Adelolf, Count of Boulogne

Adelolf, Count of Boulogne[1] (died 13 November 933) was a son of Baldwin II, Count of Flanders, and of Ælfthryth. He was probably named for his maternal great-grandfather, King Æthelwulf of Wessex.[2]

Baldwin II's extensive lands and many offices in what is now the north of modern France and the west of Belgium were divided among his sons on his death in 918. The elder, Arnulf, became Count of Flanders. Adelolf succeeded his father as count of Saint-Pol, Count of Boulogne and of Thérouanne. He was also the lay abbot of the Abbey of Saint Bertinus (Saint-Bertin) at Saint-Omer.[3]

In 926 Adelolf was sent as an ambassador to his maternal first cousin King Æthelstan of England by Count Hugh the Great, effective ruler of northern France under Rudolph, Duke of Burgundy, who had been elected king of France in 923. Adelolf was to seek the English king's agreement to a marriage between Hugh and another of Æthelstan's sisters. Among the lavish gifts sent to Æthelstan, an avid collector of relics, were said to be the sword of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great and the Holy Lance. The embassy was a success and Hugh was married to Æthelstan's half-sister Eadhild.[4]

Adelolf was the father of Arnulf II, Count of Boulogne (died 971), and of an illegitimate son named Baldwin (died 973) who was guardian of Arnulf II, Count of Flanders.[3]

According to Folcwine's Gesta abbatum Sancti Bertini Sithiensium (Deeds of the abbots of Saint-Bertin), Adelolf died on 13 November 933. He was buried at Saint-Bertin.[5]

References

  • Hill, Paul (2004), The Age of Athelstan: Britain's Forgotten History, Stroud: Tempus, ISBN 0-7524-2566-8 
  • Le Jan, Régine (2003), Famille et Pouvoir dans le Monde Franc (VIIe–Xe Siècle). Essai d'anthropologie sociale., Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, ISBN 2-85944-268-5 
  • Vanderkindere, Léon (1902), La formation territoriale des principautés belges au Moyen Age, 1, Brussels: H. Lamertin 

Notes

  1. ^ His name is variously spelled Adelulf, Adalulf, Adalolf, and, in French, Adalolphe; in Latin, Adalolphus.
  2. ^ Philip Grierson (1941), "The Relations between England and Flanders before the Norman Conquest", Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Fourth Series, 23, 86; Le Jan; Vanderkindere.
  3. ^ a b Le Jan; Vanderkindere.
  4. ^ Hill.
  5. ^ Le Jan?; Vanderkindere.