#otdhistory

May 1st, 1118- Death of Matilda of Scotland, Queen of England

On this day in history, Matilda of Scotland passed away from unknown causes at the age of 37 or 38. The daughter of Malcom III and Margaret of Wessex, she was a Princess of Scotland and a descendant of the Anglo-Saxon Wessex kings of England. Matilda had wanted to be buried at Holy Trinity in Aldgate, but her husband King Henry I had her buried at Westminster Abbey near Edward the Confessor (a member of the House of Wessex and Matilda’s great-great-uncle). On her tomb is enscribed the words: "Here lies the renowned queen Matilda the second, excelling both young and old of her day. She was for everyone the benchmark of morals and the ornament of life." Reportedly, three of Matilda’s ladies in waiting were so devastated by the queen’s death that they left their posts to join a convent. She had been Queen of England since she married King Henry I in 1100. Upon her marriage, she changed her name from Edith to Matilda (a Norman name), and her marriage to King Henry was a way of tying together the Norman dynasty to the past Anglo-Saxon kings, bringing further legitimacy to the Norman rulers as English kings. During her tenure as queen, Matilda often ruled as regent of England in Henry’s absence and was influential in her own right. While Matilda and Henry were given the Saxon nicknames “Godiva and Godric” by courtiers who thought they were old-fashioned and plain, Matilda was cutting-edge in other ways. As a patron of architecture, she ordered the building of England’s first arched bridge. She was also concerned with public hygiene, and commissioned public bathhouses with running water as well as public lavatories. (This is a good example disproving the myth that medieval people did not know or care about the importance of hygiene, Matilda obviously recognized it was necessary. Her reforms likely were life saving in that they would have prevented spreading of diseases). It was typical for medieval English queens to take part in charity and to found hospitals, but Matilda seems to have had a deep personal interest in public health beyond what was expected, and she also specifically founded multiple hospitals for people with leprosy. Matilda left behind two children, William Aetheling, the heir to the throne; and Matilda, the Holy Roman Empress. William tragically died in 1120 in the White Ship disaster- he drowned trying to save his half sister Matilda FitzRoy, who also perished at sea when the ship struck against a rock and sank. Henry and Matilda’s daughter Empress Matilda would be named heir to the throne, and Empress Matilda would claim the throne upon Henry’s death, but her succession was contested by her cousin Stephen of Blois, who wanted to be king himself. This succession crisis became the civil war known as the Anarchy. One of Stephen’s reasons that Empress Matilda could not be queen of England was that she was illegitimate, his supposed reasoning being that her mother had been a nun. This is a reference to Queen Matilda’s education in a convent under her aunt, the abbess Christina, who forced her to wear a veil and insisted she was in fact a nun (despite Matilda having not taken vows). A council of bishops determined Matilda was not a nun and there are various legends and stories about Matilda or her father King Malcolm ripping off the veil she hated to wear, and destroying it. Evidently, both Matildas refused to allow others to define the paths their lives should be. It is worth wondering whether, in this respect, Empress Matilda was influenced by her mother, the lesser known Queen Matilda.

first picture: from Genealogical chronicle of the English Kings (1275-1300)

Sun Parlor, St. Elizabeths Hospital for the Insane, 1910, National Archives ID 5664435

Old Electric Shock Machine at St. Elizabeths Hospital for the Insane, National Archives ID 5664718.

Operating Room C at St. Elizabeths Hospital for the Insane, 1905, National Archives ID 5664484.

1950s map showing separate housing for black and white patients. National Archives ID 84786240.

Notorious St. Elizabeths Hospital Created #OTD 1852

#OTD in 1852, Congress appropriated funds ($100,000) to create the government hospital for the insane in DC, the first federally funded mental asylum in the nation.

