Matilda of Tuscany (1046-1115) was one of the most significant female figures in the European Middle Ages. Matilda was the countess and duchess of a vast domain, stretching from Lombardy to the region of Latium, which she ruled in her own right.  While a vassal of the German emperors and related to them by blood bonds, she assisted seven popes, thus determining the fate of the Investiture Controversy and, eventually, of the entire Christendom. Matilda successfully defended the reform party and defeated the powerful army of Emperor Henry IV. Although the countess’s exceptional story empowered her alone, as ruler in her domains, she never acted in isolation. Human relationships were at the center of Matilda’s existence; friendship was an essential way to gain political alliances, advance the ideals of reform, and access the Divine.

I have shown how Matilda’s concept of friendship was based upon models provided by exemplary women who, before the countess, were vigorously involved in the defense of church reform and absorbed in intense correspondence with passionate reformers. My work demonstrates how these models introduced a new perception of lay female rulership and spirituality and were crucial examples for Matilda.

However, Matilda’s extraordinary life, position of power, remarkable devotion, and particular political setting of the Investiture Controversy would encourage the countess and her most important spiritual and political advisors to seek a redefinition of the meaning of political and spiritual friendship. Indeed, I have shown that Matilda’s intense and reciprocal relationships with the members of her entourage and, most of all, with Pope Gregory VII, Anselm II bishop of Lucca, and Anselm of Bec and Canterbury served as significant triggers for the new language of friendship and new spiritual developments, which transformed the image of women, renovated the language of prayers, and set in motion a change of religious sentiments.