Biography of Charles I Count Flanders 1084-1127

Maternal Family Tree: Eilika Schweinfurt Duchess Saxony

1127 Murder of Charles Count of Flanders

In 1080 [his father] King Canute "The Holy" IV of Denmark [aged 38] and [his mother] Adela Flanders Queen Consort Denmark [aged 16] were married. She by marriage Queen Consort Denmark. The difference in their ages was 22 years. She the daughter of [his grandfather] Robert "The Frisian" I Count Flanders [aged 47] and [his grandmother] Gertrude Billung Countess Holland [aged 50]. He the son of King Sweyn II of Denmark.

In 1084 Charles I Count Flanders was born to [his father] King Canute "The Holy" IV of Denmark [aged 42] and [his mother] Adela Flanders Queen Consort Denmark [aged 20].

On 10th July 1086 [his father] King Canute "The Holy" IV of Denmark [aged 44] was killed at St Alban's Priory Odense.

In 1092 [his step-father] Roger Borsa [aged 31] and [his mother] Adela Flanders Queen Consort Denmark [aged 28] were married. She the daughter of [his grandfather] Robert "The Frisian" I Count Flanders [aged 59] and [his grandmother] Gertrude Billung Countess Holland [aged 62].

In April 1115 [his mother] Adela Flanders Queen Consort Denmark [aged 51] died.

In 1118 Charles I Count Flanders [aged 34] and Marguerite Clermont Countess Flanders [aged 13] were married. The difference in their ages was 21 years. She the daughter of Renaud II Count of Clermont-en-Beauvaisis [aged 43] and Adelaide I Countess Vermandois. He the son of King Canute "The Holy" IV of Denmark and Adela Flanders Queen Consort Denmark. They were fifth cousin once removed.

Before 1119 William Warenne 2nd Earl of Surrey and [his sister-in-law] Elizabeth Capet Countess Leicester, Meulan and Surrey [aged 33] were married. She by marriage Countess Surrey. She the daughter of Hugh "Great" Capet and [his mother-in-law] Adelaide I Countess Vermandois. He the son of William Warenne 1st Earl of Surrey and Gundred Countess of Surrey.

Battle of Bures-en-Bray

On 17th July 1119 at the Battle of Bures-en-Bray King Henry I "Beauclerc" England [aged 51] fought against the army of Louis VI King of the Franks [aged 37].

Baldwin VII Count Flanders [aged 26] who was killed. His first cousin Charles [aged 35] succeeded I Count Flanders. [his wife] Marguerite Clermont Countess Flanders [aged 14] by marriage Countess Flanders.

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 1119. In this same year died the Pope Gelasius, on this side of the Alps, and was buried at Clugny. And after him the Archbishop of Vienna was chosen pope, whose name was Calixtus. He afterwards, on the festival of St. Luke the Evangelist, came into France to Rheims, and there held a council. And the Archbishop Turstin of York went thither; and, because that he against right, and against the archiepiscopal stall in Canterbury, and against the king's [aged 51] will, received his hood at the hands of the pope, the king interdicted him from all return to England. And thus he lost his archbishopric, and with the pope went towards Rome. In this year also died the Earl Baldwin of Flanders [aged 26] of the wounds that he received in Normandy. And after him succeeded to the earldom Charles [aged 35], the son of his uncle by the father's side, who was son of Cnute, the holy King of Denmark.

Chronicle of William Nangis. Then Baldwin, count of Flanders, nephew of Pope Calixtus through his sister Clementia^{ENDNOTE1ENDNOTE}, wishing to establish William, son of Robert, duke of Normandy, who had been held captive by Henry, king of England, in the inheritance of his father, after occupying a large part of Normandy, was struck on the head and died from the wound^{ENDNOTE2ENDNOTE}. His cousin Charles, son of King Cnut^{ENDNOTE3ENDNOTE} of the Danes, succeeded him in the county. William^{ENDNOTE4ENDNOTE}, however, son of Robert, duke of Normandy, married the sister of the wife of Louis, king of France, and after the death of Count Charles^{ENDNOTE5ENDNOTE} the county of Flanders was granted to him.

