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Matthew, Count of Boulogne

Matthew, Count of Boulogne, also known as Matthew of Alsace (c. 1137–1173) was the second son of Thierry, Count of Flanders and Sibylla of Anjou. Matthew forcibly abducted the nun Marie de Boulogne, daughter of Stephen, King of England, and constrained her into marriage, claiming the title of Count of Boulogne jure uxoris in 1160. The forced marriage was opposed by the Church and finally annulled in 1170, but he continued to rule as count until his death.

Matthew, Count of Boulogne

1160 - 1173

Marie I

Ida

c. 1137

1173 (aged c. 36)

House of Alsace

Marie de Boulogne
Eleanor of Vermandois

Ida, Countess of Boulogne
Matilda of Flanders, Duchess of Brabant

Thierry, Count of Flanders

Sibylla of Anjou

Matthew and Marie had two daughters: Ida, Countess of Boulogne, and Maud of Boulogne.[1] Maud married Henry I, Duke of Brabant.[2] In 1171, Matthew married Eleanor, daughter of Ralph I, Count of Vermandois, they had one short-lived daughter.[3]


Matthew was a supporter of Henry the Young King,[4] and received lands in England. He died fighting at the siege of Driencourt,[5] during the 1173–74 revolt of Henry II of England's sons, under the leadership of Philip of Flanders. Wounded by a crossbow bolt, he did not recover.[6]

Dyggve, Holger Petersen (1935). "Personnages historiques figurant dans la poésie lyrique française des XII e et XIII e siècles. III: Les dames du »Tournoiement» de Huon d'Oisi". Neuphilologische Mitteilungen (in French). 36 (2): 65–91.

Flori, Jean (2007). Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen and Rebel. Edinburgh University Press.

George, Hereford Brooke (1875). Genealogical Tables Illustrative of Modern History. Oxford at the Clarendon Press.

Gillingham, John (1989). Richard the Lionheart. Yale University Press.

McDougall, Sara (2017). Royal Bastards: The Birth of Illegitimacy, 800-1230. Oxford University Press.

Strickland, Matthew (2016). Henry the Young King, 1155-1183. Yale University Press.