Baldwin II, Count of Hainaut

Baldwin II (* 1056, † 1098 ), Count of Hainaut from 1071 to 1098, was a son of Count Baldwin VI. of Flanders and his wife Richilde of Hainaut. He died in 1098 at Nicaea in Bithynia during the first Crusade.

Life

With the help of the German royal court was able to secure the Hainaut for her second son Baldwin Countess Richilde. Flanders, had gone to the uncle of their children, Robert, after this Baldwin brother, Arnulf III. had destroyed of Flanders, in the battle of Cassel in 1071.

At the instigation of his mother Baldwin II assumed the Prince-Bishop Theodore of Liege. On the one hand he was thus on the imperial immediacy, on the other hand he could better protect themselves and their territory so before accessing its Flemish relatives. In 1076 he released his mother as regent and decided from that point on its own to rule.

After his uncle at the French King Philip found support and help, Baldwin turned to his other uncle William I of England, who assured him protection and assistance. Baldwin had his claim to Flanders never gave up and was preparing for his part in the fight against Robert. In the battle of Broqueroie his army defeated the Flemish contingent, and Baldwin had in 1085 in a peace treaty with Robert definitively renounce Flanders.

After his government takeover, Baldwin stood out as a very pious ruler who took part in numerous donations to sacred foundations. So he and his mother founded Richilde example, in 1081 the Benedictine monastery of Saint Denis en Broqueroie, gave him several villages and left in 1084 a new church in Saint Denis build. Through endowments and donations of this kind, large parts of his country were removed from the dominion and the county lost more and more territory.

As 1095 was issued the papal call for a crusade, Baldwin decided to go along. He received the money for needed Otbert of the Prince-Bishop of Liege, who gave him his castle Couin for 50 silver marks and 1 livr. Gold bought from. Apart from this handsome amount, the Bishop of the two sons of Baldwin undertook to appoint canons of St. Lambert in Liege.

After the successful siege of Antioch, Baldwin was sent together with Count Hugh of Vermandois to the Byzantine emperor Alexios to ask for reinforcements from this. Move at Nicaea he died, the circumstances of his death remain unclear to this day.

Family

Baldwin was since 1084 with Ida, a daughter of the Count of Leuven, married. With her he had nine children:

• Ida, † after 1101; married to Guy de Chièvres, then with Thomas de Coucy (House Boves )
• Baldwin III. , Count of Hainaut
• Arnulf, Lord of Roeulx, † before 1136
• Ludwig, † as a child
• Simon, canon of St. Lambert in Liege
• Henry, † as a child
• Wilhelm, † after 1117
• Richilde, † after 1118; married Amaury III. of Montfort, Count of Evreux (House Montfort l'Amaury )
• Adelheid, † after 1153; married to Nicolas de Rumigny