Matilda of Boulogne

Matilda was Countess of Boulogne from 1125 and Queen of England from the accession of her husband Stephen in 1136 until her death in 1152. She supported Stephen in his struggle for the English throne against her cousin Empress Matilda. 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. Under the agreement that settled the civil war, the Queen's children did not inherit the English throne; however, her three surviving children ruled Boulogne in turn as Eustace IV, William I, and Marie I.