| Nationality | Percy, Matilda de, countess of Warwick (d. 1204), magnate, was the daughter of William de Percy (d. 1175) and his first wife, Alice of Tonbridge (d. 1148). She became the eventual coheir of her father after the death before 1175 of her brother Alan de Percy. Her sister and coheir was Agnes de Percy, who married Joscelin de Louvain, the brother of Adeliza, second wife of Henry I. Matilda was born at Catton, near Stamford Bridge, Yorkshire, and was married to William, earl of Warwick (d. 1184), as his second wife. In the partition of the Percy estates in 1175 Matilda's husband received the equivalent of twenty knights' fees, while Joscelin and Agnes received twenty-three. Some lands were held in common, but in general it seems that Matilda and Earl William may have received the less profitable upland areas in Yorkshire. During the lifetime of her husband Matilda was actively involved in the administration of her inheritance: on 28 December 1175 she confirmed various lands to Fountains, for example, and she and Warwick jointly granted other charters to that abbey. Between 1175 and 1181 they set about the restoration of her father's foundation of Sawley Abbey in Yorkshire by granting it the hospital of Tadcaster.
In 1185, after her husband's death, Matilda owed 700 marks to the king for inheritance of her father's land, her dower, and to have the freedom from marrying at the king's will. She continued to patronize religious houses after 1184, acquiring a seal to authenticate her documents. She made various benefactions to Fountains Abbey, Sawley Abbey, Kirkstead Abbey, Warter Priory, Stainfield Priory, Lincolnshire, the hospital of St Peter, York, and Tadcaster church. As a dowager she continued to work for the fortunes of Sawley, which had suffered severe depredations at the hands of the Scots, with a renewal of her former grant made with her husband, confirmation of which she sought from Henry II c.1181. As part of her role as a great lay landholder she administered her lands, rewarded servants, and enfeoffed vassals on her lands: for example, at some time between 1175 and 1194 she granted lands to the value of a quarter of a knight's fee to Henry de Puiset for which he gave her 15 silver marks and a palfrey. She had a female chamberlain, Juliana of Warwick, to whom she granted lands in Yorkshire which were subsequently given by Juliana to Fountains. In 1195 she accounted for 40 marks for scutage owing on fifteen knights. On her death, before 13 October in 1204, Matilda was buried at her favourite religious house of Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire. |