Note 1. Clementia, daughter of William the Great, count of Burgundy, and sister of Pope Calixtus, had by her first husband, Robert II, count of Flanders, who died in 1111, three sons, two of whom William and Philip died in childhood before their father. The third, Baldwin of the Axe, or Hapkin, took the county of Flanders in 1111.

Note 2. Baldwin, Count of Flanders was killed at the Battle of Bures-en-Bray on 17th July 1119.

Note 3. King Cnut IV of Denmark, around 1042-1096.

Note 4. William Clito, son of Robert Curthose, duke of Normandy, married in the year 1127 Joan, daughter of Rainier, marquis of Montferrat, maternal half-sister of Adelaide, wife of Louis the Fat, and, through the intervention of this monarch, was elected count of Flanders after the death of Charles the Good, which occurred on 2 March of the same year. See below under the year 1127.

Note 5. Charles, Count of Flanders, 1084-1127, was murdered whilst at church in Bruges.

Deeds of King Henry V

Henrici Quinti, Angliæ Regis, Gesta, is a first-hand account of the Agincourt Campaign, and subsequent events to his death in 1422. The author of the first part was a Chaplain in King Henry's retinue who was present from King Henry's departure at Southampton in 1415, at the siege of Harfleur, the battle of Agincourt, and the celebrations on King Henry's return to London. The second part, by another writer, relates the events that took place including the negotiations at Troye, Henry's marriage and his death in 1422.

Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback format.

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 1120. This year were reconciled the King of England [aged 52] and the King of France [aged 38]; and after their reconciliation all the King Henry's own men accorded with him in Normandy, as well as the Earl of Flanders [aged 36] and the Earl of Ponthieu [aged 27]. From this time forward the King Henry settled his castles and his land in Normandy [Map] after his will; and so before Advent came to this land.

In 1125 [his brother-in-law] Ralph I Capet I Count Vermandois and Eleanor Blois were married. She the daughter of Stephen Blois II Count Blois and Chartres [aged 80] and Adela Normandy Countess Blois [aged 58]. He the son of Hugh "Great" Capet and [his mother-in-law] Adelaide I Countess Vermandois. They were second cousin once removed. She a granddaughter of King William "Conqueror" I of England.

On 2nd March 1127 Charles I Count Flanders [aged 43] was murdered at Church of St Donatian. His second cousin William [aged 24] succeeded Count Flanders. Joanna Monferrat Countess Essex and Flanders by marriage Countess Flanders.

1127 Murder of Charles Count of Flanders

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 2nd March 1127. In the Lent-tide of this same year was the Earl Charles of Flanders [aged 43] slain in a church, as he lay there and prayed to God, before the altar, in the midst of the mass, by his own men.

Chronicum Anglicanum by Ralph Coggeshall. 1127. Charles [aged 43], Count of Flanders, was killed¹.

MCXXVII. Occisus est Carolus comes Flandrensis.

Note 1. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. "In the Lent-tide of this same year was the Earl Charles of Flanders slain in a church, as he lay there and prayed to God, before the altar, in the midst of the mass, by his own men."

Orderic Vitalis: "On the calends [1st of March - a mistake for the 2nd] Charles, duke of Flanders, son of Canute, king of Denmark, attended by Tesnard, castellan of Bourbourg, and twenty men-at-arms went to the church at Bruges to hear mass. There, while praying to God prostrate on the floor, he was slain by Burchard de Lille, and thirty-two other men-at-arms, and almost all his attendants were cruelly massacred on the spot. William d'Ypres, having heard of this monstrous outrage, immediately blockaded the castle of Bruges, and beset the cruel murderers on all sides, until the king of France arrived with William the Norman, and after closely besieging the bloody butchers for the period of a month, took them, and cast them headlong from the highest tower."

In 1145 [his former wife] Marguerite Clermont Countess Flanders [aged 40] died.