[1] Daughter of King Malcolm III of Scotland and the Anglo-Saxon princess Margaret of Wessex, Matilda was educated at a convent in southern England, where her aunt Christina was abbess and forced her to wear a veil.

Henry I succeeded his brother William Rufus as king of England in 1100 and quickly proposed marriage to Matilda due to her descent from the Anglo-Saxon House of Wessex, which would help legitimize his rule.

As Queen of England, Matilda embarked on several building projects for transportation and health, took a role in government as mediator to the Church, and led a literary court.

[6][7] When about six years old, Edith and her younger sister Mary were sent to be educated at Romsey Abbey, in southern England, where their maternal aunt Christina was abbess.

During her stay at Romsey and later at Wilton Abbey,[10] the still 13-year-old Edith was much sought-after as a bride, with Hériman of Tournai claiming that even King William II of England considered marrying her.

Edith's paternal uncle Donald usurped the throne of Scotland, and her surviving brothers, Edgar, Alexander, and David, were sent to England to the court of King William II for safety.

[12] Around this time, possibly due to the succession conflict in Scotland between her uncle Donald III, her half-brother Duncan II and her brother Edgar, Edith left the monastery.

In 1093, Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury wrote to the Bishop of Salisbury, ordering that "the daughter of the late King of Scotland be returned to the monastery that she had left".

[17] It is possible that Edith spent time at William Rufus's court, along with her brothers, and that the pair had met there, but Henry could have been introduced to her by his teacher Bishop Osmund.

[16] Henry had been born in England, but a bride with ties to the ancient Wessex line would increase his popularity with the English and help to reconcile the Normans and Anglo-Saxons.

[21] Strong-willed, Edith was ready to fight for her status as a marriageable woman rather than staying in a monastery, despite the fact that her aunt insisted she "was a veiled nun, and that it would be an act of sacrilege to remove her from her convent.

[28] By courtiers, however, she and her husband were soon nicknamed 'Godric and Godiva',[29] two typical English names from before the Norman conquest of England in derision of their more rustic style, especially when compared to William II's flamboyance.

[30] Acting as regent of England during her husband's frequent absences for military campaigns in Normandy and France, Queen Matilda was the designated head of King Henry's court.

[34] Matilda had a great interest in architecture and used her considerable income to instigate the construction of many Norman-style buildings, including Waltham Abbey and Holy Trinity Aldgate.

[35] After her retinue encountered problems crossing the River Lea to get to Barking Abbey, the Queen built the first arched bridge in England at Stratford-le-Bow, with a causeway across the marshes.

[38] The match was attractive to the English king:[37] by marrying his daughter to one of the most prestigious monarchs in Europe, it would reaffirm his own, slightly dubious, status as the youngest son of a new royal house, and it would gain him an ally in his conflicts with France.

[40] The final details of the deal were hammered out at Westminster in June 1109, and Matilda left England in February 1110 to travel to Germany in preparation for her marriage.

[43] Queen Matilda's reputation considerably improved throughout the reign of her grandson Henry II, but she was remembered to a continuously lesser extent between the late 13th and 14th centuries.