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Empress Matilda

Holy Roman Empress from 1114 to 1125; claimant to the English throne

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 21, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

Empress Matilda, also known as Empress Maud or Athelicia, was Holy Roman Empress as the consort of Emperor Henry V from 1110 until 1125, and was subsequently a claimant to the English throne during the civil war known as the Anarchy (1138–1153). Following the death of her father, King Henry I of England, as his only surviving legitimate child and nominated heir, she asserted her right to the English throne. However, her cousin Stephen of Blois usurped the crown.

Editorial summary

“Empress Matilda” enters the record as holy Roman Empress from 1114 to 1125; claimant to the English throne. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Empress, Matilda and Holy can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1110, 1125, 1138, 1153—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Empress, Matilda and Holy.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Empress Matilda” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Empress, Matilda and Holy provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1110, 1125, 1138 and 1153.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Empress Matilda”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Empress Matilda primary sources, Empress Matilda archive and Empress research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Empress Matilda”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Empress Matilda” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.