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Person Info

• Name: Baldwin I Bras De Fer Count Of Flanders
• Sex: M
• Death: 879 in St Bertin ^d
• Burial: St Bertin, Sithiu, And St Peter's, Ghent ^u


Parents:

• Father:
  
• Odoacre Count Of Harlebec Death: Abt 862

Family:
Marriage:

• Judith on 863 at Auxerre .^m1
  
• Judith Birth: Abt 844 Death: After 870

Children:

1. Charles
2. Rudolf Count And Abbot Of Cambrai Birth: Abt 865 Death: 28 Jun 896
3. Baldwin II The Bald Count Of Flanders Birth: Abt 865 Death: Abt 10 Sep 918

Bibliography

Sources for birth and parent Information

father:

[Ref: Richardson RoyalAnc v5p495, Turton Plantagenet p19]

dotted line on chart [Ref: Moriarty Plantagenet p14]

possibly Odacer/Audacer [Ref: Stewart Baldwin SGM 6/5/2006-182118]

probably Audacer/Odoacer [Ref: HenryII baldw001 11/25/2007]

Sources for death Information

date:

[Ref: Brandenburg 1995 p1, CMH p337, ES I.1 #6, ES II #1, ES II #5, ES II #78, HenryII baldw001 11/25/2007, Moriarty Plantagenet p14, Moriarty Plantagenet p16, Paget HRHCharles p5, Redlich CharlemagneDesc p235, Richardson RoyalAnc v5p495, Stewart Baldwin SGM 6/5/2006-182118, Tapsell Dynasties p198, Watney WALLOP #207, Watney WALLOP #408, Weis AR7 #162],

place:

Arras [Ref: Richardson RoyalAnc v5p495]

St Bertin? [Ref: Stewart Baldwin SGM 6/5/2006-182118]

Sources with Inaccurate death Information

place:

Orras [Ref: Moriarty Plantagenet p14]

Sources for burial Information

place:

[Ref: HenryII baldw001 11/25/2007, Richardson RoyalAnc v5p495, Stewart Baldwin SGM 6/5/2006-182118]

Sources with Information about marriage to Judith

date:

[Ref: HenryII baldw001 11/25/2007, HenryII charl001 6/5/2008, HenryII judit002 5/23/2007]

862 (before 23 Nov) [Ref: Richardson RoyalAnc v5p495]

862 [Ref: Brandenburg 1995 p1, ES II #1, ES II #5, ES II #78, Moriarty Plantagenet p14, Paget HRHCharles p5, Redlich CharlemagneDesc p235, Weis AR7 #162]

Ende 863 [Ref: ES I.1 #6]

early 862 [Ref: Moriarty Plantagenet p16]

eloped in 862, married in 863 [Ref: Stewart Baldwin SGM 6/5/2006-182118]

third marriage of Judith [Ref: CMH p337],

place:

[Ref: ES I.1 #6, HenryII baldw001 11/25/2007, Richardson RoyalAnc v5p495, Stewart Baldwin SGM 6/5/2006-182118],

names:

[Ref: Watney WALLOP #207],

child:

[Ref: Brandenburg 1995 p2, ES II #5, HenryII baldw001 11/25/2007, HenryII baldw002 11/25/2007, HenryII judit002 5/23/2007, Moriarty Plantagenet p14, Redlich CharlemagneDesc p235, Richardson RoyalAnc v5p495, Stewart Baldwin SGM 6/5/2006-182118, Watney WALLOP #408, Weir RoyalFam p5, Weir RoyalFam p6, Weis AR7 #162]

Sources with Inaccurate marriage information

child:

Gunhilda (#23705) wife of Wilfred Count of Barcecelona [Ref: Weir RoyalFam p6]

Research Notes:
Count of Flanders [Ref: Brandenburg 1995 p1, Richardson RoyalAnc v5p495, Stewart Baldwin SGM 6/5/2006-182118, Tapsell Dynasties p198, Weis AR7 #162]
Count (presumably of Flanders) [Ref: HenryII baldw001 11/25/2007]
Lay-abbot of Saint-Pierre de Gand (St. Peter's, Ghent) [Ref: HenryII baldw001 11/25/2007]

