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4. Countesses as Rulers in Flanders
- University of Pennsylvania Press
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4 Countesses as Rulers in Flanders Karen S. Nicholas THE COUNTESSES OFFLANDERS played important political roles in the history of the county from the time of its Carolingan origins.1 They brought their husbands not only the prestige of their natal families but often even experience in ruling, asseveralcame to Flanders aswidows of otherprinces. Because of deaths at war and on crusade, Flanders passed through the female line nearly as often as through the male line, and three countesses ruled by hereditary right. This chapter will examine the extensive roles of countesses in the governance of Flandersfrom the late eleventh through the thirteenth centuries. What assets did they bring to their marriages? How well did they work as partnerswith their husbands in governance? To what extent did they manage their dowers, their inheritances, and their husbands ' lands? What role did they play in arranging marriages or choosing careers for their children?And how did they act as regents or as hereditary countesses? The sources of information about ruling families in Flanders consist primarily of charters (documents attesting to grants, sales, or exchanges of property and rights, mostly to monasteries and churches) and chronicles (narrative histories, usually written by the clergy), but occasional letters and administrative documents survive as well. Charters are numerous for the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, including those isssued by the counts and countesses.2 But it is the chronicles that supply most of the narrative information about Flandersand its political devlopment. The earlytwelfthcentury chroniclerssuch as Galbert of Bruges, Walterof Therouanne, Lambert of Waterlos, Herman of Tournai, and the authors of the deeds of the bishops of Cambrai arc generally reliable, even though they present history as the acts of powerful men who exercised power primarily by the sword, and consequently had little to say about the countesses. Galbert of Bruges, Map 4. The County of Flanders. [3.81.165.210] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 07:00 GMT) Countesses as Rulers in Flanders 11; for example, wrote a detailed aceount of the murder of count Charles the Good in 1127 without even mentioning the count's wife Margaret. The bias of those chroniclers has misled modern historians, who have accepted uncritically the same attitudes, failing to appreciate the actual exercise of rule by twelfth-century women through family connections, administrative actions , and control of property. Narrative accounts written by the secular clergy, by contrast, exhibited different attitudes toward the women whom they often encountered as church patrons and lay rulers, and whom the writers frequently supported as rulers acting to further the aims of both church and state. Gislebert of Mons, the chancellorand later chronicler of Hainaut, for example, praised countess Margaret, sister of count Philip of Flanders and wife of count Baldwin V of Hainaut, for defending castles being attacked by her husband's vassals.3 Like other secular clerics who worked closely with aristocratic women, Gislebert thought of them less in the misogynist, dualistic stereotypes of monastic authors than as individuals , each with her own particularpersonality and talents. With the establishment of feudal hierarchies and the institutionalization of princely administration, private warfare virtually disappeared in Flanders by the late twelfth century. In increasinglypeaceful times a countess could certainlyrule, as Jeanne and Marguerite would do for most of the thirteenth century. At the same time, the hereditary position of women in feudal law also became stronger, as daughters could inherit fiefs in the absence of sons.4 And just as few objected to Rosie the Riveter and her sisters performing additional tasks in American industry during World War II, few in medieval Flanders objected when counts and barons departing on crusade left their wives as regents, often for longer durations than originally anticipated. In this sense the crusades provided a window of opportunity for the women of northeastern France and the Low Countries. The countesses of medieval Flanders differed in their personalities and ambitions, as well as in their methods of attaining and wielding power in the county. Their influence generally increased with time, beginning with Richilde, the widowed countess who was driven out of Flanders in 1071 (but who continued to rule in Hainaut), and Gertrude of Holland, who apparently was not active in her husband's government; growing in the twelfth century with Clcmence of Burgundy, who held twelve towns as her dower and led a revolt against her son's successor, and with Sybil of Anjou, daughter of Fulk V, king of Jerusalem; and culminatingin the reigns of the sister countesses Jeanne (1205...