Baldwin IV, Count of Flanders

Baldwin IV of Flanders (980–1035) known as Baldwin the Bearded, was a French nobleman and the Count of Flanders. He ruled from 987 until his death. His reign saw Flanders grow into a powerful principality.

Baldwin IV the Bearded Count of Flanders.

Career

Baldwin IV, born c.980, was the son of Arnulf II, Count of Flanders and Rozala of Ivrea.[1] When his father died in 987 Baldwin succeeded him as Count of Flanders .[1] His mother, Rozala, was the regent of Flanders until he reached the age of majority. After his father's death, his mother's second marriage was arranged by Hugh Capet.[2] She married Hugh's son Robert II, King of France as his first wife.[3] When Robert repudiated her in 991 Baldwin rebelled.[2] When they came to terms Artois and Ostrevant, once taken from Flanders, were returned to Baldwin.[lower-alpha 1][2]

Unlike his predecessors Baldwin was more interested in what lay east of Flanders.[5] He left the southern part of his territory in the hands of his vassals the counts of Guînes, Hesdin, and St. Pol.[5] Baldwin was the first count of Flanders to extend Flemish control eastward.[2] He was given Zeeland as a fief by the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II.[2] He also received Valenciennes from the emperor.[2] Then Baldwin obtained parts of the Cambresis as well as Saint-Omer and the northern Ternois (1120).[6]

In the French territories the principality of Flanders remained powerful throughout the Capetian period.[2] The Flemish economy saw strong growth during Baldwin's reign.[2] Baldwin IV died on 30 May, 1035.[1]

Family

Baldwin married first, Ogive of Luxembourg. She was a daughter of Frederick of Luxembourg,[7] by whom he had a son and heir:

He secondly married Eleanor of Normandy, daughter of Richard II, Duke of Normandy,[8] by whom he had a daughter:

Notes
  1. When Arnulf I's son, Baldwin III died in 962 it caused crisis of succession.[4] Baldwin's son Arnulf II 'the Young' (Baldwin IV's father) was still a child and his succession was uncertain.[4] Arnulf I offered the king, Lothair of France, Artois, Ponthieu, and Ostrevant in exchange for the king's protection of Arnulf II.[4]

References
  1. Detlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band II (Marburg, Germany: J. A. Stargardt, 1984), Tafel 5
  2. Jim Bradbury, The Capetians : Kings of France, 987-1314 (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007), p. 55
  3. Constance Brittain Bouchard, Those of My Blood: Creating Noble Families in Medieval Francia ( Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001), p. 21
  4. Karine Ugé, Creating the Monastic Past in Medieval Flanders (Woodbridge; New York: The Boydell Press, 2006), p. 3
  5. Jean Dunbabin. France in the Making 843-1180, Second Edition (Oxford; New York; Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 208
  6. Heather J Tanner, Families, Friends, and Allies: Boulogne and Politics in Northern France and England c. 879–1160 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2004), pp. 73, 75-6, 77–8
  7. Richard Mylius Sherman, The Ghents: A Flemish Family in Norman England, UMI Dissertation Information Service, Ann Arbor, MI (1988), p. 214
  8. Philip Grierson, 'The Relations between England and Flanders before the Norman Conquest', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Vol. 23 (1941), pp. 109-110
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