whether he was count, forester, marquis, or protector of the
frontiers; but he certainly enjoyed, no matter under what title,
considerable authority in the country; since the pope on one
occasion wrote to Charles the Bald to beware of offending him,
lest he should join the Normans, and open to them an entrance
into France. He carried off Judith to his possessions in Flanders.
The king, her father, after many ineffectual threats, was forced
to consent to their union; and confirmed to Baldwin, with the
title of count, the hereditary government of all the country
between the Scheldt and the Somme, a river of Picardy. This was
the commencement of the celebrated county of Flanders; and this
Baldwin is designated in history by the surname of Bras-de-fer
(iron-handed), to which his courage had justly entitled him.

The Belgian historians are also desirous of placing about this
epoch the first counts of Hainault, and even of Holland. But
though it may be true that the chief families of each canton sought
then, as at all times, to shake off the yoke, the epoch of their
independence can only be fixed at the later period at which they
obtained or enforced the privilege of not being deprived of their
titles and their feudal estates. The counts of the high grounds,
and those of Friesland, enjoyed at the utmost but a fortuitous
privilege of continuance in their rank. Several foreigners had
gained a footing and an authority in the country; among others
Wickmand, from whom descended the chatelains of Ghent; and the
counts of Holland, and Heriold, a Norman prince who had been
banished from his own country. This name of Normans, hardly known
before the time of Charlemagne, soon became too celebrated. It
designated the pagan inhabitants of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden,
who, driven by rapacity and want, infested the neighboring seas.