Editing Empress Matilda (section)

===Historiography===
[[File:Peterborough.Chronicle.firstpagetrimmed.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|alt=A photograph of the first page of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle|The first page of the Peterborough element of the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'', written around 1150, one of the [[chronicler]] accounts that describe Matilda's role during [[the Anarchy]]]]
Contemporary chroniclers in England, France, Germany and Italy documented many aspects of Matilda's life, although the only biography of her, apparently written by Arnulf of Lisieux, has been lost.<ref name="Chibnall 1991 3">{{Harvnb|Chibnall|1991|p=3}}</ref> The chroniclers took a range of perspectives on her.<ref name="Chibnall 1991 3"/> In Germany, the chroniclers praised Matilda extensively and her reputation as the "good Matilda" remained positive.<ref name="ODNB"/> During the years of the Anarchy, works such as the ''[[Gesta Stephani]]'' took a much more negative tone, praising Stephen and condemning Matilda.<ref>{{Harvnb|Chibnall|1991|p=197}}</ref> Once Henry II assumed the throne, the tone of the chroniclers towards Matilda became more positive.<ref>{{Harvnb|Chibnall|1991|p=195}}</ref> Legends spread in the years after Matilda's death, including the suggestion that her first husband, Henry, had not died but had in fact secretly become a [[hermit]] – making Matilda's second marriage illegitimate – and a tale that Matilda had an affair with Stephen, resulting in the conception of Henry II.<ref>{{Harvnb|Chibnall|1991|pp=198–199}}</ref>

[[Tudor period|Tudor]] scholars were interested in Matilda's right of succession.<ref>{{Harvnb|Chibnall|1991|p=200}}</ref> According to 16th-century standards, Matilda had a clear right to the English throne, and academics therefore struggled to explain why Matilda had acquiesced to her son Henry's kingship at the end of the war, rather than ruling directly herself.<ref>{{Harvnb|Chibnall|1991|pp=200–201}}</ref> By the 18th century, historians such as [[David Hume]] had a much better understanding of the irregular nature of 12th-century law and custom and this question became less relevant.<ref>{{Harvnb|Chibnall|1991|p=201}}</ref> By the 19th century, the archival sources on Matilda's life, including charters, foundation histories, and letters, were being uncovered and analysed.<ref>{{Harvnb|Chibnall|1991|pp=3, 201–202}}</ref> Historians [[Kate Norgate]], Sir James Ramsay and [[J. H. Round]] used these to produce new, richer accounts of Matilda and the civil war; Ramsay's account, using the ''Gesta Stephani'', was not complimentary, while Norgate, drawing on French sources, was more neutral in tone.<ref>{{Harvnb|Chibnall|1991|pp=202–203}}</ref> The German academic Oskar Rössler's 1897 biography drew heavily on German charters, not extensively used by Anglophone historians.<ref>{{Harvnb|Chibnall|1991|pp=2, 203}}</ref>

Matilda has attracted relatively little attention from modern English academics, being treated as a marginal figure in comparison to other contemporaries, particularly her rival Stephen, in contrast to the work carried out by German scholars on her time in the Empire.<ref>{{Harvnb|Chibnall|1991|pp=2–3}}; {{harvnb|Tolhurst|2013|p=19}}</ref> Popular, but not always accurate, biographies were written by the [[Richard Onslow, 5th Earl of Onslow|Earl of Onslow]] in 1939 and [[Nesta Pain]] in 1978, but the only major academic biography in English remains [[Marjorie Chibnall]]'s 1991 work.<ref>{{Harvnb|Chibnall|1991|pp=2–3}}; {{Harvnb|Beem|2009|p=14}}</ref> Interpretations of Matilda's character have shifted over time, but there is, as Chibnall describes, a "general agreement that she was either proud or at least keenly conscious of the high status of an empress".<ref>{{Harvnb|Chibnall|1991|p=204}}</ref> Like both Henry I and Henry II, Matilda had a certain autocratic grandeur, which was combined with a firm moral belief in her cause; ultimately however she was limited by the political conventions of the 12th century.<ref>{{Harvnb|Chibnall|1991|pp=204–205}}</ref> The treatment of Matilda by modern historians has been challenged by feminist scholars, including Fiona Tolhurst, who believe some traditional assumptions about her role and personality show gender bias.<ref>{{harvnb|Tolhurst|2013|p=21}}</ref> In this interpretation, Matilda has been unfairly criticised for showing qualities that have been considered praiseworthy when seen in her male contemporaries.<ref>{{harvnb|Tolhurst|2013|p=21}}; {{Harvnb|Chibnall|1991|pp=204–205}}</ref>