Matilda of Tuscany
from Cod. Vat. lat. 4922 (1115)

Matilda, countess of Tuscany (1046 – July 24, 1115), called La Gran Contessa, was the principal Italian supporter of Pope Gregory VII during the investiture controversy, and is one of the few medieval women to be remembered for her military accomplishments. She is sometimes called Matilda of Canossa, after the ancestral family castle of Canossa. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Events Clairvaux Abbey is founded by St. ... // Events First contact between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuks. ... July 24 is the 205th day (206th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 160 days remaining. ... Events Clairvaux Abbey is founded by St. ... YOU ARE NOT LOGGED IN. YOUR COMPUTER WILL SHUT DOWN IN 5 SECONDS. PLEASE STAND BY. ... The Investiture Controversy was the most significant conflict between secular and religious powers in medieval Europe. ... Canossa is a former castle of Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, situated in the foothills of the Apennines, in the province of Reggio Emilia and about eighteen miles from Parma. ...

Her father was Boniface III, marquis of Tuscany and count of Reggio, Modena, Mantua, Brescia, and Ferrara. As this string of titles implies, he held a great estate on both sides of the Apennines, though the greater part was on the Lombardy and Emilia side. Boniface III (also numbered IV) (c. ... Tuscany (Italian Toscana) is a region in central Italy, bordering on Latium to the south, Umbria and Marche to the east, Emilia-Romagna and Liguria to the north, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west. ... Country Italy Region Emilia-Romagna Province Reggio Emilia (RE) Mayor Graziano Delrio (from July 1, 2004) Elevation 58 m Area 231 km² Population  - Total 141,383  - Density 612/km² Time zone CET, UTC+1 Coordinates Gentilic Reggiani Dialing code 0522 Postal code 42100 Frazioni see list Patron San Prospero  - Day... Modena (Mòdna in Modenese dialect) is a city and a province on the south side of the Po valley, in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. ... Mantua (in Italian Mantova, in the local dialect of Emiliano-Romagnolo language Mantua) is an important city in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province with the same name. ... Country Italy Region Lombardy Province Brescia (BS) Mayor Paolo Corsini (since June 10, 2003) Elevation 150 m Area 90 km² Population  - Total (as of December 31, 2004) 192,165  - Density 2,087/km² Time zone CET, UTC+1 Coordinates Gentilic Bresciani Dialing code 030 Postal code 25100 Frazioni Fornaci, Sant... Ferrara is a city, an archiepiscopal see in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, capital city of the province of Ferrara. ... This is about the terrestrial mountain range. ... Lombardy (Italian: Lombardia) is a region in northern Italy between the Alps and the Po river valley. ... Provinces of Emilia-Romagna Emilia-Romagna is an administrative region of Northern Italy comprising the two historic regions of Emilia and Romagna. ...

Her mother was Beatrice of Lorraine, a daughter of Frederick II, Duke of Upper Lorraine, and of Matilda of Swabia. Beatrice was a descendant of the Merovingian king Theodoric III. Beatrice of Bar (also Beatrix) (c. ... Frederick II (died 1026 or 1027) was duke of Upper Lorraine as coregent of his father, Thierry I. He was also count of Bar. ... For other uses of the term Merovingian, see Merovingian (disambiguation). ... ...

Matilda was her parents' youngest child, but her father was murdered in 1052, and her older sister and brother died soon afterwards, leaving the eight-year-old Matilda as a great heiress under her mother's guardianship. Two years later Beatrice re-married, in part to protect her daughter's inheritance, to Godfrey the Bearded, a cousin who had been duke of Upper Lorraine before rebelling against Emperor Henry III. Events Births Milarepa Deaths Heads of state Holy See - Leo IX pope (1049-1054) Categories: 1052 ... Godfrey III, Duke of Lower Lorraine (died 1069), called Godfrey the Bearded, was a son of Gothelo I, Duke of Lower Lorraine. ... The Duchy of Lorraine was an independent state for most of the period of time between 843 to 1739. ... Henry III (1017-1056) was a member of the Salian (sometimes Franconian) dynasty of Holy Roman Emperors. ...

