County of Holland

Who rules

Name

Dirk VII (Theoderic, Dietrich)

Title

Count of Holland (comes Hollandie)

Since

1190, when his father Floris III died at Antioch on the Third Crusade

Born

Not pinned: the elder son of Floris III and Ada of Huntingdon, who married in 1162, so born in the 1160s

Family

Son of Floris III of Holland and Ada of Huntingdon, sister of King William the Lion of Scotland. Brother of William (born about 1167-1170, later Count William I). Nephew of Otto, count of Bentheim, of the late Bishop Baldwin of Utrecht (died 1196) and of the late Dirk, bishop-elect of Utrecht (died at Pavia, 28 August 1197). Wife: Adelaide (Aleid) of Cleves, daughter of Count Dietrich of Cleves (died 1172) and Adelaide of Sulzbach, married in 1186. She rules beside him: from 1198 every charter of the Holland chancery names count and countess together, and she was the first to call herself countess of Holland.

Confidence

high

Children on 1 January 1200: Aleid (Adelheid), born about 1186, about 13, betrothed in 1197 or 1198 to Henry, son of Otto I of Guelders, who died in 1198 before the wedding, so she is unwed; she dies before 1203. Ada, born about 1188, about 11, unmarried (she marries Louis II of Loon on 4 November 1203: not yet). Petronilla, dead before 1203; whether she is alive on 1 January 1200 is not pinned. No son. Heir: none named. Holland and Zeeland were held as fiefs that passed in the male line, so William claims the county; Adelaide will push the daughters' right.

On 1 January 1200 the question is open.

Overlord

The king of Germany for Holland and for Zeeland east of the Scheldt; the count of Flanders for Zeeland west of the Scheldt (treaty of Bruges, 1167-1168). The duke of Brabant claims overlordship of the southern lands as duke of Lotharingia, and the bishop of Utrecht claims old imperial grants of ground Holland holds.

What the realm holds

• The county of Holland: Rijnland round Leiden, Delfland and Schieland, Kennemerland round Haarlem up to Alkmaar, the Maas islands (Voorne under its own lords, Putten, IJsselmonde) and Dordrecht
• The toll at Geervliet on the Maas, confirmed to Dirk by Emperor Henry VI in 1195 (first granted to Floris III), a grievance of the Flemish merchants; and the Grote Waard round Dordrecht, granted by Henry VI at Utrecht's expense
• Zeeland east of the Scheldt (Schouwen, Duiveland) as an imperial fief
• Zeeland west of the Scheldt (Walcheren, the Bevelands) as a fief of the count of Flanders, held jointly with him: tolls and forfeited lands shared half and half, and no new Holland castles allowed there (treaty of Bruges, 1167-1168)
• Holland's half of the comital rights in Oostergo and Westergo in Frisia, shared with the bishop of Utrecht since Frederick I's ruling of 1165, held for the count by his brother William
• The advocacy of Egmond Abbey, the counts' house abbey, and the patronage of Rijnsburg Abbey, where the counts and countesses are buried
• Claims: West Frisia (Drechterland, Westflinge, the Koggen, Texel and Wieringen, which submitted to Floris III about 1184), which governs itself

How it was acquired

Hereditary in the house of the Gerulfings since the tenth century; the river lands and the Grote Waard were enlarged at Utrecht's expense under the Staufen emperors.

Allies and rivals

Allies: Guelders since the peace of 1197 (William married Adelaide of Guelders at Stavoren in 1197; Aleid was betrothed to Henry of Guelders); Cleves, the countess's kin; Otto of Bentheim, the count's uncle. Rivals: Bishop Dirk of Are of Utrecht; Duke Henry I of Brabant, who claims the southern lands; Count Baldwin IX of Flanders over Zeeland; the West Frisians; his own brother William, reconciled but holding his own court in Frisia.

The realm that morning

Dirk VII and Adelaide hold the county unchallenged. Zeeland west of the Scheldt is shared with Flanders under the treaty of 1167-1168: Dirk beat his Flemish overlord there in 1197 and then acknowledged Flemish overlordship again. William holds Holland's half of Oostergo and Westergo. West Frisia is outside the count's control. Which king Dirk backs on 1 January 1200 is not pinned: the Staufen favoured his house (Henry VI's grants, Henry's support for his uncle at Utrecht), but his neighbours Cologne, Brabant and Utrecht are Otto's, and during 1200 he accepts Otto IV and Archbishop Adolf as arbiters of his quarrel with Brabant.

