Year 1178 (MCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar, the 1178th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 178th year of the 2nd millennium, the 78th year of the 12th century, and the 9th year of the 1170s decade.
Utrecht, officially the Province of Utrecht, is a province of the Netherlands. It is located in the centre of the country, bordering the Eemmeer in the north-east, the province of Gelderland in the east and south-east, the province of South Holland in the west and south-west and the province of North Holland in the north-west and north. The province of Utrecht has a population of 1,353,596 as of November 2019. With a land area of approximately 1,485 square kilometres (573 sq mi), it is the second smallest province in the country. Apart from its eponymous capital, major cities and towns in the province are Amersfoort, Houten, IJsselstein, Nieuwegein, Veenendaal and Zeist. The busiest railway station in the Netherlands, Utrecht Centraal, is located in the province of Utrecht.
The Bishopric of Utrecht was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire in the Low Countries, in the present-day Netherlands. From 1024 to 1528, as one of the prince-bishoprics of the Holy Roman Empire, it was ruled by the bishops of Utrecht.
Henry Bretislav, a member of the Přemyslid dynasty, was Bishop of Prague from 1182, then Duke of Bohemia as "Bretislav III" from 1193 to his death.
Gerard, also known as Gerard the Wonderful, was a Lotharingian nobleman. He was the count of Metz and Châtenois from 1047 to 1048, when his brother Duke Adalbert resigned them to him upon his becoming the Duke of Upper Lorraine. On Adalbert's death the next year, Gerard became duke, a position that he held until his death. In contemporary documents, he is called Gerard of Alsace, Gerard of Chatenoy, or Gerard of Flanders.
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.
Vollenhove is a city in the Dutch province of Overijssel. It is located in the municipality of Steenwijkerland, southwest of Steenwijk. Until the Noordoostpolder was drained, it was located on the coast of the Zuiderzee.
Godfrey I, called the Bearded, the Courageous, or the Great, was the Landgrave of Brabant, Count of Brussels and Leuven (Louvain) from 1095 to his death and Duke of Lower Lorraine from 1106 to 1129. He was also Margrave of Antwerp from 1106 to his death.
Henry (VII) (1211 – 12 February 1242), a member of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was King of Sicily from 1212 until 1217 and King of Germany (formally Rex Romanorum) from 1220 until 1235, as son and co-ruler of Emperor Frederick II. He was the seventh Henry to rule Germany, but in order to avoid confusion with the Luxembourg emperor Henry VII, he is usually numbered Henry (VII).
Godfrey III was count of Louvain, landgrave of Brabant, margrave of Antwerp, and duke of Lower Lorraine from 1142 to his death.
Dirk VI was Count of Holland between 1121 and 1157, at first, during his minority, under the regency of his mother Petronilla. He was the son of Count Floris II. After his death he was succeeded by his eldest son Floris III. He married Sofie of Salm, Countess of Rheineck and Bentheim. She was heiress of Bentheim, which she ruled together with her husband and which was inherited by the couple's second son Otto after his parents' death.
Dirk IV was Count of Holland from 1039 to 1049. Dirk's date of birth is unknown but it was probably ca. 1030 or shortly before, he was described as "adolescent" at the time of his death. His base of operations was the stronghold his father built at Vlaardingen. Contemporary chroniclers referred to him as "Theodericus de Phlardirtinga" (Vlaardingen) and as margrave thereof. The exact extent of his domain is not known, but at one time or another it stretched north to at least Rijnsburg and east to roughly Aalburg.
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.
Godfrey is a given name and an English surname. The given name is derived from the Old French Godefroy, a name composed of the elements: the first being either God ("God") or gōd ("good"); the second being fred ("peace"). The name was brought to England by settlers from Normandy, the Low Countries, and France. The name is rendered Goraidh, Goiridh in Scottish Gaelic. In some cases the surname is derived from the Middle English personal name Godfrey, Godefrey; or the Old French Godefrei, Godefroi, Godefrois; or the Continental Germanic Godefrid. In other cases, the surname is derived from the Irish Mac Gothraidh or Ó Gothraidh.
Floris the Black was a son of Floris II, Count of Holland and Petronilla of Lorraine. He became a rebel count of Holland in the 1120s and 1130s, against the claim of his brother Dirk.
Henry VI, a member of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was King of Germany from 1169 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1191 until his death. From 1194 he was also King of Sicily.
Van Reenen is Dutch toponymic surname meaning "from/of Rhenen", a city in the province of Utrecht. Among variant forms, all pronounced the same, are Renen, Rheenen and Rhenen. Until 2006, there was a noble family Van Reenen. Notable people with the surname include:
The historic Diocese of Utrecht was a diocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church from 695 to 1580, and from 1559 archdiocese in the Low Countries before and during the Protestant Reformation.
Count Balderic of Upladium was a Rhineland count in the Holy Roman Empire, who held various estates stretching from the forest region of Drenthe in the north, to the area near Cologne, on both sides of the river Rhine.
