Adalhelm (Artois)

Adalhelm (lat .: Adelelmus ; † 932 in Noyon ) was a count of Arras ( Artois ) and lay abbot of Saint-Vaast in Arras . He was the son and successor of Count Altmar († 907 ~ 923).

Adalhelm is first mentioned as Count von Arras in 923, when the Normans under Ragenold invaded the Artois and set up camp there. In the winter of 926, King Rudolf suffered a defeat against this Norman crowd near Arras.

Adalhelm was enemies with the neighboring Count Arnulf I of Flanders , as he claimed the Artois for himself. For this reason he was considered an ally of the powerful Count Heribert II of Vermandois , who in turn was the Count of Flanders' worst rival. When the bishop of Tournai-Noyon , Aiard, died in 932 , Adalhelm tried to use this to take control of Noyon . With the support of Count Heribert II, he appointed a cleric he liked as the new Bishop of Noyon, but the cathedral chapter of the city had already chosen its own candidate, the Abbot of Corbie , Walbert. When Adalhelm moved into the city with his pretender, there was a fight with the city population in which he was killed in the church of Noyon . Count Arnulf I of Flanders seized the opportunity and in turn seized the now ownerless Arras, thus connecting the Artois to Flanders for several generations.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Flodoard von Reims , Annales, chronica et historiae aevi Saxonici , ed. by Georg Heinrich Pertz in MGH SS 3 (1839), p. 372
2. ↑ Flodoard von Reims, Annales, chronica et historiae aevi Saxonici , ed. by Georg Heinrich Pertz in MGH SS 3 (1839), p. 380

• Further references to the year of death of Count Adalhelm can be found in the Annales Elnonenses Minores ( MGH SS 5, p. 19) and in the Annales S. Martini Tornacensis ( MGH SS 15.2, p. 1296).