Other Events and Attributes:

• Appointments / Titles: Flanders, Noord-Holland, Netherlands; Margrave of Flanders
• Appointments / Titles: Saint Omer
• House: Flanders
• FSID: LDHS-DF1

Notes:

Baldwin I (probably 830s – 879), also known as Baldwin Iron Arm and Baudouin, was the first margrave of Flanders. Early sources identify Baldwin (Baudouin) as the son of Odacre (also spelled Audacer) ruler of Flanders. Odacre is believed to have died when his son was still very young, too young to rule. It is not known who ruled Flanders between Odacre's death and the time his son was appointed.

When Baldwin first appears in the records he was already a count, presumably in the area of Flanders, but this is not known. Count Baldwin rose to prominence when he eloped with Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, king of West Francia. Judith had previously been married to Æthelwulf and Æthelbald, kings of Wessex, but after the latter's death in 860, she returned to France.
Around the Christmas of 861, at the instigation of Baldwin and with her brother Louis's consent, Judith escaped the custody into which she had been placed in the city of Senlis, Oise after her return from England. She fled north with Count Baldwin. Charles had given no permission for a marriage and tried to capture Baldwin, sending letters to Rorik of Dorestad and Bishop Hungar, forbidding them to shelter the fugitive.
After Baldwin and Judith had evaded his attempts to capture them, Charles had his bishops excommunicate the couple. Judith and Baldwin responded by travelling to Rome to plead their case with Pope Nicholas I. Their plea was successful and Charles was forced to accept the situation. The marriage took place on 13 December 862 in Auxerre. By 870, Baldwin had acquired the lay-abbacy of Saint Peter's Abbey in Ghent and is assumed to have also acquired the counties of Flanders and Waasland, or parts thereof by this time.

Baldwin I and Judith had four children:
- Charles, who was named after his maternal grandfather but died at a young age
- Baldwin II (c. 866 – 918), who succeeded as margrave of Flanders
- Ralph (c. 869 – murdered 896), who became count of Cambrai around 888; he and his brother joined King Zwentibold of Lotharingia in 895, attacked Vermandois and captured Arras, Saint-Quentin and Peronne, and ended up captured and killed by Herbert I of Vermandois
- Guinidilda, who married Wilfred I the Hairy, Count of Barcelona

Baldwin developed himself as a very faithful and stout supporter of Charles and played an important role in the continuing wars against the Vikings. He is named in 877 as one of those willing to support the emperor's son, Louis the Stammerer. During his life, Baldwin expanded his territory into one of the major principalities of Western Francia. He died in 879 and was buried in the Abbey of St-Bertin, near Saint-Omer.

Baldwin married de France, Judith on 13 Dec 862 in Auxerre, Yonne, Bourgogne, France. Judith (daughter of le Chauve, King Charles II and d'Orléans, Queen Ermentrude) was born in Oct 844 in Orléans, Loiret, Centre, France; died on 13 Jan 870 in Bruges, Gironde, Aquitaine, France; was buried after 13 Jan 870 in Abbey of Saint Bertin, Pas-de-Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. of Flanders, Count Baldwin II was born in 864 in French Flanders (Historical), Nord, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France; died on 10 Sep 918 in Blandijnberg, Gent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium; was buried on 15 Sep 918 in Abbey of Saint Pierre-Du-Mont Blandin, Gent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Appointments / Titles: Count of Flanders
• FSID: 9CNY-VTS
• Occupation: Forester of the Woods

Notes:

Odacre, also spelled Audacer, Odoacer, and Odoscer, believed to be the son of Ingelram (Engelran, Enguerrand, Ingeleannus) and his wife (name not known). He was born between 800 and 810 and died in 837 at the age of 27 or 37. The Cartulaire de Saint-Bertin records his death in 837. The 'Annales Blandinienses' records his death in 836 specifying that he was buried at "Arlabeka. This makes it likely that he died in early March of 837, because of the way the calendar was then calculated with the year beginning March 25th not Jan 1st.

Although the wife of Odacre is not known, they are believed to be the parents of Baldwin I, also known as Baudouin, born between 830 and 837. Odacre is believed to have died when his son was still very young, too young to rule. It is not known who ruled Flanders between Odacre's death and the time his son was appointed.

There are very few sources for Odacer/Audacer/Odoacer
It seems certain that he was the father of Baldwin I, other than that most historians/professional genealogists seem to agree that all other family relationships are fabricated.
The only child associated with Odacer is Baldwin I aka Baudouin.

Ingelram and Lidéric were probably real individuals, however, there is no evidence that they were the ancestors of Odacer and Baldwin I. It appears that they were written into an elaborate thirteenth century story to provided Baldwin with three generations of ancestry.
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The Legendary Ancestors of Baldwin of Flanders

No contemporary source gives the parentage of Baldwin I of Flanders. However, by the the late thirteenth century, an elaborate story had developed which provided Baldwin with three generations of ancestry back to a certain Lidéric, who was then said to be the first "forester" of Flanders, followed in the same position by his son Ingelram, grandson Audacer, and great-grandson Baldwin, who then became the first count of Flanders. Widely accepted in earlier times, these legends have been correctly rejected by modern scholarship. Fortunately, the surviving rescensions of the genealogies of the counts of Flanders allow us to see some of the stages by which this legendary scenario developed, and even though a careful examination of these shows us that Ingelram and probably also Lidéric were real individuals, the alleged descent of Baldwin I from them must be discarded.

