Fl. 12th century. Mother of Archbishop Thomas Becket, who was martyred in 1170. Historian Kate Norgate, writing in the Dictionary of National Biography, stated that Matilda was "a burgher-woman from Caen," but there is a legend that attaches to her name. The narrative asserts that, when the merchant Gilbert Becket was traveling in the Holy Land, he "was taken prisoner by a Saracen emir . . . . After a confinement of a year and a half, he effected his escape by the assistance of the emir's daughter, Matilda or Maud, who had fallen in love with him, and had been converted to Christianity by his persuasions. The journey of the fair Saracen to England, knowing but two words of English--'Gilbert' and 'London'--her meeting with her lover, her baptism, and her marriage, form one of the most interesting romances of the middle ages." (Source: Watney, John. Some Account of the Hospital of St. Thomas of Acon, in the Cheap, London, and of the Plate of the Mercers' Company. London: Blades, 1906. 8-9.)
Fl. 12th century. Mother of Archbishop Thomas Becket, who was martyred in 1170. Historian Kate Norgate, writing in the Dictionary of National Biography, stated that Matilda was "a burgher-woman from Caen," but there is a legend that attaches to her name. The narrative asserts that, when the merchant Gilbert Becket was traveling in the Holy Land, he "was taken prisoner by a Saracen emir . . . . After a confinement of a year and a half, he effected his escape by the assistance of the emir's daughter, Matilda or Maud, who had fallen in love with him, and had been converted to Christianity by his persuasions. The journey of the fair Saracen to England, knowing but two words of English--'Gilbert' and 'London'--her meeting with her lover, her baptism, and her marriage, form one of the most interesting romances of the middle ages." (Source: Watney, John. Some Account of the Hospital of St. Thomas of Acon, in the Cheap, London, and of the Plate of the Mercers' Company. London: Blades, 1906. 8-9.)
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