Baldwin VII (Flanders)

Baldwin VII with the ax , also called Hapkin , (* 1093 ; † January 17, 1119 in Rousselaere ), was a Count of Flanders from the House of Flanders . He was the only son of Count Robert II the Jerusalem driver and Clementia, a daughter of Count Wilhelm I of Burgundy . Pope Calixt II was his uncle.

Baldwin was considered to be very active and assertive. He suppressed the emancipation efforts of his vassals with all his might in favor of the common people and especially the cities, whose prosperity he thereby additionally promoted. He broke with his father's ally, the Anglo-Norman Heinrich I. Beauclerc , and instead sided with his liege lord, King Ludwig VI. of France . He was in constant feud with the neighboring Count Hugo II of Saint-Pol . In covenant with King Ludwig VI. and Count Fulko von Anjou , Baldwin attacked Normandy in 1119 , but was fatally wounded in the battle off Bures-en-Bray .

At the age of twelve, Baldwin was married in 1105 to Hedwig, only nine years old, daughter of Duke Alain IV of Brittany . The marriage was never consummated and dissolved again in 1110, and he did not marry a second time. To regulate the succession, Baldwin had therefore designated his cousin, Prince Charles the Good of Denmark , as his successor.

Balduin's nickname probably resulted from his merciless severity with which he persecuted vassals who had become insubordinate. On the other hand, the assumption that his nickname comes from his battle ax ("Hapkin"), which he always carried with him, is unlikely.

Web links

• Bram Brutsaert: Boudewijn VII Hapkin, een Witte Ridder uit de 12de eeuw, graaf van Vlaanderen (1111–1119) . Dissertation 2003–2004 at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven , here online: Deel I. Prins Boudewijn (1093–1111)

predecessor	Office	successor
Robert II of Jerusalem	Count of Flanders 1111–1119	Charles I the Good