As another instance of these bitter fruits of conquest, and perhaps the strongest that can be quoted, we may mention, that the Princess Matilda, though a daughter of the King of Scotland , and afterwards both Queen of England , niece to Edgar Atheling, and mother to the Empress of Germany , the daughter, the wife, and the mother of monarchs, was obliged, during her early residence for education in England , to assume the veil of a nun, as the only means of escaping the licentious pursuit of the Norman nobles. This excuse she stated before a great council of the clergy of England