In contrast with her rival Stephen and his wife Matilda of Boulogne — styled respectively and — Empress Matilda employed the title . Several interpretations of the title (), are possible. "Domina", is the feminine equivalent of the title "dominus", the meaning of which ranged from head of a household to an imperial title and translated as "master" or "lord". Whereas the carried the implication of a king's wife only, the was used of a woman exercising temporal powers in her own right, as had Æthelflæd of Mercia. Notably, Matilda's husband Geoffrey never adopted the equivalent "dominus Anglorum". Initially between 1139 and 1141 Matilda referred to herself as acting as a "feme sole", "a woman alone", highlighting her autonomy and independence from her spouse. Additionally, it was also conventional that newly elected kings use ' until their coronation as , the interval being counted as an interregnum. Since she was never crowned at Westminster, during the rest of the war she appears to have used this title rather than that of the Queen of England, although some contemporaries referred to her by the royal title. In spring and summer 1141, as Matilda was "de facto" queen regnant, some royal charters including titles of lands granted to Glastonbury Abby and Reading Abbey described her as , while another mentions and . While Marjorie Chibnall believed the Glastonbury and Reading Abbeys' instances of "regina Anglorum" are either errors for "domina Anglorum" or else inauthentic; David Crouch judged this unlikely to be a scribal error and pointed out that Stephen's supporters had used "rex Anglorum" before his formal coronation, that she was hailed as "regina et domina" at Winchester in March 1141, and that she "gloried in being called" the royal title. Nonetheless, the style ', now rendered as "Lady of the English", remained more common in documents. The chronicler William of Malmsebury calls her "domina" only.