Leo Belgicus

Leo Belgicus

This is my second attempt at a timeline and it's about the same PoD as the last one. This one however won't end so quickly and is hopefully not so bad.

Excerpt from: Frisian Freedom in the middle ages (Prof. Henry Clark University of Oxford History Magazine 1985)

Ever since Charlemagne granted Freedom to a Frisian warrior who helped defeating the uprising roman populace the Frisians were free and only answer to the emperor. Of course this is most likely a myth fabricated in later times. The actual origin lays in another Charles. The eastfrankish king Charles III. the fat released the Frisians from military service to defend their own lands against the Vikings in AD885. It was most likely made up to preserve the status quo in Frisia: one without Nobility, Knights and Feudalism.

While Central Europe fell in a state of feudalism and serfdom, Frisia was free. Well while nobility did not exist on paper rich farmers were basically the substitute. The Frisians organised themselves through a parliamentic institution at the Upstalsboom near Aurich and later in Groningen. The suffrage was defined through landownership so the envoyed were members of rich leading families.

This system declined when plague and flood ravaged the countryside and rich people became chieftains ruling over small territories. Their power based on dynastic possessions and stone houses which later developed into castles. They employed mercenaries. This lead to the employment of pirates like the Victual Brothers. The Hansa did not like that and lead several expeditions into East Frisia and Oldenburg.

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The Frisian freedom was constantly in danger from envious lords of the empire. They wanted Frisia for themself. The Frisians defended their freedom against many lords especially against the counts of Holland. The first victim to it was Arnulf Count of Holland in 993 one of many lords who lost their life trying to undermine Frisian Freedom. The murder of Count Henri de Gras in 1101 is the de facto beginning of Frisian Freedom and the start of Lords trying to end it. Many nobles lost their lives or almost lost them in disastrous battles like William IV. of Holland who almost lost his life in 1345.[1]




"Arnie! Have you heard?" Arnulf heard his friend Bram calling his name. "No what happened my friend?" Arnulf replied. His friend always knew what new things happened in Amsterdam because he worked in a tavern near the port.
"Willem is back and many knights didn't return! They've lost in Frisia." said Bram. "Really? God bless that he survived. But I have to go back to work otherwise my master will discipline me." "Oh well good bye." And Arnulf and Bram went their ways.[2]


[1]That is the PoD
[2]My shitty attempt at writing
 
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Since count Willem IV of Holland and Zeeland, also count of Hainaut (as William II) was married to duchess Johanna of Lothier, Brabant and Limburg; I assume you want to give them a heir and have it as a starting point to unite the Low Countries.

Also before count Floris II of Holland (1091-1122), the counts of Holland were known as counts of West Frisia*/Frisians.

(*= that can be a bit confusing, it doesn't refer to the West Friesland in the modern day province of North Holland, nor to all parts of Frisia of old currently a part of the Netherlands)
 
Since count Willem IV of Holland and Zeeland, also count of Hainaut (as William II) was married to duchess Johanna of Lothier, Brabant and Limburg; I assume you want to give them a heir and have it as a starting point to unite the Low Countries.

Also before count Floris II of Holland (1091-1122), the counts of Holland were known as counts of West Frisia*/Frisians.

(*= that can be a bit confusing, it doesn't refer to the West Friesland in the modern day province of North Holland, nor to all parts of Frisia of old currently a part of the Netherlands)

Yes the low countries will be more united but also more divided. The Avesnes aren't Burgundians and aren't emperor.
 
Medieval Marriages which changed the world (Thomas Anderson Scientia Publishing 1990)

William IV. The Bold Count of Holland, Sealand and Hainault and Joanna of Lothier, Brabant and Limburg

The marriage of William and Joanna is very important and changed the balance of power in the low countries. Joanna and William both ruled vast territories and the marriage was the beginning of the consolidation in the Netherlands. Lothier was not the only principality which rose out of many small ones but it was one of the first.

