Matilda II of Boulogne

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Mahaut or Matilda II of Boulogne (a.k.a Mathilde, Maud de Dammartin) was sovereign Countess of Boulogne from 1216 to ca. 1260 and 1247-53 the queen consort of Portugal.

Matilda was the daughter of Ida, Countess of Boulogne and her husband and co-ruler Renaud de Dammartin, count of Boulogne. She succeeded her mother in 1216. She first married in 1223 Philippe Hurepel, younger son of Philip II of France, count of Clermont-en-Beauvais, who in her right became count of also Boulogne, Mortain, Aumale, and Dammartin. Both her husbands were, in turn, her co-rulers as counts consort of Boulogne during the marriages.

Philip Hurepel revolted against Blanche of Castile when Louis VIII died in 1226. When count Philip died in 1235, Matilda continued to reign and was three years later, in 1238, married so that the county would again have a male head. The second husband was Alphonse, second son of king Sancho II of Portugal, who in 1247 became king Alfonso III of Portugal and at that time renounced Boulogne. Alfonso divorced Matilda in 1253.

She had a son and a daughter with count Philip, but no surviving issue with Alphonso, who desperately needed heirs after ascending the Portuguese throne. Matilda's then barrenness (age) was the real reason for divorce. According to reports, queen Matilda remained in Boulogne and was not allowed to follow her husband to Portugal.

Her son reportedly renounced his rights and went to England, for unknown reasons. Apparently he survived his mother the countess, but presumably did not leave issue. Matilda's daughter, having married a lord de Chatillon-Montjay, predeceased her, and presumably left no surviving issue.

After Matilda II, the county of Boulogne passed to Adelaide of Brabant, Matilda's cousin, daughter of another Matilda of Boulogne (Matilda II's aunt, wife of Henry I, Duke of Brabant).

The then widow Adelaide's husband had been William X, count of Auvergne. Their son Robert of Auvergne succeeded also his mother in Boulogne and already in her lifetime acted as co-ruler. Their heirs continued to rule Auvergne and Boulogne together. An ultimate heiress was Catherine of Medici, queen of France, but a couple of decades before her, the then count of Auvergne, her great-grandfather, had sold Boulogne to French throne, keeping just Auvergne.