Background
Matilda seems to have spent much of her early life in the company of her mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Matilda seems to have spent much of her early life in the company of her mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Matilda was a younger maternal half-sister of Countess Marie and Alix of France. She was also an older sister of King Richard, Duke Geoffrey, Queen Eleanor, Queen Joan and King John. Matilda governed her husband"s vast estates during his absence in the Holy Land from 1172 to 1173.
In 1174, Henry the Lion became involved in a conflict with the Emperor Frederick, and Henry and Matilda were forced to flee Germany and take refuge in Normandy at her father"s court in 1182.
During this time at the royal court at Argentan, Matilda became acquainted with the Troubadour Bertran de Born, who, calling her "Elena" or "Lana", made her the object of his desire in two of his poems of "courtly love". Early in 1189 the Emperor again ordered Henry the Lion to go into exile.