Empress Matilda should have been England's first queen regnant, all the way back in the 12th century. She was bride to the most powerful monarch in Western Europe, the only surviving legitimate grandchild of William the Conqueror, and was descended from many royal bloodlines. Yet her crown would be usurped by her cousin, Stephen, and the fact she was a woman would be used against her, not only at the time, but in the centuries afterwards to justify events. Empress Matilda was a formidable woman who would not stand down in the face of the expectations of her time, fighting for her crown for nearly two decades, eventually ensuring England's throne for her son to become Henry II. This video looks at her life, from a young princess in Germany, to her second unwanted marriage to a Count of Anjou, to her war against Stephen, to her eventual peaceful life as mother to the king...

YES, for some of you, this is a repeat! :) Empress Matilda made up the first three videos I ever made on my channel, but I've always wanted to redo them with better audio and images than I had at the time. I felt my 100th video was the perfect time to do this if you have seen my originals, this has some new information in places, and the script has been tightened up.



For my images and footage, thanks to:

Pexels
Pixabay
Wikimedia Commons, especially:
HelHama
MrsEllacott
Egjoni98
Hchc2009
Jebulon
Parma1983
hugh llewelyn
Katherine Weikert
Nilfanion
Bede735c
Copyleft
Selbymay
Dave Hitchborne
Gary Bembridge
Hadrianus1959
Gb4dot
Juan J. Martínez
Motacilla
Pitou250



Many of my images in this video were made with Midjourney, see if you can spot which ones! Other clips are from iStock or the sources listed above.


I strive to always credit everyone whose images I use, and try as much as possible to use images freely in the public domain (purchased where not possible) please let me know if I have missed you so I can give you due credit.