[3] His father was assassinated in Odense Cathedral in 1086,[4] and Adela fled back to Flanders, taking the very young Charles with her but leaving her twin daughters Ingeborg and Cecilia in Denmark.

[5] In 1124 he was offered the crown of the Kingdom of Jerusalem by a faction of the nobility opposed to King Baldwin II but refused,[6] according to Galbert of Bruges, at the urging of his advisors, who feared that his departure would leave Flanders completely at the mercy of the Erembald clan.

He distributed bread to the poor en masse and also launched a draconian crackdown against the very common business practice of buying up and hoarding grain and other food supplies during famine to drastically drive up the price and only much later selling it off at an enormous profit.

[10] Meanwhile, at the urging of his advisers, the count launched legal proceedings to reduce the extremely wealthy, politically connected, and demonstrably non-Jewish Erembald family, who were heavily engaged in these same disreputable business activities and many others like them, to the status of serfs.

On the morning of 2 March 1127 Charles was kneeling in prayer with his outstretched hand filled with coins in order to give alms to passing poor people inside the church of St. Donatian.