Matilda

Biography

The eldest of the children he had with Henry I the Fowler, king of Germany (919-936), was called Otto and he became emperor of Germany; the second, Henry, was Duke of Bavaria; and his daughter Hedwig was the mother of Hugh Capet, first king of France. Queen Matilda, who was an example of piety, was locked up in a convent in Westphalia by her two sons when their father died. To the princes and prelates who complained to her about the injustice of the children, she said: Leave them, God uses them to do His will. May God be blessed and bless you." Over time, they returned her freedom and all her property, so she took the opportunity to build hospitals, churches and monasteries, among which was Polden, with more than three thousand monks, and Northausen (Thuringia), where the queen spent the last five years of her life as another nun.