It opened in 1855 with the mission, as defined by mental health reformer/founder Dorothea Dix, of providing "humane care" and "enlightened curative treatment" for "the insane of the Army, Navy, and District of Columbia." Understandably, during the Civil War, when it served as a hospital for wounded soldiers, the soldiers did not want to say they were in an insane asylum, and instead said they were at St. Elizabeths, the colonial name for the land where the hospital is located. Congress officially changed the name in 1916. At its height in the 1940s, the complex covered over 300 acres and housed 7,000 patients! In DC, it’s commonly referred to as “St. E’s.” 

The National Archives holds 428 cubic feet of records from St. E’s from its creation in 1852 through 1987, when control was transferred to the DC government.  These records document dramatic, historic, and unprecedented shifts in the understanding and treatment of mental illness. 

In the early 20th century, St. E’s changed from from a prison-like setting in which physical restraints and sedatives were used to control its patients, to one that resembled a college campus—complete with classes, a beauty parlor, gardens, and recreational activities. 

The records in our stacks document medical testing, experimental procedures including lobotomies, and the introduction of hydrotherapy, pet therapy (including bear cubs!), dance therapy, psychodrama, and Freudian psychoanalysis, or "talk therapy." These records chronicle. dramatic, historic, and unprecedented shifts in the understanding and treatment of mental illness. But they also include the stories and faces of those who suffered and struggled with their demons, and never recovered.

Did you know?

While St. E’s most famous patient was John Hinckley Jr., who shot President  Reagan, two other attempted assassins were also treated there: Richard Lawrence (tried to kill Andrew Jackson) and Charles J. Guiteau (tried to kill James Garfield). 

More information:

Prologue story, Rich, Famous, and Questionably Sane, by Miriam Kleiman

Pieces of History blog, Treating Race at St. Elizabeths Hospital, by Exhibits intern Ben Miller.

Prologue story: The Records of St. Elizabeths Hospital at the National Archives

May 5th, 1316 – Death of Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, Princess of England

On this day of history, Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, Countess of Hereford died in childbirth at thirty-three years old. Soon after her death, her baby Isabella (who had been named after the queen consort, Isabella of France) died alongside her. Mother and daughter had passed away at Elizabeth’s husband Humphrey de Bohun’s estate in Quendon, Essex. They were interred together in Waltham Abbey Church in Essex, alongside members of her husband’s de Bohun family. Elizabeth left behind her second husband Humphrey, and seven of their surviving children. (Two other children, Margaret and Humphrey, had died during their early childhoods in 1304). Her parents, Edward I of England and Eleanor of Castile, had had many children, but by the time of Elizabeth’s death, only a few of her siblings still lived. King Edward II, who had been very close to Elizabeth since their early childhood when they were each other’s closest companions, outlived Elizabeth; as well as her sisters Margaret of England and Mary of Woodstock.  Elizabeth’s stepmother and her father's second wife, Margaret of France, also outlived her; the two had befriended one another and were close (they were separated in age by only a few years). Elizabeth’s first child, Margaret de Bohun, was named for Queen Margaret. Two of her half siblings, Thomas of Brotherton and Edward of Woodstock, also outlived her. In the years after Elizabeth’s death, Humphrey was said by contemporaries to have a “gloomy” personality that many people in modern days have interpreted to be depression as a result of his grief. It seems that, while advantageous, Elizabeth and Humphrey’s marriage had been more than a political match and that they had truly wanted to marry one another. This is in stark contrast to Elizabeth’s first marriage to Jan of Holland. The two of them had been betrothed since she was three and he was a baby. When she was married to him at Ipswish Priory at age fifteen in 1297, Elizabeth refused to leave England to join her husband in his home. This infuriated King Edward I, who in a rage threw Elizabeth’s coronet into a fire, damaging the jewels. Jan and Edward spent a long time convincing Elizabeth to leave England. She eventually did, but Jan died in 1299, likely of dysentery, though some thought he was poisoned. In any case, her short first marriage having ended, Elizabeth soon returned home to England. Elizabeth’s name, while seemingly ubiquitous for an English princess, was actually an unusual choice. She was the first person in the English royal family to bear the name, and none of her relatives were called Elizabeth, so she was not named after anyone in particular. It is unknown why her parents chose this name for her. However, the name Elizabeth, was not, on the other hand, a virtually unknown or unused name in this time period. (One of Elizabeth’s children was named after the classical heroic figure Aeneas, so it seems she also liked unusual names. Possibly, this name choice was inspired by her children's Sicilian-Greek tutor, Master Digines, who taught them a classical education.) Elizabeth was born in Rhuddlan Castle in Wales, during her father’s infamous conquest of the country. This is why she is known as Elizabeth of Rhuddlan.

