The history of Flanders - Chapter 8
The further development of the county of Flanders: Robrecht the Fries
Written by: Charles
Vanderhaegen - slightly modified and translated by Herman Boel - Edited
by David Baeckelandt July 2008
Published with kind permission of Charles Vanderhaegen.
After the battle of Kassel
The victory of the Flemish army over the united armies of Henegouwen and France in the battle of Kassel in 1071 makes Robrecht, als named the Fries, the undisputed ruler of the Flemish county, also thanks to his marriage to Geertrui of Saxony, widow to count Floris of Holland. Furthermore he is generally recognised as thé Count of Flanders. The Flemish victory in Kassel was complete, but peace was not yet at hand. Flanders was still surrounded by might neighbours. In the south there was the French king Filips I who had not yet recovered from his defeat at Kassel. In the east there was Henegouwen, where Richildis medidated on revenge because Flanders had slipped her and she first sought support with the French king, later with the German emperor. In the north the duke of lower Lorraine, Godfried, and Willem I, bishop of Utrecht, continued to threaten Robrecht while in the west there was the growing power of England.
Ever
since William the Conqueror (image) from
Normandy had set foot on English soil in 1066, had defeated the English
army led by king Harold, and had been crowned king of England in
Westminster, the relations between France and English were changed
thoroughly. Up to this moment the political relations between France
and England had been only a minor factor in the relation between the
two powers. However, the exploit in Hastings gave rise to the most
fundamental contrast in the West European history, i.e. the
English-French enmity which will last a thousand years and will only
end with the notorious Entente Cordiale of 8 April 1904 which will
eventually lead to a French-English alliance against the German empire.
This new political relation between England and France replaced the French-German rivalry over Lorraine, which was disappearing since the Treaty of Ribemont (in 880) when the whole of Lorraine was annexed to East Francia and which made Henegouwen, Luik and Namen part of the East Francian empire, later the Holy Roman Empire.
During the reigns of Boudewijn II up to Boudewijn V Flemish politics always involved the French-German contrasts. This would now change. Contrary to his predecessor Boudewijn the Iron, who only needed to fight on one single front to safeguard the independence of his County, Robrecht had to take into account four potential enemies.
Again Richildis
You will remember that Boudewijn VI, count of Henegouwen, and husband to Richildis, had donated the county of Flanders to his oldest son Arnulf and gad given the county of Henegouwen to his second son, the later Boudewijn II, with the additional condition that if one of the boys would die, the surviving brother would inherit the county of the deceased.
Richildis just could not swallow her defeat at Kassel and used the testament of her husband to claim the Flemish throne for Boudewijn as his brother Arnulf had died. Just as before she sought support with the French king, Filips. Her aim was to drive Robrecht from the Flemish throne and to give it to here own son. So she asked Filips to recognise her son Boudewijn as sole legal count of Flanders. Filips was still irritated by his defeat against Robrecht. He gave in and with all due ceremony recognised Boudewijn as the only legal count of Flanders.
Supported by this great help, Richildis reorganised her troops and marched together with the French army, led by the French king in Montreuil, to Flanders to avenge the humiliating defeat at Kassel. In March 1071, so barely one month after Kassel, the joint armies of Richildis and Filips invaded St-Omaars. The city was thoroughly pillaged, the majority of the population murdered and all that remained burnt down. The advance of the French army was then halted, not by military action but by a diplomatic move by Robrecht.
Among the French soldiers who were captured by Robrecht in the battle of Kassel, there was a certain Eustachius, count of Boulogne and brother to Godfried, bishop of Paris and chancellor to the king of France. Robrecht had the idea to get in touch with that Godfried. They were apparently on very good terms and reached an agreemend according to which Robrecht promised Godfried the release of his brother Eustachius as well as the large Bethlo forest in the area of Eperlecques, near St-Omaars. In return Godfried would urge the French king to cease the hostilities, end the alliance with Richildis and return with his army to Paris.
