Baldwin III, Count of Flanders

Baldwin III. (Latin: Baldwinus ) (* probably around 935, † January 1 962 ) was a count of Flanders in the 10th century. He was a son of Count Arnulf I the Great and the Adele of Vermandois.

Baldwin was first mentioned in 942 as a documentary witness to his father in a donation to the St. Peter's Abbey in Ghent. In the year 954 he testifies for the first time with the title of count ( comes ) a gift of his mother to the same abbey. Apparently he served since that time as co-regent with his father in Flanders and held the county Boulogne as its own fiefdom. In his short tenure, he established in Gent, weaving, milling, and thus created the economic basis of his country for centuries to come. 957 he attacked unsuccessfully to Count Roger of Montreuil to remove this Amiens.

Baldwin fell ill at Christmas 961 of smallpox and died at New Year 962, he was buried in the Abbey of Saint- Bertin, as the lay abbot he had held office for a short time. With his death the county of Boulogne went over to his cousin Arnulf II.

Since the year 961 Baldwin was married to Mathilde († 1009), a daughter of the Duke of Saxony, Hermann Billung. Their only child together was Arnulf II († 987 ), which 964 his grandfather succeeded as Count of Flanders. Baldwin's widow married shortly after his death, the Count Gottfried prisoners of Verdun.