The history of Flanders - Chapter 11
Boudewijn VII, the twelfth count of Flanders
Written by: Charles
Vanderhaegen - slightly modified and translated by Herman Boel - Edited
by David Baeckelandt July 2008
Published with kind permission of Charles Vanderhaegen.
Flanders after Robrecht ll
Robrecht II, also called from Jerusalem because of the important role he played during the first crusade, fell in battle on 5 October 1111 during the siege of Meaux. He had besieged the city together with Lodewijk the Fat one, king of France, to get Henry I who, after the death of his brother William, had become ruler of England and Normandy.
Clementia, his spouse, daughter to William I, count of Burgundy, had brought him three children: Boudewijn, born in 1093, William, born in 1094 and died in 1109, and Philip, born in 1095 and probably died the same year.
Boudewijn was barely 8 eight years old when his father died. He therefore had little experience in ruling the county. This is probably the reason why he always had a good relation with his mother, as we can see from the records from that time. Many of them start with "Ego Balduinus, comes Flandrensium et mea qenitrix comitissa Clementia..." (Transl. "I, Boudewijn, count of Flanders and my mother countess Clementia....") which proves that Boudewijn still saw his mother as the countess of Flanders and therefore shared his power with her.
After the solemn funeral of his father in Atrecht, he became liegeman to the French king Lodewijk de Dikke, who then presented him to the Flemish nobles who had attended the service, and had him recognized as Cound of Flanders, legal successor to his father Robrecht II.
Despite his young age, Boudewijn must have had an extraordinary sense of justice. He must also have been very well aware of the situation in the county. Almost immediately after the ceremony, i.e. on 6 October 1111, Boudewijn called upon al Flemish nobles to get together in Atrecht and to swear a political truce. This meant that all hostilities between counts were to cease. Every infriction of the political truce, originally an ecclesiastic institution, could now be sanctioned by the count with secular fines.
This was a first measure to restore order in the country. One needs to know that the internal political situation of the county had so far been determined by the count, who tried to maintain his rights and domains as much as possible, and by the knights who each tried to het as much as possible rights and domains. The 12th century was also the century when the cities came about and played a new role in the relation between the count and his knights. The cities were usually the enemy of the knights. The latter levied tolls and other rights in their domains, interfered with the trade between cities, and assumed all kinds of seigniorial rights who interfered with the freedom of movement of the city citizen. The city citizen was also regularly confronted with the violence of the knights.
In this context the interests of the count and the cities are very similar, as trade continues to grow as well as the income of the count through taxes of the city grounds. No one has more interests in the development of trade and industry than the count. However, due to this development the knights saw their power reduced and therefore became more and more defiant and rebellious.
Boudewijn VIl's rule is characterised by a growth of his rule with support from the cities. He is the first count who thinks more of peace and order than warfare. His determination is unseen in this era.
Boudewijn's laws
The first laws to restore order in the county were declared during a general state meeting in leper. Boudewijn took the floor and informed the knights present that he would no longer rule the county only as lord, but also as father and judge. He would put an end to the injustice that was inflicted on merchants, farmers and city citizens, and to the wrongs that had crept into the county, such as murder, theft, oppression of widows, or extorsion of villages.
The following laws came into effect immediately:
From now on no one has the right to publicly carry weapons, whatever one's social status, with the exception of the bailiffs and those protecting the count or the cities.
Should anyone break thise law and hurt or kill someone in the process, he shall be punished with the poenía talionis (The law or an eye for an eye) unless he can prove he acted in self-defence.
If the accused calls upon legal self-defence, he is
to prove this, either by duelling the accuser or with the water or hot
iron test.
(It was assumed that, if the accused was right, God would allow him
victory in the duel, would not let him drown in the water proof, or
would not have him burnt by the hot iron. This primitive faith in God
will maintain throughout the Middle Ages.)
The nobleman or knight can also, when accused, justify himself by having twelve of his peers or his liege lord swear his innocence. Someone who is not of nobility can also justify himself bij having twelve peers swear his innocence.
Highwaymen are hanged at the place of their crime.
Only the count was allowed to hunt. He alone appointed the supremer hunter. Without his permission no one was allowed to hunt, to capture birds in nets, or to poach game. If an offender was caught, he was hanged at the spot. The same fate was valid for he who stole or hid another person's catch.
Officials who commited a crime instead of checking it and who were fined, were to pay a double fine.
Anyone, rich or poor, man or woman, was allowed to make his complaints with the count, or to inform him of another one's crime he or she witnessed. The count was the only one who could pass sentence and decide on the execution of the sentence.
