of this family named Balderic (or Balderich, Palderih, etc.) had already held the powerful bishoprics in Utrecht and Liège at different times in the 10th century. Daris and Vanderkindere's proposal stemmed from the discovery of a marriage of a sister of the exile Reginar III with Count Nevelong, a son of Ricfrid, who is known to have had children named Rudolf, and Balderic I (Bishop of Liège 953-959). This family was therefore proposed as a link between Loon's origins and both the earlier Reginars who had apparently held lordships near Maaseik and Borgloon, as well as to two earlier bishops named Balderic. Vanderkindere specifically proposed that Giselbert the first definite count of Loon was the son of the younger Count Rudolf, not the Regnarid, but his nephew the son of Nevelong. There have been chronological concerns raised about this unproven proposal, because the one record of Rudolf as a boy in 943 is so much earlier than any definite record of Count Giselbert and his brothers in the next century. Furthermore, the only medieval source to mention a parent for Count Giselbert calls him Otto. Although this source is not considered perfectly reliable for this period, Hein Jongbloed has proposed that a record for an Otto in Ghent might correspond to this ancestor. Van Winter on the other hand, has proposed that there may have been an Otto who was son of Rudolf, and father to the first count and his brothers. Whoever his parents were, the first certain Count (Dutch graaf, Latin comes, French comte) of Loon was the 11th century Giselbert (modern Dutch Gijsbert, equivalent of modern English and French "Gilbert"). Exactly what territory he held is still uncertain, and his brother Arnulf is also mentioned as a count in various records. Although all of the charters which describe the brothers as siblings of bishop Balderic II of Liège are later forgeries, there is considered to be enough evidence to be accept this relationship. A charter dated 24 Jan 1040 mentions a "county of Haspinga in the pagus Haspengouw", which had been the possession of count Arnold, understood to be the brother of Giselbert, also known as Arnulf. With this much debated charter Emperor Henry III granted this county to the Cathedral of Saint-Lambert in Liège. It raises the question of what this county within the pagus of the same name implied both geographically and legally. Furthermore, there