Mathilda of Flanders’s coronation and anointing on the feast of Pentecost, 11 May, 1068 at Westminster was unlike any other seen in England before and included innovative triumphalist elements confected solely for her. It was also the first time (as far as we know) that the ritual was performed for a queen who was noticeably pregnant. Mathilda was carrying her last child, the future Henry I, as she became a divinely ordained ruler through anointing and coronation. Not only was Mathilda the originator of Norman queenship on Pentecost in 1068, she embodied the new Norman royal dynasty highlighted by the contours of her own form.

Acknowledging my debt to the work of Johanna Dale, I consider two important elements of Mathilda’s royal inauguration: the date that she chose for her rite and the personnel who might have had a hand in crafting it. The day of Pentecost was one of the highest holy days of the year, second only to Easter in importance in the liturgical calendar. The year 1068 signalled a permanent end to the honeymoon period – if there indeed was one – between the tattered remains of the English aristocracy and the new Norman administration. One fundamental assumption underpins my analysis: that Mathilda of Flanders, duchess of Normandy and first Norman queen of England, had a say in her own coronation rite. I do not maintain that Mathilda planned her liturgy alone any more than William the Conqueror did his. The ministers and officials who served them both brought enormous expertise to this ceremony. I will argue, in fact, that the nascent Norman royal court was unusually well served by a talented group of liturgists. It would have been absurd, however, to ignore the expertise the Norman queen had in such abundance at her command. But there is not direct evidence about the authors of Mathilda’s coronation. In any mystery, the foundational question must always be cui bono? Who benefits? The key beneficiary of Mathilda’s coronation was undeniably the queen herself. Secondarily, it also served William and the entire Anglo-Norman administration at the head of which they both stood. Failing any evidence to the contrary, then, I propose that Mathilda made choices about her own royal inauguration.