Individual Details

Biography

Baudouin was born in 980, the son of Arnulf II, count of Flanders, and Rosela Roxana of Italy. He was a seventh-generation descendant of Charlemagne through his father and an eighth-generation descendant through his mother.

About 1012 Baudouin married Otgiva de Luxembourg, daughter of Friedrich, Graf in Moselgau und Lutzelburg. They had a son Baudouin V. After Otgiva's death in 1030, Baudouin in 1031 married Eleanor (or perhaps Ainor or Judith) of Normandy, daughter of Richard II 'the Good', duke of Normandy, and Judith of Bretagne. In 1037 they had a daughter Judith, who first married Toste Godwinson, jarl in Northumbria, then in 1071 she married Welf IV, duke of Bavaria. She had progeny by both her husbands. These family connections demonstrate the political interests of the Flemish counts, in the kingdoms of France and England and the Holy Roman Empire.

In contrast to his predecessors, Baudouin turned his attention to the east and north, leaving the southern part of his territory in the hands of his vassals, the counts of Guînes, Hesdin, and St.Pol. To the north of the county Baudouin was given Zeeland as a fief by the Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich II, while on the right bank of the Schelde River he received Valenciennes (in 1013) and parts of the Cambresis and Hainaut.

In the French territories of the counts of Flanders, their supremacy remained unchallenged. They organised a great deal of colonisation of marshland along the coastline of Flanders and enlarged the harbour and city of Bruges.

Baudouin died on 30 May 1035, and was succeeded by his son Baudouin V. His granddaughter, Matilda of Flanders, daughter of Baudouin V, would go on to marry William 'the Conqueror', starting the line of Anglo-Norman kings of England.