Short biography of Judith

A first and second marriage

Judith (843/844), the eldest daughter of Charles the Bald (823-877) and Ermintrude, who grew up in Northern France, was married off at the age of twelve or thirteen to the much older King Æthelwulf of Wessex. He was a skilled army commander, known for his victory over the Vikings (851). The later Alfred the Great was his youngest son. 

On October 1, 856, Judith and Æthelwulf were married after she was crowned queen (Regina of Wessex) in Verberie-sur-Oise at the insistence of her father. For Charles, this marriage served as an important statement against the Vikings. And vice versa, the most important thing for Æthelwulf was the link with the continental Carolingian powers.

The marriage remained childless. Æthelwulf died fifteen months later (858). 

Judith remarried, to Æthelbold, the successor to Æthelwulf and her stepson. He too died soon afterwards (860).

Judith’s role in Wessex was played out. She sold her possessions and returned home with her enormous widow’s inheritance. Her father housed her in the convent at Senlis.

The Elopement and New Alliances

Judith left the convent with a nobleman of somewhat unclear descent: Baudouin with the Iron Arm. She was probably aided by her brother Louis the Stammerer. Charles the Bald was furious and his bishops excommunicated the couple.

They fled to Judith’s nephew, Lothar II, in Lorraine. Baudouin continued to Rome, where he enlisted the support of Pope Nicholas I. The excommunication was overturned, and Judith and Baudouin were married in 863 in Auxerre.

The County of Flanders

Charles the Bald had no option but to reward his son-in-law. Judith and Baudouin became the first Count and Countess of Flanders (pagus Flandrensis), a marshy area at the Flemish coast that would blossom under their leadership.

Forgotten

From that point onwards, there is no further allusion to Judith in the sources. We know that she settled with Baudouin somewhere near Bruges, and definitely bore two sons: Baudouin II and Rudolph of Cambrai. But beyond this, her life remains a mystery. Exactly how many children she had, when they died and where they are buried, is still unknown. It cannot be ruled out that Judith played a role in a new alliance with the House of Wessex: the marriage of her son Baudouin II to Aelfthryth, a daughter of Alfred the Great. One thing is certain: Judith’s final resting place is not with her husband Baudouin in St Bertin’s Abbey in Saint-Omer, where women were not admitted.