Matilda (c. 1105 – 3 May 1152) was suo jure Countess of Boulogne from 1125 and Queen of England from the accession of her husband, Stephen, in 1135 until her death in 1152.
She played an unusually active role for a woman of the period when her husband was captured, and proved herself an effective general who managed to force the Empress to release Stephen.
[citation needed] In 1125, Matilda married Stephen of Blois, Count of Mortain, who possessed a large honour in England.
Two children, a son and a daughter, were born to the countess and count of Boulogne during the reign of King Henry I of England, who had granted them a residence in London.
[4] When England was invaded in 1138, she called troops from Boulogne and its ally Flanders, and besieged Dover Castle with success and then went north to Durham, where she made a treaty with David I of Scotland in 1139.
[7] Matilda died of a fever in May 1152 at Hedingham Castle, Essex, England, and is buried at Faversham Abbey, which she and her husband founded.