Notes |
- Baldwin II or Boudewijn de Kale (865 – September 10, 918)
Baldwin II, nicknamed Calvus (the Bald) was the second count of Flanders and ruled from 879-918.
He was the son of Baldwin I of Flanders and Judith, a daughter of Charles the Bald (Karel de Kale) and as such a descendant of Charlemagne.
In 884 Baldwin married Aelfthryth (Ælfthryth, Elftrude, Elfrida), a daughter of King Alfred the Great of England. The immediate goal of this Anglo-Flemish alliance was to help Baldwin control the lower Canche River valley (at the English Channel).
The early years of Baldwin's rule were marked by a series of devastating Viking raids into Flanders where little north of the Somme was left untouched. By 883 he was forced northward to the flat marshes of Flanders. Baldwin constructed a series of wooden fortifications at Saint-Omer, Bruges, Ghent, and Courtrai and seized those lands abandoned byroyal and ecclesiastical officials. Many of these same citadels laterformed castellanies housing government, militia and local courts.
He died 10 September 918 at Blandinberg (near Ghent) and was succeeded by his eldest son Arnulf I of Flanders. His younger son Adalulf was(the first) count of Boulogne.
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