MALE Baldwin II "Calvus"

Count of Flanders, 879-918.
Count of Boulogne, ?-918.
Abbot of St. Bertin, 892-918.

Baldwin II succeeded his father Baldwin I as count of Flanders in 879. In 892, upon the death of Rudolf, abbot of St. Bertin, he took the abbacy of St. Bertin, an office which was then held by members of his family for much of the next century. He was succeeded by his eldest son Arnulf I in Flanders, and by his younger son Adalolf in Boulogne and St. Bertin.

Date of Birth: say 863×865 (parents married 862).
Place of Birth: Unknown.

Date of Death: 10 September 918 [Folcwine, 627 (exact date); Ann. Blandin. (year only); see Vanderkindere 1, 286]
Place of Burial: Blandimberg [Ann. Blandin.]

Father: Baldwin I "Ferreus", d. 879, count of Flanders. [Witger, 303]

Mother: Judith of France. [Witger, 303]

Spouse: m. 884 [Vanderkindere 1, 283, citing the Chronicle of St. Bavon]
Ælfthryth (Ælfþryð, Elftrude) of Wessex [Æthelweard, 1-2; Witger 303; Folcwine 627], d. 929, daughter of Ælfred "the Great", king of Wessex.

Children:

MALE Arnulf I [Æthelweard, 1-2; Witger 303; Folcwine 627], d. 964, count of Flanders.

MALE Adalolf (Æthelwulf) [Æthelweard, 1-2; Witger 303; Folcwine 627], d. 13 November 933 [Folcwine 627], count of Boulogne, abbot of St. Bertin.

FEMALE Ealhswid (Ealhswyð). [Æthelweard, 1-2]

FEMALE Irmintrude. [Æthelweard, 1-2 ("Earmentruth")]

See Commentary for supposed additional illegitimate child.

Grandchild (son of one of his daughters):

MALE Hildebrand, living 961, abbot of St. Bertin and St. Vaast. [Folcwine 629-30, refers to him as a nepos of Arnulf I, and then (later in the same passage) refers to Arnulf as avunculus (maternal uncle) of Hildebrand. It is unknown which of Baldwin's daughters was Hildebrand's mother.]

Commentary

Supposed illegitimate son:

MALE Albert, provost in Tronchiennes, 951-77.
According to Vanderkindere [286-7], the Chronicle of Tronchiennes attributes to Baldwin an illegitimate son Albert, provost of Tronchiennes and bishop of Paris. There was a bishop of Paris at that time named Alberic, but identifying him with Albert would be problematic, and it is also possible that there is some confusion here with Ascelin/Albert, bishop of Paris, a supposed illegitimate son of Baldwin III. [See also Brandenburg, 89 (with a suggestion that his existence is not certain); Werner, 460 (accepting his existence, but not as a bishop of Paris).]

Falsely attributed daughter:

FEMALE Guinichilde, m. Wifred, count of Barcelona. [Anselme 2, 714, citing "P. Labbe". She has also been falsely placed as a daughter of Baldwin I.]

Bibliography

Æthelweard = A. Campbell ed., Chronicon Æthelweardi/The Chronicle of Æthelweard, (New York, 1962).

Anselme = P. Anselme, Histoire Genealogique et Chronologique de la Maison Royale de France, ... (1726).

Brandenburg = Erich Brandenburg, Die Nachkommen Karls des Großen (Frankfurt, 1964).

Ann. Blandin. = Annales Blandinienses, MGH SS 5, 20-34.

Folcwine = Folcwine's Gesta Abbatum S. Bertini Sithiensium, MGH SS 13, 607-35.

MGH SS = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores series.

Vanderkindere = Léon Vanderkindere, La Formation Territoriale des Principautes Belge au Moyen Age (2 vols., 2nd ed., Brussels, 1902, reprinted 1981).

Werner = Karl Ferdinand Werner, 'Die Nachkommen Karls des Großen bis um das Jahr 1000 (1.-8. Generation)', Karl der Große 4 (1967), 403-483.

Witger = Witger's Genealogia Arnulfi Comitis, MGH SS 9, 302-4.

Acknowledgements

Todd Farmerie provided information from sources not available to the compiler.

Compiled by Stewart Baldwin
Uploaded 27 May 2002