Wealth

River tolls (Geervliet, Dordrecht); the cattle and dairy of the peat lands; herring and salt from the coast and the Zeeland islands; the trade in cloth, wine and wool passing through the Maas mouths between the Rhine, Flanders and England; the new land being won from the peat by drainage.

Military

The count's castles and courts at Leiden (the Burcht, held by the burgrave), Vlaardingen, Haarlem and 's-Gravenzande, and his toll town of Dordrecht; the knights of Kennemerland, Rijnland and the Maas islands; the burgrave of Zeeland (the lords of Voorne) and the lords of Teylingen, Wassenaar, Egmond and Arkel. The Kennemers defend the northern frontier against the West Frisians. Record: victory over William and the Frisians near Alkmaar in 1195, over the Flemings in Zeeland in 1197, over Guelders near Rhenen in 1196.

No numbers are recorded.

Threats

• No son: a succession fight between the daughters and William is coming
• Brabant's claims to the southern lands
• Bishop Dirk of Are, who wants back what Utrecht lost to Holland
• The West Frisians
• Flanders in Zeeland

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. 1200 (month not pinned)King Otto IV and Archbishop Adolf of Cologne arbitrate at Utrecht over what Holland owes Brabant as overlordDepends on: Dirk, Duke Henry and Otto all willing to use Otto's court, and Otto free to come to Utrecht Stopped by: A break between Dirk and Otto, Otto tied down by Philip, or war with Brabant breaking out first
2. 3 November 1200, LeuvenTreaty between Duke Henry I of Brabant and Count Dirk VII on merchants: each side's traders keep the old tolls in the other's lands, and no pledge may be taken for debt until the debtor has been sued in his own town and justice refusedDepends on: Peace holding between Holland and Brabant through 1200 Stopped by: War between them, or Dirk's death

Later, on the likely course

1. 1202War with Brabant: Dirk and Otto of Guelders take 's-Hertogenbosch, then Duke Henry captures Dirk at Heusden (7 September 1202) and takes him to Leuven; Dirk pays a ransom, does homage to Brabant for South Holland and accepts the bishop of Utrecht's overlordship in the northDepends on: The 1200 settlements failing Stopped by: A lasting peace with Brabant
2. 4 November 1203Dirk dies at Dordrecht; Adelaide marries Ada to Louis II of Loon the same day; William claims the county and the Loon War followsDepends on: Dirk's illness taking its natural course Stopped by: A son, or a settled succession

Where the sources disagree

• Allegiance on 1 January 1200: the English Wikipedia says only that Dirk changed sides to the Welfs as the Staufen were losing, with no date; Blok has Otto IV and Archbishop Adolf arbitrating between Holland and Brabant at Utrecht in 1200, which means Dirk accepted Otto's court during 1200. The campaign notes do not cover Holland. Recorded here as not pinned, drifting toward Otto.
• Children: the assignment names only Ada; the German and English Wikipedia and the Online Dictionary of Dutch Women give an elder daughter Aleid (born about 1186, betrothed to Henry of Guelders, died before 1203) and a third daughter Petronilla (died before 1203).
• Adelaide's victory of 1195 is placed near Alkmaar (Loon War article), at Egmond (German Wikipedia) or as a counterattack from Egmond Abbey (English Wikipedia): the same campaign.

Evidence: The Egmond annals and the Holland charters give the outline; dates of William's revolt and the Zeeland war vary by a year between modern accounts; the throne-war position before 1201 is not pinned by the sources consulted.

On the map: The county is drawn on the count's own lord record (Count of Holland) and the vassal lordships inside it; West Frisia is a province record with status claimed.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Annals of Egmond (12th century to about 1205). The house annals of Egmond, the counts of Holland's abbey, and the main native source for Holland around 1200. Read online
• Chronicle of the abbots of Wittewierum (Bloemhof), Emo of Wittewierum (from 1219 to 1237, continued by Menko to 1273). The chronicle opens only in 1204 with the founding of Emo's Premonstratensian house in the Groningen Ommelanden, so it has nothing for 1200 itself. Read online