Rainald I. (Geldern)

Rainald I von Geldern (* around 1255 ; † October 9, 1326 in Montfort ; called the arguable ) was Count of Geldern from January 10, 1271 to 1320 and also Duke of Limburg from 1280 to 1288 .

Rainald was born the son of Otto II . He had a son himself, Rainald II.

In 1279 he bought the county of Kessel and sovereignty rights on the left bank of the Maas as well as rule over ministerials between the Maas and Mönchengladbach.

After the death of his father-in-law Walram V of Limburg , he became Duke of Limburg in 1280 from the rights of his wife Irmgard. When Irmgard died childless in 1283, her cousin Count Adolf V. von Berg raised hereditary claims to the duchy. In the resulting Limburg succession dispute , there was a battle at Worringen on June 5, 1288 , in which Rainald was defeated and taken prisoner. He had to buy his freedom by waiving all claims to Limburg. After all, the Duchy of Limburg did not go to Adolf V von Berg, but to Duke Johann I von Brabant , the husband of the half-sister of Rainald's second wife. The battle of Worringen robbed the Counts of Geldern of the prospect of a real position of power. Rainald was so in debt that he pledged the county of Geldern from 1288 to 1293 to the Count of Flanders . The Flemish rule contributed significantly to the development of a modern and effective territorial administration.

In 1306 he founded the Carmelite Monastery of Geldern . In 1310 he received the Privilegium de non evocando from King Henry VII for his possessions , which freed his subjects from the power of foreign courts.

Rainald was raised to the rank of imperial prince in 1317 by the German rival king Friedrich the Beautiful , who was not recognized by Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian .

Since he was mentally ill as a result of a wound received in the Battle of Worringen, a rebellion arose in Geldern in 1316, headed by his son Rainald II. He seized his father by trickery in 1320 and threw him into prison, where he died in 1326.

Rainald I was buried on October 21, 1326 in Graefenthal Abbey.

Marriages and offspring

In 1270 Rainald married Irmgard von Limburg († 1283), the daughter of Walram V. This marriage remained childless.

In 1286 he married Margaret of Flanders († 1331) of the Dampierre family , daughter of Count Guido I of Flanders and Namur , widow of Crown Prince Alexander of Scotland († 1284). He had the following children with her:

• Rainald II (* 1295; † 1343)
• Guido († after 1315)
• Philipp († young)
• Elisabeth († 1355), Abbess of St. Klara in Cologne
• Philippa († 1352), nun of St. Klara in Cologne
• Margarethe, ⚭ Dietrich IX. from Kleve

literature

• Paul Moors: Reinoud I approx. 1258-1326, Graaf van Gelre . In: Biographical Woordenboek Gelderland. Volume 4. Verloren, Hilversum 2004, ISBN 90-6550-800-7 , pp. 98-104.
• Wolfgang Herborn: Rainald I . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 7, LexMA-Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-7608-8907-7 , Sp. 417.
• Ralf G. Jahn : The genealogy, the bailiffs, counts and dukes of money. In: Johannes Stinner, Karl-Heinz Tekath (ed.): Gelre - Geldern - Gelderland. History and culture of the Duchy of Geldern (= Duchy of Geldern. Vol. 1 = Publications of the State Archives of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Series D: Exhibition catalogs of the State Archives. Vol. 30). Verlag des Historisches Verein für Geldern and the surrounding area, Geldern 2001, ISBN 3-9805419-4-0 , pp. 29–50.
• Karl Theodor Wenzelburger :  Reinald I . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 27, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1888, p. 724 f.

predecessor	Office	successor
Otto II.	Count of Geldern Count of Zutphen 1271–1320	Rainald II.
Walram V.	Duke of Limburg (de iure uxoris ) 1280–1288	Johann I.