Matilda's family became heavily involved in the series of disputed papal elections of the last half of the 11th century. Her stepfather's brother Frederick became Pope Stephen IX, while both of the following two popes, Nicholas II and Alexander II had been Tuscan bishops. Her parents' forces were used to protect these popes and fight against anti-popes. Some stories claim the adolescent Matilda took the field in some of these engagements, but no evidence supports this. Pope Stephen IX, orignally Archdeacon Frederick of Leige was a native of Germany, was pope from about July 14, 939 until his death towards the end of October, 942. ... Nicholas II, born Gérard de Bourgogne (died July 19 or July 27, 1061), Pope from 1059 to July 1061, was at the time of his election Bishop of Florence. ... Alexander II, né Anselmo Baggio (d. ...

Sometime in this period Matilda married her stepbrother Godfrey the Hunchback, son of Godfrey the Bearded's first marriage. Matilda gave birth in 1071 to a daughter, Beatrix. Virtually all current biographies of Matilda assert that the child died in its first year of infancy, however genealogies contemporaneous with Michelangelo Buonarroti claimed that Beatrix survived, and Michelangelo himself claimed to be a descendent of Beatrix and, therefore, Matilda. Michelangelo's claim was supported at the time by the reigning Count of Canossa. The Catholic Church, possibly motivated by its claim against her property, has always asserted that Matilda never had any child at all. Matilda and Godfrey became estranged after Godfrey the Bearded's death in 1069, and he returned to Germany, where he eventually received the duchy of Lower Lorraine. Godfrey IV (died 27 or 26 February 1076), called the Hunchback, was a son of Godfrey the Bearded, whom he succeeded as duke of Lower Lorraine in 1069. ... Events Byzantine Empire loses Battle of Manzikert to Turkish army under Alp Arslan. ... Michelangelo (full name Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni) (March 6, 1475 - February 18, 1564) was a Renaissance sculptor, architect, painter, and poet. ... Events Harrying of the North- King William of England (William the Conqueror) reacts to rebellions made by his people against him. ... Lower Lorraine (Lothier) was a duchy, part of the former Carolingian Kingdom of Lotharingia, that was created in 959 by Bruno I, Archbishop of Cologne, who divided the territory that had been the northern part of Lotharingia, which he had been assigned by his brother Otto I, in two duchies. ...

Both Matilda's mother and husband died in 1076, leaving her in sole control of her great Italian patrimony as well as lands in Lorraine, while at the same time matters in the conflict between Pope Gregory VII and the German king Henry IV were at a crisis point. Pope had excommunicated King, causing a weakening of Henry's German support and motivating him to cross the Alps during that winter, and appear early in 1077 as a barefoot penitent in the snow before the gates of Matilda's ancestral castle of Canossa, where the pope was staying. Events February 14 - Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor. ... Lorraine coat of arms location of the Lorraine province Lorraine (French: Lorraine; German: Lothringen) is a historical area in present-day northeast France. ... Henry IV (November 11, 1050 — 1106) was King of Germany from 1056 and Emperor from 1084, until his abdication in 1105. ... The West face of the Petit Dru above the Chamonix valley near the Mer de Glace. ... Events January 26 - Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor visits Pope Gregory VII as a penitent, asking him remove sentence of excommunication Robert Curthose instigates his first insurrection against his father, William the Conqueror Seljuk Turks capture Nicaea Süleyman I of Rüm becomes the leader of the Sultanate of... Canossa is a former castle of Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, situated in the foothills of the Apennines, in the province of Reggio Emilia and about eighteen miles from Parma. ...

This famous meeting did not settle matters for long. In 1080 Henry was excommunicated again, and the next year he crossed the Alps, aiming either to get the pope to end the excommunication and crown him emperor, or to depose the pope in favor of someone more co-operative. Events William I of England, in a letter, reminds the Bishop of Rome that the King of England owes him no allegiance. ...

Matilda controlled all the western passages over the Apennines, forcing Henry to approach Rome via Ravenna. Even with this route open, he would have difficulties besieging Rome with a hostile territory at his back. Some of his allies defeated her at the battle of Volta Mantovana (near Modena) in October 1080, and by December the citizens of Lucca, then the capital of Tuscany, had revolted and driven out her ally Bishop Anselm. Ravenna is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. ... Modena (Mòdna in Modenese dialect) is a city and a province on the south side of the Po valley, in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. ... Events William I of England, in a letter, reminds the Bishop of Rome that the King of England owes him no allegiance. ... Lucca is a city in Tuscany, northern central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plain near (but not on) the Ligurian Sea. ... Saint Anselm of Lucca the Younger (Mantua, 1036–March 18, 1086) was a prominent figure in the Investiture Controversy and in the fighting in Central Italy between the forces of Countess Matilda of Tuscany, the papal champion, and those of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor. ...

