Nicholas, Count of Schauenburg and Holstein-Rendsburg (also known as '' Claus of Holstein''; 1321 – 8 May 1397 in

Itzehoe Itzehoe (; nds, Itzhoe) is a town in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. As the capital of the district Steinburg, Itzehoe is located on the Stör, a navigable tributary of the Elbe, 51 km (31.7 mi) northwest of Hamburg and 24 ...

) was a titular Count of Schauenburg. Together first with his brother and then with his nephews, Nicholas was the co-ruling Count of

Holstein-Rendsburg Holstein-Rendsburg is the name of a county that existed from 1290 to 1459, ruled by a line of the Schauenburg family. Rise and fall of the county The Schauenburgs had ruled in Holstein since 1110/1111. In 1290, when Count Gerhard I of Holstei ...

from 1340 until his death. In 1390 Nicholas and his nephews inherited

Holstein-Kiel The imperial county of Holstein-Kiel was a line of the House of Schauenburg and Holstein from 1261 to 1390. History The County of Holstein was ruled until 1238 by Adolphus IV of Schauenburg and Holstein. When he retired, his sons John I and Ger ...

, which itself included former

Holstein-Plön Holstein-Plön was the name of a county ruled by the House of Schauenburg that ruled in Holstein and Stormarn from 1110/11. The county emerged before 1295 when the County of Holstein-Itzehoe was partitioned after the death of Count Gerhard I of ...

through reversion in 1350. So except of

Holstein-Pinneberg The County of Holstein-Pinneberg (), also known as the County of Schauenburg and Holstein-Pinneberg (), was a small territory which existed from 1290 until 1640, centred around Pinneberg in modern-day Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Rise and fall of ...

Nicholas and his nephews had united all of Holstein. He was also co-ruler of Schleswig from 1375 to 1386. He was thus a leading member of the

House of Schauenburg The House of Schaumburg was a dynasty of German rulers. Until c. 1485, it was also known as the House of Schauenburg. Together with its ancestral possession, the County of Schaumburg, the family also ruled the County of Holstein and its partitions ...

and an influential figure in the area north of the

Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Repu ...

. He was the second son of Count

Gerhard III of Holstein-Rendsburg Gerhard III of Holstein-Rendsburg ( – 1 April 1340), sometimes called Gerhard the Great, and in Denmark also known as ''Count Gert'' or ''den kullede greve'' ("the bald count"), was a German prince from the Schauenburg family who ruled Hol ...

and his wife, Sophia of Werle. He ruled

Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig ( da, Hertugdømmet Slesvig; german: Herzogtum Schleswig; nds, Hartogdom Sleswig; frr, Härtochduum Slaswik) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km ...

jointly with his elder brother Henry II from 1375 to 1384, thereafter alone. In 1386, he abdicated as Duke of Schleswig in favour of Henry II's son

Gerhard VI of Holstein-Rendsburg Gerhard VI (c. 1367–1404) was the Count of Holstein-Rendsburg from 1382, and Duke of Schleswig as of 1386. Gerhard VI was born around 1367, the son of Count Henry II from the Rendsburg line of the House of Schauenburg and Ingeborg of Mecklenbu ...

, who was confirmed as Gerhard II as Duke of Schleswig by King Olaf II of Denmark.Jansen 1778, pp. 740-741 In 1354, he married Elisabeth, the daughter of Duke William II of Brunswick and Lüneburg, Prince of Lunenburg. She was the widow of Otto of Saxe-Wittenberg, a son of

Rudolph I Rudolf I (1 May 1218 – 15 July 1291) was the first King of Germany from the House of Habsburg. The first of the count-kings of Germany, he reigned from 1273 until his death. Rudolf's election marked the end of the Great Interregnum which h ...

. They had one daughter: * Elisabeth (1360 – 25 January 1416 in Cammin), married: *# Duke Albert IV of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1363-1388) *# in 1404 to Duke Eric V of Saxe-Lauenburg ( – 1435) Nicholas died in 1397 and was buried in

. His nephew Gerhard VI acted as

guardian Guardian usually refers to: * Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another * ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper (The) Guardian(s) may also refer to: Places * Guardian, West Virginia, Unite ...

for his underage daughter Elisabeth. After Nicholas' death his co-ruling nephews Albert II and the elder Gerhard VI partitioned Holstein-Segeberg as a

secundogeniture A secundogeniture (from la, secundus "following, second," and "born") was a dependent territory given to a younger son of a princely house and his descendants, creating a cadet branch. This was a special form of inheritance in which the second a ...

for Albert from Holstein-Rendsburg. Gerhard VI then continued ruling Holstein-Rendsburg as the sole count.

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* Counts of Holstein Dukes of Schleswig House of Schauenburg 1321 births 1397 deaths 14th-century German nobility {{Germany-noble-stub