Battle of Cassel (1071)

The Battle of Cassel was a military clash in medieval France, which decided a power struggle in the County of Flanders. It took place at Cassel on February 22, 1071.

In 1070 Count Baldwin VI died. of Flanders, after him his underage son Arnulf III. followed, for his mother Richilde Hainaut took over the guardianship. Among the Flemish vassals the regency of Hennegauerin was unpopular, and her brother Robert the Frisian, who ruled in Holland, took the opportunity and even fell in the same year in Flanders. He succeeded in quick capture of Bruges and Ghent, but then he was captured by Count Eustace II of Boulogne. Around the same time also came Richilde into captivity the trailer Roberts, and this was released in a prisoner exchange.

Richilde whose Notes are mainly concentrated in the south of Flanders, asked successful in King Philip I of France, the overlord of Flanders, for military support. Also of her sister Mathilde, sister of Roberts and wife of William the Conqueror, it received support, even when the moved to Flanders, sent by her William FitzOsbern with only ten Norman knights. Shortly before the Battle mediated King Philip I. a marriage between William and Richilde FitzOsbern to this as the protector of the young Count Arnulf III. to win.

In the battle on February 22, 1071 Robert Friese kept the upper hand. William FitzOsbern fell in battle as well as Count Arnulf III. (called " the unfortunate " ), who was slain by Gerbod the Flemings. Richilde and her second son, Baldwin fled to their native Hainaut, they could secure for themselves in the following years. Robert the Frisian, however, was after the battle of the new Count of Flanders, which had also recognize the Montreuil had fled to King Philip I.. Both joined in the same year an alliance against the Normans, bringing the opportunities Richildes smashed to a possible recovery of Flanders.

Swell

  • Lamperti Hersfeldensis Annales, ed. Oswald Holder -Egger in MGH SS rer. Germ. 38 (1894 ), pp. 135-143
  • Flandria Generosa, ed. Louis C. Bethmann in MGH SS 9 ( 1851), p 322
  • Egmundani Annales, ed. by Georg Heinrich Pertz in MGH SS 16 (1859 ), p 447
  • The ecclesiastical history of Orderic Vitalis, Volume 2, ed. by Marjorie Chibnall, Oxford medieval texts ( 1990), Book IV, pp. 282-283
  • Gilbert of Mons, Chronicle of Hainaut, ed. by Laura Napran (2005), p 6
  • Battle ( Middle Ages)
  • 1071
Robert I, Count of Flanders Richilde, Countess of Hainaut Arnulf III, Count of Flanders Eustace II, Count of Boulogne Cassel (Nord) Matilda of Flanders Gerbod the Fleming, 1st Earl of Chester Baldwin II, Count of Hainaut
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