1.
Count of Flanders
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The Count of Flanders was the ruler or sub-ruler of the county of Flanders, beginning in the 9th century. The title was held for a time by the Holy Roman Emperor, during the French Revolution in 1790, the county of Flanders was annexed to France and the peerage ceased to exist. In the 19th century, the title was appropriated by Belgium, the most recent holder died in 1983. Although the early rulers, starting with Arnulf I, were referred to as margraves or marquesses. Since then, the rulers of Flanders have only referred to as Counts. The Counts of Flanders enlarged their estate through a series of diplomatic marriages, the counties of Hainaut, Namur, Béthune, Nevers, Auxerre, Rethel, Burgundy, and Artois were all acquired in this manner. However, the County of Flanders suffered the fate in turn. As a result of the marriage of Countess Margaret III with Philip II, Duke of Burgundy, the county, the Counts of Flanders were also associated with the Duchy of Brittany prior to its union with France. In c 1323, Joan, the daughter of Arthur II, Duke of Brittany, joanna of Flanders, the granddaughter of Count Robert III and daughter of his son, Count Louis I, married John Montfort. It was through this alliance that the Duchy of Brittany was eventually joined to the throne of France, baldwin I Iron Arm, married Judith and was granted lands and honours, which would evolve into the County of Flanders. In 1246, King Louis IX of France awarded Flanders to William, when the Habsburg empire was divided among the heirs of Charles V, the Low Countries, including Flanders, went to Philip II of Spain, of the Spanish branch of the House of Habsburg. The fief was claimed by the House of Habsburg and the House of Bourbon, in 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht settled the succession and the County of Flanders went to the Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg. The Emperor Francis II relinquished his claim to the Low Countries in the Treaty of Campo Formio of 1797, in modern times, from 1840 onward, the substantive title Count of Flanders has been granted to two younger sons of the Kings of the Belgians. The second of these died in 1983, and the title not be conferred again. It is a title which is only nominally and ceremonially used. Genealogy of the counts of Flanders
2.
Nobility
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The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be largely honorary, and vary from country to country and era to era. There is often a variety of ranks within the noble class. g, san Marino and the Vatican City in Europe. Hereditary titles often distinguish nobles from non-nobles, although in many nations most of the nobility have been un-titled, some countries have had non-hereditary nobility, such as the Empire of Brazil. The term derives from Latin nobilitas, the noun of the adjective nobilis. In modern usage, nobility is applied to the highest social class in pre-modern societies and it rapidly came to be seen as a hereditary caste, sometimes associated with a right to bear a hereditary title and, for example in pre-revolutionary France, enjoying fiscal and other privileges. Nobility is a historical, social and often legal notion, differing from high socio-economic status in that the latter is based on income. Being wealthy or influential cannot, ipso facto, make one noble, various republics, including former Iron Curtain countries, Greece, Mexico, and Austria have expressly abolished the conferral and use of titles of nobility for their citizens. Not all of the benefits of nobility derived from noble status per se, usually privileges were granted or recognised by the monarch in association with possession of a specific title, office or estate. Most nobles wealth derived from one or more estates, large or small and it also included infrastructure such as castle, well and mill to which local peasants were allowed some access, although often at a price. Nobles were expected to live nobly, that is, from the proceeds of these possessions, work involving manual labour or subordination to those of lower rank was either forbidden or frowned upon socially. In some countries, the lord could impose restrictions on such a commoners movements. Nobles exclusively enjoyed the privilege of hunting, in France, nobles were exempt from paying the taille, the major direct tax. In some parts of Europe the right of war long remained the privilege of every noble. During the early Renaissance, duelling established the status of a respectable gentleman, Nobility came to be associated with social rather than legal privilege, expressed in a general expectation of deference from those of lower rank. By the 21st century even that deference had become increasingly minimised, in France, a seigneurie might include one or more manors surrounded by land and villages subject to a nobles prerogatives and disposition. Seigneuries could be bought, sold or mortgaged, if erected by the crown into, e. g. a barony or countship, it became legally entailed for a specific family, which could use it as their title. Yet most French nobles were untitled, in other parts of Europe, sovereign rulers arrogated to themselves the exclusive prerogative to act as fons honorum within their realms. Nobility might be inherited or conferred by a fons honorum
3.
