Baldwin II (Hainaut)

Balduin II (around 1056 , † 1098 ), Count of Hainaut 1071-1098, was a son of Count Balduin VI. von Flanders from the House of Flanders and his wife Richilde von Hennegau. He died in Bithynia near Nicaea in 1098 during the First Crusade .

Life

Coat of arms of the county of Hainaut

With the help of the German royal court, Countess Richilde was able to secure the Hainaut for her second son Baldwin. Flanders had gone to her children's uncle, Robert , after this Baldwin's brother, Arnulf III. of Flanders, destroyed in the Battle of Cassel in 1071.

At the instigation of his mother, Baldwin II submitted to Prince-Bishop Theodor of Liège . On the one hand he gave up the imperial immediacy , on the other hand he was able to better protect himself and his territory from the access of his Flemish relatives. In 1076 he released his mother as regent in order to rule independently from that point on.

After his uncle had found support and help from the French King Philip , Baldwin turned to his other uncle William I of England , who assured him protection and assistance. Baldwin had never given up his claim to Flanders and, in turn, prepared for the fight against Robert. In the Battle of Broqueroie his army was defeated by the Flemish contingent, and Baldwin had to give up Flanders for good in a peace treaty with Robert in 1085.

After taking over the government, Baldwin distinguished himself as an extremely pious ruler who participated in numerous donations in favor of holy foundations. So he and his mother Richilde founded the Benedictine monastery of Saint Denis en Broqueroie in 1081, gave him several villages and had a new church built in Saint Denis in 1084. Through foundations and donations of this kind, large parts of his land were removed from the domain and the county lost more and more territory.

When the papal call to the crusade was issued in 1095 , Baldwin decided to go along with it. He received the money he needed from Otbert , the prince-bishop of Liège, who gave him his castle Couin for 50 marks silver and 1 livr. Bought gold. In addition to this considerable sum, the bishop undertook to appoint two of Baldwin's sons canons of St. Lambert in Liège.

After the successful siege of Antioch , Baldwin and Count Hugo von Vermandois were sent to the Byzantine Emperor Alexios to request reinforcements from him. He died on the way near Nicaea, the circumstances of his death being unclear.

family

Balduin had been married to Ida, a daughter of Count Heinrich II von Löwen , since 1084 . He had nine children with her:

• Ida, † after 1101; married to Guy de Chièvres, then to Thomas de Coucy ( House Boves )
• Balduin III. , Count of Hainaut
• Arnulf, Lord of Roeulx, † before 1136
• Ludwig, † as a child
• Simon, Canon of St. Lambert in Liège
• Heinrich, † as a child
• Wilhelm, † after 1117
• Richilde, † after 1118; married to Amaury III. von Montfort , Count of Évreux ( House of Montfort-l'Amaury )
• Adelheid, † after 1153; married to Nicolas de Rumigny

literature

• David C. Douglas : William the Conqueror Duke of Normandy. Diederichs, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-424-01228-9 .
• Heinrich Leo: Twelve Books of Dutch Stories. Volume 1. Eduard Anton, Halle 1832, ( digitized version ).

predecessor	Office	successor
Arnulf I the Unfortunate (Arnulf III of Flanders)	Count of Hainaut 1071-1098	Balduin III.