William of Ypres

William of Ypres (Dutch: Willem van Yper; c. 1090 – 24 January 1165[1]) was a Flemish nobleman and one of the first mercenary captains of the Middle Ages.

[2] Following two unsuccessful bids for the County of Flanders, William became King Stephen of England's chief lieutenant during the civil war of 1139–54 known as the Anarchy.

[3] William's mother was a wool carder, which further diminished his status; King Louis VI of France pointed out that she never rose from that station.

[4] A succession crisis ensued in the County of Flanders in 1119 upon the sudden death of the childless Count Baldwin VII, William's cousin.

His claim to the countship was supported by Baldwin's powerful mother, Clementia of Burgundy,[5] and stepfather, Godfrey I of Louvain,[3] but Flanders nevertheless passed to the Danish prince Charles the Good, son of Robert I's daughter Adela.

[3] It is possibly the case that, rather than being an active participant, William was simply a figurehead manipulated by his more powerful relatives; giving weight to this argument is the fact that not only did he survive the succession crisis, but he was also granted the same positions as his father, i.e. the effective ruler of Ypres and the surrounding localities.

[4] He used funds allegedly given to him by King Henry I of England to hire 300 mounted warriors, with whom he occupied Ypres and forced its merchants to accept him as count.

[3] William lost his sight in the late 1140s, which ended his military career and may have contributed to Stephen's compulsion to designate Empress Matilda's son Henry Plantagenet as his heir.

[2] Despite his fierce loyalty to King Stephen, William was very unpopular,[6] primarily for being a foreigner,[4] but also due to plundering and extortion (common among English magnates).