House of Lorraine
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The House of Lorraine originated as a cadet branch of the House of Metz. It inherited the Duchy of Lorraine in 1473 after the death of duke Nicholas I without a male heir, Francis, his sons Joseph II and Leopold II, and grandson Francis II were the last four Holy Roman Emperors from 1745 to the dissolution of the empire in 1806. Habsburg-Lorraine inherited the Habsburg Empire, ruling the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary until the dissolution of the monarchy in 1918, the house claims descent from Gerard I of Paris whose immediate descendants are known as the Girardides. The Matfridings of the 10th century are thought to have been a branch of the family, at the turn of the 10th century they were Counts of Metz and ruled a set of lordships in Alsace and Lorraine. Mary of Guise, mother of Mary, Queen of Scots, louis XIVs imperialist ambitions forced the dukes into a permanent alliance with his archenemies, the Holy Roman Emperors from the House of Habsburg. Following the failure of both Emperor Joseph I and Emperor Charles VI to produce a son and heir, the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 left the throne to the yet unborn daughter. In 1736 Emperor Charles arranged her marriage to Francis of Lorraine who agreed to exchange his hereditary lands for the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, at Charless death in 1740 the Habsburg lands passed to Maria Theresa and Francis, who was later elected Holy Roman Emperor as Francis I. The Habsburg-Lorraine nuptials and dynastic union precipitated, and survived, the War of the Austrian Succession, another member of the house, Archduke Maximilian of Austria, was Emperor of Mexico. In 1900, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria contracted a marriage with Countess Sophie Chotek. Their descendants, known as the House of Hohenberg, have been excluded from succession to the Austro-Hungarian crown, but not that of Lorraine, where morganatic marriage has never been outlawed. Nevertheless, Otto von Habsburg, the eldest grandson of Franz Ferdinands younger brother, was regarded as the head of the house until his death in 2011. It was at Nancy, the capital of the House of Vaudemont. House of Metz Adalbert, Duke of Upper Lorraine r, 1047/8 Gérard, Duke of Lorraine, r. 1390–1431 Charles II died without heir, the duchy passing to Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine. The duchy passed to their son John II, whose son Nicholas I died without male heir, the title now went to Nicholas aunt Yolande. René inherited the title of Duke of Lorraine upon his marriage in 1473, René II, Duke of Lorraine, r. 1608–1624 Nicole Claude Francis II, Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine r, 1624–1675 Nicholas Francis Charles V, r. 1690–1729 Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine, r, 1745–1765 House of Habsburg-Lorraine Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, r
4.
Elisabeth, Countess of Vermandois
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She reigned as Countess of Vermandois and was also Countess of Flanders by marriage. When Elisabeth was aged two, she was joined by a brother also named Ralph, this pushed Elisabeth back to third in line, around three years later, Elisabeth gained a further sister, Eleonore. On 14 October 1152, Elisabeths father died and Hugh was made Count of Vermandois, in 1159, sixteen-year-old Elisabeth married Philip I, Count of Flanders. The following year, Elisabeths brother Ralph married Philips sister Margaret, in the same year, Hugh abdicated from his position as count to become a monk therefore, Ralph succeeded as count, Elisabeth was then promoted to first in line, her sister Eleonore in second. In 1175, Philip discovered that Elisabeth was committing adultery and had her lover, Walter de Fontaines, Philip then obtained complete control of her lands in Vermandois from King Louis VII of France. In 1177, Philip left for the Holy Land, he designated his sister Margaret and her second husband Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut as his heirs. Elisabeth died at Arras on 28 March 1183 aged thirty-nine or forty, prompting King Philip II of France to seize Vermandois on behalf of her sister, Eleonore, Elisabeth was buried at Amiens Cathedral
5.
