Blessed Matilda, Abbess of Quedlinburg

Matilda (December 955 – February 999), also known as Mathilda and Mathilde, was a German regent, and the first Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg. She served as regent of Germany for her father and brother during his absence in 967, and as regent during the minority of her nephew from 984. She was the daughter of Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, and his second wife, Adelaide of Italy. Her grandmother, Saint Matilda, had founded Quedlinburg Abbey as a house of secular canonesses in 936. In April 966, in a splendid ceremony requested by her father, the eleven-year-old granddaughter and namesake of the foundress was elected suae metropolitanae sibi haereditariae. A year after becoming abbess, Matilda was assigned as regent of the kingdom when her father and brother Otto went to Italy. As regent, Matilda held a reforming synod at Dornberg, concerning the church in Germany. In 968, the monk Widukind of Corvey dedicated to Matilda his opus magnum Die Sachsengeschichte, in which he called her the mistress of all Europe. The book, that described the history of the Saxons' struggle against the Magyars up to the death of Otto I in 973, also served as a kind of manual for ruling, including advices on how to deal with deceit and betrayal. In 984, she held an imperial diet at her abbey. At the diet, Henry the Wrangler questioned the right of Matilda's nephew to succeed his father. Matilda successfully defeated his claims and secured the election of her nephew as Holy Roman Emperor, therefore "holding the empire together". A contemporary chronicler described her regency as being "without female levity". Matilda succeeded in restoring peace and authority by leading an army against the "barbarians". In 985, Wallhausen (now in Saxony-Anhalt) became her private property. In 984, Matilda, her mother, Empress Adelaide, and her sister-in-law, Empress Theophanu, became co-regents for Matilda's young nephew, Otto III.