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Mathilde, Abbess of Essen
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Mathilde, Abbess of Essen
Mathilde (also Mahthild or Matilda; 949 – 5 November 1011) was Abbess of Essen Abbey from 973 to her death. She was one of the most important abbesses in the history of Essen. She was responsible for the abbey, for its buildings, its precious relics, liturgical vessels and manuscripts, its political contacts, and for commissioning translations and overseeing education. In the unreliable list of Essen Abbesses from 1672, she is listed as the second Abbess Mathilde and as a result, she is sometimes called "Mathilde II" to distinguish her from the earlier abbess of the same name, who is meant to have governed Essen Abbey from 907 to 910 but whose existence is disputed.
Written sources on Mathilde's life and especially on her works are few. Concerning the history of Essen Abbey from 845 to 1150 there exist only some twenty documents in total, not one of which is a contemporary chronicle or biography. While information about Mathilde's life is known on account of her membership in the Liudolfing family, her deeds are only attested by a total of ten references in charters or chronicles from other places. Recently, scholars have attempted to draw conclusions about Mathilde's character from the artworks and building projects which are attributed to her.
Mathilde belonged to the first family of the Holy Roman Empire, as the daughter of Duke Liudolf of Swabia and Ida, a daughter of Duke Hermann I of Swabia, a member of the Conradine dynasty. Her father was the eldest son of Otto I of the Ottonian or Liudolfing dynasty and his Anglo-Saxon wife Eadgyth. Her brother, Otto was Duke of Swabia from 973 and also Duke of Bavaria, from 976 until he died unexpectedly in 982. Her birth was recorded in Regino of Prüm's Chronicon by a continuator before 967, possibly Adalbert, a monk of Trier, under the year 949: "That same year a daughter, Mathilde, was born to the king's son, Liudolf". She was the granddaughter of Holy Roman Emperor Otto the Great.
Mathilde was probably involved with the abbey from her youth, perhaps being educated and trained there from 953, or alternatively from 957 (the year of her father's death). Essen Abbey, founded in 845 by Altfrid, Bishop of Hildesheim and Gerswid, who became the first abbess, had been connected with the Liudolfings since its foundation. After a fire in 947, which destroyed all documents about the early history of the abbey, Abbess Hathwig had had the old rights and privileges of the Abbey confirmed by Emperor Otto I and further obtained immunity and exemption, so that the abbey achieved Imperial immediacy and was only spiritually subordinate to the Pope. The entrustment of a princess' education to the abbey would have enhanced its prestige further, putting it on an equal footing with the Abbeys of Gandersheim and Quedlinburg, as a Liudolfing Hauskloster (Dynastic convent). Probably it was already decided at this time that Mathilde would later be abbess; this decision was probably made in 966 at the latest, when Mathilde is first attested in documentary evidence—a record from 1 March 966, in which her grandfather granted a parcel of land (a curtis) to the canonesses at her request. This gift probably reflects Mathilde's formal entry into the community.
Mathilde received a comprehensive education appropriate to her status, probably from Abbess Hathwig and Abbess Ida Aside from the Gospels, the books at Essen included the religious authors Prudentius, Boethius, and Alcuin, as well as secular works like Terence and other classical authors which were not only reading material but also the basis of the education of the girls entrusted to the abbey. Through these, Mathilde was well prepared for her office. On the reported inscription of the Marsus Shrine it was stated that she could write in Latin and had also mastered Greek to an extent.
Mathilde is first named in a source as Abbess of Essen in 973. This document, issued in Aachen on the 23 July 973 reads:
Otto confirmed to the Essen cloister founded by Bishop Altfried, at the request of Abbess Mathilde and in accordance with the advice of the Archbishop Gero and of Otto his kinsman, just as his predecessors: the free choice of abbess, the donations made by earlier lords and other believers, which were listed by name and the property titles which were lost in the cloister fire, and immunity with the right of the abbess to choose a Vogt to administer justice to the people of the cloister when necessary.
The individuals mentioned in this document are Emperor Otto II, and Gero, the important Bishop of Cologne, to whom the Gero Cross owes its name, while "Otto his kinsman" is Mathilde's brother Otto of Swabia. At this point Mathilde was about 24 years old and thus still under the age at which she could technically receive appointment as abbess.