William the Bold never really cared for governing because he focused on chivalric things and loved fighting. He let his uncle John of Beaumont govern for him but he was not a good governor and just like his nephew William IV. a great Knight and also a very famous one. He however died in an ambush during a rebellion of the Frisians against Holland. This forced William who only escaped and nearly died too, to focus on governing and ruling.

Joanna of Brabant had to fight for her inheritance. Her brothers died before her father this lead to her being the heir. When her father died in 1355 the Count of Flanders Louis II married to her sister Margaret saw himself as rightful Duke of Brabant and attacked. Before this Joanna and William granted the Blijde Inkomst (Joyous Entry) which gave many rights to the Burghers and made Brabant indivisible and the heir to the ducal throne had to be a "natural heir" which meant that either her sister. Louis II. didn't recognise the Charter and only saw it as a letter. He also said that if anything this strenghted his right to rule because Margaret was the natural heir of Joanna her son not yet born. This lead to the Brabantic Succession War.

The couple only had two children: William and William V/I. he was born in 1356. The first son did not survive his childhood. The second one did and inherited his parents territories.


Brabantic Succession War


The war began in 1356 with the death of the last male Reginar duke of Brabant and happened between Joanna and her sister Margaret or actually between her husbands William Avesnes and Louis Dampierre. The Counts of Holland, Seeland and Hainault and of Flanders. The nobles and burghers of Brabant changed sides whenever they wanted.
Louis did not want a battle and ravaged the countryside which turned the local nobility and church against him. William wanted to battle. He was am experienced knight and good warrior but not a good general. He rather fought his enemies when he looked them in the eyes instead of looking at a map. So he tried to force Louis into battle.
Louis had captured many unwalled cities while he never dared to openly attack a walled city he could bring many on his side through money, treachery and granting special rights. Louis had held court at the country residence of the Brabantic dukes in the castle of the unwalles city of Tervuren when William surprised him and began sieging the castle in July 1356 and Louis was trapped in the walls of the castle. While Louis was trapped in the castle, Williams troops could recapture the occupied territories and even entered Flemish territory. Louis called the Holy Roman Emperor to mediate because the war made Flanders and Brabant poorer through the Likedeelers. He rather ruled a rich Flanders than a poor Flanders and Brabant. The Kings of England wanted that the fighting stopped so the pirates would not harras his ships anymore. So he sent an envoy to William.
When the Holy Roman Emperor heard of this he was terrified and forbade William to meat with the English King since Charles IV. was pro French in the war between France and England. Charles, William and Louis meat at Tervuren in late August and on the first of September the treaty of Tervuren was signed. In the treaty Louis II of Flanders renounced his wife's claim to the duchies of Brabant, Lothier and Limburg even though later Flemish scholars and said that a man could not renounce something what his wife owns. Some terms of the Blijde Inkomst were revoked and Joanna started her reign and her son William was recognised as her heir.

Likedeelers in the War

Likedeeler which is low German for equal sharers were pirates and privateers who got letters of marque by several princes in the late middle ages. Also known as Victual Brothers during the wars of Albert of Mecklenburg and Queen Margaret I of Denmark for Scandinavian dominance. William issued many letters of Marque during his war with the Flemish. They disrupted trade in Flanders and attacked and plundered the Flemish coast. However William was not the only one to issue such letters and Louis II. also issued them.
This disrupted trade on the coast of the Netherlands and the North Sea so much that England declared this ships outlaw and threatened to intervene if it did not stop. Luckily the war ended and both stopped to issue letters of marque. The Likedeelers with famous captains like Arnulf de Groot and Bram Kleijn retreated to either Frisia and served as mercenaries for Frisians chiefs or joined the English or French fleets and fought in that war.
 
When the houses of Dampierre and Avesnes fought the war of succession of Flanders and Hainaut, the house of Avesnes, which through arbitration was granted Hainaut, also claimed Imperial Flanders. (The part of Flanders mostly east of the Schelde and a part of the HRE).

