Guillaume Cliton
Guillaume of Normandy known as Guillaume Cliton (October 25th 1102 - Alost, July 28th 1128), was Count de Flandre of 1127 to 1128. He asserted the Duché of Normandy and the throne of the Royaume of England. Cliton drift of the Latin and means prince .
He was the son of the Duc of Normandy Robert II Courteheuse (v. 1053 - 1134) and of Sybille de Conversano († 1103), grandson of William the Conqueror (v. 1027 - 1087) and of Mathilde of Flanders († 1083), itself girl of the count Baudouin V and Adèle of France. He is cousin of the count Charles I {{er}} of Flanders, his predecessor, dead assassinated, without child.
The course of its life
After the defeat and the capture of his/her father by the king of England Henri I {{er}} Beauclerc with the Battle of Tinchebray (September 28th 1106), the Guillaume young person fell between the hands from the king, his uncle. Henri Ier entrusts the guard of it to the count of Arques, Hélias de Saint-Saens, which married a half-sister of Guillaume, a natural girl of the duke Robert Courteheuse.In August 1110, Henri Ier wants to make return Guillaume, but with the complicity of Hélias, the young man takes refuge at the court of Baudouin VII of Flanders. Soon, the Norman barons dissatisfied and the enemies with Henri Ier form a coalition which asserts the Duché of Normandy for Guillaume. This claim serves as a pretext for two rebellions Normans: the first, of 1112 with 1120, is supported by Louis VI of France, by Foulques V of Anjou and by Baudouin VII of Flanders. But Baudouin dies on the battle field. Louis and Foulques manage an agreement with Henri, recognizing his rights to him on Normandy.
His flown away hopes, Guillaume Cliton meets Henri Ier in October 1119, to ask him to release his father, promising that both would make him allegiance. Doubting his word, Henri refuses.
In 1122 or 1123, Guillaume Marie with Sibyl of Anjou, one of the girls of Foulques V, and receives the Comté of Maine. Louis VI and Foulques are again ready to tackle Normandy, even if the new count de Flandre, Charles the Good, does not support them. Henri Ier thwarts their operations, while asking his son-in-law, the emperor Henri V, to badger Louis VI on the side is frank kingdom.
Henri V dies in 1125 and Charles the Good is assassinated on March 2nd 1127, both without direct heirs. Guillaume, whose first marriage with Sybille was cancelled in August 1124 by the pope, remarié himself the same year with Jeanne de Montferrat, half-sister of Adèle of Savoy, the wife of the king Louis VI. Being the grandson of Mathilde of Flanders and the great-grandson of Baudouin V of Flanders, Guillaume asserts then, with the blessing of his brother-in-law Louis VI, the vacant county of Flanders.
In spite of the rights of the count Baudouin IV of Hainaut, and in the presence of the Flemish barons gathered on March 23rd, 1127 with Arras, Louis VI, as a Suzerain, intervenes and imposes the nomination of the county of Flanders on Guillaume. The king of France shows his force by spending the seat in front of Lille then, on April 6th, 1127, goes to Bruges to attend the mutual insurance companies oath-takings of the new count and his barons. Guillaume, by in particular promising the abolition of the Tonlieu and the Taxable quota, swears to respect the laws and the privileges of the cities. It is at this time there that Saint-Omer receives a communal charter.
However the part is not played, since, in addition to Baudouin IV of Hainaut which seizes Audenarde, the applicants with the title are numerous. One counts on this list: the king of England Henri Ier Beauclerc (for the same reasons as its nephew!) ; Guillaume d' Ypres, grandson of Robert Ier of Flanders by the males, but of a natural branch; Thierry of Alsace, also grandson of Robert Ier of Flanders by his Gertrude mother of Flanders; Arnoul of Denmark, oldest son of the sister of Charles the Good. Guillaume demolishes initially Arnoul of Denmark, cut off in Saint-Omer; then, helped of Louis VI, overcomes Guillaume d' Ypres and Baudouin IV.
Its military experiment is useful to him hardly in this Flanders where the company changes quickly with the development of the woolen manufacturing industry. Guillaume Cliton goes odious quickly to his new subjects: not only it respects neither its engagements, nor even its oaths, but in more it raises new taxes (on the markets) and of new royalties (on the houses), which it makes collect by violence. No doubt the count always projects to reconquer Normandy and acts it classically into feudal. It is without counting on the reaction of the cities, increasingly flourishing, very concerned of their freedom. Who more is, Guillaume does not give the signs of a life chrétiennement irreproachable…
Riots burst in Saint-Omer and Lille, after the arrest the 1127 of one of its serfs on the place of Lille in full fair (what is prohibited). The September 17th according to it is the commune of Bruges which thunders. These revolts are then subdued and the count Guillaume requires a door amends. But it cannot prevent Ghent and Bruges to recognize Thierry of Alsace as count. In 1128, it is all the imperial Flanders which adopts the Lorraine one, just like the majority of the barons of the royal Flanders, supported in writing pad by king Henri Ier of England, which exploits these tensions. Louis VI fact throw the prohibited on the Flanders, to excommunicate Thierry of Alsace, and besieges Lille where this last was locked up. After having raised the head office of Lille on May 21st, 1128, Guillaume, having supported by Godefroid Bearded the, the victory with Tielt like with the castle of Oostkamp gains and encircles Thierry with Alost where led it its escape of Lille.
It is there that on July 27th, 1128, Guillaume is reached of a feature of crossbow and dies shortly after. It does not leave any child and Thierry of Alsace recovers the Flanders.