The counts of Holland ruled over the County of Holland in the Low Countries between the 10th and the 16th century.
The counts of Holland ruled over the County of Holland in the Low Countries between the 10th and the 16th century.
While the Frisian kingdom had comprised most of the present day Netherlands, the later province of Friesland in the Netherlands was much reduced. Already in the early Middle Ages West-Frisia (Frisia west of the Vlie) was not considered to be a part of Frisia anymore, and came to be known as Holland (present day provinces North and South Holland and Zeeland). Floris II was the first count who restyled his name from count of "West-Frisia", in count of "Holland".
Frisia Proper in medieval time therefore only included the middle and eastern part. The middle part (corresponding to the present day Dutch province of Friesland) was populated by free peasants who successfully resisted all attempts by feudal lords to subdue them, mainly the counts of Holland and the bishops of Utrecht. In the eastern part, local chieftains created their own states (within the Holy Roman Empire) in the late Middle Ages. They became a county after 1446 until 1744, after which it was incorporated within Prussia and later Germany.
The first count of Holland, Dirk I, was the son or foster-son of Gerolf, Count in Frisia (Dijkstra suggests that Dirk may have been the son of a sister of Gerolf and that his own father died while he was still an infant). He received land around Egmond from Charles the Fat at a place called Bladella (modern-day Bladel near Eindhoven, The Netherlands) in 922. This is seen as the beginning of the county of Holland. However, until about 1100, the usual names for the county were West-Friesland, Frisia or Kennemerland; in spite of this the counts from Dirk I onwards are traditionally named of Holland.
Note that the chronology of the first few counts is uncertain. The existence of a count between Dirk I and Dirk II was only recently suggested, since it is thought that the references to counts named Dirk between 896 and 988 refer to three, not two, different counts. This third Count Dirk is placed between Dirk I and II and numbered as Dirk I bis to avoid confusion with the already established numbering referring to the other counts of Holland named Dirk.
The counts of West-Frisia ruled locally in the name of the archbishop of Utrecht, but over time, the counts of Holland came to dominate the bishopric of Utrecht. The archbishop of Utrecht governed the area on behalf of the Holy Roman Emperor, who saw his power diminished by the feudal system in which the counts and dukes ruled almost as sovereigns.
The counts of Holland tried frequently to increase their territory but apart from the acquisition of Zeeland during the 14th century they had no lasting success. Instead, it became a part of the mighty medieval dynasties' possessions, first Wittelsbach then Valois and thereafter Habsburg.
| Name | Lifespan | Reign start | Reign end | Notes | Family | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gerulf II | ca. 885 | 895/896 | son or grandson of Gerulf I of Frisia, or the same Gerulf | Holland |  | |
| Dirk I | 896 | ca. 931 | son of Gerolf? | Holland |  | |
| Dirk I bis | ca. 931 | 939 | son of Dirk I; count of Frisia | Holland | | |
| Dirk II | 939 | 988 | son of Dirk I bis; count of Frisia | Holland |  | |
| Arnulf | 988 | 993 | son of Dirk II; count of Frisia | Holland |  | |
Dirk III
| 993 | 1039 | son of Arnulf; count of Frisia | Holland |  | |
| Dirk IV | 1039 | 1049 | son of Dirk III Hierosolymita; count of Frisia | Holland |  | |
| Floris I | 1049 | 1061 | brother of Dirk IV; regents: Gertrude of Saxony (widow of Floris I), Robert the Frisian (second husband of Gertrude) and Godfrey the Hunchback, Duke of Lower Lorraine; count of Frisia | Holland |  |
| Name | Lifespan | Reign start | Reign end | Notes | Family | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dirk V
| 1061 | 1091 | son of Floris I; count of Frisia | Holland |  | |
Floris II
| 1091 | 1121 | son of Dirk V; first count who named himself count of 'Holland' | Holland |  | |
Dirk VI
| 1121 | 1157 | son of Floris II | Holland |  | |
Floris III
| 1157 | 1190 | son of Dirk VI | Holland |  | |
Dirk VII
| 1190 | 1203 | son of Floris III | Holland |  | |
Ada
| 1203 | 1207 | daughter of Dirk VII; ruled together with Louis I; no issues | Holland |  | |
William I
| 1203 | 1222 | son of Floris III | Holland |  | |
Floris IV
| 1222 | 1234 | son of William I | Holland |  | |
William II
| 1235 | 1256 | son of Floris IV | Holland |  | |
Floris V
| 1256 | 1296 | son of William II; Floris de Voogd regent and guardian for Floris V (1256–1258) | Holland |  | |
John I
| 1296 | 1299 | son of Floris V; John III, Lord of Renesse regent for John I (1296-1299); John II, Count of Hainaut inherited the county after John I's death | Holland |  |
| Name | Lifespan | Reign start | Reign end | Notes | Family | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
John II
| 1299 | 1304 | son of John I of Avesnes and Adelaide of Holland, Adelaide is daughter of Floris IV; a.k.a. count John II of Hainaut | Avesnes |  | |
William III
| 1304 | 1337 | son of John II | Avesnes |  | |
William IV
| 1337 | 1345 | son of William III | Avesnes |  | |
Margaret I
| 1345 | 1354 | daughter of William III; a.k.a. countess Margaret II of Hainaut | Avesnes |  |
| Name | Lifespan | Reign start | Reign end | Notes | Family | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
William V
