Arnold I (b. about 1045 - d. about 1125),
Count of Loon
The County of Loon ( , , ) was a county in the Holy Roman Empire, which corresponded approximately with the Belgian province of Limburg (Belgium), Limburg. It was named after the original seat of its count, Loon, which is today called Borgloon. D ...
(Looz) from about 1079, son of
Emmo, Count of Loon Count Emmo, Immo or Emmon (d. before 17 Jan 1078) is one of the first known counts of Loon (or Looz) in the region of modern Belgian Limburg. Before him one more count is known with confidence, Count Giselbert (or Gilbert), but it is not certain th ...
, and Suanhildis, daughter of
Dirk III, Count of Holland, and his wife Othelandis.
He was an ally of
Henry of Verdun and
Otbert, both
bishops of Liège
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or offic ...
. In 1078, he endowed the collegiate churches of Huy and of St. John at Liège.
In 1088, he negotiated at the request of Bishop Henry of Verdun to end a conflict in the
abbey of Sint-Truiden where the bishop and
emperor Henry IV had appointed rival abbots. As a result of his diplomacy, the emperor transferred the authority of the abbey from
Henry I, Duke of Lower Lorraine, to Arnold.{{cn, date=October 2021 Arnold forced Henry and his ally
Godfrey of Bouillon
Godfrey of Bouillon (, , , ; 18 September 1060 – 18 July 1100) was a French nobleman and pre-eminent leader of the First Crusade. First ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1099 to 1100, he avoided the title of king, preferring that of princ ...
, to withdraw from the monastery.
The domain of Arnold expanded with the County of Rieneck by his marriage to Agnes of Mainz, daughter of Gerhard I,
Count of Rieneck, and Helwig von Bliescastel. Sources disagree on their number of children, but they are believed to include:
*
Arnold II, Count of Looz
Arnold II (or Arnulf, Arnoul) (died 1146), Count of Looz, son of Arnold I, Count of Looz, and Agnes von Mainz, daughter of Gerhard I, Count of Rieneck, and Helwig von Bliescastel. He is distinguished from his father of the same name by histori ...
. He is distinguished from his father of the same name by historians who note records for counts named Arnold or Arnulf between 1179 and 1141, which seems too long to be one person. The first Arnold must have died between 1125 when Count Arnold appears in a record with his son also named Arnold, and 1135, when a new Count Arnold appears with his own son and successor Louis.
[See for example Baerten.]
* Gertrude van Loon (1100–1154), married to Hugo XI,
Count of Dagsburg. Their son was Hugo XII, Count of Dagsburg, who married Luitgarde, widow of
Godfrey II, Count of Louvain. She was daughter of
Berengar II of Sulzbach, and sister of
Gertrude von Sulzbach
Gertrude of Sulzbach (german: Gertrud; – 14 April 1146) was German queen from 1138 until her death as the second wife of the Hohenstaufen king Conrad III.
Life
She was the daughter of the Bavarian count Berengar II of Sulzbach (c.1080–112 ...
, wife of
Conrad III of Germany, and
Bertha
Bertha is a female Germanic name, from Old High German ''berhta'' meaning "bright one". It was usually a short form of Anglo Saxon names ''Beorhtgifu'' meaning "bright gift" or ''Beorhtwynn'' meaning "bright joy".
The name occurs as a theonym, s ...
, wife of
Manuel I Comnenus
Manuel I Komnenos ( el, Μανουήλ Κομνηνός, translit=Manouíl Komnenos, translit-std=ISO; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Latinized Comnenus, also called Porphyrogennetos (; " born in the purple"), was a Byzantine empero ...
, the emperor of Byzantium. Their granddaughter was
Gertrude of Dagsburg, wife of
Theobald I, King of Navarre.
* Agnes van Loon (born c. 1100), married Gerhard IV,
Count of Jülich
Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...
* Beatrix van Loon (died after 1132), married
Arnout III, Count of Aarschot and had issue.
Another son,
Gerard, did not exist. He appears in older books such as the oldest edition of Belgian National Biographies, based upon a charter of 1101. Baerten (1969 p.40 footnote 2) describes this as a mistake caused by modern edition with a wrongly placed comma, and gives references to the literature. While the confusion about the non-existent "Gerard" remains, Arnold is now understood to have been succeeded by his son Arnold as Count of Looz upon his death.
Sources
*
J.-J. Thonissen, "Arnoul Ier et Arnoul II", ''
Biographie nationale de Belgique
The ''Biographie nationale de Belgique'' (French; "National Biography of Belgium") is a biographical dictionary of Belgium. It was published by the Royal Academy of Belgium in 44 volumes between 1866 and 1986. A continuation series, entitled the ' ...
'', vol. 1 (Brussels, 1866
link*Vanderlinden, H., "Le tribunal de la paix de Henri de Verdun (1082) et la transformation de la principauté de Liège", in Mélanges Henri Pirenne, 1926
*Baerten, Jean (1969), Het Graafschap Loon (11de – 14de eeuw)
PDF
External links
Belgian nobility
House of Loon