HE was the son of St. Canutus, king of Denmark, and of Alice of
Flanders, who, after the death of his father, carried him, then an
infant, into Flanders, in 1086. His cousin-german Baldwin the Seventh,
earl of Flanders, dying without issue in 1119, left him his heir by
will, on account of his extraordinary valor and merit. The young earl
was a perfect model of all virtues, especially devotion, charity, and
humility. Among his friends and courtiers, he loved those best who
admonished him of his faults the most freely. He frequently exhausted
his treasury on the poor, and often gave the clothes off his back to be
sold for their relief. He served them with his own hands, and
distributed clothes and bread to them in all places where he came. It
was observed that in Ipres he gave away, in one day, no less than seven
thousand eight hundred loaves. He took care for their sake to keep the
price of corn and provisions always low, and he made wholesome laws to
protect them from the oppressions of the great. This exasperated
Bertulf, who had tyrannically usurped the provostship of St. Donatian's
in Bruges, to which dignity was annexed the chancellorship of Flanders,
and his wicked relations, the great oppressors of their country. In this
horrible conspiracy they were joined by Erembald, castellan or chief
magistrate of the territory of Bruges, with his five sons, provoked
against their sovereign because he had repressed their unjust violences
against the noble family De Straten. The holy earl went every morning
barefoot to perform his devotions early before the altar of the Blessed
Virgin in St. Donatian's church. Going thither one day, he was informed
of a conspiracy, but answered; "We are always surrounded by dangers, but
we belong to God. If it be his will, can we die in a better cause than
that of justice and truth?" While he was reciting the penitential psalms
before the altar, the conspirators rushing in, his head was cloven by
Fromold Borchard, nephew to Bertulf, in 1124. He was buried in St.
Christopher's church at Bruges, not in that of St. Donatian, as
Pantoppidan proves. Borchard was broke alive on the wheel, and Bertulf
was hung on a rack at Ipres, and exposed on it to be torn by furious
dogs, and at length was stoned to death by beggars while he remained on
that engine. St. Charles's shrine was placed by an order of Charles
Philip Rodoan, fourth bishop of Bruges, in 1606, in the chapel of the
blessed Virgin, and ever since the year 1610 a high mass in honor of the
Trinity is sung on his festival. See the life of this good earl by
Walter, archdeacon of Terouenne, and more fully by Gualbert, syndic of
Bruges, and by AElnoth a monk of Canterbury and Danish missionary at that
time. See also Molanus and Miraeus in their martyrologies; Henschenius,
p. 158; Robertus de Monte a Append, ad. Chronicon Sigeberti ad an. 1127;
Jac. Maierus, Annal. Flandriae, l. 4, pp. 45, 46. Likewise Ericus
Pantoppidanus in his Gesta Danorum extra Daniam. Hafniae, 1740 t. 2, sec.
1, c. 5, sec. 32, p. 398.
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