The epithet of "Iron-arm" usually attributed to him appears in the work of Wimann (d. 1192), who attributed the nickname to his strength and audacity ["... Balduinus comes Flandrie, filius Odocri, vir audax et fortis, ita ut Ferreorum-brachiorum vocaretur, ..." Wimann, Liber de possessionibus sancti Vedasti, MGH SS 13: 711]. Two different manuscripts of the contemporary Annals of Saint-Vaast (Annales Vedastini) give him the epithets of Ferreus (Iron) and Bonus (the Good) ["Balduinus, Ferreus cognomine, comes moritur, sepeliturque in Sithiu monasterio." MGH SS 1: 517; "Balduinus comes, cognomine Bonus, moritur, sepeliturque in Sithiu monasterio." Annales Vedastini, s.a. 879, MGH SS 2: 197]. [Ref: Stewart Baldwin SGM 6/5/2006-182118]

862: Count, place not specified [Ref: Stewart Baldwin SGM 6/5/2006-182118]

before 862-879: Count (presumably of Flanders) [Ref: HenryII baldw001 11/25/2007]

862: first appears in the records, when Judith (daughter of King Charles the Bald, and widow of Aethelwulf and Aethelbald) eloped with him with the assistance of Judith's brother Louis (later king Louis II) [Annales Bertiniani, s.a. 862, MGH SS 1: 456] [Ref: HenryII baldw001 11/25/2007, Stewart Baldwin SGM 6/5/2006-182118]

862: Count of Flanders [Ref: Tapsell Dynasties p198]

Charles asked his bishops to anathemize Baldwin and Judith, but he reconciled with them the next year at the pope's request, when Baldwin and Judith were married [Ref: HenryII baldw001 11/25/2007]

870: Lay-abbot of Saint-Pierre de Gand (St. Peter's, Ghent) [Ref: HenryII baldw001 11/25/2007]

870/5: became Count of Flanders, presumably when count Ingelramn was dispossessed [Ref: Stewart Baldwin SGM 6/5/2006-182118]

871: Baldwin was sent by Charles along with abbot Fauzlin to negotiate with Charles's rebellious son Carloman [Ref: HenryII baldw001 11/25/2007]

The identity of Baldwin's father as one "Ocoacer" is supported only by two notices in a minor set of Flemish annals (the _Annales Blandinienses_, MGH SS 5:20-34) of eleventh-centry confection; othing further is known of this person (nor his wife). His attribution as a count of Herlebec comes only from the twelfth-century genealogical MS of St.-Bertin (MGH SS 9:305), which also adds *his* father Ingelrannus and grandfather Lidric, "Count of Herlebec" (also attested only in the _Annales Blandinienses_)... Most modern genealogists agree that, without any corroboration, these two eleventy- and twelfth-centry notices of them cannot be taken as proof of their existence or their relation to count Baldwin. Cf ES 2:5, etc., where the line starts with Baldwin [Ref: Nathaniel Taylor SGM 6/1/1998]

Unless you wish to take the word of genealogies evidently compiled a couple of centuries after the fact, the parentage of Baldwin I of Flanders is apparently unknown. Witger's genealogy of count Arnulf, an early genealogy of the counts of Flanders written in the middle of the tenth century [MGH SS 5, 302-4], has much to say about the Carolingian ancestry of the counts of Flanders (starting with Ansbertus, alleged grandfather of Charlemagne's ancestor Arnulf, bishop of Metz), but does not give the parentage of Baldwin I. To my knowledge, the genealogy back to the legendary "Lideric" first appears in the twelfth century "Genealogia Comitum Flandriae Bertiniana" [ibid., 305-80], which begins with the statement that count Lidricus of Harlebeck begat Ingelrannus, who begat Audacer, who begat Balduinus Ferreus, who married Judith, daughter of Karolus Calvus (Charles the Bald). The genealogy appears to go back at least in part to the late eleventh century, the evident date of compilation of the early entries of Annales Blandinienses, which contain the following three entries [ibid., 23-4]:
836. Lidricus comes obiit et Arlabeka sepelitur.
856. Herebertus tradidit sancto Petro res suas in Berenga, sub Inghelramno abbate vel comite.
862. Iudith secuta est Baldwinum Ferreum, filium Audacri.
This source makes Baldwin a son of Audacer, but does not explicitly state the links between the other generations, although Lideric and Ingelram do appear. To my knowledge, contemporary evidence for the existence of Lideric and Audacer is absent. I have seen it suggested that Ingelram was the count Engilramnus who appears in the Annals of Fulda under the year 864 [MGH SS 1, 378], but I do not know what evidence would connect this Engilramnus to Flanders. It has also been suggested (reason also unknown to me) that "Audacer" was just a nickname of Baldwin I and that Baldwin was in fact a son of Ingelram. Perhaps this is just an attempt to "fix" the tight chronology that is evident from Annales Blandinienses.
As for the silliness that would change Ingelram's name to Roland and make him a grandson of Charlemagne (through Charles Jr. no less!), I can only assume that this is some sort of recent "scholarship" (in the most generous interpretation of that word). [Ref: Stewart Baldwin SGM 1/20/2003-153942]