May 7th (sometime before 160)-  Birth of Julia Maesa

On this day in history, sometime before the year 160, Julia Maesa was born in the city of Emesa (currently Homs, Syria). Her father Julius Bassanius was a high-ranking priest of the sun god Elagabalus and a member of the royal family of Emesa. While we do not know the exact year she was born, we know the day she was born because she was deified (an honor frequently bestowed on many Romans of influence, as she would become). Her birth date appears in the Feriale Duranum, a papyrus calendar found at a military garrison, as a religious holiday.

In 187, Julia Maesa’s sister Julia Domna married Roman senator Septimus Severus, founder of the Severan Dynasty. Maesa, along with her husband, the Syrian nobleman Julius Avitus Alexianus, and their young daughters, Julia Soaemias and Julia Avita Mamea, came along with her to Rome. They lived at the imperial court, though Julius Avitus often had to travel across the Roman Empire for work; Mamea did not accompany him. Mamea and her family became very wealthy and powerful in Rome; even more so when Septimus Severus became the emperor in 193, taking over Rome with great support after the previous emperor had been killed. Septimus Severus and Domna’s sons Caracalla and Geta would succeed as co-emperors. But Caracalla had Geta killed in 211; he died in Domna’s arms. Caracalla would be conspired against, killed, and replaced by the prominent Roman Macrinus. Domna, having lost both her sons, her immense influence in Rome, and also dying of breast cancer, starved herself to death in 217. Macrinus exiled Maesa back to Emesa along with her family.

This was not the last Rome would see of Julia Maesa or the Severan Dynasty. Many people in Emesa were dissatisfied with Macrinus and still held loyalty to the memory of Septimus Severus. Maesa decided that she needed to choose a male candidate close to her for the position of emperor to secure her position and put her family back in power. Maesa’s fourteen year old grandson- Julia Soaemias’ son Varius Avitus Bassanius, a priest of Elagabalus- was who she settled on. (Bassanius is known as Elagabalus, after the god he worshipped, though he was only called this name posthumously). To delegitimize Macrinus’ claim to the position of emperor, she made her own surprising (and untrue) claim- that Bassanius was the illegitimate child of Soaemias by Caracalla, thus an emperor’s son. Maesa gained a great deal of support from Syrian nobles and Roman soldiers alike in Emesa, including that of a Roman general, Gannys. Maesa’s risks paid off. Macrinus’ supporters turned against him in great numbers, and Gannys defeated his forces at the Battle of Antioch in 218, where reportedly, Maesa and Soaemias joined the battlefield to rally the soldiers. In Antioch, young Bassanius was declared emperor.

