The third through ninth chapters take a chronological approach to Matilda's rise as heir apparent, Stephen's usurpation, the resulting civil war, and the eventual coronation of Matilda's son, Henry II. The bulk of the book focuses on the civil war itself, the period when, according to Hanley, Matilda was "almost free" of male control (107).
Chapter 2 sets the scene for Matilda's return to England by providing an overview of English politics leading up to the 1120 White Ship disaster and continuing through Henry I's attempts to gain a new male heir. The chapter attempts to draw a stronger connection between Matilda's early career and her later experiences in the Anglo-Norman kingdom, a commendable but difficult task due to the relative scarcity of German sources focusing on Matilda. Hanley also teases out the sparse chronicle and charter evidence for Matilda's actions as empress, pointing out key moments in her imperial reign such as her sole regency in Italy in 1118. The chapter serves as a good introduction to the politics of the German empire and its neighbors in the early twelfth century. The first chapter, "The Child Empress," seeks to offer a corrective to the scholarly trend of overlooking Matilda's career as the wife and empress of Henry V of Germany (d.
Hanley clearly lays out her goals for this book, seeing it not as a replacement or corrective to Chibnall's 1991 academic monograph on Matilda, but instead as a work intended for a "new and different type of audience" (3). The author displays a strong familiarity with the primary sources of the period, especially the chronicles of William of Malmesbury, Orderic Vitalis, and the anonymous Gesta Stephani. Clanchy, Chris Given-Wilson, Antonia Gransden, Michael Staunton, and others, as inspiration. In the introduction, Hanley demonstrates her own expertise with the academic historiography of the early Anglo-Norman dynasty, citing the work of Marjorie Chibnall, M.T.
Indeed, Hanley deliberately styles Empress Matilda as a model for her descendants, the late medieval and early modern English queens who have proven so popular in books and television. Hanley's book, intended for broad audiences not familiar with the Anglo-Norman period, is a well-written and thoughtful contribution to the growing field of popular medieval women's history, along the lines of works by Helen Castor and Alison Weir. Daughter and only legitimate heir to Henry I of England, Matilda unsuccessfully fought her cousin, King Stephen, for the throne for nineteen years before finally seeing her own son, Henry II, become king in 1154. University of Hanley's Matilda: Empress, Queen, Warrior is an engaging popular history of the life and times of Empress Matilda (1102-67).
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