Ada

Ada (name)

Ada is a feminine given name. One source indicates it originates from a Germanic word meaning "nobility". It can also be a short form of names such as Adelaide and Adeline...

(1188–1223) was Countess

Count of Holland

The Counts of Holland ruled over the County of Holland in the Low Countries between the 10th and the 16th century.-House of Holland:The first count of Holland, Dirk I, was the son or foster-son of Gerolf, Count in Frisia...

 of Holland

County of Holland

The County of Holland was a county in the Holy Roman Empire and from 1482 part of the Habsburg Netherlands in what is now the Netherlands. It covered an area roughly corresponding to the current Dutch provinces of North-Holland and South-Holland, as well as the islands of Terschelling, Vlieland,...

 between 1203 and 1207.

Biography

She was the only surviving daughter of Dirk VII, Count of Holland

Dirk VII, Count of Holland

Dirk VII of Holland , Count of Holland from 1190 to 1203. He was elder son of Floris III and Ada of Huntingdon....

 and his wife Adelaide of Cleves. She succeeded her father as Countess in her own right. She immediately had to deal with her uncle William, who claimed Holland for his own. Ada married Louis II

Louis II, Count of Loon

Louis II was count of Loon between the end of the 12th century to 1218.He waged war against duke Henry I of Brabant for the inheritance of Albert III of Moha and the rights on Maastricht and Sint-Truiden. He had the rights of both cities, because he was regent of Duras.Louis married Ada, Countess...

, count of Loon

Loon

The loons or divers are a group of aquatic birds found in many parts of North America and northern Eurasia...

 to strengthen her position. She was in such a hurry, that she married even before her father was buried, which caused a scandal.

Ada was quickly captured by the supporters of William and taken prisoner in the citadel of Leiden. She was first imprisoned on the island of Texel

Texel

Texel is a municipality and an island in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the biggest and most populated of the Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea, and also the westernmost of this archipelago, which extends to Denmark...

 and afterwards she was taken to John Lackland in the Kingdom of England

Kingdom of England

The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...

. William had to accept Louis and Ada as count and countess at a treaty of Brugge

Brügge

Brügge is a municipality in the district of Rendsburg-Eckernförde, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.Its small church and market square are noted for their beauty....

 in 1206. Louis managed to get Ada free in 1206, and the couple returned to Loon in 1207. Their reign was short-lived and William was appointed Count of Holland by Otto IV in 1208. She did not accept the loss of her county, and Ada and Louis continued the fight. Ada remained childless. Louis died in 1218, leaving Ada to live out the rest of her life in obscurity. She was buried next to her husband in Herkenrode Abbey

Herkenrode Abbey

Herkenrode Abbey was a former monastery of Cistercian nuns located in Kuringen, part of the municipality of Hasselt, which lies in the province of Limburg, Belgium....

.

The civil war

Civil war

A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....

 in Holland became part of a major international war between on one side France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and the Hohenstaufen

Hohenstaufen

The House of Hohenstaufen was a dynasty of German kings in the High Middle Ages, lasting from 1138 to 1254. Three of these kings were also crowned Holy Roman Emperor. In 1194 the Hohenstaufens also became Kings of Sicily...

 dynasty and on the other side England and the Welfs. William could get Holland through good maneuvering between both sides. Louis and Ada had to give up their claims. History has been particularly unkind to her, and many period histories up to the Protestant Reformation

Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

 don't even count her as a Countess, but call William I the next in line from Dirk VII, as if she never existed.

External links

• Ada, gravin van Holland (Dutch)