A marginal addition to chapter 88 of Folcwine's history states that Baldwin died after having spent some time as a monk at Saint-Bertin and that his body was buried at St. Bertin (Sithiu), but that his heart and intestines were removed to St. Peter's in Ghent [MGH SS 13: 623]. This would explain the disagreement between Annales Vedastini and Annales Blandinensis regarding his place of burial. [Ref: Stewart Baldwin SGM 6/5/2006-182118]

The contemporary Annals of Saint-Vaast state that Baldwin and Raoul were brothers ["Balduinus vero comes et Rodulfus frater eius, ..." Annales Vedastini, s.a. 895, MGH SS 1: 529]. Regino, writing in the first decade of the tenth century, states that Raoul (Rodulfus) was a son of Baldwin [I], and that Raoul's brother Baldwin [II] held Flanders. Writing between 951 and 959, Witger also states that Baldwin II was a son of Baldwin I [Witgeri genealogia Arnulfi comitis, MGH SS 1: 303]. [Ref: Stewart Baldwin SGM 6/5/2006-182118]

No source earlier than the eleventh century gives the parentage of Baldwin I of Flanders. However, by the the late thirteenth century, a more elaborate story had developed which provided Baldwin with three generations of ancestry back to a certain Lideric, who was then said to be the first "forester" of Flanders, followed in the same position by his son Ingelramn, grandson Odoacer/Audacer, and great-grandson Baldwin, who then became the first count of Flanders. Fortunately, the surviving rescensions of the genealogies of the counts of Flanders allow us to see some of the stages by which this legendary scenario developed, and a careful examination of these shows us that even if Lideric existed (and this is not certain), the alleged descent of Baldwin I from him can be rejected.
Much of the early development of the legend appears in the various works edited under the collective title of Genealogiae Comitum Flandriae [MGH SS 9: 302-336, here abbreviated Gen. Com. Fland.], a collection of nine items (identified here by Roman numerals I-IX) written by various authors over a period of several hundred years, having in common that they involve the genealogy or succession of the counts of Flanders. The two earliest parts, dating from the tenth century, say nothing about the parentage of Baldwin I [I. Witgeri genealogia Arnulfi comitis (pp. 302-4, also an important source for later Carolingian genealogy); II. De Arnulfo comite (pp. 304)].
The claimed parentage of Baldwin I as a son of a certain Odacer/Audacer first appears in certain annals compiled in the middle of the eleventh century. The Annales Elnonenses Minores have two entries giving this parentage, while the Annales Blandinenses not only have two similar entries for Baldwin's parentage, but also mention Lideric and Ingelramn, but without any genealogical affiliation for the latter two. [Ref: Stewart Baldwin SGM 6/5/2006-182118]

No contemporary source gives the parentage of Baldwin I of Flanders. However, by the late thirteenth century, an elaborate story had developed which provided Baldwin with three generations of ancestry back to a certain Lideric, who was then said to be the first "forester" of Flanders, followed in the same position by his son Ingelram, grandson Audacer, and great-grandson Baldwin, who then became the first count of Flanders. Widely accepted in earlier times, these legends have been correctly rejected by modern scholarship. .. While Ingelram and probably also Lideric were real individuals, the alleged descent of Baldwin I from them must be discarded. [Ref: HenryII baldw001 11/25/2007]



Pedigree of Baldwin I Bras De Fer Count Of Flanders
                   /-----Lyderic Count Of Harlebec
          /-----Engelram Count Of Harlebec
 /-----Odoacre Count Of Harlebec
|         \-----Friderada
Baldwin I Bras De Fer Count Of Flanders



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