Baldwin VII Count Flanders 1093-1119

Baldwin VII Count Flanders and Hawise Canhiart Countess Flanders were married. She by marriage Countess Flanders. She the daughter of Alan Canhiart IV Duke Brittany and Ermengarde Anjou Duchess Brittany and Aquitaine. He the son of Robert II Count Flanders and Clementia Ivrea Countess Louvain and Flanders. They were fourth cousins.

In 1093 Baldwin VII Count Flanders was born to Robert II Count Flanders [aged 28] and Clementia Ivrea Countess Louvain and Flanders [aged 15].

In 1093 [his father] Robert II Count Flanders [aged 28] succeeded II Count Flanders. [his mother] Clementia Ivrea Countess Louvain and Flanders [aged 15] by marriage Countess Flanders.

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 1111. This year the King Henry [aged 43] bare not his crown at Christmas, nor at Easter, nor at Pentecost. And in August he went over sea into Normandy, on account of the broils that some had with him by the confines of France, and chiefly on account of the Earl of Anjou [aged 22], who held Maine against him. And after he came over thither, many conspiracies, and burnings, and harrowings, did they between them. In this year died the [his father] Earl Robert of Flanders [aged 46], and his son Baldwin [aged 18] succeeded thereto.¹⁴¹ This year was the winter very long, and the season heavy and severe; and through that were the fruits of the earth sorely marred, and there was the greatest murrain of cattle that any man could remember.

On 5th October 1111 [his father] Robert II Count Flanders [aged 46] was killed. His son Baldwin [aged 18] succeeded VII Count Flanders.

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 1117. All this year remained the King Henry [aged 49], in Normandy, on account of the hostility of the King of France and his other neighbours. And in the summer came the King of France and the Earl of Flanders [aged 24] with him with an army into Normandy. And having stayed therein one night, they returned again in the morning without fighting. But Normandy [Map] was very much afflicted both by the exactions and by the armies which the King Henry collected against them. This nation also was severely oppressed through the same means, namely, through manifold exactions. This year also, in the night of the calends of December, were immoderate storms with thunder, and lightning, and rain, and hail. And in the night of the third day before the ides of December was the moon, during a long time of the night, as if covered with blood, and afterwards eclipsed. Also in the night of the seventeenth day before the calends of January, was the heaven seen very red, as if it were burning. And on the octave of St. John the Evangelist was the great earthquake in Lombardy; from the shock of which many minsters, and towers, and houses fell, and did much harm to men. This was a very blighted year in corn, through the rains that scarcely ceased for nearly all the year. And the Abbot Gilbert of Westminster died on the eighth day before the ides of December; and Faritz, Abbot of Abingdon, on the seventh day before the calends of March. And in this same year….

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 1118. All this year abode the King Henry [aged 50] in Normandy [Map] on account of the war of the King of France and the Earl of Anjou, and the Earl of Flanders [aged 25]. And the Earl of Flanders was wounded in Normandy, and went so wounded into Flanders. By this war was the king much exhausted, and he was a great loser both in land and money. And his own men grieved him most, who often from him turned, and betrayed him; and going over to his foes surrendered to them their castles, to the injury and disappointment of the king. All this England dearly bought through the manifold guilds that all this year abated not. This year, in the week of the Epiphany, there was one evening a great deal of lightning, and thereafter unusual thunder. And the Queen Matilda died at Westminster on the calends of May; and there was buried. And the Earl Robert of Mellent died also this year. In this year also, on the feast of St. Thomas, was so very immoderately violent a wind, that no man who was then living ever remembered any greater; and that was everywhere seen both in houses and also in trees. This year also died Pope Paschalis; and John of Gaeta succeeded to the popedom, whose other name was Gelasius.

After 1119 [his step-father] Godfrey Reginar I Count Louvain [aged 59] and [his mother] Clementia Ivrea Countess Louvain and Flanders [aged 41] were married. She by marriage Countess Louvain. She the daughter of [his grandfather] William I Count Burgundy and [his grandmother] Ettiennette Countess Burgundy. He the son of Henry Reginar II Count Louvain and Adela Thuringa Countess Louvain. They were half fourth cousin once removed.

Chronicle of William Nangis. Then Baldwin, count of Flanders, nephew of [his uncle] Pope Calixtus through his sister [his mother] Clementia¹, 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 wound². His cousin Charles, son of King Cnut³ of the Danes, succeeded him in the county. William⁴, however, son of Robert, duke of Normandy, married the sister of the wife of Louis, king of France, and after the death of Count Charles⁵ the county of Flanders was granted to him.

Note 1. Clementia, daughter of [his grandfather] 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.

[his father] Robert II Count Flanders and [his mother] Clementia Ivrea Countess Louvain and Flanders were married. She the daughter of [his grandfather] William I Count Burgundy and [his grandmother] Ettiennette Countess Burgundy. He the son of Robert "The Frisian" I Count Flanders and Gertrude Billung Countess Holland. They were fourth cousins.