Editing Empress Matilda (section)

===Disputes===
The marriage proved difficult, as the couple did not particularly like each other.<ref name="Hollister 2003 463">{{harvnb|Hollister|2003|p=463}}; {{harvnb|Chibnall|1991|p=57}}</ref> There was a further dispute over Matilda's dowry; she was granted various castles in Normandy by Henry, but it was not specified when the couple would actually take possession of them.<ref name=HollisterGreenPP324>{{harvnb|Hollister|2003|pp=324–325}}; {{harvnb|Green|2009|pp=202–203}}</ref> It is also unknown whether Henry intended Geoffrey to have any future claim on England or Normandy, and he was probably keeping Geoffrey's status deliberately uncertain.<ref name=HollisterGreenPP324/> Soon after the marriage, Matilda left Geoffrey and returned to Normandy.<ref name="Hollister 2003 463"/> Henry appears to have blamed Geoffrey for the separation, but the couple were finally reconciled in 1131.<ref>{{harvnb|Hollister|2003|p=463}}; {{harvnb|Green|2009|pp=58–61}}</ref> Henry summoned Matilda from Normandy, and she arrived in England that August.<ref name="Chibnall 59">{{Harvnb|Chibnall|1991|p=59}}</ref> It was decided that Matilda would return to Geoffrey at a meeting of the King's great council in September.<ref name="Chibnall 59"/> The council also gave another collective oath of allegiance to recognise her as Henry's heir.<ref name="Chibnall 59"/>{{refn|The cause behind the soured relations is not fully known, though historian Marjorie Chibnall stated, "historians have tended to put the blame on Matilda&nbsp;... This is a hasty judgement based on two or three hostile English chroniclers; such evidence as there is suggests Geoffrey was at least as much to blame".<ref>{{Harvnb|Chibnall|1991|p=57}}</ref>|group="nb"}}

Matilda gave birth to her first son in March 1133 at Le Mans, the future [[Henry II of England|Henry II]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Chibnall|1991|p=60}}</ref> Henry I was delighted by the news and came to see her at Rouen.<ref>{{harvnb|Hollister|2003|p=465}}; {{harvnb|Green|2009|p=213}}; {{Harvnb|Chibnall|1991|p=60}}</ref> At Pentecost 1134, her second son, [[Geoffrey, Count of Nantes|Geoffrey]], was born in Rouen, but the childbirth was extremely difficult and Matilda appeared close to death.<ref name="Chibnall 61">{{Harvnb|Chibnall|1991|p=61}}</ref> She made arrangements for her will and argued with her father about where she should be buried. Matilda preferred [[Bec Abbey]], but Henry wanted her to be interred at [[Rouen Cathedral]].<ref name="Chibnall 61"/> Matilda recovered, and Henry was overjoyed by the birth of his second grandson, possibly insisting on another round of oaths from his nobility.<ref name="Chibnall 61"/>{{refn|Historians Jim Bradbury and Frank Barlow suggest that an oath was taken in 1131; Marjorie Chibnall is more doubtful that this occurred.<ref>{{harvnb|Bradbury|2009|p=9}}; {{harvnb|Barlow|1999|p=161}}; {{Harvnb|Chibnall|1991|p=61}}</ref>|group="nb"}}

From then on, relations became increasingly strained between Matilda and Henry. Matilda and Geoffrey suspected that they lacked genuine support in England for their claim to the throne, and proposed in 1135 that the King should hand over the royal castles in Normandy to Matilda and should insist that the Norman nobility immediately swear allegiance to her.<ref>{{Harvnb|King|2010|pp=38–39}}</ref> This would have given the couple a much more powerful position after Henry's death, but the King angrily refused, probably out of a concern that Geoffrey would try to seize power in Normandy while he was still alive.<ref>{{Harvnb|King|2010|p=38}}; {{Harvnb|Crouch|2008a|p=162}}</ref> A fresh rebellion broke out in southern Normandy, and Geoffrey and Matilda intervened militarily on behalf of the rebels.<ref name=BarlowP162/>

In the middle of this confrontation, Henry unexpectedly fell ill and died near [[Lyons-la-Forêt]].<ref>{{harvnb|Hollister|2003|pp=467, 473}}</ref> It is uncertain what, if anything, Henry said about the succession before his death.<ref name=Chibnall1996P65>{{Harvnb|Chibnall|1991|p=65}}</ref> Contemporary chronicler accounts were coloured by subsequent events. Sources favourable to Matilda suggested that Henry had reaffirmed his intent to grant all his lands to his daughter, while hostile chroniclers argued that Henry had renounced his former plans and had apologised for having forced the barons to swear an oath of allegiance to her.<ref name=Chibnall1996P65/>