Matilda de Braose was probably born in the early 1150s in Saint-Valery-en-Caux, France, to Bernard IV, Seigneur de Saint-Valery and his wife, Matilda. Contemporary records describe her as tall and beautiful, wise and vigorous.
Made famous by the de Braose’s spectacular falling-out with King John – and the manner of her death – very little is known of Matilda’s early years; though she probably spent time at her family’s manor of Hinton Waldrist in Berkshire.
Sometime around 1166 she married William de Braose, 4th Lord of Bramber, a Norman lord with land on the Welsh Marches. William was highly favoured by both Richard I and, later his brother King John.
Whilst William was away campaigning in Normandy, Matilda would be left to manage their estates in Wales. In 1198, Matilda defended Painscastle in Elfael against a massive Welsh attack by Gwenwynyn, Prince of Powys. She held out for 3 weeks until English reinforcements arrived, earning the castle its nickname of Matilda’s Castle.
One of Matilda’s titles was the Lady of Hay and Welsh folklore has her building the Castle of Hay in one night, single-handed, carrying the stones in her skirts.
The couple had around 16 children together, who married into some of the most powerful families of the time. Their eldest son, William, married Maud de Clare, daughter of the Earl of Hertford. Another son, Giles, became Bishop of Hereford.
Of their daughters Loretta, married Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester and another, Margaret, married Walter de Lacy, Lord of Meath.
A third son, Reginald, married, as his 2nd wife, Gwladus Ddu, daughter of Llewelyn the Great, Prince of Wales. Reginald’s son, William, by his 1st wife married Eva Marshal, daughter of the great knight, William Marshal. It was this William de Braose who was ignominiously hanged by Llewelyn the Great, after being found in the bedchamber of Llewelyn’s wife Joan, the Lady of Wales and natural daughter of King John. William had been at the Welsh court to arrange the marriage of his daughter, Isabel, to Llewelyn and Joan’s son, David. Interestingly, the marriage still went ahead, although it was to be childless.
William de Braose was greatly favoured by King John in the early part of his reign. He was given Limerick in Ireland for 5,000 marks and also received the castle at Glamorgan and the lordship of Gower. William de Braose was the knight who captured the rival to John’s throne, Arthur of Brittany, at the Siege of Mirebeau in 1202 and possibly witnessed Arthur’s murder at Rouen in Easter 1203.
It was following Arthur’s murder that things started to go wrong for the Lord and Lady of Bramber. John became increasingly suspicious of de Braose’s loyalty and turned against him. This could have been for several reasons, not least being de Braose’s knowledge of Arthur’s fate.
Elsewhere, De Braose had fallen behind in his payments to the Exchequer for the honour of Limerick, but he had also sided with his friend William Marshal in his disagreements with the king. In addition, de Braose’s son, Giles had been one of the bishops to approve an Interdict against John.
Whatever the reason, in 1207 King John moved to make a public example of one of his most powerful barons, and punish him for his debts to the Exchequer. John demanded William and Matilda give up their sons as hostages.
Matilda refused and Roger of Wendover recorded her response to the soldiers sent to collect the boys, as; “I will not deliver my sons to your lord, King John, for he foully murdered his nephew Arthur, whom he should have cared for honourably.”
There is some suggestion that William and Matilda realised she had gone too far, and tried to placate John with gifts. But it was too late.
John took possession of de Braose’s castles and moved to arrest William. Forewarned, the couple fled to Ireland with 2 of their sons, where they took refuge with Walter de Lucy, their son-in-law and Lord of Meath. John followed after them, bringing other recalcitrant barons to heal along the way. While William de Braose tried to come to terms with the king, Matilda and their eldest son, William, escaped by taking ship for Scotland.
However, Matilda and her son were captured in Galloway by Duncan of Carrick, and having been returned to England in chains, they were imprisoned in Windsor Castle. King John made an agreement with both William and Matilda; freedom for her and a pardon for William in return for 40,000 marks.