As from the day these laws were declared, Boudewijn was always conspicuously carrying an axe with him as sign of his bloody justice. Hence his nickname "Hapkin" or"Hapken", which was the name of a small axe.
It should be noted that most of Boudewijn's laws, much of which has been lost, were inspired by the old Salian laws from Clovis, then around six hundred years old. It's not that those laws or similar laws did not exist prior to Boudewijn, but their application had been lost over the centuries, mainly because of the continuing wars and long absences of the counts who preferred conquests to maintaining order in their county.
Many of Boudewijn's laws were an imitation of the political truces that were declared by episcopal synods in the 11th and 12th centuries at specific times of the year. Most of them were meant to reach a cease fire of some hostility.
As said, most of Boudewijn's laws were lost, but we find them back, at least their spirit, in most municipal laws of that time, which remained valid until the Late Middle Ages.
Boudewijn's jurisdiction
Despite the severity of Boudewijn's laws, the crimes did not fail to occur. But the count, an apparent indefatigable and at the same time fearsome judge, regularly went accross the country to hear anyone who had any complaint about a murder, arsen, theft or poaching. Boudewijn had it especially in for knights or barons who refused to obey his laws and who were rather considered poachers than knights, defenders of widows and orphans, as they were called at the time. We will tell you about two cases which show Boudewijn's legendary severity against law offenders.
The first case deals with three eastern merchants who were on their way to the annual fair in Torhout. They halted in an inn near the Steenstraat in Brugge. They told everybody that they had a case with fine stones that they wished to sell on the fair. When a certain knight, Hendrik van Calloo, of the noble family van Waes, heard about this, he conspired with some companions to seize that treasure. They patiently waited until the merchants left the inn to head for Torhout. They followed them and in the forest of ter Leepe they raided the surprised merchants, assassinated them, and seized the case with stones, as well as their belts which were filled with gold and silver coins.
The merchants' servants had gone to Torhout in advance to settle for their masters to stay in a local inn. They waited for their masters for dinner, and became suspicious when not their masters but knight Calloo and his companions entered the inn. When they heard from other merchants, who had entered the inn little after, that some men had been found murdered between Brugge and Torhout, they became worried. They feared the worst and went straight to Leepe where they found their murdered masters.
They had heard about Boudewijn and went straight away to Wijnendale castle where the count stayed. They informed him about what had happened and about their suspicion regarding knight van Calloo and his companions as to their involvement with the murders. When Boudewijn heard their story, he mounted his horse immediately, despite the late hour, and rode along with some servants and a few of his guards to the inn in Torhout where the suspected knight and his companions were. He asked the bailiff for the guest list and the goods he held for safekeeping. When the startled bailiff showed the goods of his guests, the servants immediatly recognized the case with stones and the belts with money of their masters.
The count then ordered the guards to arrest the knight and his companions and to confine them in Wijnendale. The sentence was quickly passed, as the prisoners were gathered already the next day in one of the halls of the castle. The count ordered them to go and stand on a table, each of them with a rope around their neck that they themselves were to tie to the beams of the ceiling. The count himself then moved the table so that the murderers got the usual punishment for highwaymen. The stolen goods were returned to the servants with the order to return it to the legal heirs.
A second case occurred in Brugge. An older woman approached
the count, who was staying in the city, to complain that esquire Pieter
van Oostcamp had stolen two oxes of her which he had
taken to the market to sell them. Without hesitation the count summoned
the esquire and asked him why he had stolen those oxes. The esquier
used all kind of excuses to get out of his precarious situation, but
the count said: "Your excuses have no paint*. I will give you better
paint". Boudewijn's guards took the thief, brought him to the market,
threw him publicly into a boiling painters kettle and returned the oxes
to the woman.
*Flemish expression meaning: you're excuses are very lame
These two sentences show that Boudewijn Hapkin, as far as justice is concerned, was all but gentle and did not hesitate to carry out himself all sentences he passed.
Knightly reaction
This severe and very barbarian justice - at least to current readers - had damped the spirit of enterprise of the Flemish nobility. However, a revolt of some nobility against this continuous severe behaviour, which they say as a violation of their rights, was inevitable. The following events will demonstrate this.
Gauthier, count of Hesdin, and Hugues Champs-d'Avoine, (also known as Hugo Campdaveine) count of Saint Pol, could no longer tolerate Boudewijn's justice and rebelled against him. It did not bother Boudewijn much. In fact, their rebellion was very convenient to him. He wanted to extend the county southwards in order to take in a better strategic position towards Normandy in collaboration with the French king. One of the reasons was undoubtedly the fact that Henry I, king of England and Normandy, had stopped payment of the yearly interest of 400 silver marks after the death of Robrecht II. This was a huge problem to Boudewijn because 400 silver marks was a lot of money in that time. Moreover, the 12th century was characterised by inflation. The count was in constant lack of money. This can also be seen in a document of 1113 in which Boudewijn recognizes that Lithnotus, one of the officers of his court, has legally ceded a fief consisting of a country estate in Cortabriga in the surroundings of Brugge and which stipulates that the count ceded this fief in mortmain* to the church of St.Truiden for (barely) 25 silver marks and therefore entrusted it to Godebertus, attorney to the forementioned church.
