December 13 862

On that day, Baldwin Iron Arm, an ambitious upstart, who came to be seen as the first count of Flanders, married Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, king of West Francia. That marriage was one of the big scandals of the age. To all practical purposes Baldwin had abducted his wife - who had been married before : being of royal blood, she gave added legitimacy to his offspring.

See : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin_I,_Count_of_Flanders and the more detailed http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudewijn_I_van_Vlaanderen.

How have I been able to live a full 68 years ignoring this important day in Flemish history ?

A couple of musings :

• at the present time, we have dozens of politicians who act as if they were counts of Flanders ; we even have a couple of candidate kings. The smaller their following, the bigger their ambition ;
• many things have changed, but one thing most certainly has not : ambitious young upstarts still try to marry into "good" or rich families. Marrying a good party remains the easiest way to lead a comfortable life without too much strife ...