Earl Lewis of Flanders

Family: Flanders · Role: earl · First appears: Book 1, Chapter 64

In Book 1, Chapter 64, when Earl Lewis was fifteen, the Flemings agreed to King Edward’s proposed marriage between him and Isabella daughter of King of England. But Lewis refused, saying he would never marry the daughter of the man who had slain his father. King Philip consented to a different match, between Lewis and the daughter of the Duke of Brabant, who had promised to secure Lewis’s full enjoyment of Flanders.

Lewis went to Flanders, where the chief towns welcomed him and made him rich and handsome presents. English envoys—Earl of Northampton, Earl of Arundel, and Lord Reginald Cobham—persuaded the Flemish leaders to favor Isabella’s match, but Lewis again refused. The Flemings arrested and confined him until he said he would follow their advice, then freed him.

In the week he was due to marry the English princess, Lewis escaped his keepers while hawking and rode to safety in Artois. He went on to King Philip in France and related what had happened; Philip and his nobles told him he had acted wisely, while the English accused him of betraying and deceiving them.