Godfrey III, Count of Louvain

Godfrey III
Duke of Lower Lorraine
Landgrave of Brabant
Count of Louvain
Count of Brussels
Titles and styles
The Duke of Lower Lorraine
The Landgrave of Brabant
The Count of Louvain and Brussels
Born ca. 1142
Died 21 August 1190
Noble family House of Reginar
Spouse(s) Marguerite of Limbourg
Imagina of Looz
Issue
Father Godfrey II, Count of Louvain
Mother Luitgarde of Sulzbach

Godfrey III (1142 – died 21 August 1190) was count of Louvain (or Leuven), landgrave of Brabant, margrave of Antwerp, and duke of Lower Lorraine (as Godfrey VIII) from 1142 to his death.

Origins

He was the son of Godfrey II and Lutgarde of Sulzbach.[1] He was still an infant at his succession (therefore called dux in cunis) of which a few Brabantian vassals sought to take advantage to become independent of the duke (Wars of Grimbergen, 1141–1159).

Career

On 30 March 1147, Godfrey was present at the coronation of Henry Berengar, son of Conrad III of Germany, in Aachen. When Conrad left on Crusade, war began anew in 1148. Peace was elusive until the election of Conrad's successor, Frederick Barbarossa. By marriage to Margaret, daughter of Henry II of Limburg, Godfrey united two powerful and antagonistic houses in the region. Their son was Henry I, Duke of Brabant.

In 1159 Godfrey ended the war with the Berthout, lords of Grimbergen, by burning their impressive motte at Grimbergen. In 1171, Godfrey was at war with Hainaut, but was defeated. In 1172, he bought the County of Aarschot from its wayward count Godfried III, which in future generations would give rise to the dynasty of the Dukes of Aarschot that remain to this day. In 1179, he gave his son Henry in marriage to a niece of Philip of Alsace, Count of Flanders.

Between 1182 and 1184 Godfrey went on a Jerusalem campaign. In the interim, Barbarossa granted Henry the title "Duke of Brabant". Godfrey died in 1190, on 10 or 21 August. He left an increased territory and built the fortress of Nedelaer (near Vilvoorde). The ducal title was transmitted to his son at the Diet of Schwäbisch Hall (September 1190).

Marriages & progeny

Godfrey married twice:

  • Firstly to Margaret of Limbourg, daughter of Henry II, Duke of Limburg, in 1158, by whom he had two children:[2]
  • Secondly Godfrey married Imagina of Loon, daughter of Louis I, Count of Loon, by whom he had two children:[2]
    • William of Louvain. Lord of Perwez en Ruysbroek. Married Marie of Orbais, daughter of Enguerrand of Orbais.
    • Godfrey of Louvain (d.1226), who went to England in 1196 and became Senechal of the Honour of Eye. He married Alice de Hastings, daughter and heiress of Robert de Hastings (d.circa 1190), feudal baron of Little Easton in Essex,[4] by whom he had:
      • Matthew de Lovaine , Lord of Little Easton, Seneschal of the Honour of Eye (b. about 1202 in Little Easton, Essex, England - d. 1 June 1258 in Little Easton, Essex, England)

Ancestry

Sources

  1. ↑ Frans Theuws and Nico Roymans, Land and Ancestors: Cultural Dynamics in the Urnfield Period and the Middle Ages in the Southern Netherlands, (Amsterdam University Press, 1999), 331.
  2. 1 2 Cawley, Charles, Brabant and Louvain, Medieval Lands database, Foundation for Medieval Genealogy , at Medieval Lands
  3. ↑ Raymond H. Schmandt, The Election and Assassination of Albert of Louvain, Bishop of Liège, 1191-92, Speculum, Vol. 42, No. 4 (Oct., 1967), pp. 639-660, JSTOR
  4. ↑ Sanders, I.J. English Baronies: A Study of their Origin and Descent 1086-1327, Oxford, 1960, p.130, Little Easton
  • Chronique des Ducs de Brabant, Adrian van Baerland, Antwerp (1612). Available at the online library of Geneanet.
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Godfrey II		 Duke of Lower Lorraine
1142–1190		 Succeeded by
Henry I, Duke of Brabant

as Duke of Lothier

Preceded by
Godfrey II		 Margrave of Antwerp
1142–1190		 Succeeded by
title merged with

Duke of Lothier

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