Herman (died 3 July 1049),
Count of Mons and Hainaut, son of
Reginar V, Count of Mons, and Mathilde of Verdun, daughter of
Herman, Count of Verdun.
As the Count of Mons, a title inherited from his father, he allied with
Godfrey the Bearded, Duke of Lorraine, and
Baldwin V, Count of Flanders
Baldwin V ( 1012 – 1 September 1067) was Count of Flanders from 1035 until his death. He secured the personal union between the counties of Flanders and Hainaut and maintained close links to the Anglo-Saxon monarchy, which was overthrown by hi ...
, against
Emperor Henry III. This won the countship of
Valenciennes, completing the reconstruction of
Hainaut. His wife, who preferred an alliance with the emperor, attempted to get Herman to imprison
Wazo, Bishop of Liège, but he refused.
In 1040, Herman married
Richilde, whose origins are uncertain. Herman and Richilde had two children:
* Roger de Hainaut (d. 1093),
Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne 1066-1093
* Gertrude, a nun of the
Order of St. Benedict.
After the death of Herman, Richilde married the son of Baldwin V, who arranged for Herman's children to be disinherited. Richilde's new husband,
Baldwin VI the Good, became Herman's successor and count of a unified Hainaut/Flanders. Because of this passage of Hainaut to her new husband and children, Richilde is sometimes wrongly portrayed as daughter of Reginar V. Her true parentage is subject to speculation, one theory being that she was the daughter of a count of Eguisheim and Dagsbourg.
References
Sources
* Napran, Laura (Translator), ''Gilbert of Mons, Chronicle of Hainaut'', Boydell Press, Suffolk, 2005
* Varenbergh, Emile, ''Herman, Académie royale de Belgique, Biographie nationale, vol. 9'', Bruxelles, 1887
étail des éditions* Medieval Lands Project
Comtes de Hainaut, 998-1051, Reginar Family
{{Authority control
1049 deaths
Counts of Hainaut
Counts of Mons