dispensation of the emperor, was allowed
to inherit directly her father's vast estate, which she shared at first
with her brother Frederick and her sister Beatrice. Generally, fiefs
reverted to the emperor and remained within his custody for five
years--were held in probate, as it were--before the lawful heirs were
allowed to enter into possession of their property. Frederick and
Beatrice were short-lived, however, and it was not many years before
Matilda was left as sole heir to this great domain; she was not entirely
alone, as she had the watchful care and guidance of her mother, who
assisted her in every emergency.

As the result of this condition of affairs, both mother and daughter
were soon sought in marriage by many ardent and ambitious suitors, each
presenting his claims for preferment and doing all in his power to bring
about an alliance which meant so much for the future. Godfrey of
Lorraine, who was not friendly to the party of the Emperor Henry III.,
while on a raid in Italy, pressed his suit with such insistency that the
widowed Beatrice promised to marry him and at the same time gave her
consent to a betrothal between Matilda and Godfrey's hunchback son, who
also bore the name of Godfrey. This marriage with an unfriendly prince,
after so many years of imperial favor, and this attempt at a
consolidation of power for both present and future, so angered Henry
that he insisted that Beatrice must have yielded to violence in this
disposition of her affairs. Finally, in spite of her repeated denials,
she was made a prisoner for her so-called insubordination, while Matilda
was compelled to find safety in the great fortress at Canossa. In the
meantime, Godfrey had gone back to Lorraine, more powerful than ever, to
stir up trouble in the empire.

In this same year, 1054, Henry III. died, and his son, Henry IV., won
over by the prayers of Pope Victor II., made peace with Godfrey and
restored Beatrice to liberty. They, being more than grateful to Victor
for this kindly intervention, invited him to come to their stately
palace in Florence and tarry with them for a while. From this time on,
in the period when Matilda was growing into womanhood, the real seat of
the papal power was not in Rome, but in Florence, and Godfrey's palace
became an acknowledged centre of ecclesiastical activity.

Matilda was a girl of a mystic temperament, credulous, it is true, and
somewhat superstitious like all the other people of her tim