Robrecht's plan succeeded completely. Godfried managed to convince the French king of the fact that this was the only right thing to do as Robrecht had in fact closer family ties to the French royal family than Richildis' son Boudewijn. Robrecht's mother was none other than princess Adèle, the daughter of French king Robert II, while Boudewijn V, Robrecht's father, was the uncle of Filips who had been regent together with Filips' mother Anna of Kiev during Filips' minority? Filips could not deny these truths. Moreover, he reasoned, had Robrecht been recognised as sole ruler by the whole of Flanders while there was no support whatsoever for Boudewijn. This would turn Boudewijn into a worthless ally to the French king. It would be better to accept Godfried's proposal, make peace with Robrecht and thus turn him into a strong ally rather than an enemy who was, as proven in Kassel, difficult to get the better of.
In order to truly convince the French king to quit his support to Richildis, Godfried also proposed for the French king to take Bertha, stepdaughter to Robrecht, as wife. All happened as planned. After a series of negotiations, peace between both parties was declared in 1073. Filips I recognised Robrecht the Fries as count of Flanders and the agreement was clinched with the marriage between Filips I and Robrecht's stepdaughter Bertha. This marriage not only erased the last traces of resentment at both sides, but also started a new peiod of peace and cooperation between Flanders and France. This peace will last until the death of count Willem Clito in 1128.
And once more Richildis
The recognition of Robrecht by the French king Filips was a severe blow for Richildis, who saw her plans to get her son on the throne of Flanders fail for the second time. She was again all alone now, abandoned by her former allies. Despite her drawback Richildis was not prepared to drop her ambitions. She realised, however, that she could not deal with Robrecht on her own. She did not have enough forces and too little financial means.
She now contacted Theoduinus, the bishop of Luik, the only prince in her surroundings with whom she thought to find support with forces and money. Theoduinus willingly listened to her plea and agreed on the condition that she and her offspring would from now on be liegemen of the bishops of Luik. At wit's end Richildis decided to accept this humiliating serfdom in exchange for 500 knights (soldiers on horses) from the bishop in case anyone dared to wage war against the county (Henegouwen).
This agreement was drawn up in an act that was signed by both parties in Fosse in the presence of Godfried of Bouillon, who shortly thereafter will go on crusade, and the counts of Namur, Leuven, Chiney and Montaigu. These Lorraine princes herewith proved that they had no problem with the weakened position of Henegouwen. But the German emperor Hendrik IV who had to ratify the treaty to validate it, had another opinion. When the act was presented to him, he asked the princes present how they thought Richildis would be able to beat Robrecht with the five hundred knights, something the joint armies of Henegouwen and France could not do.
Apart from that, the emperor was not pleased with an agreement that would give the already powerful bishop of Luik even more power. So the ratification did not happen. The bishop of Luik and Richildis did not lose heart. They now turned to Godfried with the loot, duke of Lower Lorraine and sworn enemy of Robrecht, to Willem I bishop of Utrecht, another sworn enemy of Robrecht, to the archbishop of Keulen and to the bishops of Verdun and Cambrai. With several valuable gifts and other generous favours, they succeeded to get these princes at their side. This had become a might coalition who insisted with the empire to ratify the treaty of Fosse. Hendrik IV succumbed to the pressure and probably reluctantly signed the notorious document that allowed Richildis to start a new war against Robrecht.
The countess of Henegouwen impatiently prepared for a full-scale campaign of the Lorraine princes against Robrecht. Duke De Godfried of Bouillon, the counts of Namur, Chiney and Cambrai, together with Godfried with the loot would finally march against the Flemish usurper and the County Flanders would again be the possession of her son Boudewijn. That is what she must have thought. But whatever dream she had, none came true because absolutely nothing happened. Robrecht had again been a sight too clever.
When he heard about the preparations for the campaign against his county, he had sent with great speed a messenger to Hendrik IV to confirm his investiture of Rijksvlaanderen with the promise to aid the German emperor with all his might should it ever be required. You will remember that Boudewijn IV had been given the loan of Chièvres and Basècles in 1033 from the German emperor Koenraad II Chièvres en Basècles on the right bank of the river Scheldt, which from then onwards was called Rijksvlaanderen.
