Gerbod the Fleming, 1st Earl of Chester

Gerbod the Fleming, of Oosterzele, 1st Earl of Chester, was a hereditary advocate of the Abbey of Saint Bertin at Saint-Omer, Flanders (now France) and Earl of Chester in 1070.

Gerbod of Oosterzele was the son of another Gerbod, hereditary advocate of the abbey of Saint-Bertin. Among the fourteen tenants-in-chief from Flanders, Gerbod the Fleming was one of the most prominent. His family held the lordships of Oosterzele and Sheldewindeke, the overlordship of Arques and territorial rights in Saint-Omer. In 1066 he was in the service of William the Conqueror, most probably at the battle of Hastings, and between 1067 and 1070 was created Earl of Chester, holding a large portion of that county along with the city of Chester forming the county palatine of Chester. His brother Frederic was a tenant-in-chief in East Anglia and his sister Gundred married William I de Warenne, later 1st Earl of Surrey, whose caput was Castle Acre in Norfolk.

Gerbod was mentioned as being a part of the reduction of Cheshire in 1070 by the Conqueror, at which time Gerbod was given the Earldom of Chester. Orderic reports that Gerbod was harassed by both English and Welsh in his new position and he may have been glad to return to Flanders later that same year. This may also have been due to concerns having to do with the death of the Count of Flanders, Baldwin VI, and the subsequent civil war.

He fought in the Battle of Cassel in February 1071 in Flanders. According to Orderic Vitalis he fell into the hands of his enemies and was held captive while king William I, seeing the earldom vacant, gave the earldom of Chester to Hugh 'Lupus' d'Avranches. The Hyde Chronicle reported Gerbod died a prisoner. Both sources, one English and one Norman, did not seem to be aware of the details of the battle in Flanders; that Gerbod had not been imprisoned, but after killing Arnulf III, Count of Flanders in that battle, possibly by accident, he fled to Rome to seek forgiveness for the sin of killing his liege lord. The Pope, Gregory VII sent him to Hugh Abbot of Cluny who permitted him to become a monk at Cluny. Gerbod remained at Cluny becoming a distinguished member of that ecclesiastical community.

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