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Our timeline diverges in 1345 when William IV. Count of Holland, Zeeland and Hainault survives a battle he did not in OTL. His death destroyed a plan to unite the lowlands in one principality. This doesn't happen here because he survives

The battle of Warns

In 1345 William IV. Count of Holland, Zeeland and Hainault led a military expedition in Middle Frisia together with his uncle John of Beaumont. They planned to use the Sint-Odolphus monastery as a fortress, from there they wanted to subjugate the countryside. However the Hollandic knights had no horses because there was no space on the ships William used to get to Middle Frisia. The expedition advanced to Stavoren a city in Frisia but around Warns they were attacked by the native frisians. The frisians beat the hollandic forces. William and John could only escape with some knights back to the ships.

The Aftermath

Back in Den Hague William scrapped all plans to subjugate Middle Frisia because he wanted to focus on his domains and his wife Joanna, daughter and heir (since 1352 with the death of her brother Godfrey) of the Duke of Brabant John III. This plan proved right when Joanna had fallen pregnant in November 1352 and gave birth to their son William on the 5th July 1353. William would be the only surviving child of the marriage with his older brother William and his two older sisters Joanna and Marie born in 46 and 49 dying early. William was a healthy child and was always eager to learn. William IV. bastards Adam van Berwaerde and Johan van Vlissingen were given an heerlijkheid (like an english barony) making them nobels. William went back to Prussia in 1347 where he fought against the heathens in Prussia with the Teutonic order like he did earlier in his reign.

The Brabantic Inheritance
John III of Brabant died in Brussel in 1355 leaving his first born daughter Joanna as Duchess of Brabant Lothier and Limburg. Her son William was now heir presumptive to the duchies as he was to the counties of his father. He would inherit both later. However not everyone accepted her inheritance. Louis II. Count of Flanders husband of her sister Margaret invaded the duchy. Louis could capture Antwerp and Malines and advanced with great success until Joannas husband William IV. arrived with his forces and beat the flemish back recapturing territory they had occupied. Louis and William agreed to make peace when the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. intervened and Louis had to accept Joannas inheritance while William had to pay a tribute to Charles so he decided on his favour.
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