Matilda of Boulogne inherits the county

April 17, 1128

Matilda I inherited the County of Boulogne and, with her husband Stephen of Blois, began assembling the cross-Channel territorial base that would soon allow Stephen to seize the English throne. Her diplomatic skill would later rescue her husband more than once during the Anarchy, negotiating truces and raising armies with an effectiveness that contemporaries, uncomfortable praising a woman's political acumen, attributed to divine providence.