#It's a great counterpoint to the contemporary image of her as a fickle faithless and scheming Helen of Troy

[wonder-worker]

The administrative system within Boulogne grew in complexity during Ida’s rule. Four towns were given keures (law texts) and were governed by mayors aided by echevins (aldermen) and price-setting officials. The mayors of Boulogne and Desvres witnessed the act recording the terms of their daughter Matilda’s marriage to Philippe Hurepel. In Calais, Ida and Renaud granted the merchants a guild, fronting two-thirds of the cost, and establishing that they would receive two-thirds of the revenue. Merck too had a merchants’ guild. The communal charters reveal that the counts retained the rights of the ban, high justice, and the mint. The household officers continued to play an important role in Boulogne: Bald win of Ermlighem (and Wissant) was constable, while Raoul of Lens (1182–1188), Renier Morsel, and Eustace le Moine served as seneschals. Arnulf, advocate of Boulogne, Henry of Belle, bailli of Desvres, and William Niels, bailli of Merck, were also frequent attestors of comital acta.

Like the Flemish counts Philip and Baldwin VIII, Ida and Renaud relied upon the bailli to maintain peace, although there is no surviving ordnance concerning the baillis’ jurisdiction. They do not seem to have gone quite as far as the Flemish counts in relying upon the bailli as their local agents (replacing the castellans) and their representative over the local feudal courts. In both counties, the castellans continued to provide military service. Similarly, Ida and Renaud, like the Flemish counts, controlled the granting of privileges to towns, establishing fairs, reclaiming land, and enforcing balfart (corvee for building fortifications). There is no evidence for a chancery or an official responsible for overseeing the collection of comital revenues or guarding the comital seals, as there was in Flanders and Hainaut. Two clerics, Henry and Nicholas, wrote letters, writs, and acta for Ida and Renaud. It seems likely that Ida and Renaud, like Waleran of Meulan, used letters to trusted local agents to administer their dispersed lands.

— Heather J. Tanner, Lordship and Governance by the Inheriting Countesses of Boulogne, 1160-1260