General Notes

Name Suffix:<NSFX> " Count Of Flanders
Flanders, French FLANDRE, Flemish VLAANDEREN, medieval principality in the southwest of the Low Countries, now included in the French département of Nord, the Belgian provinces of East Flanders and West Flanders, and the Dutch province of Zeeland. The name appeared as early as the 8th century and is believed to mean "Lowland," or "Flooded Land."
The origin of Flanders lies in the pagus Flandrensis, an area composed of Bruges and its immediate environs under the administration of the Frankish empire. Thus, in the early European Middle Ages Flanders shared the institutions of the Frankish kingdom. With the decay of these institutions under the later Carolingians, the country became feudalized and was ruled by powerful princes--wealthy landowners--who sought to expand their territory by force of arms and to safeguard it by building castles. The population, though united under a common rule, was far from homogeneous. In the southernmost area it was mainly Gallo-Roman and Romance-speaking; farther north the Frankish settlement had been denser, so that the language was Germanic; and the coastal areas had been settled with people of Saxon and Frisian origin, of a less civilized way of life. The counts effectively united these peoples into one nation. From the 12th century onward, the counts substituted for the old feudal structure an orderly administration and fiscal organization, set up a centralized judicial system (using Roman law), and began extensive legislation. One of the main starting points of this development was the safeguarding of public order by the counts (pax comitis). The role of Philip of Alsace was capital in this field. He gave to a great number of towns charters (keuren), the contents of which varied little and which all went back to the charter of Arras of 1157-63. At the same time, but quite distinctly, the commune movement developed. This led to the establishment in the numerous, wealthy towns of a town government with a considerable measure of independence. The towns were ruled by aldermen who were administrators and judges at the same time. The constitutional history of Flanders is largely that of the struggle for supremacy between comital and communal authority. Finally the central authority was victorious, and in the 16th century monarchical authority was firmly established. Representative institutions (estates) had grown up around the counts, especially from the 14th century onward; they were largely controlled by the three main towns of Ghent, Bruges, and Ypres. [Encyclopædia Britannica CD '97]
In the time of Cæsar, Flanders was inhabited by the Morini, Atrebates, and other Celtic tribes, but in the centuries that followed, the land was repeatedly overrun by German invaders and finally became a part of the dominion of the Franks. On the breakup of the Carolingian empire, the River Scheldt was, by the Treaty of Verdun (843), made the line of division between the Kingdom of East Francia (Austrasia) under the Emperor Lothaire, and the Kingdom of West Francia (Neustria) under Charles the Bald. In virtue of this compact, Flanders was henceforth attached to the West Frankish monarchy (France). It thus acquired a position unique among the provinces of the territory known in later times as the Netherlands, all of which were included in that northern part of Austrasia assigned on the death of the Emperor Lothaire (855) to King Lothaire II, and from his name called Lotharingia or Lorraine.
Baldwin I, by name BALDWIN IRON-ARM, French BAUDOUIN BRAS-DE-FER, Dutch BOUDEWIJN DE IJZERE ARM (d. 879), the first ruler of Flanders. A daring warrior under Charles II the Bald of France , he fell in love with the King's daughter Judith, the youthful widow of two English kings, married her (862), and fled with his bride to Lorraine. Charles, though at first angry, was at last conciliated, and made his son-in-law margrave (Marchio Flandriae) of Flanders (864), which he held as a heredit