Philip I of Flanders (1143-1 August 1191) was Count of Flanders from 1168 to 1191, succeeding Thierry and preceding Margaret I.
Biography[]
Philip of Alsace was the son of Count Thierry of Flanders and Sibylla of Anjou. In 1157, he became regent and co-ruler for his father (who had returned to the Kingdom of Jerusalem after the Second Crusade), and he defeated Count Floris III of Holland and imprisoned him in Bruges until 1167, when Floris recognized Flemish rule over Zeeland. In 1159, Philip married Elisabeth of Vermandois, inheriting Vermandois in 1167. He mediated disputes between King Louis VII of England and King Henry II of England and between Henry II and Thomas Becket, and, in 1177, he decided to go on crusade to the Holy Land. He arrived on 2 August, and he planned an invasion of Egypt with a Byzantine fleet of 150 galleys. His relative Baldwin IV of Jerusalem offered him the regency of the kingdom, but Philip declined, saying that he was a mere pilgrim; instead, the regency was conferred upon Reynald de Chatillon. Philip later besieged Harim for the Principality of Antioch, but the siege failed, and the Byzantine alliance against Ayyubid Egypt was soon abandoned as well. Philip returned from Palestine in 1179 and became the guardian of the young Philip Augustus of France, and he had his protege marry his niece Isabella of Hainault. When Philip came of age, he asserted his independence, leading to war with his regent in 1180. Picardy and Ile-de-France were devastated, and Philip of Flanders' brother-in-law Baldwin V of Hainaut betrayed him and sided with the King of France. In 1183, King Philip seized Vermandois from Count Philip, and the two rulers made peace in 1186, confirming Vermandois' cession to the crown. In 1190, Count Philip took the cross for a second time amid the Third Crusade, and he died amid a disease outbreak during the Siege of Acre.