The Medieval Church · c. 974
The Life of Queen Matilda
Vita Mathildis Reginae Antiquior
Anonymous
What it is
Written for her grandson within a decade of her death: the widow of Henry the Fowler, her almsgiving, her monastic foundations, her quarrel with her sons over what she was giving away, and her deathbed distribution of everything left.
Why it lasted
The earliest life of an Ottonian queen, written for a court that needed its women remembered as holy. It shows the political work a saint's life could do, and how royal women turned dower lands into monasteries they then ran.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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