Saint Charles I, Count of Flanders

Charles the Good (1084 – 2 March 1127) was Count of Flanders from 1119 to 1127. His murder and its aftermath were chronicled by Galbert of Bruges. He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1882 through cultus confirmation. Charles was born in Denmark, only son of the three children of King Canute IV (Saint Canute) and Adela of Flanders. His father was assassinated in Odense Cathedral in 1086, and Adela fled back to Flanders, taking the very young Charles with her but leaving her twin daughters Ingeborg and Cecilia in Denmark. Charles grew up at the comital court of his grandfather Robert I of Flanders and uncle Robert II of Flanders. In 1092 Adela went to southern Italy to marry Roger Borsa, duke of Apulia, leaving Charles in Flanders. Charles travelled to the Holy Land in 1107 or 1108 with a fleet of English, Danish and Flemish crusaders. In 1124 he was offered the crown of the Kingdom of Jerusalem by a faction of the nobility opposed to King Baldwin II but refused, according to Galbert of Bruges, at the urging of his advisors, who feared that his departure would leave Flanders completely at the mercy of the Erembald clan. In 1111 Robert II died, and Charles's cousin Baldwin VII of Flanders became count. Charles was a close adviser to the new count (who was several years younger), who around 1118 arranged Charles's marriage to the heiress of the count of Amiens, Margaret of Clermont, daughter of Renaud II, Count of Clermont. The childless count Baldwin VII was wounded fighting at the Battle of Bures-en-Brai in September 1118, and he designated Charles as his successor before he died on 17 July 1119. In 1125, he was also considered a candidate for the election of King of the Romans after the death of Henry V, but rejected the offer. During the famine that struck Flanders in that same year, Charles ordered legumes to be planted on his own estates and given away to the starving.