Arnold II (Guînes)

Arnold II (French: Arnould ; † 1220 ) was a Count of Guînes from the House of Ghent . He was a son of Count Baldwin II and Christina von Ardres.

Life

Arnold II coat of arms

Arnold received the rule of Ardres from his father when he came of age , which was an heir of his mother, who died in 1177. At a young age he was trained as a knight at the court of Count Philip of Flanders . At Pentecost 1182 he received the sword line from his father in Ardres with a slap in the face "which one does not reciprocate". After that, Arnold made a name for himself as a tournament fighter at the royal courts of northern France; He was supported financially mainly by his father. In 1190 he received money from him to finance a participation in the third crusade , but Arnold did not put it into practice. His father also arranged his engagement to Ida, the heiress of the neighboring county of Boulogne . However, in 1192 she was kidnapped and married by Rainald von Dammartin , who thus became Arnold's enemy. Instead, before 1200 he married Beatrix von Bourbourg, heiress of the baronies Bourbourg and Aalst . Therefore it came to war with the Flemish count widow Mathilde , who laid claim to Bourbourg. However, Arnold was able to win a victory against their knights near Furnes in 1201 . Mathilde immediately allied herself with Rainald von Dammartin (Rainald von Boulogne), who attacked Guînes in 1205 and captured Count Baldwin II. Although he was released a little later, he soon died of the consequences of imprisonment. Arnold thus became the new Count of Guînes.

Arnold negotiated a three-year peace with Rainald von Dammartin. Immediately after its departure in 1209, Dammartin attacked Guînes again, this time in league with King Philip II August , who destroyed Bonham. At the same time, Beatrix separated from Arnold due to internal family conflicts and moved to the court of the Count of Flanders. In 1211 Arnold paid homage to the royal prince Ludwig as the new count of Artois , but he remained hostile to the crown. The situation changed after Dammartin fell away from the king and had allied himself with the rebellious Count Ferrand of Flanders . In 1213 the king marched before Guînes, to which Arnold submitted after taking hostages. In the following year his country was devastated by the Counts of Dammartin and Flanders, but Arnold then fought on the king's side in the victorious battle of Bouvines , in which his two enemies were captured.

After the Battle of Bouvines, Arnold stood firmly by the side of the Crown. In 1216 he took part in the invasion of England by Prince Ludwig and accompanied him on the Albigensian Crusade in 1219 . The following year he died and was buried in the church of Ardres.

From his marriage to Beatrix von Bourbourg he had several children, including:

• Balduin III. († 1244), Count of Guînes
• Beatrix († after 1244), Abbess of Bonham
• Mathilde († 1262), ∞ with Hugo von Châtillon , Count of Blois and Saint-Pol

literature

The main source of the life of Count Arnold II of Guînes is the work of Lambert von Ardres , who wrote a chronicle about the Counts of Guînes ( Historia comitum Ghisnensium ). It has been edited by Leah Shopkow: The History of the Courts of Guînes and Lords of Ardres (2000).