Matilda of Portugal
Overview
Biography
(See also Genealogical Table(s): 2.3, 2.4.2, 4.1.)
Matilda was the daughter of Alfonso I, king of Portugal and Matilda of Savoy. Originally named Teresa, she changed her name when she married Philip of Alsace, count of Flanders c.1183. Her rich dowry enabled Philip to continue his war with France for several years, though on her initial voyage to Flanders, her ship was attacked by Norman pirates who took all her jewels and precious possessions (Le Glay, Histoire, 1.264). Her substantial dower included major Flemish towns, a major part of French-speaking Flanders, and severals cities in the German-speaking region; Wolff (282) suggests this was done to hurt Baldwin of Hainaut, Philip’s brother-in-law and a probable successor. Matilda and Philip had no children so Philip’s sister Margaret and her husband Baldwin of Hainaut inherited Flanders when Philip died in 1191. Matilda had been regent while Philip went on crusade and she tried to keep power in Flanders after his death, with the help of the king of France and, covertly, the duke of Brabant, an enemy of Baldwin (Le Glay, 1.274).
Gislebert’s chronicle says “Matilda did all the evil she could [against Baldwin] with lord William, archbishop of Reims, who was looking after France in the absence of the king, and she schemed with any other French magnates against the count of Hainaut” (Mathildis autem omne quod poterat malum apud dominum Wilelmum Remensem archiepiscopum, qui pro absentia regis Franciam procurabat et apud alios quoscumque Francie potentes machinabatur contra comitem Hanoniensem, Chronicon Hanoniense, MGH, SS, xxi, 574, cited by Wolff, fn.13). She refused to open the gates of Ghent to Margaret and Baldwin and applied to the archbishop of Reims who called them all to a meeting to resolve the issue.
Matilda claimed all of Flanders, but was granted only her considerable dower lands of Douai, l’Escluse, Orchies, Lille, Casset, Furnes, Dixmude, Boubourg, Bergues-Saint-Winoc, and the castle of Nieppe, but not Bruges, Ghent, Pays de Waes, Aalst, Geralmont, Ypres, Courtrai, or Audenarde, which Gislebert says were illegally part of her dower, since they had been allotted to Baldwin (Wolff, fn.8). She ceded Aire and Saint-Omer to prince Louis of France. Matilda married Odo III, duke of Burgundy, in 1193, but again had no children; that marriage was annulled and Matilda returned to Flanders. She helped to arrange the marriage of her nephew, Ferdinand of Portugal to her grand-niece, Joan of Constantinople, granddaughter of countess Margaret and future countess of Flanders, succeeding her father. Matilda may have offered to pay Joan’s guardian, Philip of Namur, to gain his consent to the marriage (Wolff, 292). After their marriage, Ferdinand and Joan were captured by the French prince Louis, and later conspired with their aunt Matilda to form an alliance against France with king John of England, but their coalition was defeated at Bouvines in 1214 (Wolff, 293).1