Count Eustace II of Boulogne & Countess Ida of Lotharingia

 756441724. Count Eustace II of Boulogne & 756441725. Countess Ida of Lotharingia

1015-20, Eustace born in Boulogne, s/o 1512883448. Eustace I, Comte de Boulogne & 1512883449. Mathilde de Louvain.

4/23/1016, Edmund ‘Ironside’ became King of England on the death of his father.

10/18/1016, King Edmund of England, defeated at the battle of Ashingdon; Danish King Cnut became King of England.

7/20/1031, Henry I became King of France on the death of his father.

1038-43, Ida born in Lotharingia [Netherlands], d/o 1512883450. Godfrey III of Lower Lorraine & 1512883451. Doda-Uda ?.

[–––Eustace–––]

1036, Eustace 1^st married Goda, d/o Aethelred the Unready, King of England. [Goda sister of future-King Edward the Confessor, and Prince Alfred. Goda’s 1^st husband, Drogo of Amiens-Vexin, died in 1035.]

1036, Prince Alfred, brother-in-law of Eustace, took men from Boulogne on his invasion of England; attempting to restore the House of Wessex in England. Alfred, by deceit, was captured and blinded by Earl Godwin of Wessex. Most of his men were killed. [Alfred died soon after in a monastery.]

1040, Hardicanute became king of both Denmark and England.

1042, Hardicanute died, Edward the Confessor again became King of England.

By 12/1046, Eustace succeeded his father as Count of Boulogne.

12/25/1046, Eustace II and Baldwin V witnessed a charter of King Henry I of France to St. Medard.

12/25/1046, Henry III, king of Germany, became Holy Roman Emperor.

1047, Baldwin V re-established control of the castelany of Lens and granted it in fief to Eustace’s brother Lambert, ‘nobis in beneficium tenebat.’

1048, Eustace joined Godfrey III’s rebellion against Emperor Henry III of Germany.

1049, Eustace and Count Enguerrand II of Ponthieu excommunicated in a letter of Pope Leo IX. [Eustace on the grounds of an incestous marriage.]

1049, Eustace built the castle of Fiennes in Boulogne.

1049, Eustace and Godfrey III submitted to Emperor Henry III. [They had lost the support of the French King; and the Count of Holland who had been defeated in battle.]

9/1051, Eustace visited King Edward the Confessor in England [his former brother-in-law.]

1051, A crisis arose when Earl Godwine defied the king’s order to punish the men of Dover, who had resisted an attempt by Eustace of Boulogne to quarter his men on them, which ended in the death of one of his men. Earl Godwine was exiled over the incident. (S) Encyclopedia Britannica.

1052, William of Talou, exiled by his nephew William, duke of Normandy, fled to the court of Eustace.

By 1053, Ida’s mother died.

4/15/1053, Godwin, earl of Wessex [who blinded Eustace’s brother-in-law Alfred] died, succeeded by his son Harold [who would become King of England, and who Eustace would help kill at the battle of Hastings].

1054, Baldwin V of Flanders built the castle of Lille [on an island.] (S) Medieval Women, Watt, 1997, P97. [Eustace of Boulogne’s brother Lambert of Lens died in battle this year at Lille, in support of Baldwin.]

1054, Eustace heir to his brother Lambert, becoming count of Lens. [Lambert’s infant daughter Judith would become the wife of Earl Waltheof of Northumberland.]

1054, Eustace, in a trial by combat, lost a case involving Harnes, an inheritance of his  mother.

1/6/1056, ‘Eustatii comitis’ witnessed a charter of ‘Balduinus Flandrensium comes’ in favour of St. Bertin.

10/5/1056, Emperor Henry III died; succeeded in Germany by his son King Henry IV.

[–––Eustace & Ida–––]

1057, Eustace married Ida.

8/4/1060, Philip I succeeded as King of France. [Eustace’s overlord Baldwin V was the guardian of 8-year-old Philip.]

1061, Eustace’s brother Godfrey elected to the bishopric of Paris.