Theresa of Portugal, Countess of Flanders
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Theresa of Portugal was the daughter of the Portuguese king Afonso I and Maud of Savoy who became Counteess of Flanders and Duchess of Burgundy by her successive marriages. Around 1183 she married Philip of Alsace, Count of Flanders, because of the difficulty of pronouncing her name, she changed it to Matilde. She has been reported to be Afonso I of Portugals favourite daughter, in a work by Portuguese historian Maria Roma, she is described as beautiful and as a prideful woman with a vyril energy, of the fibre of her grandmother Theresa, Countess of Portugal. For its part, Portugal, a country, managed to secure an important alliance with Flanders. Theresa brought a dowry, something that helped Philip manage his war with France for a couple of more years. A reasonable number of Portuguese immigrants also went to Flanders with the infanta, however, like Elisabeth of Vermandois, Matilda never gave birth, and after Philips death, the county went to his sister Margaret I, Countess of Flanders. After Philips death in August 1191, she would marry again and her second marriage produced no children, and so, she ended up being repudiated by the Duke, so that he could marry Alice of Vergy. She returned to Flanders and would be instrumental in arranging the marriage of her nephew Ferdinand to her first husbands grandniece Joan and she died when her carriage accidentally fell into a marsh near Veurne where she drowned. She is celebrated in Bruges every year
6.
Thierry, Count of Flanders
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Theoderic, commonly known as Thierry of Alsace, was the fifteenth count of Flanders from 1128 to 1168. He was the youngest son of Duke Theoderic II of Lorraine, with a record of four campaigns in the Levant and Africa, he had a rare and distinguished record of commitment to crusading. Williams politics and attitude towards the autonomy of Flanders made him unpopular, and by the end of the year Bruges, Ghent, Lille, Theoderics supporters came from the Imperial faction of Flanders. Louis VI of France had Raymond of Martigné, the Archbishop of Reims, Louis VI then besieged Lille, but was forced to retire when Henry I of England, William Clitos uncle, transferred his support to Theoderic. However, Theoderic was defeated at Axspoele and fled to Bruges and he was forced to flee Bruges as well, and went to Aalst, where he was soon under siege from William, Godfrey I of Leuven, and Louis VI. The city was about to be captured when William was found dead on July 27,1128, Theoderic set up his government in Ghent and was recognized by all the Flemish cities as well as King Henry, who had his Flemish lords in England swear fealty to him. Theoderic himself swore homage to Louis VI after 1132, in order to gain the French kings support against Baldwin IV, Count of Hainaut, in 1132 his wife, Suanhilde, died, leaving only a daughter. In 1139 he went on pilgrimage to the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, and married Sibylla of Anjou, daughter of King Fulk of Jerusalem and the widow of William Clito and this was the first of Theoderics four pilgrimages to the Holy Land. While there he led a victorious expedition against Caesarea Phillippi. He soon returned to Flanders to put down a revolt in the Duchy of Lower Lotharingia, Theoderic joined the Second Crusade in 1147. During his absence, Baldwin IV of Hainaut invaded Flanders and pillaged Artois, the Archbishop of Reims intervened and a treaty was signed. When Theoderic returned in 1150, he took vengeance on Baldwin IV at Bouchain, with the aid of Henry I, Count of Namur and Henry II of Leez, Bishop of Liège. In the subsequent peace negotiations, Theoderic gave his daughter Marguerite in marriage to Baldwin IVs son, in 1156 Theoderic had his eldest son married to Elizabeth of Vermandois, daughter and heiress of Raoul I of Vermandois. In 1156 he returned to the Holy Land, this time with his wife accompanying him and he returned to Flanders 1159 without Sibylla, who remained behind to become a nun at the convent of St. Lazarus in Bethany. Their son Philip had ruled the county in their absence, in 1164 Theoderic returned once more to the Holy Land. He accompanied King Amalric I, another half-brother of Sibylla, to Antioch and he returned home in 1166, and adopted a date palm as his seal, with a crown of laurels on the reverse. He died on January 17,1168, and was buried in the Abbey of Watten, between Saint-Omer and Gravelines and his rule had been moderate and peaceful, the highly developed administration of the county in later centuries first began during these years. There had also been great economic and agricultural development, and new enterprises were established
7.