Henrik IV received the messenger with open arms. He knew how Boudwijn IV had supported the German emperor in 1010 against the Lorraine rebellion and realised that he was better off with a strong ally at the other side of the Scheldt than with Lorraine liegemen craving for power, who only wanted to use him to extend their power to the west. Furthermore he was involved in an investiture controversy with pope Gregorius VIl who had claimed the right to punish and even depose kings in the name of the Saint Peter if they were to show inobedience to the papal authority. This controversy will eventually end to the prejudice of Hendrik IV, who will make a humiliating trip to Canossa in 1077 to submit himself to the papal authority.
Anyway, at this time, we are still in 1072, there is no doubt in Hendrik's mind and he sends the messenger back to Robrecht with the imperial confirmation of Robrecht's loan and his promise for aid to the German empire. This imperial decision in fact boils down to a recognition of Robrecht as the Count of Flanders ans also implies a peace treaty between both parties.
When the Lorraine allies heard about this, they realised that it was useless to engage Robrecht for Richildis' sake, as the outcome would be very uncertain and of little use to Lorraine's intrests. So without striking a blow, the armies returned to their castles. Richildis had been abandoned.
This was terrible news for Richildis. For the third time she saw her ambitions go up in smoke, but the courage, nerve, stubborness and endurance of this women seemed inexhaustible. What did not succeed with the French ally, nor with the German ally, she would now do on her own: make war to Robrecht.
Richildis' last battle
With the little money she had left, she succeeded in reorganising her army. But the army was way too small to think of a large-scale action. She was forced to restrict her actions to small attacks on Robrecht's garrisons. Robrecht grew tired of the continued attached of that awful woman and marched with his army to Henegouwen where he engaged Richildis' army in Broqueroye and crushed it completely. Without hesitation he marched pillaging through Henegouwen up to Wavrechin on the Scheldt. He halted there and made a fortication consisting of a wooden fence surrounded by a moat. Three hundred men were on guard here who regularly held raids in Henegouwen to keep Richildis calm.
With help of the bishop of Luik, Richildis managed later to take the fortification and to have the three hundred men murdered to the last man. This was also the last battle she did. Time had now come to make peace with Robrecht. She succeeded. Robrecht and Richildis made a peace agreement which stipulated that the young Boudewijn, so Richildis' son, would marry a niece of Robrecht. As security for this marriage agreement, Richildis was to give Dowaai, the last support of Richildis, to Robrecht.
When Boudewijn met this niece later on, she not only appeared to be extremely ugly but rather deformed as well. This must have made Boudewijn mad. He felt deceived and made a fool by Robrecht, and therefore broke off the marriage agreement by not marrying Robrecht's niece but Ida, daughter of the count of Leuven. Robrecht immediately took possession of Dowaai that was thus added to the Flemish County.
Having lost Flanders, having sold the possessions in the Ardens and Condroz, her offspring being mere liegemen to the bishop of Luik and with the count of Henegouwen as liegemen of the duke of Lorraine, the results of Richildis' politics between 1071 and 1081 were dramatic.
After all those humiliating defeats, her life made a religeous turn. But she was still tough. In 1080 , at the age of 60, she made a journey to Rome, a very daring undertaking at the time. She died on 18 Maart 1086 and had left a great impression on her contemporary and on the following generations.
The battle in Holland
When Robrecht married Geetruide of Saxony in 1063, there was not much left of the county of Holland. During his short reign from 1049 to 1061, Floris I, Geertruide's first husband, had been almost constantly in war with bishop Bernold of Utrecht, who died in 1054 and was succeeded by Willem I of Utrecht. This bishop had his eyes on the territory of the western Fries counts and claimed the diocese, with the support of Hendrik IV. But Floris had always refused to acknowledge Willem as ruler.
