in 1049 by Pope Leo the Ninth, in which Baldwin Count of Flanders
is forbidden to give his daughter to William the Norman. This
implies that the marriage was already thought of, and further that
it was looked on as uncanonical. The bride whom William sought,
Matilda daughter of Baldwin the Fifth, was connected with him by
some tie of kindred or affinity which made a marriage between them
unlawful by the rules of the Church. But no genealogist has yet
been able to find out exactly what the canonical hindrance was. It
is hard to trace the descent of William and Matilda up to any
common forefather. But the light which the story throws on
William's character is the same in any case. Whether he was
seeking a wife or a kingdom, he would have his will, but he could
wait for it. In William's doubtful position, a marriage with the
daughter of the Count of Flanders would be useful to him in many
ways; and Matilda won her husband's abiding love and trust.
Strange tales are told of William's wooing. Tales are told also of
Matilda's earlier love for the Englishman Brihtric, who is said to
have found favour in her eyes when he came as envoy from England to
her father's court. All that is certain is that the marriage had
been thought of and had been forbidden before the next important
event in William's life that we have to record.

Was William's Flemish marriage in any way connected with his hopes
of succession to the English crown? Had there been any available
bride for him in England, it might have been for his interest to
seek for her there. But it should be noticed, though no ancient
writer points out the fact, that Matilda was actually descended
from Alfred in the female line; so that William's children, though
not William himself, had some few drops of English blood in their
veins. William or his advisers, in weighing every chance which