History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 6

When Charlemagne’s empire had been divided up under the Treaty of Verdun (843),
the Schelde River had been made the dividing line between the Western and Eastern
Frankish kingdoms. The rise of Flanders began when the official administrator of the
pagus, Baldwin I Iron-Arm, married the Western Frankish king Charles II the Bald’s
daughter in 862 and was appointed count of Flanders. His successors as count,
among them Baldwin II (ruled 879–918), Arnulf I the Great (918–965), Baldwin IV the
Bearded (988–1035), and Baldwin V (1035–67), gradually expanded their domain
southward to the towns of Douai and Arras and eastward across the Schelde River to
Ghent and Antwerp. These counts were vassals of the French king for what they held
west of the Schelde (Crown Flanders, or Kroonvlaanderen, the most important part of
the kingdom), and vassals of the German king for what they held east of it (called
Imperial Flanders, or Rijksvlaanderen, as part of the Holy Roman Empire). The
Flemish counts enjoyed virtual independence from weak French kings during this time.
The first dynasty of counts died out in 1119, but Flanders rose to the height of its
power and wealth under a later line of counts whose pr