The Count of Flanders was the ruler or sub-ruler of the county of Flanders from the 9th century until the abolition of the position by the French revolutionaries in 1790.
Although the early rulers, from Arnulf I onwards, were sometime referred to as margraves or marquesses, this alternate title largely fell out of use by the 12th century. Since then the rulers of Flanders have only been referred to as counts.
The Counts of Flanders enlarged their estate through a series of diplomatic manoeuvres. The counties of Hainaut, Namur, Béthune, Nevers, Auxerre, Rethel, Burgundy, and Artois were acquired via marriage with the respective heiresses. The County of Flanders itself suffered the same fate. By the marriage of Countess Margaret III with Philip II, Duke of Burgundy, the county and the subsidiary counties entered a personal union with the Duchy of Burgundy in 1405. The county itself ceased to exist in 1795.
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Charles V proclaimed the Pragmatic Sanction of 1549 eternally uniting Flanders with the other lordships of the Low Countries in a personal union. When the Habsburg empire was divided among the heirs of Charles V, the Low Countries, including Flanders, went to Philip II of Spain, of the Spanish branch of the House of Habsburg.
Between 1706 and 1714 Flanders was invaded by the English and the Dutch during the War of the Spanish Succession. The fief was claimed by the House of Habsburg and the House of Bourbon. In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht settled the succession and the County of Flanders went to the Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg.
The title was factually abolished after revolutionary France annexed Flanders in 1795. Francis II relinquished his claim on the Low Countries in the Treaty of Campo Formio of 1797 and the area remained part of France until the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
In 1815, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands was established by the Congress of Vienna and William I of the Netherlands was made King of the Netherlands (Latin: rex Belgii). The Belgian Revolution of 1830 caused a split in the kingdom between the North and the South. Neither he nor his descendants made any claims to the title of count of Flanders after 1839, when a peace treaty between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Belgium was signed.
In modern times, from 1831 onwards the substantive title Count of Flanders has been given to younger sons of the Kings of the Belgians (Latin: rex Belgarum). Since 1983 the title will not be conferred anymore.
The title Count of Flanders is one of the titles of the Spanish Crown. It is only a historical title which is only nominally and ceremonially used.
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