John IV (Brabant)

Bust of Johann IV (Brussels).

John IV of Brabant (born June 11, 1403 in Arras , † April 17, 1427 in Brussels ) was Duke of Brabant , Lothier and Limburg (1415-1427) and Count of Hainaut , Holland and Zeeland (1418-1427). He was the eldest son of Duke Anton and Joan of Luxembourg, the Countess of Saint-Pol and Ligny .

When Johann succeeded his father in 1415, he was still a minor. Therefore, at the insistence of the estates of his duchy, he was placed under a Regency Council for two years. On July 31, 1417 he got engaged to his cousin Jakobäa von Bayern (1401–1436), the Countess of Hainaut, Holland and Zealand. The close relationship of the two made a papal dispensation necessary, which Pope Martin V granted on December 22, 1417, but withdrew on January 5, 1418. The marriage was concluded in March 1418 anyway. However, in letters to Johann and the counties, King Sigismund prohibited his co-government in Hainaut, Holland and Zealand, which he had already given to Jakobäa's uncle Johann von Bayern . Nevertheless, on May 29th, John of Brabant received homage from the estates of the three counties in Mons .

The settlement of Workum between uncle and niece brought about by Philip of Burgundy on February 13, 1419 , which in return for the recognition of the marriage between Johann and Jakobäa, the enfeoffment of Johann of Bavaria with Dordrecht , Rotterdam and Gorkum as well as a five-year joint government the counties did not last. On May 27th, Pope Martin V issued another dispensation, making the marriage lawful. On April 21st, 1420, Johann von Brabant, against Jakobäa's will, concluded the Treaty of St. Martinsdijk with Johann von Bayern and transferred to him the rule of Holland, Zealand and Friesland for 12 years. In addition, he assured him the successor in the event of his wife's childless death. The Brabant estates rejected this agreement and installed Johann's brother Philipp von Saint-Pol as regent.

In addition to the Treaty of St. Martinsdijk, Jacobea suffered military defeats against her uncle. She therefore declared her marriage to Johann von Brabant invalid in February 1421 and fled to England on March 6th . On May 12, 1422, Johann submitted to a council responsible for the Brabant estates, and in the autumn of the same year Jakobäa married Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester , a younger brother of King Henry V, who had recently died . Two years later, Jakobäa and Humphrey returned with English troops Hainaut, where the estates paid homage to Humphrey on December 5, 1424. Before there was any hostilities between Johann, whose rights to the counties had reverted to him with the death of Johann von Bayern on January 6, 1425, and Humphrey, the latter waived his claims and returned to England.

On December 9, 1425, at the request of Duke John, Brabant was awarded a university by Pope Martin V, the University of Leuven , which was ceremoniously opened on September 7, 1426. Jakobäa was taken into protective custody by Philip of Burgundy in Mons, but escaped to Holland, where she found support from the Hoeken aristocratic party. Johann on the other hand, like Johann von Bayern before him, relied on the city's cod party, but could no longer decisively defeat Jakobea. He died on April 17, 1427 without leaving any descendants. His younger brother Philip of Saint-Pol succeeded him. The marriage between Johann and Jakobäa was not finally legitimized until January 1428. In the 1430s, the territories of both spouses finally fell to their common cousin Philip of Burgundy.

literature

• Laetitia Boehm : The Wittelsbach House in the Netherlands . In: Journal for Bavarian State History . tape 44 , 1981, pp. 93-130, especially pp. 119-123 ( online ).

Remarks

1. ↑ Léopold Devillers, Cartulaire des Comtes de Hainaut de l'avènement de Guillaume II à la mort de Jacqueline de Bavière , Volume IV, No. 1173.
2. ↑ Devillers, Cartulaire des Comtes de Hainaut , Volume IV, No. 1174.
3. ^ Regesta Imperii XI, No. 3075 .
4. ^ Regesta Imperii XI, No. 3077 .
5. ↑ Devillers, Cartulaire des Comtes , Volume IV, No. 1228; Frans van Mieris, Groot charterbook der graaven van Holland, van Zeeland en heeren van Vriesland , Volume IV, p. 521.
6. ↑ Devillers, Cartulaire des Comtes , Volume IV, No. 1235.
7. ↑ Devillers, Cartulaire des Comtes , Volume IV, No. 1251; Mieris, Groot charterbook , Volume IV, p. 545.
8. ↑ Devillers, Cartulaire des Comtes de Hainaut , Volume IV, No. 1320.

predecessor	Office	successor
Anton	Duke of Brabant Duke of Limburg Margrave of Antwerp 1415–1427	Philip