Barbara, Barbara wrote: >A direct quote from www.royal.gov.uk: They call her Mathilda, daughter of >Count Baldwin V of Flanders. I'm inclined to take their word for it. >"From 1047 onwards, William (I the Conqueror) successfully dealt with >rebellion inside Normandy involving his kinsmen and threats from >neighbouring nobles, including attempted invasions by his former ally King >Henry I of France in 1054 (the French forces were defeated at the Battle of >Mortemer) and 1057. William's military successes and reputation helped him >to negotiate his marriage to Mathilda, daughter of Count Baldwin V of >Flanders. At the time of his invasion of England, William was a very >experienced and ruthless military commander, ruler and administrator who had >unified Normandy and inspired fear and respect outside his duchy." > If I can add a couple of things regarding the Duchess; Maud and Matilda are variations of the same name. Matilda is the Norman form of the Saxon name Maud, while the Latin spelling Mathildis was often used in official documents and by chroniclers. If only one form of her name were acceptable, one could argue for Mathildis since this is the form used in the earliest documents. It often depends on which source or sources were used as to what the name spelling will be. For example, Europäische Stammtafeln, Band II, Tafel 5 spells her name "Mathilde", but that is not unusual when you consider this work is in German, no doubt a translation of the Latin Mathildis into German. Another consideration is that the period after the Norman Invasion saw Normans and Saxons often using interchangeable spellings for the same or similar names. Many native English used Norman sounding names to better assimilate into the new Norman-dominated society. Maud as Queen sounds more English than Matilda, and so may have been used to help obscure the fact England was being ruled by foreigner invaders. Matilda (Maud, Mathildis) was the only daughter of Baldwin V 'Insulanus,' Count of Flanders and his wife Adelaide (Adellis/Aelide) of France (dau. of Robert II 'the Pious,' King of France). Jim