Count of Flanders and Vermandois (1168-1191) and crusader to the Holy Land in 1177-1188 and 1190-1191.
Philip was a son of Thierry of Alsace, count of Flanders, and Sibyl, daughter of King Fulk of Jerusalem. His family had a long crusading tradition: his father had undertaken four expeditions to Outremer. Around Pentecost 1177 (12 June) Philip embarked for the Holy Land at Wissant, accompanied by a retinue of Flemish and English knights, arriving at Acre (mod. ‘Akko, Israel) on 1 August.
Philip became a focus of controversy at the court of Jerusalem. King Baldwin IV, who was already suffering from the leprosy that would kill him, offered Philip the regency of the kingdom; unexpectedly, the count declined with a display of modesty that has raised questions ever since. Philip also declined the leadership of a joint attack with the Byzantines on Egypt. Before returning to Flanders shortly after Easter 1178, he participated in military campaigns in the areas of Homs (mod. Hims, Syria), Hama (mod. Hamah, Syria), and Harenc (mod. Harim, Syria).
On 21 January 1188 Philip took the cross at Gisors, in preparation for the Third Crusade, but it was not until September 1190 that he departed, traveling through Germany and Italy and arriving at Messina in February 1191, where he met Philip II of France and Richard the Lionheart of England. He sailed with Philip of France and arrived at Acre on 20 April 1191 but succumbed to an endemic disease on 1 June. He was buried at the cemetery of St. Nicholas, but at the wish of his wife, Mathilda of Portugal, his body was reburied at Clairvaux in the chapel she had founded there.
Philip had no children by Mathilda or his first wife, Elizabeth of Vermandois, and was succeeded as count by his brother-in-law Baldwin V of Hainaut (VIII of Flanders).
-Jan Anckaer
Bibliography
Johnen, Joseph, “Philipp von Elsafi, Graf von Flandern,” Bulletin de la Commission royale d’Histoire 71 (1910), 341-469.
Tessera, Miriam Rita, “Philip Count of Flanders and Hildegard of Bingen: Crusading against the Saracens or Crusading against Deadly Sin,” in Gendering the Crusades, ed. Susan B. Edgington and Sarah Lambert (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2001), pp. 77-92.
Van Werveke, Hans, Filips van de Elzas en Willem van Tyrus: Een episode uit de geschiedenis van de kruistochten, Mededelingen van de Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van Belgie, Klasse der Letteren 33/2 (Brussel: Paleis der Academien, 1971).
-, “La contribution de la Flandre et du Hainaut a la
Troisieme Croisade,” Le Moyen Age 78 (1972), 50-90.
World History
