Godfried III (1130 – after 8 January 1176),
Count of Aarschot, son of
Arnout IV, Count of Aarschot.
Godfried is recorded as stealing artifacts (''medietatem de Hancines'') from the
Abbey of St. Medard at Soissons which were recovered, resulting in his excommunication.
Godfried married twice, first to Ada of Louvain, daughter of Gossuin of Louvain, and second to Alix d’Albret, daughter of Albert de Bretagne. No information about either wife or their families is available. No children are recorded.
In order to finance his ventures, heretofore unknown, he sold the
County of Aarschot to
Godfrey III, Count of Louvain
Godfrey III ( nl, Godfried; c. 1142 – 21 August 1190) was count of Louvain (or Leuven), landgrave of Brabant, margrave of Antwerp, and duke of Lower Lorraine (as Godfrey VIII) from 1142 to his death.
Origins
He was the son of Godfrey II and ...
, in 1172. Assertions have been made that this was to support the
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...
, but actual timelines do not seem to fit any activities of the cross, so it is unclear what his motives may have been. Claims that Godfried participated in the
Third Crusade
The Third Crusade (1189–1192) was an attempt by three European monarchs of Western Christianity (Philip II of France, Richard I of England and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor) to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by ...
seem dubious. Godfrey's descendants were the
Dukes of Brabant
The Duke of Brabant (, ) was the ruler of the Duchy of Brabant since 1183/1184. The title was created by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in favor of Henry I of the House of Reginar, son of Godfrey III of Leuven (who was duke of Low ...
, named Henry I, II and III, and the latter named his son,
Godfrey of Brabant
Godfrey of Brabant (died July 11, 1302 in Kortrijk), was Lord of Aarschot, between 1284 and his death in 1302, and Lord of Vierzon, between 1277 and 1302.
Biography
Godfrey was the third son of Henry III, Duke of Brabant and Adelaide of Burgun ...
as the first Lord of Aarschot, beginning an aristocratic lineage of
Dukes of Aarschot
The Duke of Aarschot (or ''Aerschot'') was one of the most important aristocratic titles in the Low Countries, named after the Brabantian city of Aarschot. The title was held by the House of Croÿ and the House of Arenberg. The present Duke is Le ...
that continues to this day.
Sources
Medieval Lands Project, Graven van Aarschot
Belgian nobility