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Showing posts with the label crusade

Eleanor of Aquitaine

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This is a blog post at a special request. Eleonor of Aquitaine was perhaps the most famous queen in the Middle Ages.  But who was she?  On 1 April 1204 at the age of about 82, Eleanor of Aquitaine died at Poitiers. Who was Eleanor of Aquitaine? Family Eleanor's year of birth is not known precisely: a late 13th-century genealogy of her family listing her as 13 years old in the spring of 1137 provides the best evidence that Eleanor was perhaps born as late as 1124. Eleanor (or Aliénor) was the oldest of three children of William X, Duke of Aquitaine, whose glittering ducal court was renowned in early 12th-century Europe, and his wife, Aenor de Châtellerault, the daughter of Aimery I, Viscount of Châtellerault, and Dangereuse de l'Isle Bouchard, who was William IX's longtime mistress as well as Eleanor's maternal grandmother. Her parents' marriage had been arranged by Dangereuse with her paternal grandfather William IX. Her family were members of the House of Ramnulfid...

19 July 1234: Death of Floris IV, Count of Holland

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19 July 1234 marks the death of Floris. He was born on 24 June 1210 as a son of Count William I of Holland and Adelaide of Guelders. His paternal grandparents were Floris III, Count of Holland and Ada of Scotland. His maternal grandparents were Count Otto I of Guelders and Richardis, herself a daughter of Duke Otto I of Bavaria and Agnes van Loon. Love and Marriage Floris IV, Count of Holland married his stepaunt, Mathilda of Brabant, daughter of Duke Henry I of Brabant. They would have 5 children. Duty Floris IV succeeded his father William I of Holland in 1222. He acquired the land of Altena and had lots of disputes with Otto II of Lippe, the bishop of Utrecht. However Floris IV helped Otto against the peasants of Drenthe in 1227. In 1234, Floris fought in the crusade against the Stedinger north of Bremen. Death Floris IV, Count of Holland died on 19 July 1234, on a tournament in Corbie, France. He was buried at Rijnsburg Abbey. Source picture:...