Count of Flanders

The Count of Flanders was the ruler or leader of the county of Flanders from the 9th century until the French Revolution in 1790. The first count was Baldwin I "Iron Arm". By expanding its borders the early counts managed to keep Flanders independent. Later, the lack of natural borders allowed into Flanders. Counts of Flanders were always concerned with hunting and preserving their hunting grounds. For that reason many were called foresters. The last count was Francis II. After 1795 Flanders no longer existed as a county.
List of Counts of Flanders.
House of Habsburg.
Charles V proclaimed the Pragmatic Sanction of 1549 eternally uniting Flanders with the other lordships of the Low Countries in a personal union. When the Habsburg empire was divided among the heirs of Charles V, the Low Countries, including Flanders, went to Philip II of Spain, of the Spanish branch of the House of Habsburg.
Between 1706 and 1714 Flanders was invaded by the English and the Dutch during the War of the Spanish Succession. The fief was claimed by the House of Habsburg and the House of Bourbon. In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht settled the succession and the County of Flanders went to the Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg.
The title was abolished after revolutionary France annexed Flanders in 1795. Francis II relinquished his claim on the Low Countries in the Treaty of Campo Formio of 1797. The area remained part of France until the end of the Napoleonic Wars.