Arnout IV (Arnold of Aerschot) (1100-after 1152),
Count of Aarschot, son of
Arnout III, Count of Aarschot
Arnout or Arnoud is a Dutch language masculine given name equivalent to Arnold (given name), Arnold. Notable persons with that name include:
Persons with the given name
* Arnout II, Count of Aarschot, 12th-century count of Aarschot, Flanders
* ...
, and Beatrix of Looz, daughter of
Arnold I, Count of Looz.
Arnout, like his grandfather, was the commander of a fleet that delivered Crusaders to fight in the war against the Muslim intruders. He was one of the many captains leading an armada that left Dartmouth in May 1147 to free Lisbon from the Moors in what is known as the
siege of Lisbon
The siege of Lisbon, from 1 July to 25 October 1147, was the military action against the Almoravid dynasty that brought the city of Lisbon under the definitive control of the new Christian power, the Kingdom of Portugal.
The siege of Lisbon w ...
. Phillips describes Arnulf as a count and the leader of the Rhinelanders in this mission. He is also identified as a nephew of Godfrey of Bouillon with distant ties to the ruling house of Jerusalem. The claim of a familial relationship with Godfrey is dubious.
The battle for Lisbon was one of the few successes of the
Second Crusade
The Second Crusade (1147–1149) was the second major crusade launched from Europe. The Second Crusade was started in response to the fall of the County of Edessa in 1144 to the forces of Zengi. The county had been founded during the First Crus ...
and is viewed as one of the pivotal battles in the
Reconquista
The ''Reconquista'' (Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese for ) or the fall of al-Andalus was a series of military and cultural campaigns that European Christian Reconquista#Northern Christian realms, kingdoms waged ag ...
. The attacking fleet included as many as 200 ships, and the corresponding rout of the Moors has been described by Runiciman as a “glorious massacre of the infidel.” Many of the Crusaders continued on to the Holy Land.
Arnout was married, although his wife’s name is not known. They had one son,
Godfried III, who succeeded him as Count of Aarschot, the last of this comital title until the creation of the
Lords and Dukes of Aarschot in the 13th century.
Sources
Runciman, Steven, ''A History of the Crusades, Volume Two: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100-1187'', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1952
Setton, Kenneth (editor), ''A History of the Crusades, Volume I''. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1958
Hasselt, A. H. C. van, ''Les Belges aux Croisade'', Jamar, 1846 (available o
Google Books
Phillips, Jonathan, ''The Second Crusade: Extending the Frontiers of Christendom''. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2007 (available o
Google Books
Christians of the Second Crusade
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