This resulted in continuous hostilities and when Floris died in 1061 and was succeeded by his minor son Dirk V, the only thing left of the Dutch county was a relatively small area around Vlaardingen near the Merwede, as the Nieuwe Maas was called back then.
In the first years Robrecht acted as regent for the young Dirk V and because of his time being taken up by his wars with Richildis, he could not prevent that duke Godfried of Lorraine and bishop Willem I of Utrecht took more and more parts of the West Fries county. But in 1076, finally freed from the threats from the south and the west, Robrecht could fix his attention to the north. Robrecht decided to recapture the lost territory on his two antagonists and to deal with them for once and for all.
He equipped a new army, consisting of a few auxiliary forces that had been sent to him from England by his brother-in-law Willian the Conqueror. When Godfried heard about this, he immediately called in Willem of Utrecht's help and prepared to ward off the attack of Robrecht's troops and to finish off Robrecht. A war was near, but not so near. On 26 February 1076 the ruling authority loses one of its most faithful liegemen: Godfried with the Loot, duke of Lower Lorraine. Arrived at Vlaardingen In the night of the 26th, he puts up in a deserted house where he is found the next morning in the latrines, speared on an iron bar. Heavily wounded, he is brought to his friend Willem of Utrecht where he dies shortly after his arrival.
This horrible murder was never solved. It is suspected that Robrecht and Dirk had planned the murder, but the way it was done showed that they had not committed it themselves. There must have been sereval murderers because it takes more than two men to spear someone on an iron bar. Anyway, this was a severe blow to the alliance of Lorraine princes against Robrecht. Matters became even worse when shortly after, on 27 April, Willem of Utrecht also died. Just before his death he had fulminated a ban against pope Gregorius VII in name of the Lorraine bishops, because of his controversy with German emperor Hendrik IV. The followers of the papal authority saw his death as a punishment by God.
With the death of Godfried and Willem the roles are reversed. Barely had Koenraad been appointed successor to Willem by Hendrik IV, or Robrecht and Dirk started their attack. They laid siege to Yselmonde, conquered the city after a short battle and captured Koenraad who was staying there. They will release him shortly after; it is not clear why. We suspect they released him in return for his promise no longer to oppose Dirk V's advance as Koenraad plays no further role in the events of that time. Anyway, as of now Dirk V is not only ruler of Yselmonde. This is also a turning point in the history of the County of Holland. Dirk V succeeded in recapturing all territory that had been lost under Dirk IV and Floris I to the bishop of Utrecht.
Robrecht and England
Until the rise of Robrecht and his strive to the throne of the County of Flanders, the relation between England and the county had always been very amicable. After William the Conqueror's battle of Hastings in 1066 and his becoming king of England, his father-in-law Boudewijn V, then regent of France during the minority of Filips I, had always shown a more than normal neutrality. After Boudewijn's death, this policy of neutrality was changed when William had allowed a contingency of Norman soldiers, led by the English count Fits Osbern, to fight with Richildis against Robrecht.
There was no profit in this for the English king. There was almost nothing left of the contingency of Norman soldiers and count Fits had been killed in a duel with Robrecht himself. This may be the reason why he decided to help Robrecht in his war against Godfried with the Loot and Willem of Utrecht. This help was rather meant to free Flanders from any Hollandic influence than to give some friendly aid to Robrecht, as William still regarded Robrecht an usurper. Besides, the relation between William and Robrecht were far from amicable. In 1075 for instance, an English pretender to the throne, Edgar Etheling, was involved in a plot against William. He needed to flee England and found shelter with Robrecht in Brugge. That Etheling even succeeded to make an alliance with Robrecht and the king of Denmark, Knut IV, that would form an army to recapture England from William.
Two hundred Danish boats sailed to England but dare not disembark for fear of Norman odds. The fleet did an about-turn and anchored along the Flemish coast. Robrecht did nor react. He is still at war with Richildis and in the north the Lorraine princes are a threat (we are in 1075). Robrecht understands that this is not the time to wage a war against England. This could possibly occur later and in order to ensure the Danish ally in case of war against England, he proposed the Danish king to marry his daughter Aleidis. The Danish king accepted Aleidis for his wife, which lead to a firm Flemish-Danish alliance. Once Robrecht was freed of his enemies from Henegouwen and Holland, he could consider supporting his son-in-law in his ambition to reinstate Danish dominance in England.