A really victorious house of Avesnes might claim Imperial Flanders, not Crown Flanders (the French fief).
 
Tada the next update is here. It elaborates on the feud and opposite claims the ruling houses of Flanders and Holland have. It's not much but I hadn't much time.

Feudal Feuds in Dutchland
(Doctrix Hannelore Müller Universität Heidelberg Verlag)

The Avesnes and the Dampierres/Valois-Bourgogne and later French dynasties


The origin of the Feud lays in another dynasty: The house of Flanders also known as Balduini. When Balduin IX. of Flanders [1] went to crusade and became Latin Emperor of Constantinople he had no sons, only daughters. The oldest daughter Johanna became Countess of Flanders and Hainault. She was married to a Portuguese Infante but he was imprisoned in the aftermath of the battle of Bouvines 1214. Thus her sister Margarete II. 'the black' was the heir.

Margarete however had a or more accurate two complicated marriages. Burkhard of Avesnes, Bailiff of Hainault, married her in 1212 even though he was already a subdiacon and his family had intended him for church. Her sister was against the marriage and the clergy annulled the marriage. Margarete ignored that until the Pope excommunicated Burkhard. While he was in Rome to get into the church again, Margarete married Wilhelm of Dampierre. Margarete's sons both wanted the inheritance, the Avesnes because they were the firstborn and the Dampierres because they were the legitimate sons ever since Burkhard's marriage was annulled.

Countess Johanna decided that the Avesnes would get 2/7 and the Dampierres 5/7 of the inheritance and the French King Louis IX. the Holy guaranteed this. When Louis went crusading and Margarete inherited she ignored this and favored her sons by Wilhelm of Dampierre. This began the War of succession of Flanders and Hainault.

The German King Wilhelm of Holland supported the Avesnes. This lead to an attack on Seeland and the Dampierres lost so Hainault was lost to the Avesnes. Louis brother Karl of Anjou supported Margarete because she promised him Hainault but he avoided fighting Wilhelm of Holland. When Louis IX. the Holy returned he became the referee to end the war and the Dampierres were allowed to keep Flanders but the imperial fief of Hainault belonged now to the Avesnes and Margarete had to pay money to Karl of Anjou so his face was saved.

This lead to increased French influence in Flanders which the population of Flanders disliked. This is a sign of distrust between France and Flanders which survives to this day and culminated an independence war during the reign of Philip IV. the Fair.


[1] The names are in German because the author is German. Balduin = Baldwin, Burkhard = Bouchard, Margarete = Margaret, Karl = Charles, Wilhelm = William and Johanna = Joanne.
 
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[1] The names are in German because the author is German. Balduin = Baldwin, Burkhard = Bouchard, Margarete = Margaret, Karl = Charles, Wilhelm = William and Johanna = Joanne.

As additional information, I'll give the Dutch versions too: Balduin = Baldwin = Boudewijn, Burkhard = Bouchard = Burchard, Margarete = Margaret = Margaretha, Karl = Charles = Karel, Wilhelm = William = Willem and Johanna = Joanne= Johanna.

Additionally to Imperial Flanders, the Debattenland was also disputed between Flanders and Hainaut.

Burchard of Avesnes and Margaretha's eldest son Jan (Johann/Jean) married Aleid (Adelheid/Adelaïde) of Holland (AKA Gerulfing), the sister of king of the Romans Willem of Holland (count Willem II of Holland and Zeeland), he would succeed his cousin count Floris V of Holland and Zeeland (the son of Willem of Holland).
Floris V was murdered by a conspiracy, Melis Stoke (a famous Dutch medieval author wrote his hagiography); during the Dutch Golden Age his murder also inspired plays by Pieter Cornelis Hooft (Geeraerdt van Velsen) and Joost van den Vondel (Gijsbrecht van Aemstel), the latter is one of the most famous Dutch plays.
 
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