Eustace I, Count of Boulogne

Eustace I, Count of Boulogne

Arms of the counts of Boulogne
Spouse(s) Maud of Boulogne
Noble family House of Flanders
Father Baldwin II, Count of Boulogne
Mother Adelina of Holland
Died 1049

Eustace I, Count of Boulogne, was a nobleman and founder of the Boulogne branch of the House of Flanders. He held the county of Boulogne from 1042 until his death in 1049.

Life

He was the elder son of Count Baldwin II of Boulogne and Adelina of Holland.[1] Eustace succeeded his father as count of Boulogne in 1042.[2] Eustace I was also the count of Lens.[3] In 1028 Eustace I confirmed the foundation of a college of canons in his castle at Lens[3] and despite accounts of Lens passing to Baldwin V of Flanders circa 1036 it was still held by Eustace I and was passed to his son Lambert at his death.[4]

During the minority of Baldwin IV, Count of Flanders, Eustace's grandfather, Arnulf III, Count of Boulogne had broken free of Flanders and operated as an independent prince, as did Eustace's father and Eustace himself.[5] In 995, having attained his majority, Baldwin IV attempted to recover several of the independently held castles and to expand the Flemish borders.[5] This had caused considerable animosity between Baldwin IV, Count of Flanders and Eustace's father, but when Baldwin IV's son Baldwin V succeeded him in 1035 Eustace I and Baldwin V of Flanders cooperated on several ventures including several charters and in limiting the powers of the Castellan-advocates of several abbeys including the Abbey of Saint Bertin in Flanders.[6]

Eustace I was allied to the ducal house of Normandy by the marriage of his son Eustace II to Goda, niece of Richard II.[7] This had far reaching alliances to other branches of these families including that of Edward the Confessor, King of England.[7] Under Eustace I the counts of Boulogne rose to great prominence in Northern France.[8] Eustace I died in 1049.[2]

He was apparently a patron of Samer Abbey near Calais and he is said to have been buried there.[9]

Map of the county of Boulogne

Family and children

He was married to Matilda of Leuven,[lower-alpha 1] daughter of Lambert I, Count of Leuven and Gerberga of Lower Lorraine and had four children:[2]

Eustace is a direct patrilineal ancestor of Anne Boleyn, 2nd wife of King Henry VIII, and mother of Queen Elizabeth I.

Notes

  1. ↑ Matilda was a direct descendant of Charlemagne[2][10] and in terms of rank descendants of Charlemagne were among the most prestigious brides.[11] Noble families of the eleventh and twelfth centuries sought to trace their descent specifically into the Carolingian line.[12]

References

  1. ↑ W.H. Turton, The Plantagenet Ancestry (Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1968), p. 105
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Detlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band III Teilband 4 (Verlag von J. A. Stargardt, Marburg, Germany, 1989), Tafel 621
  3. 1 2 Heather J. Tanner, Family, Friends and Allies; Boulogne and Politics in Northern France and England c. 879-1160 (Brill, 2004), p. 61
  4. ↑ Heather J. Tanner, Family, Friends and Allies; Boulogne and Politics in Northern France and England c. 879-1160 (Brill, 2004), p. 97
  5. 1 2 Heather J. Tanner, The Expansion of the Power and Influence of the Counts of Boulogne under Eustace II', Anglo-Norman Studies XIV: Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1991, Ed. Marjorie Chibnall (The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, UK, 1992), p. 251
  6. ↑ Heather J. Tanner, Family, Friends and Allies; Boulogne and Politics in Northern France and England c. 879-1160 (Brill, 2004),p. 83
  7. 1 2 Heather J. Tanner, Family, Friends and Allies; Boulogne and Politics in Northern France and England c. 879-1160 (Brill, 2004),p. 113
  8. ↑ John Carl Andressohn, The Ancestry and Life of Godfrey of Bouillon (Indiana University Press, 1947), p. 9
  9. ↑ Heather J. Tanner, Family, Friends and Allies; Boulogne and Politics in Northern France and England c. 879-1160 (Brill, 2004),p. 118
  10. ↑ Detlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band II (Marburg, Germany: J. A. Stargardt, 1984), Tafel 1
  11. ↑ Judith A. Green, The Aristocracy of Norman England (Cambridge: The Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 353-54
  12. ↑ Motherhood, Religion, and Society in Medieval Europe, 400 - 1400, eds. Conrad Leyser, Lesley Smith (Farnham, Surrey, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2011), p. 28
  13. ↑ George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant Extinct or Dormant, Vol. I, ed. Vicary Gibbs (The St. Catherine Press, Ltd., London, 1910), p. 352 n. (a)


Preceded by
Baldwin II		 Count of Boulogne
1046–1049 		Succeeded by
Eustace II
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