France, 107).
Some of the charters mentioning Matilda are in H. D’Arbois de Jubainville, Histoire des Ducs et des Comtes de Champagne (Paris: Aubry, 1861): #94, in1139 a grant to St. Peter of Montier-en-Der, “countess Matilda my wife and Henry my son approved and granted this.” “Hoc autem laudaverunt et concesserunt Matildis comitissa, uxor mea, et Henricus, filius meus” (3.426); #96, 1140, a grant to the abbey of Montieramey, “which gift countess Matilda, my wife, and Henry, my son, approved and granted,” “quod donum laudaverunt et concesserunt Matildis, comitissa, uxor mea, et Henricus, filius meus” (3.427-28). Their son Henry makes a grant to the abbey of St. Loup in 1168, #130, for the salvation of his soul of those of his father of pious memory, Thibaut, and his mother, Matilda (3.454).