In 219, the imperial retinue traveled from Antioch to Rome. Maesa advised Bassanius to wear Roman clothing, and keep to Roman traditions. Bassanius was very devoted to his religion, and was not easily swayed in matters of faith. But in other respects, Maesa and Soaemias were able to successfully influence him, and held a lot of power during his reign. Despite never marrying an emperor and technically not being the empress, Maesa was nonetheless given the title Augusta and had a position in the Senate, as did Soaemias. Bassanius’ rule caused a great deal of religious controversy due to his steadfast devotion to the god Elagabalus, which many Romans did not approve of, disliking the idea that the emperor of Rome would follow a "foreign" religion. Maesa often disagreed with him on religious matters and other issues, such as his favoritism towards a charioteer, Hierocles, who he wanted not only to marry but bestow upon the title caesar. To try and stabilize state matters, Mamea convinced Bassanius to adopt her other grandson, Julia Avita Mamea’s twelve year old son Alexander Severus. This was considered a wise decision by many, who no longer felt confident in Bassanius’ potential as a ruler. Bassanius soon began to see Alexander Severus as a threat to his rule, as the younger boy gained many supporters. This rivalry divided even the family, with Bassanius and Soaemias on one side and Maesa, Mamea, and Alexander on the other. Bassanius attempted an assassination on Alexander.  In 222, The Praetorian Guards, dissatisfied with the emperor, killed Bassanius as well as Soaemias, who died in one another’s arms. Bassanius’ rejection of Maesa’s advice and pushing her out of influence is seen by some as one of the causes of his downfall. It is even questioned whether Maesa herself had a hand in the assassination of her own grandson and daughter.

Regardless of whether or not she was involved, Maesa quickly returned to business upon the ascension of Alexander Severus as emperor. Alexander was easier to be led, and Maesa and Mamea were very influential in his reign. They chose counselors for the young emperor and reversed many of Bassanius’ decisions, including some of his more controversial religious edicts.

Julia Maesa died sometime between November of 224 and 227, of unknown causes. The earliest mention of her as a goddess is on the Acta Arvalia of November 7th, 224, marble tablets kept to record religious occasions of the Arval priesthood, who made sacrifices for the harvest.  Her daughter Mamea continued to have a prominent role in the rule of Alexander Severus, though many of his failures and unpopular decisions were blamed on her and her influence over him. While on campaign in Germany in 235, Mamea and Alexander were killed together by soldiers, and the Severan Dynasty that Maesa had worked so hard to bring back to power and keep in power ended. It can be argued that it is a testament to Julia Maesa’s political acumen that she managed to die a quiet and unremarkable death of likely natural causes, rather than assassination, like so many other members of her family and prominent people of the times she lived in.  

first image: Coin with bust of Julia Maesa, 218-222, collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

May 18th (possibly), 1302 – death of Arnaud de Gabaston

This day in history is considered the latest date that medieval knight Arnaud de Gabaston would have died on. He seems to have died sometime late in May 1302. While it is not known how he died, he was buried in Winchester Cathedral with a tomb bearing his effigy. Many have asked-  how did a little-known knight from Gascony end up laid to rest in a cathedral in England? Arnaud was not only a knight, but a baron of Béarn in the Duchy of Gascony. Born in the mid-13th century, his home was a territory under English rule. He was in the service of Viscount Gaston VII of Gascony. Arnaud also was a jurat, acting as a judge and making legal decisions. He was the second husband of prominent landowner Claramonde de Marsan, who married him soon after the death of her first husband. At the time of the marriage she may have been pregnant with her first husband Arnaud de Lescun’s child- notably, the boy was named Arnaud-Guilhem de Marsan, taking Claramonde’s surname and not Arnaud’s. Further evidence that Arnaud-Guilhelm may have been de Lescun’s child is that when Claramonde had another child, Piers, Arnaud chose him as his heir. Arnaud and Claramonde were married by June 30th, 1272- this was the date that, together, they acknowledged their debts to Prince Edward of England (who would become King Edward I later that year). One of Claramonde’s castles, Louvigny, was given over to England until their debts could be paid off. As a baron of Béarn, and also as Claramonde’s indebted husband (and later widower), Arnaud was placed in a position of having to be an English vassal.  In 1273, Arnaud and three other Gascon knights were kept as hostages by Edward I to ensure Gaston VII’s loyalty to England after a rebellion. In 1282 and 1283, Arnaud went to England and fought in Wales during Edward I’s infamous conquest.