caption father death_date mother title birth_date spouse issue image article_title name
coat of arms of the county of boulogne . matthew of alsace 1216 1160 marie i , countess of boulogne '' zähringen suo jure '' countess of boulogne duchess of c. 1160 gerard renaud , count of dammartin of guelders berthold iv , duke of zähringen matilda ii , countess of boulogne image : blason courtenay.svg ida , countess of boulogne
 ida
ida , countess of boulogne

ida of boulogne -lrb- c. 1160 -- 1216 -rrb- was suo jure countess of boulogne .
she was the eldest daughter of matthew of alsace by marie i , countess of boulogne .
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 .
as a consequence , her parents ' marriage was rather controversial and was finally annulled in 1170 .
her father continued to rule until his death in 1173 , when she succeeded .
upon the advice of her uncle , philip i , count of flanders , she married first in 1181 , to gerard of guelders , but he died the same year .
she next married berthold iv , duke of zähringen , but he too died in 1186 .
according to the contemporary historian lambert of ardres : '' '' ... so left without a man , indulged herself in worldly delights and pleasures of the body .
she fell passionately in love with arnold ii of guînes , and tried as hard as she could to seduce him ; or rather , with typical feminine fickleness and deception she feigned that emotion .
emissaries and secret tokens passed back and forth between them as indications of certain love .
arnold either loved her or with masculine foresight and prudence pretended to ; for he aspired to the land and dignity of the county of boulogne once he could gain the countess ' favor through love feigned or true . '' ''
this relationship came to naught when ida was abducted in 1190 by count renaud de dammartin , who carried her off to lorraine .
this was a common enough fate for medieval heiresses .
the situation became complicated when arnold of guînes received messages of enduring love from ida .
he promptly rode to her rescue , only to be captured and imprisoned by friends of renaud in verdun .
arnold was only freed due to the intervention of william , archbishop of reims .
ida was supposed to have purposely deceived him to lead arnold into a trap .
whatever the truth , she remained with renaud and produced a daughter , matilda ii of boulogne -lrb- died 1258 -rrb- .