| 1349 | 1389 | son of Margaret I; a.k.a. duke William I of Bavaria, count William III of Hainaut, count William IV of Zeeland | Wittelsbach |  | |
Albert
| 1389 | 1404 | son of Margaret I; count of Holland, Hainaut, and Zeeland | Wittelsbach |  | |
William VI
| 1404 | 1417 | son of Albert; a.k.a. duke William II of Bavaria-Straubing, count William IV of Hainaut, count William V of Zeeland | Wittelsbach |  | |
Jacqueline
| 1417 | 1433 | daughter of William VI; countess of Holland, Zeeland and Hainaut; a.k.a. duchess Jacqueline of Bavaria-Straubing; no heir; With Jacqueline's remarriage to the English Henry of Gloucester, title passes to the dukes of Burgundy | Wittelsbach |  |
There was a war of succession between uncle (John III, Duke of Bavaria) and niece (Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut). This war was finally won by Philip the Good in 1433, who, in the meantime had inherited John's claims on the county. Philip and Jacqueline were double first cousins, Philip's mother is daughter of Albert while Jacqueline's mother was daughter of Philip the Bold of Burgundy. In April 1433 he forced Jacqueline to abdicate from Hainaut and Holland on his behalf.
| Name | Lifespan | Reign start | Reign end | Notes | Family | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philip I the Good (Philippe III le Bon) | 1432 | 1467 | son of John the Fearless and Margaret of Bavaria, Margaret is daughter of Albert | Valois-Burgundy |  | |
| Charles I the Bold (Charles I le Téméraire) | 1467 | 1477 | son of Philip I | Valois-Burgundy |  | |
| Mary I the Rich | 1477 | 1482 | daughter of Charles I; countess of Frisia | Valois-Burgundy |  |
During the 'foreign rule' by Burgundy and Habsburg, the county was governed by a stadtholder in name of the count. In 1581, the Estates General of the United Provinces declared themselves independent from the Spanish rule of Philip II (who was Philip III of Holland). Until the Treaty of Münster in 1648, the kings of Spain still used the title Count of Holland, but they had lost the actual power over the county to the States of Holland.
The county remained in existence as a constituent member state of the Dutch Republic until 1795. There were no more counts however since the Estates of Holland and West-Frisia were the sovereign of the county (although the countship was offered to William the Silent in 1584, shortly before his death). The stadtholders, who were servants of the Estates, were the de facto chief-executives during this period.
Holland is a geographical region and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th century, Holland proper was a unified political region within the Holy Roman Empire as a county ruled by the counts of Holland. By the 17th century, the province of Holland had risen to become a maritime and economic power, dominating the other provinces of the newly independent Dutch Republic.
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, officially the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, and commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands, and the first independent Dutch state. The republic was established after seven Dutch provinces in the Spanish Netherlands revolted against Spanish rule, forming a mutual alliance against Spain in 1579 and declaring their independence in 1581. It comprised Groningen, Frisia, Overijssel, Guelders, Utrecht, Holland and Zeeland.
In the Low Countries, a stadtholder was a steward, first appointed as a medieval official and ultimately functioning as a national leader. The stadtholder was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and Habsburg period.
The Hook and Cod wars comprise a series of wars and battles in the County of Holland between 1350 and 1490. Most of these wars were ostensibly fought over who should hold the title of "Count of Holland", but some have argued that the underlying reason was a power struggle conducted by the bourgeois in the cities against the ruling nobility.
The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish government. The causes of the war included the Reformation, centralisation, excessive taxation, and the rights and privileges of the Dutch nobility and cities.
The County of Hainaut, sometimes spelled Hainault, was a territorial lordship within the medieval Holy Roman Empire that straddled the present-day border of Belgium and France. Its most important towns included Mons, now in Belgium, and Valenciennes, now in France.
William the Good was count of Hainaut, Avesnes, Holland, and Zeeland from 1304 to his death.
The County of Holland was a state of the Holy Roman Empire and from 1433 part of the Burgundian Netherlands, from 1482 part of the Habsburg Netherlands and from 1581 onward the leading province of the Dutch Republic, of which it remained a part until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. The territory of the County of Holland corresponds roughly with the current provinces of North Holland and South Holland in the Netherlands.
Spanish Netherlands was the Habsburg Netherlands ruled by the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs from 1556 to 1714. They were a collection of States of the Holy Roman Empire in the Low Countries held in personal union by the Spanish Crown. This region comprised most of the modern states of Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as parts of northern France, the southern Netherlands, and western Germany with the capital being Brussels. The Army of Flanders was given the task of defending the territory.
