I of England, and the Flemish cities used the confusion to gain concessions from both
sides, the cities and nobles chose as count Thierry d’Alsace, maternal grandson of Count
Robert the Frisian.
Thierry d’Alsace (r. 1128–68) pursued a policy of neutrality and internal
consolidation. He played the international diplomat, particularly as a crusader, making
four trips to Palestine and marrying the daughter of King Foulques V of Jerusalem. In
1156, he married his son Philippe to Elizabeth of Vermandois and his daughter
Marguerite to Elizabeth’s brother Raoul V. After 1157, Thierry spent most of his time in
Palestine, and power was exercised by Philippe, who became count in his own right in
- After Raoul V’s death, Philippe arranged his widowed sister’s marriage to Count
Baudouin V of Hainaut. One of the great princes of Europe, Philippe consolidated his
authority by promoting economic growth, notably in the foundation of new towns,
instituting baillis, who took over most of the functions of the now feudalized châtelains,
and giving new constitutions to the larger cities that strictly subordinated them to the
count’s administration.
Philippe d’Alsace’s two marriages were childless, and he undertook closer relations
with the French crown after the young Philip II Augustus, his ward, became king in 1180.
He arranged the marriage of his niece Isabelle de Hainaut to the king. But to get this
marriage he had to promise as her dowry one-third of his lands, including southern
Flanders and Artois. After Elizabeth of Vermandois died in 1182, Philippe’s refusal to
return Vermandois to her sister led to a war with the French.
After Philippe d’Alsace died in Palestine, he was succeeded by Baudouin V of
Hainaut, who ruled in Flanders as Baudouin VIII (r. 1191–95). Although Baudouin VIII
had had to surrender Artois to the French crown as the price of the successsion, Baudouin
IX (r. 1195–1205) managed to get most of it back by 1200. Baudouin IX became the first
Latin emperor of Constantinople, but he died in captivity in the East after a military
defeat in 1205, leaving Flanders to his two young daughters. Philip Augustus in 1212
forced the elder, Jeanne (countess 1205–44), to marry Ferrand of Portugal (d. 1233), who
quickly took the Anglo-Guelf side in the dispute between King John I and the French.
After the Battle of Bouvines (1214), Ferrand was kept in prison until Jeanne accepted the
Treaty of Melun, which subordinated Flanders to the French crown. Her death without
children in 1244 made her sister Marguerite countess of Flanders. Marguerite’s first years
were overshadowed by the power struggles of the children of her two marriages, to
Burchard d’Avesnes and Guillaume de Dampierre. The countess also fell afoul of the
cities, demanding that they contribute to paying her debts to the English king. When they
refused, the English embargoed the export of their wool in 1270, and Flanders had to
submit to a humiliating peace in 1275.
Long before this, Flanders had developed a precocious economic prosperity. There
had been substantial population growth in the vicinity of Ghent as early as the 7th
century. Colonization and reclamation were also significant in the 11th century east of
Ghent and around Ypres and the coastal area, which led to the development of Bruges as
the most important Flemish port. Most other inhabitable areas of Flanders were drained
and colonized by the early 13th century, although the sandy and infertile northeast lagged
behind. The classic manorial regime declined earlier in Flanders than in neighboring
territories. The rural population of maritime Flanders had been free from the beginning,
but the development of commercial relations and the advantages gained by the peasants
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