1063, Eustace witnessed a charter in favor of St. Bertin. (S) Battle Conference, 1991, P269.

1065, Eustace’s father-in-law regained the duchy of Lower Lorraine, providing a powerful ally to his east.

1065, Eustace attested King Philip’s confirmation of the foundation of Hasnon in Arras.

1/1066, King Edward the Confessor of England [Eustace’s brother-in-law] died without an heir.

3/20/1066, Haley’s comet appeard in the sky at its closest point to earth, and was interpreted as an evil omen.

9/27/1066, Duke William of Normandy sailed from Valery-sur-Somme, landing at Pevensey Bay in England. Eustace, with the Duke, was required to leave his son as a hostage at Rouen. Duke William immediately occupied Hastings.

10/14/1066, Eustace, with 50 knights, at the battle of Hastings with William the Conqueror, also . [Eustace is named as one of the killers of King Harold; and is also identified as being wounded.]

10/25/1066, in London at Westminster, William crowned King of England.

1066-7, Eustace held lands in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and Surrey. [Honour of Boulogne. 11 men, Eustace a member of the group from the battle of Hastings, were given almost a fourth of the lands in England. Only Eustace and Alan of Brittany were not Normans.]

4/1067 at Bruges, Eustace witnessed a confirmation of Baldwin V for St. Winnoc.

9/1/1067, Eustace’s overlord and ally, Baldwin V of Flanders, died.

10/22/1067, Eustace gave a privilege of exemption to the canons of Notre Dame de Boulogne, and Ida made gifts of land and tithes of Avion near Lens.

1067, Eustace supported a rebellion in Kent, an attack on the Dover castle of Bishop Odo of Bayeux [Odo the half-brother of King William].

12/1067, King William forfeited the lands of Eustace.

1068-70, Guy, bishop of Amiens, wrote a poem, ‘Carmen de Hastingae Proelio’, which is connected to the estrangement between Eustace and King William, meant to remind the King of the support of Eustace at the battle of Hastings. (S) Battle Conference, 1989, P25.

12/24/1069, Ida’s father died.

1070, Eustace and Ida founded the college of canons at Lens. [The grant revealed that Lens had 3 churches, a castle, a tollhouse, a market, 6 malt houses, a grain storehouse, a mill, an oven, and a cemetery.]

1070-71, During the succession war for Flanders, Eustace built a coalition against Robert le Frisian [younger s/o Baldwin V] which included his brother Bishop Godfrey, his brother-in-law Godfrey the Hunchback, and the counts of St. Pol, Guines and Hesdin, and Arnulf, lord of Ardres.

2/22/1071, At the battle of Cassel, Robert le Frisian captured by Eustace II of Boulogne. [Robert le Frisian was a life-long opponent of William the Conqueror.]

1071-2, Eustace of Boulogne forcibly seized from the abbey of Ely half a hide in Easton, Huntingdonshire. (S) Religious Patronage, Cownie, 1998, P111.

4/22/1073, Pope Gregory VII succeeded Pope Alexander II.

By 1074, Eustace reconciled with King William and received back most of his lands.

1075-77, King William of England had to suppress revolts in England by Earls, including Waltehof of Northumberland [executed by Odo of Bayeux], and in Normandy by his eldest son Robert. Eustace, and his brother-in-law Godfrey, duke of Lower Lorraine, supported King William by skirmishing against the forces of William’s son Robert. Eustace at the same time remained close to King Philip of France, who supported Robert.

2/27/1076, Godfrey ‘the Hunchback’, duke of Lower Lorraine, assassinated [Eustace’s brother-in-law]. King Henry of Germany attempted to grant the duchy to his son, disenfranchising the designated heir, Eustace’s son Godfrey.

1077, A writ in favor of Bury St. Edmunds to ‘resise’ the abbot of all the ‘men’ whom had been desseised by the men of Eustace of Boulogne. (S) Conquered England, Garnett, 2007, P69.

Aft. 1078, Ida granted Anselm of Bec land in Boulogne.

1080, Count Robert of Flanders issued a charter confirming the possessions of the abbey of Messines; witnessed by Eustace II of Boulogne.

