Ida was the elder daughter of Matthew of Alsace[1] and Marie I, Countess of Boulogne.

[2] Her maternal grandparents were King Stephen of England and Matilda I of Boulogne.

Her mother, a nun, had been abducted from a convent and forced into marriage by Matthew.

Upon the advice of her uncle, Philip I, Count of Flanders, she married first in 1181, to Gerard of Guelders, but he died in the same year.

[3] Ida was abducted in 1190 by Count Renaud de Dammartin, who carried her off to Lorraine.