Adelolf, Count of Boulogne

Adelolf, Count of Boulogne^[a] (died 933), was a younger brother of Arnulf I, Count of Flanders and was given the County of Boulogne by his father.

Adelolf, Count of Boulogne
Died	13 November 933
Noble family	House of Flanders
Issue	Arnulf II, Count of Boulogne
Father	Baldwin II, Count of Flanders
Mother	Ælfthryth of Wessex

He was a son of Baldwin II, Count of Flanders, and of Ælfthryth, daughter of Alfred the Great.^[1] He was probably named for his maternal great-grandfather, King Æthelwulf of Wessex.^[2] Baldwin II's extensive lands and many offices in what is now the north of modern France and the west of Belgium were divided among his sons on his death in 918.^[3] The elder, Arnulf, became Count of Flanders while Adelolf succeeded his father as count of Saint-Pol, Count of Boulogne and of Thérouanne.^[3] He was also the lay abbot of the Abbey of Saint Bertinus (Saint-Bertin) at Saint-Omer.^[4]

In 926 Adelolf was sent as an ambassador to his maternal first cousin King Æthelstan of England by Count Hugh the Great,^[5] effective ruler of northern France under Rudolph, Duke of Burgundy, who had been elected king of France in 923. Adelolf was to seek the English king's agreement to a marriage between Hugh and another of Æthelstan's sisters.^[6] Among the lavish gifts sent to Æthelstan, an avid collector of relics, were said to be the sword of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great and the Holy Lance. The embassy was a success and Hugh was married to Æthelstan's half-sister Eadhild.^[7] In 933, Æthelstan's half-brother Edwin was drowned and his body cast ashore. Adelolf received the body of his kinsman with honour and took it to the Abbey of Saint Bertin for burial.^[8]

Adelolf was the father of Arnulf II, Count of Boulogne († 971), and of an illegitimate son named Baldwin (died 973) who was guardian of Arnulf II, Count of Flanders.^[1] Adelolf died November 13, 933.^[9] He was buried at Saint-Bertin.

Notes

1. His name is variously spelled Adelulf, Adalulf, Adalolf, and, in French, Adalolphe; in Latin, Adalolphus.

References

1. Detlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band II (Marburg, Germany: J. A. Stargardt, 1984), Tafel 5
2. Philip Grierson, "The Relations between England and Flanders before the Norman Conquest", Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Fourth Series 23 (1941), p. 86
3. Renée Nip, 'The Political Relations between England and Flanders (1066-1128)', Anglo-Norman Studies 21: Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1998, ed. Christopher Harper-Bill (The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, UK, 1999), p. 150
4. Régine Le Jan, 'Famille et Pouvoir dans le Monde Franc (VIIe–Xe Siècle)', Essai d'anthropologie sociale (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2003), ISBN 2-85944-268-5
5. Anglo-Saxon England, Volume 15, Ed. Peter Clemoes, Simon Keynes, Michael Lapidge, (Cambridge University Press, 1986), p. 93
6. Foot, Sarah (2011). Æthelstan: the first king of England. Yale University Press. p. 192. ISBN 978-0-300-12535-1.
7. The Annals of Flodoard of Reims, 919–966, Ed. & Trans. Steven Fanning, Bernard S. Bachrach (University of Toronto Press, 2011), p. 16
8. Foot, Æthelstan, p. 42
9. Lambert of Ardres, The History of the Counts of Guines and the Lords of Ardres, trans. Leah Shopkow (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007), p. 26