Godfried III (1130 – after 8 January 1176),
Count of Aarschot, son of
Arnout IV, Count of Aarschot.
Godfried was 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, in 1172. Assertions have been made that this was to support the
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...
, 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 led by King Philip II of France, King Richard I of England and Emperor Frederick Barbarossa to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by the Ayyubid sultan Saladin in 1187. F ...
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 L ...
, 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 Bu ...
as the first Lord of Aarschot, beginning an aristocratic lineage of
Dukes of Aarschot that continues to this day.
Sources
The History of the Country of Aarschot
Belgian nobility