John of Heinsberg (1397–1459), was
Prince-Bishop of Liège from 1419 to 1456.
Life
Heinsberg was the son of
John II of Loon
John II of Loon (died 1438), Lord of Jülich, Heinsberg and Löwenberg (''Herr zu Julich und Heinsberg''), son of Godfrey de Heinsberg, Count of Looz, and Philippa of Jülich, daughter of William V, Duke of Jülich, and Joanna of Hainaut. Althoug ...
by his first wife, Margaret of Gennep. When Prince-Bishop
John of Walenrode died suddenly in 1419, Heinsberg, despite his young age, was unanimously elected as his successor within three weeks. He was ordained priest on Christmas Eve 1419, consecrated as bishop in Lent 1420, and was invested with secular power as prince-bishop, on behalf of
Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, in Frankfurt on 21 June 1420. In 1422 he took part in the
Bohemian Crusade against the
Hussite
The Hussites ( cs, Husité or ''Kališníci''; "Chalice People") were a Czech proto-Protestant Christian movement that followed the teachings of reformer Jan Hus, who became the best known representative of the Bohemian Reformation.
The Huss ...
s. In 1424 he revised the method by which aldermen were elected, issuing regulations that remained in force until 1684.
Heinsberg was reputed to have had 65 children, despite being a bishop who should have been
celibate
Celibacy (from Latin ''caelibatus'') is the state of voluntarily being unmarried, sexually abstinent, or both, usually for religious reasons. It is often in association with the role of a religious official or devotee. In its narrow sense, th ...
.
After a period of conflict between the duchy of Brabant and the prince-bishopric over feudal rights in the
county of Namur
Namur ( nl, Namen) was a county of the Carolingian and later Holy Roman Empire in the Low Countries, a region in northwestern Europe. Its territories largely correspond with the present-day Belgian arrondissement Namur plus the northwestern par ...
, the duke of Brabant,
Philip the Good, in 1431 imposed a treaty on Heinsberg by which all the claims of Liège were relinquished. Heinsberg took part in the
Congress of Arras in 1435 as an ally of Philip the Good.
In 1442 he was present at the imperial coronation of
Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, at
Aachen (a city in his diocese), with an entourage of 250 noblemen. In 1444 he set off on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but got no further than Venice before returning home.
[Antoine Gabriel de Becdelièvre-Hamal, ''Biographie liégeoise'', vol. 1 (Liège, 1836), 145-147.]
In 1456, under pressure from Philip the Good, Heinsberg resigned in favour of
Louis de Bourbon Louis de Bourbon may refer to:
* Louis I, Duke of Bourbon (1279 – 1342), Count of Clermont-en-Beauvaisis and La Marche, and the first Duke of Bourbon
* Louis II, Duke of Bourbon, called the Good (1337 – 1410), third Duke of Bourbon
* Louis de ...
. He died at
Kuringen
Hasselt (, , ; la, Hasseletum, Hasselatum) is a Belgian city and municipality, and capital and largest city of the province of Limburg in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is known for its former branding as "the city of taste", as well as it ...
, near
Hasselt, on 18 October 1459, leaving a reputation for luxury and magnificence.
Decrees
*''Statuta dioecesis Leodensis''
*''Reformatio cleri Leodiensis''
References
{{authority control
1397 births
1459 deaths
Prince-Bishops of Liège