A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Matilda, of Scotland
MATILDA,
Of Scotland, daughter of Malcolm Canmore, King of Scotland, and Margaret Atheling. a descendant of the Anglo-Saxon line of England's kings, was a beautiful and accomplished lady. She married Henry the First, and proved a wise and excellent queen. She was charitable to the poor, and always watchful to do what was most useful for her people. She caused bridges to be built, and roads to be made and repaired, while she acted as regent during her husband's absence in Normandy. As King Henry was obliged to pass most of his time in Normandy, then belonging to the English crown, in order to suppress the continual revolts of his subjects, the good Matilda was left to govern England in her own way. She was always popular; and at her decease. In 1118, she was "passionately lamented by every class of the people, to whom her virtues and wisdom had rendered her inexpressibly dear." She was mother of the Empress Matilda.