Much of the early development of the legend appears in the various works edited under the collective title of Genealogiae Comitum Flandriae [MGH SS 9: 302-336, here abbreviated Gen. Com. Fland.], a collection of nine items (identified here by Roman numerals I-IX) written by various authors over a period of several hundred years, having in common that they involve the genealogy or succession of the counts of Flanders. The two earliest parts, dating from the tenth century, say nothing about the parentage of Baldwin I [I. Witger, Genealogia Arnulfi comitis (pp. 302-4, also an important source for later Carolingian genealogy); II. De Arnulfo comite (p. 304)]. However, Witger was emphasizing the Carolingian ancestry of count Arnulf I, and De Arnulfo comite was concerned only with certain close relatives of Arnulf I, so the fact that they do not mention the parentage of Baldwin I does not mean that they did not know it.

The earliest source giving Baldwin's supposed genealogy back to Lidéric is Genealogia comitum Flandriae Bertiniana [Gen. Com. Fland. III, pp. 305-8], which states that Lidricus, count of Harlebeck, was father of Ingelrannus, who was father of Audacrus, who was father of Balduinus Ferreus ["Lidricus Harlebeccensis comes genuit Ingelrannum. Ingelrannus genuit Audacrum. Audacer genuit Balduinum Ferreum, qui duxit filiam Karoli Calvi nomine Iudith." MGH SS 9: 305]. In his introduction to this work, Bethmann dates this version to the reign of count Robert II (1093-1111) [MGH SS 9: 305], but the existence of two different versions which diverge after Baldwin V suggests an earlier version composed under Baldwin V or Baldwin VI [see MGH SS 9: 306]. As discussed in more detail below, later versions of Gen. Com. Fland. added major elaborations to this account.

However, Genealogia comitum Flandriae Bertiniana is not the earliest source to mention Lidéric. That honor goes to Annales Blandinienses, which, under the year 836, in an eleventh century hand, states that "Lidricus comes obiit", followed by "et Arlabeka sepelitur" added in a twelfth century hand [Grierson (1937a), 11; Annales Blandinienses has also been edited by Ludwig Bethmann in MGH SS 5: 20-34, but the fact that "et Arlabeka sepelitur" was in a later hand is not indicated]. One of the sources used by the Annales Blandinienses as we have them today was an earlier version of the same annals from the middle of the tenth century, called the tenth century Annales Blandinienses by Grierson (1937a), which were also used as a source by Annales Elmarenses, Annales Formosolenses, and Annales Elnonenses. These annals are also edited in Grierson (1937a). Annales Elmarenses were first edited by Grierson, while Monumenta Germaniae Historica contains editions of Annales Formosolenses by Bethmann [MGH SS 5: 34-6] and of Annales Elnonenses by Pertz [MGH SS 5: 10-20, with the entries in one twelfth century hand separated and edited as Annales Elnonenses minores (pp.17-20), and the remaining annals edited as Annales Elnonenses maiores (pp. 11-17)]. The Annales Blandinienses also mention Ingelram and Audacer, but with an important difference: although the affiliation of Audacer as father of Baldwin is given, no genealogical affiliations are given for Lidéric or Ingelram. The Chronicon Vedastinum, discussed in more detail under Audacer below, is another relatively early source which gives the name of Baldwin's father without showing any knowledge of his alleged earlier ancestors. This indicates an earlier tradition in which the name of the father of Baldwin I was regarded as known, but in which there is no evidence that any earlier generations in the genealogy were known.

From this, along with the more detailed individual discussions for Lidéric, Ingelram, and Audacer which appear below, two major points emerge:

No later than the middle of the eleventh century (and probably as early as the tenth), there were local annalists who believed that Baldwin's father was named Audacer/Odoacer, but who did not indicate any significant details about the latter, or any knowledge of genealogical affiliations for Lidéric or Ingelram.

The chronology indicated for Lidéric and Ingelram (whose career overlaps ignificantly with that of Baldwin I), as shown by these early sources, does not fit well with the claim that they were respectively great-grandfather and grandfather of Baldwin I of Flanders.

The natural conclusion is that the name of the father of Baldwin I belongs to an earlier level of the tradition, while the alleged affiliation of Lidéric and Ingelram to Audacer and Baldwin is a later invention, made when the genealogists were seeking to extend the ancestry beyond Baldwin's father, and found two usable names for that purpose in their sources. Although not supported by contemporary evidence, the name of Baldwin's father can be accepted as probable, but the genealogical links to Ingelram and Lidéric need to be rejected as later inventions, even though we can probably accept Lidéric's existence (as we certainly can for Ingelram)
https://fasg.org/projects/henryproject/data/baldw001.htm

Odoacer married of Flanders, N.N.. N.N. was born in 813 in Thérouanne, Pas-de-Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France; died in 860 in France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• FSID: LB8T-L9H