Baudouin V of Flanders

Summary of its life

At the 11th century, the Flanders is vassal Royaume of France and for a small share (the margraviat of Valencian) of the Saint Germanic Roman Empire. Under the principat of the count Baudouin V, the margraviat of Ename (between the the Scheldt and the Dendre) is attached to this area (1056/1059). Its territory has a capacity equivalent to that of a kingdom and its sovereigns exert a considerable influence on the political matters of Western Europe.

Baudouin was Régent of France (1060 - 1066) for his nephew by alliance the king Philippe I {{er}} of France.

Baudouin and Adèle had three children:

Baudouin VI, (1030 - 1070)
Mathilde (1032 - 1083), married in 1053 with William the Conqueror
Robert Ier the Clippings, (1033 - 1093)

Cours detailed of its life

The future Baudouin V is initially a turbulent son, revolts some against his father. After its prestigious marriage with Adele of France, he does not hesitate to put at the head revolted Flemish barons who drive out Baudouin IV. Brought back to the tender after the intervention of the duke Robert of Normandy and the return of his father, it becomes, after the death of this last, one of most powerful vassal of king de France.

It enters first of all in war against Thierry IV of Holland, which disputes the Zealand to him, however allotted to his father by the emperor Henri II. Baudouin invades the Frise and leaves victorious the conflict: Zealand remains in the mobility of the county of Flanders.

In 1046, the count takes party for Godefroid of Low-Lotharingie in the fight which opposes it to the emperor Henri III, which allotted the High-Lotharingie to Albert of Alsace. Following its rebellion it loses the margraviat Valencian . Combined with Thierry IV of Holland, it seizes the castle of Ename and takes again Ghent thanks to noble Lambert. With Godefroid, it seizes even Nimègue, where Albert of Alsace finds death during a scuffle. However, Baudouin must fold up itself vis-a-vis the armies of the emperor. The count of Flanders makes his tender in 1056 with Cologne. In 1051, Richilde is found widowed. Enticed by the prospect to place the Hainaut in the escarcelle one of his family, Baudouin V removes Richilde to intend it for his oldest son. The bishop of Cambric Lietbert fulminates excommunication for consanguinity naturally, but the pope Leon IX grants an exemption and raises the sanction after a few years: the elder one of the count de Flandre becomes the count Baudouin I {{er}} of Hainaut, promising the unification of the two counties. The war with the emperor is re-ignited then, but this time without Godefroid IV. Baudouin takes Liege, destroys Thuin and pushes until Huy. Henri III response while entering to Flanders. Baudouin animates resistance to Arques from where, according to the legend, it makes build in three nights an immense ditch going until Based the. This new ditch proves however useless, since Henri III, helped of the former lord of the manor of Cambric, Jean de Béthune, crosses it, devastation the country and takes Tournai (June 1054), whereas Baudouin essuie a failure in front of Antwerp, defended by Frederic of Luxembourg (1055). It is death, the following year of Henri III which allows the stop of the conflict. At the time of its génuflexion in Cologne (1056) and after the peace negotiations with Andernach (1056 and 1059) the transfer of the margraviat of Ename (county of Alost), of the castle of Ghent, the country of Waes and the Four-Trades, as well as five islands of Zealand, is confirmed with the profit of Baudouin V. Moreover, the marriage of Richilde de Hainaut and of Baudouin I {{er}} is ratified, the town of Tournai entering under its authority. In 1060, with died of his/her brother-in-law Henri I {{er}}, he becomes tutor of the new king Philippe I {{er}}, then only Régent of France after the remarriage of the queen Anne of Kiev. As such, it avoids granting the assistance of France to Guillaume Bastard the, duke of Normandy, which projects to conquer the England, but that of the Flemings grants to him, the future with Conquérant having married his daughter Mathilde.

He had married in 1063 another of his five children, Robert, with Gertrude of Holland, allotting to him the imperial part of the county of Flanders. After its death, most powerful of the counts de Flandre was buried in the middle of the chorus of the St-Pierre church to Lille, city of which it had made his capital and whose oldest written document is a charter of equipment of the count to this church, by which it gave him a farm with Flers and two thirds of the incomes of the church of Annapes (1066).

Sources and bibliography

Glay, Edward: History of the counts de Flandre until the advent of the House of Burgundy , Counter of Printer-plain, Paris, MDCCCXLIII
Platelle Henri and Clauzel, Denis: History of the French provinces of North, 2. Principalities with the empire of Charles Quint (900-1519) , Westhoek-Editions Editions of the Belfries, 1989; ISBN 2-87789-004-X
Douxchamps, Cecile and Jose: Our dynastes medieval , Wepion-Namur 1996, Jose Douxchamps, editor; ISBN 29600078-1-6
Dumont, Georges-Henri: History of Belgium , History the Cry, Brussels 1977, ISBN 2-87106-182-3

Internal bond

Gilbert of Mons, author of the Chronic of Hainaut .

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