Abbeye aux Dames, Normandy, France

The counterpart to Williams’s Abbey, was Queen Matilda’s L'Abbeye aux Dames, built on a similarly grand scale, between 1060 and 1080. Matilda and William had 10 children who survived to adulthood; she was the mother of King William II and King Henry I of England. She also took a particular interest in her children’s education, and her sons and daughters were educated equally.

Matilda and William’s marriage seems to have been a happy one; William is not thought to have had any children outside of the marriage. However things may not have started out well. Legend tells us that William sent a representative to ask for Matilda’s hand in marriage and she told his representative that she was far too high born to consider marrying a bastard. Once William heard her response, he rode from Normandy to Bruges and approached Matilda on her way to church. He is said to have dragged her from her horse by her long braids, and tossed her down in the street in front of her flabbergasted attendants, and rode off. However rocky the start may have been, Matilda gave William a ship before he sailed to invade England, and he left her as Regent of Normandy.

Matilda was born in 1031, and was the second daughter of Count Baldwin V of Flanders and Adela of France. Flanders was of strategic importance to England and most of Europe, it was also a stepping-stone between England and the Continent. Matilda’s maternal grandfather was the King of France. She was also a direct descendant of Alfred the Great of England, whose daughter married the then Count of Flanders.

Matilda of Flanders died in Caen in 1083, and was buried in L'Abbeye aux Dames. Her grave did not fare any better than her husbands though, and the tomb was also desecrated in 1562 during the Wars of Religion. Her remains were moved to a new tomb in 1702, which was also destroyed during the French Revolution. The remains were reinterred in 1819, which is the tomb we see today.

Over the centuries, Matilda’s Ladies Abbey, welcomed Benedictine nuns. Girls of noble families would come to the Abbey to be educated.

Caen did not do well in World War II and 75% of it was destroyed. The rebuilding in the 1950’s left the city with many ugly structures, which have to be looked beyond to find the old architecture.