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Mathilde, Abbess of Essen
Mathilde (also Mahthild or Matilda; 949 – 5 November 1011) was Abbess of Essen Abbey from 973 to her death. She was one of the most important abbesses in the history of Essen. She was responsible for the abbey, for its buildings, its precious relics, liturgical vessels and manuscripts, its political contacts, and for commissioning translations and overseeing education. In the unreliable list of Essen Abbesses from 1672, she is listed as the second Abbess Mathilde and as a result, she is sometimes called "Mathilde II" to distinguish her from the earlier abbess of the same name, who is meant to have governed Essen Abbey from 907 to 910 but whose existence is disputed.
Written sources on Mathilde's life and especially on her works are few. Concerning the history of Essen Abbey from 845 to 1150 there exist only some twenty documents in total, not one of which is a contemporary chronicle or biography. While information about Mathilde's life is known on account of her membership in the Liudolfing family, her deeds are only attested by a total of ten references in charters or chronicles from other places. Recently, scholars have attempted to draw conclusions about Mathilde's character from the artworks and building projects which are attributed to her.
Mathilde belonged to the first family of the Holy Roman Empire, as the daughter of Duke Liudolf of Swabia and Ida, a daughter of Duke Hermann I of Swabia, a member of the Conradine dynasty. Her father was the eldest son of Otto I of the Ottonian or Liudolfing dynasty and his Anglo-Saxon wife Eadgyth. Her brother, Otto was Duke of Swabia from 973 and also Duke of Bavaria, from 976 until he died unexpectedly in 982. Her birth was recorded in Regino of Prüm's Chronicon by a continuator before 967, possibly Adalbert, a monk of Trier, under the year 949: "That same year a daughter, Mathilde, was born to the king's son, Liudolf". She was the granddaughter of Holy Roman Emperor Otto the Great.
Mathilde was probably involved with the abbey from her youth, perhaps being educated and trained there from 953, or alternatively from 957 (the year of her father's death). Essen Abbey, founded in 845 by Altfrid, Bishop of Hildesheim and Gerswid, who became the first abbess, had been connected with the Liudolfings since its foundation. After a fire in 947, which destroyed all documents about the early history of the abbey, Abbess Hathwig had had the old rights and privileges of the Abbey confirmed by Emperor Otto I and further obtained immunity and exemption, so that the abbey achieved Imperial immediacy and was only spiritually subordinate to the Pope. The entrustment of a princess' education to the abbey would have enhanced its prestige further, putting it on an equal footing with the Abbeys of Gandersheim and Quedlinburg, as a Liudolfing Hauskloster (Dynastic convent). Probably it was already decided at this time that Mathilde would later be abbess; this decision was probably made in 966 at the latest, when Mathilde is first attested in documentary evidence—a record from 1 March 966, in which her grandfather granted a parcel of land (a curtis) to the canonesses at her request. This gift probably reflects Mathilde's formal entry into the community.
Mathilde received a comprehensive education appropriate to her status, probably from Abbess Hathwig and Abbess Ida Aside from the Gospels, the books at Essen included the religious authors Prudentius, Boethius, and Alcuin, as well as secular works like Terence and other classical authors which were not only reading material but also the basis of the education of the girls entrusted to the abbey. Through these, Mathilde was well prepared for her office. On the reported inscription of the Marsus Shrine it was stated that she could write in Latin and had also mastered Greek to an extent.
Mathilde is first named in a source as Abbess of Essen in 973. This document, issued in Aachen on the 23 July 973 reads:
Otto confirmed to the Essen cloister founded by Bishop Altfried, at the request of Abbess Mathilde and in accordance with the advice of the Archbishop Gero and of Otto his kinsman, just as his predecessors: the free choice of abbess, the donations made by earlier lords and other believers, which were listed by name and the property titles which were lost in the cloister fire, and immunity with the right of the abbess to choose a Vogt to administer justice to the people of the cloister when necessary.
The individuals mentioned in this document are Emperor Otto II, and Gero, the important Bishop of Cologne, to whom the Gero Cross owes its name, while "Otto his kinsman" is Mathilde's brother Otto of Swabia. At this point Mathilde was about 24 years old and thus still under the age at which she could technically receive appointment as abbess.
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