What is Baldwin I, Count of Flanders?
[[File:Boudewyn I van Vlaanderen.jpg|thumb|right|300px|{{center|Statue of Baldwin I, Count of Flanders in Bruges (Belgium).}}]] '''Baldwin I''' (died 879), also known as ''Baldwin Iron Arm'' ({{lang-fr|Bras de Fer}}), was a [[France|French]] [[nobleman]] and {{circa|863}} became the first [[count of Flanders]]. == Career == Baldwin's father was named Audacer but little else is known of him.<ref name=Nicholas16>David Nicholas, ''Medieval Flanders'', (New York: Longman, 1992), p. 16</ref> His family was related to the [[counts of Laon]].<ref name=Nicholas16/> Before holding [[Flanders]] Baldwin was already a [[count]], probably at [[Ghent]].<ref name=Nicholas16/> Baldwin was in [[Senlis]] in 862. Somehow he decided to take [[Judith, Countess of Flanders|Judith]], the daughter of [[Charles the Bald]], the king, for his wife.<ref name=Carson29>Patricia Carson, ''The Fair Face of Flanders'' (Tielt, Belgium: Drukkerij Lannoo NV, 2001), p. 29</ref> Judith, had been the wife of two [[Wessex|English]] kings, [[Athelwulf of Wessex|Athelwulf]] († 858) and [[Athelbald of Wessex|Athelbald]] († 860).<ref name=Grierson84>Philip Grierson, 'The Relations between England and Flanders before the Norman Conquest', ''Transactions of the Royal Historical Society'', Fourth Series, Vol. 23 (1941), p. 84</ref> On her return and still in her teens she was being held at the castle of Senlis by her father.{{efn|The reason she was being held under close guard was that at about age thirteen she had become the wife of Ethelwulf who died two years later.<ref name=Duckett220/> She then became the wife of his son and successor, Æthelbald.<ref name=Duckett220/> He died two years after his father. She returned to France the widow of her own stepson.<ref name=Duckett220/> To avoid scandal her father was keeping her under close guard at his castle.<ref name=Duckett220/> He was looking for a new husband for her so she could be quietly married. When Charles the Bald came to visit his daughter he found she had escaped dressed as a [[:wikt:peasant|pea