Judith's escape

The flight of Judith took place in Senlis. This event has become a famous medieval love story. The royal Judith, the first child of Emperor Charles the Bald, left with her beloved Baldwin the Brace of Iron. He would later become the first Count of Flanders. Judith was a Frankish princess, married to two successive kings of Wessex. She married for the third time, this time to Baldwin I the Brace of Iron, who had abducted her from the convent of Senlis around Christmas 861, an act known as Judith's Escape. We know from historical sources that Judith was absolutely in love with Baldwin. So it certainly was not a true flight or an abduction under duress. To avoid falling under the influence of her furious father, they wandered for a while in Europe, taking refuge with her uncle Lothair II until October. They fled on a pilgrimage to Rome, and thanks to the intervention of Pope Nicholas I, they were officially married in Auxerre on December 13, 863. Her father eventually made Baldwin the first Count of Flanders. But Judith had chosen him very deliberately. And this makes her somewhat the primal mother of Flanders.

Pascal Brackman