Sibylla of Anjou
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Sibylla of Anjou was a countess consort of Flanders. She was the daughter of Fulk V of Anjou and Ermengarde of Maine and she was the regent of Flanders in 1147-1149. In 1123 Sibylla married William Clito, son of the Norman Robert Curthose, Sibylla brought the County of Maine to this marriage, which was annulled in 1124 on grounds of consanguinity. Sibylla then accompanied her father to the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, where he married Melisende, the heiress of the kingdom. In 1139 she married Thierry, Count of Flanders, who had arrived on his first pilgrimage to the Holy Land and she returned to Flanders with her new husband, and during his absence on the Second Crusade the pregnant Sibylla acted as regent of the county. Baldwin IV, Count of Hainaut took the opportunity to attack Flanders, the archbishop of Reims intervened and a truce was signed, but Thierry took vengeance on Baldwin when he returned in 1149. In 1157 she travelled with Thierry on his pilgrimage, but after arriving in Jerusalem she separated from her husband. She became a nun at the Convent of Sts, mary and Martha in Bethany, where her step-aunt, Ioveta of Bethany, was abbess. Ioveta and Sibylla supported Queen Melisende and held influence over the church. Sibylla died in Bethany in 1165, huyghebaert, Une comtesse de Flandre à Béthanie, in Les cahiers de Saint -André,1964, n°2, 15p. Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades, vol, William of Tyre, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea
8.
Crusades
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The First Crusade arose after a call to arms in a 1095 sermon by Pope Urban II. Urban urged military support for the Byzantine Empire and its Emperor, Alexios I, the response to Urbans preaching by people of many different classes across Western Europe established the precedent for later Crusades. Volunteers became Crusaders by taking a vow and receiving plenary indulgences from the church. Some were hoping for apotheosis at Jerusalem, or forgiveness from God for all their sins, others participated to satisfy feudal obligations, gain glory and honour, or find opportunities for economic and political gain. Many modern Historians have polarised opinions of the Crusaders behaviour under Papal sanction, to some it was incongruous with the stated aims and implied moral authority of the papacy and the Crusades, to the extent that on occasions that the Pope excommunicated Crusaders. Crusaders often pillaged as they travelled, while their leaders retained control of captured territory rather than returning it to the Byzantines. During the Peoples Crusade thousands of Jews were murdered in what is now called the Rhineland massacres, Constantinople was sacked during the Fourth Crusade rendering the reunification of Christendom impossible. These tales consequently galvanised medieval romance, philosophy and literature, but the Crusades also reinforced the connection between Western Christendom, feudalism, and militarism. Crusade is not a term, instead the terms iter for journey or peregrinatio for pilgrimage were used. Not until the word crucesignatus for one who was signed with the cross was adopted at the close of the century was specific terminology developed. The Middle English equivalents were derived from old French, croiserie in the 13th–15th centuries, croisade appeared in English c1575, and continued to be the leading form till c1760. By convention historians adopt the term for the Christian holy wars from 1095, the Crusades in the Holy Land are traditionally counted as nine distinct campaigns, numbered from the First Crusade of 1095–99 to the Ninth Crusade of 1271/2. Usage of the term Crusade may differ depending on the author, pluralists use the term Crusade of any campaign explicitly sanctioned by the reigning Pope. This reflects the view of the Roman Catholic Church that every military campaign given Papal sanction is equally valid as a Crusade, regardless of its cause, justification, generalists see Crusades as any and all holy wars connected with the Latin Church and fought in defence of their faith. Popularists limit the Crusades to only those that were characterised by popular groundswells of religious fervour – that is, only the First Crusade, Medieval Muslim historiographers such as Ali ibn al-Athir refer to the Crusades as the Frankish Wars. The term used in modern Arabic, ḥamalāt ṣalībiyya حملات صليبية, campaigns of the cross, is a loan translation of the term Crusade as used in Western historiography. The Islamic prophet Muhammad founded Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, the resulting unified polity in the seventh and eighth centuries led to a rapid expansion of Arab power. This influence stretched from the northwest Indian subcontinent, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, southern Italy, tolerance, trade, and political relationships between the Arabs and the Christian states of Europe waxed and waned
9.
