318 Theory as to the Origin of the Crosses 



William's son and grandson, Alexander II. and III. ; during which space 

 the nation enjoyed greater happiness than perhaps it ever did before 

 or after. ^ 



And soon afterwards the king [Henry I] took for his wife Maud the 

 daughter of Malcolm king of Scotland and of the good queen Margaret, 

 King Edward's kinswoman, of the true royal Une of England.^ 



The shout of the EngHsh multitude when he [Anselm] set the crown 

 on Matilda's brow drowned the murmur of Churchman or of baron. . . . 

 For the first time since the Conquest, an English sovereign sat on the 

 Enghsh throne. The blood of Cerdic and yElfred was to blend itself 

 with that of Hrolf and the Conqueror.^ 



Like her mother, she [Matilda] was very pious, wearing a hair shirt, 

 going barefoot round the churches in Lent, and devoting herself especially 

 to the care of lepers, . . . besides building a hospital for them at St. 

 Giles-in-the-Fields, London. ... In her convent days she had ' learned 

 and practised the Uterary art,' and six letters written by her to Anselm, 

 ... as well as one to Pope Paschal II, . . . display a scholarship unusual 

 among laymen, and probably still more among women, in her day. . . . 

 She was a warm patroness of verse and song ; she gave lavishly to mus- 

 ical clerks, to scholars, poets, and strangers of all sorts, who were 

 drawn to her court by the fame of her bounty, and who spread her 

 praises far and wide. . . . Robert of Gloucester over and over again 

 ascribes to her a direct, personal, and most beneficial influence on 

 the condition of England under Henry I, and finally declares that 

 ' the goodness that she did here to England cannot all be here Avritten, 

 nor by any one understood.'* 



Matilda appears to have been very amiable, very devout, very fond 

 of music and poetry, very vain, and rather pretty ; not a perfect, but 

 a feminine and lovable character, which earned her the title of ' Good 

 Queen Maud.'^ 



An intimate connection with the Court of England for upwards of a 

 quarter of a century, had effectually ' rubbed off the Scottish rust ' 

 from David— to use the words of his contemporary Malmesbury— con- 



^ Turgot, p. 35, note. 



'^ Anglo-Saxon Chron. s. ann. 1100. 



3 Green, Short History of the English People, Chap. 2, Sec. 6. 



■* Diet. Nat. Biog. 37. 53. It may be worth noting that the date of her 

 death is entered in the Chartulary of Chartres Cathedral, as donor of a 

 new lead roof, a chasuble bordered with gold, forty pounds for the use of 

 the monks, etc. Cf. below, p. 128. 



^ Eobertson 1. 153, note. 



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