In the 12th century, the act of being anointed with holy oil was a quasi-sacrament that transformed a person into a king. This ritual held as much, if not more, legitimacy than hereditary claims, allowing figures like Henry I and Stephen to legitimize their coups by seizing the moment.
Following the Norman Conquest, England lacked set-in-stone succession laws. This ambiguity allowed for legitimacy to be constructed through action, cunning, and force. The crown went not to the designated heir, but to the one who seized the treasury and the throne first, making swift action paramount.
The Great Seal of Norman kings depicted the monarch in two essential but distinct poses: as a lawgiver on a throne and as a warrior on horseback. This duality presented a fundamental cultural and practical barrier for female rulers, who were excluded from the warrior role, undermining their claim to full authority.
When Matilda was on the verge of being crowned, her decisive and authoritative behavior—expected of a male king—was perceived as "arrogance" unbefitting her gender. This clash between the expected role of a monarch and the expected behavior of a woman led her allies to abandon her at a pivotal moment.
Empress Matilda strategically leveraged her gender to her advantage. When trapped in Arundel Castle, her opponent Stephen hesitated to besiege her and another royal woman, fearing it would damage his chivalric reputation. This demonstrates how gender norms could be weaponized in medieval politics.
While Matilda had the sworn oaths of the nobility, Stephen followed his uncle Henry I's playbook: ignore procedure, rush to the treasury at Winchester, and secure a swift coronation. This proves that in a power vacuum, decisive action and control of resources can defeat abstract legitimacy.
Recognizing she could not unite the barons behind female leadership, Matilda made a strategic shift. Instead of continuing an unwinnable war for herself, she refocused her efforts on establishing her son, Henry, as the rightful heir. This pragmatic move ultimately secured her dynasty's future on the English throne.
Despite her formidable agency and decades-long fight for the throne, Empress Matilda's epitaph erases her personal struggle. It defines her entirely by her relationship to powerful men: "daughter, wife, and mother of Henry." This shows how historical narratives can diminish female power by re-centering male lineage.