Floris III, Count of Holland
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Floris III of Holland, Count of Holland from 1157 to 1190. He was a son of Dirk VI and Sophia of Rheineck, on September 28,1162, he married Ada, sister of king William I of Scotland, also known as William the Lion. The county of Holland adopted from him the rampant lion in the coat of arms, Floris III was a loyal vassal to Frederick I Barbarossa. He accompanied the emperor on two expeditions to Italy in 1158 and 1176–1178, Frederick thanked him by making Floris part of the imperial nobility. The emperor gave Floris the toll right of Geervliet, the most important toll station in Holland at that time and this was actually the legalisation of an existing situation, because the counts of Holland had charged tolls illegally since the start of the 11th century. Many farmers came to Holland to turn the swamps into agricultural lands, dikes and dams were built and the border between Holland and the bishopric of Utrecht had to be determined. There was a dispute between Floris and the bishop of Utrecht about a new dam in the Rhine at Zwammerdam in 1165, the brother of Floris, Baldwin became bishop of Utrecht in 1178. War broke out between Flanders and Holland, Count Philip of Flanders wanted to have Zeeland back. Floris was captured in Brugge and had to accept Flemish overlordship in Zeeland as ransom in 1167, during his reign Floris III had troubles with West Friesland and a war with Philip count of Flanders concerning their respective rights in West Zeeland, in which he was beaten. In 1170 a great flood caused devastation in the north. In 1189 Floris accompanied Frederick Barbarossa upon the third Crusade, of which he was a distinguished leader and he died in 1190 at Antioch of pestilence and was buried there. Two sons of Floris III became Count of Holland, Dirk VII in 1190 and he married 28 August 1162 Ada of Huntingdon, daughter of Henry of Scotland, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon and Ada de Warenne. Their children were, Ada of Holland, married 1176 Margrave Otto I of Brandenburg, margaret, married 1182 Count Dietrich IV of Cleves. Robert Beatrix Elisabeth Hedwig Agnes, Abbess at Rijnsburg
10.
Bruges
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Bruges is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country. The area of the whole city amounts to more than 13,840 hectares, including 1,075 hectares off the coast, the historic city centre is a prominent World Heritage Site of UNESCO. It is oval and about 430 hectares in size, the citys total population is 117,073, of whom around 20,000 live in the city centre. The metropolitan area, including the commuter zone, covers an area of 616 km2 and has a total of 255,844 inhabitants as of 1 January 2008. Along with a few other canal-based northern cities, such as Amsterdam and Stockholm, Bruges has a significant economic importance thanks to its port and was once one of the worlds chief commercial cities. Bruges is well known as the seat of the College of Europe, the name probably derives from the Old Dutch for bridge, brugga. Also compare Middle Dutch brucge, brugge, and modern Dutch bruggehoofd, the form brugghe would be a southern Dutch variant. The Dutch word and the English bridge both derive from Proto-Germanic *brugjō-, Bruges was a location of coastal settlement during prehistory. This Bronze Age and Iron Age settlement is unrelated to medieval city development, in the Bruges area, the first fortifications were built after Julius Caesars conquest of the Menapii in the first century BC, to protect the coastal area against pirates. The Franks took over the region from the Gallo-Romans around the 4th century. The Viking incursions of the century prompted Count Baldwin I of Flanders to reinforce the Roman fortifications, trade soon resumed with England. Bruges received its city charter on 27 July 1128, and new walls and canals were built, in 1089 Bruges became the capital of the County of Flanders. Since about 1050, gradual silting had caused the city to lose its access to the sea. A storm in 1134, however, re-established this access, through the creation of a channel at the Zwin. The new sea arm stretched all the way to Damme, a city became the commercial outpost for Bruges. Bruges had a location at the crossroads of the northern Hanseatic League trade. They developed, or borrowed from Italy, new forms of merchant capitalism, whereby several merchants would share the risks and profits and they employed new forms of economic exchange, including bills of exchange and letters of credit. The city eagerly welcomed foreign traders, most notably the Portuguese traders selling pepper and other spices, the citys entrepreneurs reached out to make economic colonies of England and Scotlands wool-producing districts
