Battle of Cassel | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Robert I of Flanders | Philip I of France Arnulf III, Count of Flanders † William FitzOsborn † |
The Battle of Cassel was fought in February 1071 [lower-alpha 1] between Robert I of Flanders (or Robert the Frisian) and his nephew, Arnulf III (son of Baldwin VI of Flanders). The battle was a victory for Robert, and Arnulf was killed in the battle. [4]
Arnulf succeeded his father Baldwin in 1070 and was supported by his mother Richilde, Countess of Mons and Hainaut. However, Robert challenged Arnulf's succession to the throne of Flanders and began rallying support mainly in northern Flanders (where the bulk of Arnulf's forces were located). Arnulf's ranks contained Eustace II and Eustace III of Boulogne. Moreover, Arnulf was supported by King Philip I of France. [4] A contingent of ten Norman knights led by William FitzOsbern were among the forces sent by Philip to aid Arnulf. [4]
Robert's forces attacked Arnulf's numerically superior army before it could organize. Arnulf himself was killed along with William FitzOsbern, [4] while Richilde was captured by Robert's forces. [6] However, Robert himself was also captured by Eustace II. Ultimately, Richilde was exchanged for Robert's freedom. [6]
Robert became count of Flanders and ruled until 1093. [5] He gained the friendship of King Philip by offering him the hand in marriage of his stepdaughter, Bertha of Holland.
William the Conqueror, sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was Duke of Normandy from 1035 onward. By 1060, following a long struggle, his hold on Normandy was secure. In 1066, following the death of Edward the Confessor, William invaded England, leading an army of Normans to victory over the Anglo-Saxon forces of Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, and suppressed subsequent English revolts in what has become known as the Norman Conquest. The rest of his life was marked by struggles to consolidate his hold over England and his continental lands, and by difficulties with his eldest son, Robert Curthose.
Year 1071 (MLXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar.
The Battle of Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, beginning the Norman Conquest of England. It took place approximately 7 mi (11 km) northwest of Hastings, close to the present-day town of Battle, East Sussex, and was a decisive Norman victory.
Matilda of Flanders was Queen of England and Duchess of Normandy by marriage to William the Conqueror, and regent of Normandy during his absences from the duchy. She was the mother of nine children who survived to adulthood, including two kings, William II and Henry I.
Baldwin V was Count of Flanders from 1035 until his death. He secured the personal union between the counties of Flanders and Hainaut and maintained close links to the Anglo-Saxon monarchy, which was overthrown by his son-in-law, William the Conqueror, near the end of his life.
Baldwin VI, also known as Baldwin the Good, was the count of Hainaut from 1051 to 1070 and count of Flanders from 1067 to 1070.
Robert I, known as Robert the Frisian, was count of Flanders from 1071 until his death in 1093. He was a son of Baldwin V, Count of Flanders, and the younger brother of Baldwin VI, Count of Flanders. He usurped the countship after defeating his nephew Arnulf III and his allies, which included King Philip I of France, Count Eustace of Boulogne and the counts of Saint-Pol and Ardres at the Battle of Cassel. He subsequently made peace with Philip, who became his stepson-in-law, but remained hostile to his sister Matilda and her husband William the Conqueror, who was king of England and duke of Normandy.
William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford, Lord of Breteuil, was a relative and close counsellor of William the Conqueror and one of the great magnates of early Norman England. FitzOsbern was created Earl of Hereford in 1067, one of the first peerage titles in the English peerage. He is one of the very few proven companions of William the Conqueror known to have fought at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. His chief residence was Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight, one of many castles he built in England.
Arnulf III was Count of Flanders from 1070 until his death at the Battle of Cassel in 1071.
Baldwin II (1056–1098?) was count of Hainaut from 1071 to his death. He was an unsuccessful claimant to the County of Flanders. He disappeared in Anatolia during the First Crusade.
Earl of Hereford is a title in the ancient feudal nobility of England, encompassing the region of Herefordshire, England. It was created six times.
Richilde, Countess of Mons and Hainaut, was a ruling countess of Hainaut from c. 1050 until 1076, in co-regency with her husband Baldwin VI of Flanders and then her son Baldwin II of Hainaut. She was also countess of Flanders by marriage to Baldwin VI between from 1067 to 1070. She ruled Flanders as regent during the minority of her son Arnulf III in 1070–1071.
Adela of France, known also as Adela the Holy or Adela of Messines;, was, by marriage, Duchess of Normandy, and Countess of Flanders (1035–1067).
William the Conqueror had men of diverse standing and origins under his command at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. With these and other men he went on in the five succeeding years to conduct the Harrying of the North and complete the Norman conquest of England.
Osbern FitzOsbern was a Norman churchman. He was a relative of King Edward the Confessor as well as being a royal chaplain. During Edward's reign he received the church at Bosham, near Chichester. He was present at the consecration of Westminster Abbey at Christmas 1065. He was a steward for King William I of England during his reign, as well as being a friend of the king. The story that he became William's chancellor is based entirely on a charter that modern historians have declared mostly spurious. He became Bishop of Exeter in 1072, and was consecrated at St. Paul's in London on 27 May 1072 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfranc.
Gilbert de Gant was the son of Ralph, Lord of Aalst near Ghent, and Gisele of Luxembourg, the sister-in-law of Baldwin IV, Count of Flanders. Gilbert de Gant was a kinsman of Matilda of Flanders, wife of William the Conqueror. He had two older brothers, Baldwin and Ralph. Gilbert of Ghent is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as having been given titles of 172 English manors but also within 14 shires where there were estates including York, Derby, Huntingdonshire, Leicestershire and Cambridgeshire.
The House of Flanders, also called the Baldwins, was a medieval ruling family of Frankish origin that was founded by Baldwin Iron Arm, son-in-law of Charles the Bald. The House of Flanders was the first dynasty to transform a county function of the Carolingian Empire into a hereditary fiefdom, the County of Flanders, falling under West Francia, created by the Treaty of Verdun in 843.
Osbern the Steward, known in French as Osbern de Crépon, was the Steward of two Dukes of Normandy and the father of William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford, one of William the Conqueror's closest counsellors.
Gerbod the Fleming, of Oosterzele, 1st Earl of Chester, was a hereditary advocate of the Abbey of Saint Bertin at Saint-Omer, County of Flanders and Earl of Chester in 1070.
Count of Boulogne was a historical title in the Kingdom of France. The city of Boulogne-sur-Mer became the centre of the county of Boulogne during the ninth century. Little is known of the early counts, but the first holder of the title is recorded in the 11th century.
For example, the two modern historians who have written in detail about the rather obscure battle of Cassel in Flanders (22 February 1071)...
The decisive battle was fought on 22 February 1071, and it resulted in the overthrow of Richeldis, the establishment of Robert le Frison as count of Flanders....
The battle of Cassel on 22 February 1071 was fairly widely noted by contemporaries . ... Arnulf III was killed and so was William FitzOsborn ; Richilde was captured by Robert's men..