William II of Holland

William II
Count of Holland
Count Willem II of Holland Granting Privileges, painting by Caesar van Everdingen and Pieter Post (1654)
Born February 1227
Died 28 January 1256(1256-01-28) (aged 28)
Spouse Elisabeth of Brunswick-Lüneburg
Issue Floris V, Count of Holland
House Holland (Gerulfings)
Father Floris IV, Count of Holland
Mother Matilda of Brabant
Religion Roman Catholicism

William II (February 1227 – 28 January 1256) was a Count of Holland and Zeeland from 1234 until his death. He was crowned German anti-king in 1248 and ruled as sole King of the Romans from 1254 onwards.

Biography

Coat of Arms of William II. in a medieval manuscript.

He was the eldest son and heir of Count Floris IV of Holland and his wife Matilda of Brabant.[1] When his father was killed at a tournament at Corbie, William was only seven years old. His uncles, William and Otto (Bishop of Utrecht), were his guardians until 1239.

William II of Holland as "Willem van Henegouwen" in stained-glass window from 1588 by Willem Thibaut, located in the Museum De Lakenhal

With the help of Duke Henry II of Brabant and the Cologne archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden, he was elected King of the Romans after the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II was excommunicated by Pope Innocent IV.[2] He succeeded the Thuringian landgrave Henry Raspe who had died within a year after his election as anti-king in 1246.

The next year, William decided to extend his father's hunting residence to a palace which met his new status. This would later be called the Binnenhof (Inner Court) and was the beginning of the city of The Hague. Meanwhile, after a siege of five months, William besieged Aachen for six months before capturing it from Frederick's followers. Only then could he be crowned as king by Archbishop Konrad of Cologne. He gained a certain amount of theoretical support from some of the German princes after his marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of the Welf duke Otto of Brunswick-Lüneburg, in 1252; but, although "William lacked neither courage nor chivalrous qualities... his power never extended beyond the Rhineland."[3]

In his home county, William fought with Countess Flanders for control of Zeeland. He made himself (being king of Germany) count of Zeeland. In July 1253, he defeated the Flemish army at Westkapelle (in modern-day Belgium) and a year later a cease-fire followed. His anti-Flemish policy worsened his relationship with France.

From 1254 to his death he fought a number of wars against the West Frisians. He built some strong castles in Heemskerk and Haarlem and created roads for the war against the Frisians.

William gave city rights to Haarlem, Delft, 's-Gravenzande and Alkmaar.

Marriage and issue

William married Elizabeth, daughter of Otto the Child, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, in 1252. They had:

Death

In battle near Hoogwoud on 28 January 1256, William tried to traverse a frozen lake by himself, because he was lost, but his horse fell through the ice. In this vulnerable position, William was killed by the Frisians, who secretly buried him under the floor of a house. His body was recovered 26 years later by his son Floris V, who took terrible vengeance on the West-Frisians. William was then buried in Middelburg.[4] Contemporary sources, including the chronicle of Melis Stoke, portray William as an Arthurian hero.[5] A golden statue of William can be found on the Binnenhof in The Hague, the inner court of the parliamentary complex of the Netherlands.

Ancestors

References

  1. 1 2 M. A. Pollock, Scotland, England and France After the Loss of Normandy, 1204-1296, (The Boydell Press, 2015), xv.
  2. ↑ Germany and Flanders: Welfs, Hohenstaufen and Habsburgs, Michael Toch, The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 5, C.1198-c.1300, ed. David Abulafia, (Cambridge University Press, 1999), 391.
  3. ↑ Kantorowicz, Ernst, Frederick II, p. 638.
  4. ↑ Graaf, Ronald P. de (2004). Oorlog om Holland, 1000-1375. Verloren. pp. 231ff. ISBN 9789065508072.
  5. ↑ Tom Verschaffel, ed. (2000). Koningsmoorden. Leuven UP. pp. 150ff. ISBN 9789058670731.

See also

William II of Holland
Born: Febaurary 1228 Died: 28 January 1256
Preceded by
Floris IV		 Count of Holland and Zeeland
1235–1256		 Succeeded by
Floris V
Preceded by
Henry Raspe
(as anti-king)		 King of Germany
(formally King of the Romans)
1247–1256
(anti-king to Conrad IV until 1254)		 Succeeded by
Richard of Cornwall and
Alfonso of Castile
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