
Louis I of Flanders (1304-26 August 1346) was the Count of Flanders from 1322 to 1346, succeeding Robert III of Flanders and preceding Louis II of Flanders. Louis was an elector of the Holy Roman Empire and, at one point, the fifth-in-line to succeed Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, but he wrongly chose to side with England during the Hundred Years' War and died at the Battle of Crecy in 1346.
Biography[]
Louis was born in 1304 to Louis I of Nevers and Countess Joan of Rethel, and he was the grandson of Robert III of Flanders. He succeeded his grandfather on his death in 1322, and in 1320 he married Philip V of France's daughter Countess Margaret of Artois. Louis held a considerable amount of influence in politics in Western Europe as the count of Flanders, being involved in both the politics of France and the Holy Roman Empire; he had one electoral vote as the fifth-in-line to succeed Karl IV of Germany as Holy Roman Emperor. Although the County of Flanders was economically-dependent on the Kingdom of England, Louis decided to side with the Kingdom of France in the Hundred Years' War, and he was killed at the Battle of Crecy in 1346.