John I, Count of Holland - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

John I was Count

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,...

and son of Count Floris V

Floris V, Count of Holland

Count Floris V of Holland and Zeeland , "der Keerlen God" , is one of the most important figures of the first, native dynasty of Holland . His life was documented in detail in the Rijmkroniek by Melis Stoke, his chronicler...

. John inherited the county in 1296 after the murder of his father.

Shortly after his birth, after negotiations between Floris and King Edward I of England

Edward I of England

Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...

in April 1285, he was betrothed to princess Elizabeth of England

Elizabeth of Rhuddlan

Elizabeth of Rhuddlan was the eighth and youngest daughter of Edward I of England and Eleanor of Castile...

, a daughter of Edward and his first Queen consort

Queen consort

A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king. A queen consort usually shares her husband's rank and holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles. Historically, queens consort do not share the king regnant's political and military powers. Most queens in history were queens consort...

Eleanor of Castile

Eleanor of Castile was the first queen consort of Edward I of England. She was also Countess of Ponthieu in her own right from 1279 until her death in 1290, succeeding her mother and ruling together with her husband.-Birth:...

. Soon after this the infant John was sent to England to be raised and educated there at Edward's court. In 1296, after the murder of John's father Count Floris V, King Edward invited a number of nobles from Holland with English sympathies, amongst whom were John III, Lord of Renesse

John III, Lord of Renesse

Jan van Renesse was a member of the Zeeland nobility. Together with Wolfert van Borselen he co-led a party favoring Flanders and against Holland, with considerable influence in Zeeland...

and Wolfert I van Borselen. On January 7, 1297 John married Edward's daughter Elizabeth at Ipswich

Ipswich

Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...

. Soon after this, he was allowed to return to Holland, although being made to promise to heed the council of Renesse and Borselen. Elizabeth was expected to go to Holland with her husband, but did not wish to go, leaving her husband to go alone. After some delay and spending Christmas 1297 with part of her family in Ghent, Elizabeth did join her husband in Holland in 1298.

At first Renesse acted as regent, but on 30 April 1297, John had appointed Wolfert van Borselen regent in his stead, until his fifteenth birthday. As regent, Wolfert van Borselen, pursued a policy of neutrality towards Flanders

Flanders

Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

and England. He came into conflict with the city of Dordrecht

Dordrecht

Dordrecht , colloquially Dordt, historically in English named Dort, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the fourth largest city of the province, having a population of 118,601 in 2009...

and was killed there by a mob on 30 August 1299. After this Count John II of the house of Avesnes

House of Avesnes

The Avesnes family played an important role during the Middle Ages. The family has its roots in the small village Avesnes-sur-Helpe, in the north of France....

took over the regency, for a few months. Count John I of Holland died at Haarlem in the same year, on 10 November, childless and only fifteen years old, reportedly of dysentery

Dysentery

Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...

, but there were suspicions he was murdered.

With his death without descendants, and all his siblings having died young, the heirs to the county of Holland were his cousins of Hainaut, sons of John's great-aunt Adelaide of Holland

Adelaide of Holland

Adelaide of Holland or Aleide van Holland was a daughter of Floris IV, Count of Holland and Matilda of Brabant. She was also a sister of William II, Count of Holland and King of Germany...

. From this time to the extinction of Hainaut as an independent county, Holland was in personal union

Personal union

A personal union is the combination by which two or more different states have the same monarch while their boundaries, their laws and their interests remain distinct. It should not be confused with a federation which is internationally considered a single state...

with Hainaut.

Three years after John's death, his young widow remarried to Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford

Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford

Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford was a member of a powerful Anglo-Norman family of the Welsh Marches and was one of the Ordainers who opposed Edward II's excesses.-Family background :...

Ancestors

External links and sources

See also