Empress Matilda

Matilda was sent to Germany as a child to marry the future Emperor Henry V, travelled with him to Italy in 1116, and was crowned empress at St Peter's Basilica. After Henry V died in 1125 and her brother William Adelin drowned in the White Ship disaster of 1120, her father Henry I of England recalled her, married her to Geoffrey of Anjou, and made his court swear loyalty to her as his heir. When Henry I died in 1135, her cousin Stephen seized the throne with the backing of the English Church. She invaded England in 1139, captured Stephen at the Battle of Lincoln in 1141, but faced riots when she tried to claim the crown at Westminster and retreated - never formally crowned, titled only "Lady of the English." After Stephen's forces trapped her at Oxford Castle that winter, she escaped at night across the frozen Thames. The war ground into stalemate until she returned to Normandy in 1148, leaving her son to finish what she started: he became Henry II in 1154, and she spent her final years advising him from Rouen.