(*) Mortmain: goods in mortmain are goods that are no one's
property, but which are permanently bound to a church or convent. Those
goods do not pass into other hands by inheritance, nor by their
consistency with a permanent destination.
From then onwards Boudewijn has given a lot of fiefs in mortmain to
churches and convents, which gave him enough money to make true his
ambition, i.e. to expand the country southwards.
But as usual in that time, money did not suffice and over and over again one turned to marriage politics. In a first phase, the planned expansion towards the south came about by a well-prepared marriage of Karel (the later Karel de Goede (Charles the Good)), cousin to Boudewijn, with Margareta of Clermont, who gave the county Amiens as dowry. In order to ensure the relationships between this county and Flanders, it was necessary to take possession of the castle of Ancre (currently Albert). Because of this the rebellion mentioned above of Hugo was convenient to Boudewijn: the castle of Ancre belonged to Hugo.
When Boudewijn claimed the castle, Hugo refused which inevitably led to war between both counts. The battle lasted two years and ended in 1117 with the taking of Ancre by Boudewijn. He immediately gave the castle to Karel, who, as count of Amiens and lord of Ancre became a powerful liege lord. Boudewijn must already have thought of his succession, because his marriage to Agnès, daughter to Alain, count of Nantes, had been broken off by the pope because of the family tie, and had also remain childless. Boudewijn apparently loved his wife an awful lot, as he never remarried and never had any new marriage plans. Should he die, Karel of Denmark, as cousin and grandson of Robrecht de Fries, would normally succeed him.
Another war after all
The succession would come rather quickly as Boudewijn would soon fall in the same war that had taken the life of his father Robrecht II. As a matter of fact, the war between the French king and Henry I of England for the posession of Normandy that started with the battle of Meaux, had never stopped. Henry I of England and Lodewijk the Fat one, king od France, were still at odds with each other about this county.
When Lodewijk the Fat one called Boudewijn to join him, like his father, in battle against Henry I, Boudewijn did not hesitate for a second. The fact that Henry I had stopped paying him the notorious intrest since the death of his father, was sufficient to battle side by side with the French king. As far as Henry I is concerned, the fact that William of Normandy, later Clito, son to Robert II Curthose, was the only legal heir to the county of Normandy, taken in custody by Boudewijn in 1113, was also sufficient to regard Boudewijn as an enemy.
At the end of August 1118 Boudewijn left heading 500 horsemen towards Normandy. He deployed at the gate of Rouen. As the gate was closed, Boudewijn put his axe in it and challenged Henry I to a duel. Henry pretended he had not heard anything. Rouen was too well fortified to risk an attack. Boudwijn then turned to the fortress of Eu. You may remember that this city had been taken in 925 by the two sons of Boudewijn with the Iron Arm, Arnulf and Adalolf. Boudewijn will not repeat his ancestors' victory. As spear will wound him at the head which paralyses him. The battle needs to be broken off and the Flemish troops return to Flanders. Boudewijn was taken to the castle of Roeselare, where he will die of indigestion a few months later, on 17 June 1119, after eating a fat goose with garlic.
Died childlessly, he will be succeeded by his cousin Karel de Goede (Charles the Good).
Bibliography:
1. VERCAUTEREN, Fernand. "Actes des comtes de Flandre 1071-1128", Palais des Academies, Brussel 1938.
2. DHONT, J. Prof. Dr. "Algemene geschiedenis der Nederlanden", Dl. II blz. 88, Standaard Boekhandel Antwerpen 1950.
3. LE GLAY, Edward. "Histoire des comtes de Flandre", Brussel 1843 blz 253.
4. BONENFANT, P. Prof. e.a. "Historische Lectuur'", Uitgave A. De Boeck, Brussel 1843; een perfecte vertaling van de Latijnse tekst van de Lex Salica (Salische Wet) door J.H. Hessels vindt men op blz 24-28.
5. KERCKHOVE, van de Gr. A. "De graven van Vlaanderen", Uitgeverij SINTAL, Leuven 1979 blz. 55&56
6. VERCAUTEREN, Fernand. Dr. "Note critique sur un Charte originale du comte de Flandre Baudoin VII", Imprimerie Disonaise, Dison 1931.