The Burgundian Circle was an Imperial Circle of the Holy Roman Empire created in 1512 and significantly enlarged in 1548. In addition to the Free County of Burgundy, the Burgundian Circle roughly covered the Low Countries, i.e., the areas now known as the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg and adjacent parts in the French administrative region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais. For most of its history, its lands were coterminous with the holdings of the Spanish Habsburgs in the Empire.
Dirk V was Count of Holland from 1061 to 1091.
Dirk III was the count with jurisdiction over what would become the county of Holland, often referred to in this period as "West Frisia", from 993 to 27 May 1039. Until 1005, this was under regency of his mother. It is thought that Dirk III went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land around 1030, hence his nickname of Hierosolymita.
The County of Zeeland was a county of the Holy Roman Empire in the Low Countries. It covered an area in the Scheldt and Meuse delta roughly corresponding to the modern Dutch province of Zeeland. The County of Zeeland did not include the region of Zeelandic Flanders which was part of Flanders; conversely, the modern Province of Zeeland does not include Sommelsdijk, historically part of the County of Zeeland.
Habsburg Netherlands was the Renaissance period fiefs in the Low Countries held by the Holy Roman Empire's House of Habsburg. The rule began in 1482, when the last Valois-Burgundy ruler of the Netherlands, Mary, wife of Maximilian I of Austria, died. Their grandson, Emperor Charles V, was born in the Habsburg Netherlands and made Brussels one of his capitals.
Gerolf or Gerulf was the second count of this name who is attested in the area of Friesland. Gerolf's main area of power seems to have been in Kennemerland. Count Gerolf is often regarded as the founder of the County of Holland, although the actual name "Holland" is from a later time. His ancestry is unclear, but he may have been a son or, more likely, a grandson of the earlier Gerolf, who was a count in the area of Frisia at the time of the reign of Emperor Louis the Pious and who later joined a monastery. The earlier Gerolf died in 855. There is some limited and vague evidence that this earlier Gerolf was a son of a certain Theodoric, who in turn supposedly descended from the Frisian king Redbad. Count Gerolf is often identified as the father of Count Dirk I and seen as the founder of the first house of the Counts of Holland, which ruled the county until it was inherited by John II of Hainaut in 1299.
Frisian freedom was the absence of feudalism and serfdom in Frisia, the area that was originally inhabited by the Frisians. Historical Frisia included the modern provinces of Friesland and Groningen, and the area of West Friesland, in the Netherlands, and East Friesland in Germany. During the period of Frisian freedom the area did not have a sovereign lord who owned and administered the land. The freedom of the Frisians developed in the context of ongoing disputes over the rights of local nobility.
The Lordship of Frisia or Lordship of Friesland was a feudal dominion in the Netherlands. It was formed in 1498 by King Maximilian I and reformed in 1524 when Emperor Charles V conquered Frisia.
The years 1579–1588 constituted a phase of the Eighty Years' War between the Spanish Empire and the United Provinces in revolt after most of them concluded the Union of Utrecht on 23 January 1579, and proceeded to carve the independent Dutch Republic out of the Habsburg Netherlands. It followed the 1576–1579 period, in which a temporary alliance of 16 out of the Seventeen Provinces' States–General established the Pacification of Ghent as a joint Catholic–Protestant rebellion against the Spanish government, but internal conflicts as well as military and diplomatic successes of the Spanish Governors-General Don Juan of Austria and Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma split them apart, finally leading the Malcontent County of Artois, County of Hainaut and city of Douai to sign the Union of Arras on 6 January 1579, reverting to Catholicism and loyalty to the Spanish crown. In response, most of the remaining rebel provinces and cities would forge or later accede to the Union of Utrecht, a closer military alliance treaty that would go on to become the most important fundamental law of the United Provinces, who on 26 July 1581 proclaimed the Act of Abjuration, a de facto declaration of independence from Spain. While the nascent polity was struggling to find a new sovereign head of state, including Matthias of Austria, Francis of Anjou, William "the Silent" of Orange and Robert of Leicester, before giving up and deciding to become a republic by passing the Deduction of Vrancken on 12 April 1588, the Duke of Parma continued his successful military and diplomatic offensive, bringing ever more provinces and cities in the southern, eastern and northeastern parts of the Netherlands back into royalist hands. Parma's reconquests more or less stalled after the Fall of Antwerp (1585), and finally came to an end with the failure of the Spanish Armada and Philip II ordered him to intervene in the French Wars of Religion to prevent the Succession of Henry IV and France becoming a Protestant kingdom. These developments gave rise to a new phase, the Ten Years (1588–1598), that saw significant conquests by the Dutch States Army under the leadership of stadtholders Maurice of Nassau and William Louis of Nassau-Dillenburg, and the Dutch Republic's rise as a commercial great power.
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1 until 1648; 2 until 1659; 3 until 1678. Circles est. 1500: Bavarian, Swabian, Upper Rhenish, Lower Rhenish–Westphalian, Franconian, (Lower) Saxon Circles est. 1512: Austrian, Burgundian, Upper Saxon, Electoral Rhenish · Unencircled territories | ||||||
