Countess Palatine Matilda of Germany of Lotharingia

  General Notes:

Shortly after her birth, Matilda was sent to Essen Abbey, where her older cousin Matilde was Abbess, Matilda was educated here. It was presumed that Matilda would stay in the Abbey and become an Abbess like here older sisters Adelheid I, Abbess of Quedlinburg and Sophia I, Abbess of Gandersheim.

However, Matilda lived a different life than her two sisters, she was to marry Ezzo, Count Palatine of Lotharingia. According to the Historian Thietmar of Merseburg Matilda's brother Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor did not like the idea of the marriage at first. The family gave the couple large gifts to secure the adequate standard of living. The Empress Theophanu had consented to the marriage. Ezzo then took Matilda out of the Abbey where she had lived. However, Abbess Mathilde had vainly refused to surrender the girl. Later romantic embellishments even claimed Ezzo had previously been secretly in love with the young Matilda. Ezzo took Matilda from the Abbey to marry her.

Matilda's mother Theophanu had always agreed to the wedding but Matilda's cousin and teacher Abbess Matilde did not agree to the marriage. Without the consent of Matilda's mother the marriage would not happen with certainty, it is even likely that this marriage was to ensure the power of Otto III. The family had extensive estates in the Lower Rhine and Mosel. Ezzo's mother came from the House of Swabia and so Ezzo laid claims to these lands. Matilda received them out of Ottonian possessions and gave them to her husband.

Matilda married Count Palatine Ezzo of Lotharingia, son of Count Palatine Herman of Lotharingia I and Heylwig von Dillingen. (Count Palatine Ezzo of Lotharingia was born circa 955 and died on 21 Mar 1034.)