Robrecht had a good reason for this. It was so that William the Conqueror had stopped the yearly interest of 300 pieces of silver that he had paid regularly to Boudewijn V in exchange for his neutrality in his conquest of England, and which he had also paid to Boudewijn VI, shortly after the Danish threat. As count of Flanders and son of Boudwijn V, Robrecht probably thought also to have a right to the considerable interest. In 1085 war almost started. Knut VI armed 1000 boats and Robrecht 600. That impressive fleet was to sail to England and disembark a Danish-Flemish army. It did not happen. Knut's fleet that had gathered in the Limfjord in the north of Jutland broke up when Olaf, Knut's brother, started an uprising that would put the whole of Jutland in commotion. Knut could not fully suppress the uprising. He did succeed in capturing Olaf, but as he had no real idea as to what to do with him, he sent him to Robrecht. Shortly after, on 10 July 1086, Knut IV is murdered in the St. Albanus church in Odense.
A Danish delegation then came to Flanders to ask Robrecht for the extradition of Olaf. Robrecht consented to this in exchange for a ransom of 10,000 pieces of silver.
This way the hostilities between Flanders and England came to an end, as did the relation with Denmark.
Robrecht's last years
By 1086 Robrecht had become a full ruler of the county. After so many wars and after defeating so many enemies, he now involved his son, the later Robrecht II, with the rule of the land to ensure a quiet transfer of power. He also had another reason to entrust his son with the rule of the county. In spite of his age, he was 57, he had planned to make a trip to Palestine. This was a mysterious land to which many Flemish pilgrims had gone to who returned with wondrous stories. The best known pilgrim was monk Popo who had also served as soldier under Boudewijn IV, Robrecht's grandfather who was one of the first to make a pilgrimage to the holy land in 1000 and again in 1005.
Robrecht left in 1085 with a large number of Flemish barons among which Boudewijn of Gent, Burchard of Komen, Geeraard of Rijsel, Walner of Kortrijk and Hermar of Zomergem. It was a peaceful pilgrimage, a predecessor of the subsequent less peaceful crusades. After a long journey straight accross Europe and further via Constantinople an Syria, Robrecht reached Palestine. This is also the trajectory that the first crusaders would follow later with Peter the Hermit and Godfried of Bouillon. Robrecht stayed two years in Jerusalem and started the return journey in 1088. When he arrived in Constantinople, he met the Byzantine emperor Alexis I Commenos. He developed a very deep friendship with that emperor, and in order to help him with his fight against the Turks, he decided to send a Flemish expeditionary army of 500 horsemen and 150 horses. Little is known of what has become of this expedition army. What we do know is that it joined the Byzantine army in the defense of Nicomedia in Bithynia (Asia Minor) against the attacks of the sultan of Nicea.
Robrecht returned to Flanders in 1091, where he was told dat Richildis, his former archenemy against whom he had waged war four times, had died shortly after his departure to Palestine in the abbey of Messines where she had retired to in 1086.
Robrecht died on 13 October 1093 in the castrum (a fort) of Kassel where he had built a church in the honour of Saint Peter in 1072 as a memory of the victory that had given him the throne of Flanders.
His son Robrecht, then 28 years old, succeeded him by the name of Robrecht II, later called "of Jerusalem".
Bibliografie:
1. KOCH, G. Dr. "Gravin Richildis in Henegouwen en Vlaanderen", Standaard, Brussel 1951.
2. LE GLAY, Edward. "Histoire de comtes de Flandre", Brussel 1843.
3. DHONT, J. "Vlaanderen van Arnulf de Grote tot Willem Clito", Standaard, Brussel 1950.
4. VERLINDEN, Charles Dr. "Robert 1er le Frison, comte de Flandre", Parijs 1935.