1080s, Ida residing at Genappes and Brussels.

1081, Count Robert of Flanders appointed his candidate [Lambert] to the see of Therouanne. This put Count Robert in [sometimes violent] conflict with Eustace II of Boulogne. (S) Battle Conference, 1991, P275.

1082, Brothers Eustace and Baldwin organized a force to support their brother Godfrey who was besieged at Stenay by Albert of Namur and Bishop Thierry of Verdun.

3/27/1082, Eustace and his brothers agreed to support the Peace of God proclaimed by Bishop Henry of Liege.

1082, Ida made a gift to the church of St. Vulmar near Boulogne.

1084, The canonization of Godelieve of Gistel part of a settlement between Count Robert of Flanders and Count Eustace of Boulogne. (S) Invention of Saintiness, Mulder-Bakker, 2013, P59.

5/25/1085, Pope Victor III succeeded Pope Gregory VII.

1085-86, “Ida Countess of Bolonia holds of the King Chinwardestone.” (S) History and Antiquities of Somersetshire, V1, 1836, P477.

1086, Eustace came to the aid of Bishop Thierry of Verdun.

1087, Eustace and his son Eustace witnessed a grant to Bec by William of Breteuil.

1087, Eustace died. Eustace’s son succeeded him. ‘Eustachius Comes’ held lands in Artois, Ostrevant, Lower Lorraine, Boulogne, and 11 counties in England. The English lands, including 5 manors held by Countess Ida, were valued at £596 5s. (S) General Introduction to Domesday Book, V1, Ellis, 1833, P417.

[–––Ida–––]

1092, Anselm of Bec visited Countess Ida at Boulogne. [Anselm, a long-time friend, died the next year.]

By 1096, The Bishop of Astorga wrote to Ida and sent a gift of relics, some of the Virgin Mary’s hairs.

1096, Both Cono of Fiennes and Baldwin of Osterwic, constable of Eustace II, witnessed a charter of Ida.

1098, Countess Ida made a grant of the comitatus of Onguz and Berwold to St. Bertin.

1100, Eustace [the son, returned from crusading] confirmed gifts of his mother ida and made a grant to Capelle of relics from the crusade.

8/5/1100, Henry I crowned King of England.

1102, Countess Ida granted her manor of Nutfield, Surrey to St. Wulmer of Boulogne.

8/3/1108, Louis VI crowned King of France.

1112, Viscount Eustace of Oye made a grant to Capelle [Netherlands] for the salvation of ‘Ida countess of Boulogne’ as well as his soul.

4/13/1113, Ida died; buried at the monastery of Vast [not Saint-Vaast]. (S) Butlers Lives of Saints, 1999, P94. [1669, Ida’s remains moved to Paris, then in 1808 to Bayeux.]

(S) Foundation for Medieval Genealogy. (S) Boulogne and Politics, Tanner, 2004. (S) Anglo-Norman Studies, 1998, P150. (S) Married Saints and Blesseds, Holbock, 2002, P147.

Family notes:

There is some evidence that Eustace II was a patron of the Bayeux Tapestry.

Children of Eustace and Ida:

i. Eustace III of Boulogne (378220862), born 1059 in Boulogne.

ii. Godfrey of Bouillon (319834740), born 9/18/1060 in Boulogne.

iii. Baldwin of Bouillon, born 1063-4 in Boulogne.

Bef. 1086, Baldwin knighted.

1095, Baldwin granted the county of Verdun [which had been sold by his brother.]

2/1098, Baldwin established control of Edessa, and purchased the neighboring emirate of Samosata.

3/10/1098, Baldwin became Count of Edessa. [Baldwin was in Edessa when he learned of his brother’s death.]

11/1100, Baldwin arrived at Jerusalem.

12/25/1100, Baldwin crowned at King of Jerusalem at Bethlehem.

1101, Baldwin captured Arsuf and Caesarea.

1104, Baldwin captured Sidon.

1104, Baldwin captured Beirut.

4/1118, Baldwin I, King of Jerusalem, died.