Fiction
Matilda’s Story
by Elisa Guidelli
Matilda of Canossa (Italian: Matilde di Canossa, 1046-1115) is a fascinating yet rarely mentioned character, in spite of her great importance in the history of the European Middle Ages. Countess of a vast buffer territory between the Lazio region and Garda that held the balance between Papacy and Empire, she soon entered into the ongoing conflict between the two. Initially taking on the role of peacemaker (also because she was cousin to Henry IV on her mother’s side), as demonstrated by the famous “meeting of Canossa” (28th January 1077), she subsequently proved an open supporter of the papacy and the Reformation. With this choice, she put her powers – granted to her mainly by former emperors – and her very supremacy at stake: after Henry IV declared her a traitoress, cities rebelled against her rule, and many of her territorial possessions were overrun by the imperial army. A woman of great power, the unconventional Matilda of Canossa found herself at the heart of an epoch-making conflict, extolled by one faction (who called her “the Daughter of St. Peter” and “the Handmaid of the Lord”) and slandered by the other (who accused her of being a whore, and Pope Gregory VII’s lover). Her gender played a key role here: though entitled under Longobard law to inherit her family’s holdings, she still needed a man to support and vouch for her. This led her to marry for the second time – another doomed marriage, this time to a young boy; it also led her to adopt Count Guido Guerra as a son and, lastly, to surrender to the new emperor, Henry V, who – in exchange for the emperor’s appointment as her heir – once again acknowledged her authority over the northern Italian part of the Canossa holding, by virtue of their commonly known kinship. Thus, it wasn’t until the end of her earthly life that Matilda was able to devote herself to prayer and meditation, which she had been drawn to since childhood – an inclination discouraged, however, by Pope Gregory VII himself, due to her invaluable political and military role in support of the papacy. Following her death in 1115, her memory – immortalised by the monk Donizone – was consolidated with the Church’s claim to the donation of her possessions, as well as a series of myths and legends – both learned and popular in nature – that began spreading in the Late Middle Ages all the way down to our times, transforming her into a legendary character within and without the lands of the Po Valley. Recalling her life thus gives us the chance to open a window onto a crucial period in medieval history, and on the men and women who lived through it. THEMES, CONTENT AND STRUCTURE:A tale of life, losses, love, struggles, downfall and redemption, violence and passion… these are the themes running through this historical novel devoted to Matilda. A work of historical fiction that reconstructs the key events in her life, from childhood to youth and on through adulthood and old age, in an attempt to restore the character’s great power.
