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c h a p t e r 1 EgoGalbertus In Lent and Easter he [Henry I of England] was at Woodstock, when a messenger said to him: “Charles, count of Flanders, who was very dear to you, has been murdered by his nobles in the church at Bruges, by abominable treachery. The French king has given Flanders to William, your nephew and enemy, who, now greatly strengthened, has punished with various torments all those who betrayed Charles.” So the king, worried by these events, held a council in London at Rogationtide. And Archbishop William similarly, in the same town, at Westminster. —Henry of Huntingdon, The History of the English People1 murder in the church Charles, count of Flanders, rose a bit later than usual that first Wednesday of March 1127, although still well before dawn. “Troubled by a kind of anxious wakefulness,” he had had a hard time falling asleep and had tossed and turned all night, “now lying on one side, now sitting up again on the bed.” The darkness and the cold, humid air did not help matters. It was only the second night he had spent in his house in the burg, the fortified center, of Bruges since his return from a visit to his cousin, Louis VI of France, and he had “many things on his mind.”2 A carefully cultivated feud between two of the leading men from the region of Bruges—Thancmar of Straeten, whose stronghold lay to the west of town on the road to Ypres, and Thancmar’s neighbor, Borsiard—had once again broken out during Charles’s absence , and when he had returned to Flanders, he had been met in Ypres by a crowd of people from the region who had complained of the damage and losses they had suffered at the hands of the freebooters Borsiard had loosed on the countryside. Borsiard had clearly been the aggressor this time, but he was not an easy man to punish. His grandfather, Erembald, had become the castellan of Bruges, the count’s principal residence, around 1067 (through, 65 11 rumor said, adultery and murder) and the post had been held by one of his descendants ever since. One of Borsiard’s uncles, Haket, was castellan in 1127. Another uncle, Bertulf, had been the provost of Saint Donatian , the church attached to the count’s house in the castle, since 1091. Bertulf was also, by virtue of his office, the receiver of the count’s revenues from throughout the county and the chancellor of Flanders, in charge of the clerical personnel attached to the count’s court and administration . The family’s wealth and power in the county were second only to Charles’s own.3 The situation was further complicated by the questions that had recently been raised concerning this family’s legal status. Hearing them accused of servile status in his presence one day, Charles had ordered an investigation into the matter and, finding that there was good reason to believe that the members of the family were, in fact, his serfs, had summoned them to Cassel to prove their freedom on a given day in the preceding year. When the day had come, according to one report, they had shown up with three thousand armed supporters, and Charles, fearing bloodshed, had postponed the hearing. He had thus incurred the hatred of the family and all its friends and dependents—since they risked losing their wealth, offices, and power if they were found to be of servile status—but had not been able to enforce his rights: all he had gained was a large group of formidable enemies. Faced with the need to punish a leading member of this powerful and ill-disposed family, Charles had summoned his court to meet in Ypres on Sunday, February 27, and had asked those present to advise him how to do so. Some had immediately advised him to burn down Borsiard’s house while others—more politic—had suggested that he go himself and see what had been done, and then fit the punishment to the crime. He had therefore traveled to the region Monday morning— despite being told that Borsiard had recently been overheard asking: “If someone were to kill the count, who would avenge him?” (Vita Karoli, [20], 547, 22)—and, moved to tears by what he had seen, had burned and razed Borsiard’s house. He had then gone on to spend the night in his own house...

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