ARNULF
. Name of three counts of Flanders. Arnulf I the Great (885–965, r. 918–65), also known
in his last years as “the Old,” “the Rich,” or “the Lame,” was the son of Count Baudouin
II. After the death of his younger brother in 933, he ruled an area that included his
family’s ancestral lands in western and southwestern Flanders, Boulogne, Tournai,
territories around Saint-Omer and Thérouanne, and perhaps Ghent. A reformer of the
Flemish abbeys and a skilled diplomat, he allied with the counts of Vermandois to check
the rising power of the dukes of Normandy. The west Frankish king Lothair gave him the
title princeps, previously held only by Hugues le Grand, count of Paris, and established
the principle that all feudal bonds in Flanders passed through the princeps and ultimately
to the king. Arnulfs son, Baudouin III, predeceased him, and Lothair arranged the
succession of Baudouin’s son, Arnulf II (ca. 961–988, r. 965–88). Arnulf II’s rule
witnessed the beginning of serious conflicts in Flanders between the counts’ two feudal
lords: the king of France, who occupied southeastern Flanders as a condition of
permitting Arnulfs accession, and the Holy Roman emperor, lord of the territory east of
the Scheldt. Arnulf II married the daughter of King Berengar II of Italy in 976 and died
prematurely in 988. Arnulf III (r. 1070–71) was the son of Count Baudouin VI. He ruled
only a few months before being killed in battle by his uncle Robert the Frisian, who
usurped the countship.
David M.Nicholas
[See also: FLANDERS]
Ganshof, François L. La Flandre sous les premiers comtes. Brussels: Renaissance du Livre, 1943.
Koch, A.C.F. “Het graafschap Vlaanderen van de 9de eeuw tot 1070.” In Algemene Geschiedenis
der Nederlanden. 2nd ed. Haarlem: Fibula-van Dishoeck, 1982, Vol. 1, pp. 354–83.
ARNULF OF LISIEUX
(Bishop of Lisieux, r. 1141–81). Arnulf was born into an Anglo-Norman family that
included several members of the clergy. Not much is known of his early life, though he
probably studied at Chartres, in Italy, and at Paris. He held an archdeaconry at Sées and
was often in the service of the English king Henry I, though after his death in 1135, like
most of the Norman clergy, he supported the claim of Stephen to the English throne.
Arnulf was a staunch supporter of Pope Innocent II during the schism of 1130, and his
earliest extant writing is directed against Gérard, bishop of Angoulême, who had
supported the antipope Anacletus II. Freely elected bishop of Lisieux by the cathedral
chapter in 1141, he often tried to reconcile the interests of the kings of France and En
gland and was one of the ecclesiastical leaders of the Second Crusade. In his own
diocese, Arnulf is best remembered for his support of the regular canons and the
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 130