However, being either unwilling or unable to pay, Matilda and her son remained in prison – either at Windsor or Corfe Castle – and William was outlawed, eventually escaping into exile in France, disguised as a beggar, where he died in 1211.
Matilda’s fate was more gruesome; she and her son were left to starve to death in John’s dungeons (though whether this was at Corfe or Windsor is unclear). Tradition has it, that when their bodies were found, William’s cheeks bore his mother’s bite marks, where she had tried to stay alive following his death.
John’s treatment of the de Braose family did not lead to the submission of his barons, as John had intended, and the remainder of his reign was marred by civil war.
However when Magna Carta was written in 1215, Clause 39 may well have been included with Matilda and her family in mind:
“No man shall be taken, imprisoned, outlawed, banished or in any way destroyed, nor will we proceed against or prosecute him, except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land.”
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My book, Heroines of the Medieval World, looking into the lives of some of the most fascinating women from medieval history, will be published by Amberley on 15th September, 2017. It is now available for pre-order in the UK from both Amberley Publishing and Amazon and worldwide from Book Depository.
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Sources: sussexcastles.com; genie.com; steyningmuseum.org.uk; berkshirehistory.com.England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings 1075-1225 by Robert Bartlett; Oxford Companion to British History Edited by John Cannon; The Story of Britain by Roy Strong; The Plantagenets; the Kings who Made England by Dan Jones; The Life and Times of King John by Maurice Ashley; The Plantagenet Chronicles Edited by Elizabeth Hallam.
Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia
©2015 Sharon Bennett Connolly
Reblogged this on karenstoneblog and commented:
One hell of a woman…knew about her imprisonment with her son how tragic that was. Great blog
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I’d heard story before and it is horrific, but your account made me look at it from John’s point of view. Whatever the truth of Arthur’s death her accusation could not go unchallenged. John set a ransom, did he expect it to be paid? If paid they would have to have been freed. Her husband managed to escape, but was unable to raise ransom or provide aid for wife and son. John is stuck with woman and son, what are his options? He’s king this woman has slandered his reputation, he can not be seen to be weak. Locking them away and forgetting about them is an inadequate response but that seems to be the course John took. Like with Arthur’s death he seems to believe somehow his problems will go away. They do but he seems unawares the onsequences could create more problems than they solve.
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Interesting thought Denise. Thank you. It’s true that we tend to look at things from the viewpoint of John’s victims. I think he was backed into a corner by Braose not paying the ransom, that’s true. And medieval kings did have to be ruthless in order to maintain their power, but they could also be merciful; I’m not sure John knew how to be merciful without losing face, though. His paranoia didn’t help things either.
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Matilda Maud Saint Valery, De Braose, Lady de la Hay
My 27th great grandmother
Birth 1155 in Bramber, Sussex, England
Death 9 Apr 1211 in Corfe Castle, Dorset, England
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Reblogged this on Frank Parker's author site and commented:
And here’s another. I’ve written about Maud and the de Braose crowd in Hereford and Ireland History on here.
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Thank you, Frank. Much appreciated 🙂
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Reblogged this on evelynralph and commented:
Very interesting. I had picked up bits of information regading the name De Braose ftom readiing Elizabeth Chadwick books, but thus had expanded my knowledge somewhat more, and I am grateful for that knowledge, just to try to understand a little bit more if our English hetitage.
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Wonderful! Thank you so much. 🙂
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Very interesting, I am reblogging because I think we need to know what our ancestors were like, good and bad. Persinally, I do not like King John very much, yes, he has a bad press, this end of history but, some must be true. Mud sticks, I think he was mercenery and that perhaps the fact that the ransom was not paid hurt him more than the slander. Times were tough in those days, the rich were powerful, did what they wanted.
Nevertheless, nice to know as much as possible, from them we come or are affected.
Evelyn
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Indeed Evelyn. They were very interesting times – I think John had a lot of challenges and wasn’t exactly sure how to face them. But that’s what makes his reign so fascinating. Best wishes, Sharon
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