In 1081 Matilda suffered some further losses, and Henry formally deposed her in July. But this was not enough to eliminate her as a source of trouble, for she retained substantial allodial holdings. She remained as Pope Gregory's chief intermediary for communication with northern Europe, even as he lost control of Rome and holed up in the Castel Sant'Angelo. After Henry had obtained the Pope's seal, she wrote to supporters in Germany only to trust papal messages that came though her. Events Corfu taken from Byzantine Empire by Robert Guiscard, Italy Byzantine emperor Nicephorus III is overthrown by Alexius I Comnenus, ending the Middle Byzantine period and beginning the Comnenan dynasty Alexius I helps defend Albania from the Normans (the first recorded mention of Albania), but is defeated at the Battle... Allodial land, or allodium, is literally land which has no lord. ... Castel SantAngelo from the bridge. ...

Henry's control of Rome enabled him to have his choice of pope, Antipope Clement III, consecrated and in turn for this pope to crown Henry as emperor. That done, Henry returned to Germany, leaving it to his allies to attempt Matilda's dispossesion. These attempts foundered after Matilda routed them at Sorbara (near Modena) on July 2, 1084. Guibert or Wibert of Ravenna (c. ... July 2 is the 183rd day of the year (184th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 182 days remaining. ... Events Saint Bruno founds the Carthusian Order of monks Kyanzittha begins his reign in Myanmar. ...

Gregory VII died in 1085, and Matilda's forces, with those of Prince Jordan I of Capua (her off and on enemy), once again took the field in support of a new pope, Victor III. Events May 25 - Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo, Spain back from the Moors. ... Jordan I (Italian: Giordano) (d. ... The Blessed Victor III, born as Dauferius (Benevento, 1026? – September 16, 1087), Pope (May 24, 1086 until his death), was the successor of Pope Gregory VII (1073–85). ...

Sometime around 1090 Matilda married again, to Welf V of Bavaria, from a family (the Welfs) whose very name was later to become synonymous with alliance to the popes in their conflict with the German emperors (see Guelphs and Ghibellines). This forced Henry to return to Italy, where he drove Matilda into the mountains. But again he was humbled before Canossa, this time in a military defeat in October 1092, from which his influence in Italy never recovered. Events Granada captured by Yusuf Ibn Tashfin, King of the Almoravides Beginnings of troubadours in Provence Bejaia becomes the capital of the Algeria Births William of Malmsbury Saint Bernard of Clairvaux Saint Famianus Eliezer ben Nathan of Mainz Deaths Saint Malcoldia of Asti Saint Adalbero Categories: 1090 ... Welf II (1072 – 24 September 1120, Kaufering), or Welfhard, called Welf the Fat, was duke of Bavaria from 1101 until his death. ... The House of Welf (or House of Guelph) is a European dynasty that has included many German and British monarchs from the 11th century until the 20th century. ... The Guelphs and Ghibellines were factions supporting, respectively, the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire in central and northern Italy during the 12th and 13th centuries. ... Events May 9 - Lincoln Cathedral is consecrated. ...

Matilda's death of gout in 1115 marked the end of an era in Italian politics. She had no heirs and left her allodial property to the Pope, while Henry had promised some of the cities in her territory he would appoint no successor after he deposed her. In her place the leading citizens of these cities took control, and we enter the era of the city-states in northern Italy. Events Clairvaux Abbey is founded by St. ... This article is about the early Italian city-states during the Italian Renaissance. ...

In the 17th century her body was removed to the Vatican, where it now lies in St. Peter's Basilica. (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... The Basilica of Saint Peter from Castel SantAngelo. ...

The story of Matilda and Henry IV featured in Luigi Pirandello's play Enrico IV. Luigi Pirandello Luigi Pirandello (June 28, 1867 – December 10, 1936) was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934. ...

References

• Michèle Kahn Spike, Tuscan Countess: The Life and Extraordinary Times of Matilda of Canossa, (The Vendome Press, New York, 2004)

• The Very Model of a Medieval General

• The land of Mathilde

• Valerie Eads, "The Geography of Power: Matilda of Tuscany and the Strategy of Active Defense." In Crusaders, Condottieri and Cannon: Medieval Warfare in Societies around the Mediterranean, edited by L. J. Andrew Villalon and Donald Kagay. Leiden: Brill, 2002.

• Antonia Fraser, The Warrior Queens, ISBN 0-679-72816-3