Hello and welcome to the Queens of England podcast.

Episode 4, Matilda of Flanders, Queen of England, Regents of Normandy.

Last time, we introduced Matilda, the super-posh, super well-connected daughter of the Count of Flanders.

Her family was related to practically every royal house of Europe, and she had a reputation for being a pious and cultured woman. Basically, everything her husband wasn't.

His talents lay more in fighting and politicking and more fighting.

In the Venn diagram of their marriage, the circles are pretty far apart,

but they did coalesce for their traits of stubbornness and sticking their fingers up at authority.

In short, they hated being told no.

Where we left the action, the two had secured their position in Normandy,

thanks to success in war and in the bedchamber, and were forming a successful partnership.

But this week, we will see them deal with a sudden upsurge in their fortunes, as they go from being a duke and duchess to being a king and queen.

Now, since this is a show about Matilda, I'm not going to go into too much detail

about the military and political story of the Norman conquest of England. If you went to school in

Britain, like I did, I'm sure you've already studied it ad nauseum. But in case you're unfamiliar,

or need a refresher, here's a condensed version. Surely after William and Matilda's wedding,

the King of England, Edward the Confessor, sent an extraordinary message to the newly married William.

Edward was childless and had no obvious heir, and thus the succession to the throne was unclear.

According to Norman sources, he offered the throne to William, naming him as his heir.

Quite why he would do this is not entirely clear.

The two were only very, very distantly related,

and there were any number of men who had a stronger claim, though his marriage to Matilda did

bring William's English royal credentials up several notches. It is also contested within some

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