Henry IV (1195 – 25 February 1247) was the duke of

Limburg Limburg or Limbourg may refer to: Regions * Limburg (Belgium), a province since 1839 in the Flanders region of Belgium * Limburg (Netherlands), a province since 1839 in the south of the Netherlands * Diocese of Limburg, Roman Catholic Diocese in ...

and count of

Berg Berg may refer to: People *Berg (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) * General Berg (disambiguation) * Berg Ng (born 1960), Hong Kong actor * Berg (footballer, born 1963), Ninimbergue dos Santos Guerra, Brazilian footba ...

from 1226 to his death. He was the son of Waleran III, count of

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

and duke of Limburg, and Cunigunda, daughter of Frederick I, Duke of Lorraine. Wapenrok_Heraut_Hertogen_Limburg_BW

County of Berg

Originally lord of Montjoie, he married

Irmgard of Berg Irmgard of Berg (state), Berg, heiress of Berg (state), Berg (died 1248–1249), was the child of Adolf VI count of Berg (state), Berg (1185–1218) and Berta von Sayn. She married in 1217 Henry IV, Duke of Limburg (since 1226), who became count ...

, heiress of the County of Berg, a daughter of the count Adolf VI, who died at the Siege of Damietta in 1218. Irmgard and Henry could not immediately inherit the county, as it was held by Engelbert I,

Archbishop of Cologne The Archbishop of Cologne governs the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne in western North Rhine-Westphalia. Historically, the archbishop was ''ex officio'' one of the prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire and ruled the Electorate of Cologne ...

. Engelbert being the principal adviser of

Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (, , , ; 26 December 1194 – 13 December 1250) was King of Sicily from 1198, King of Germany from 1212, King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor from 1220 and King of Jerusalem from 1225. He was the son of Emperor Henry VI, Holy Roman ...

, he was confirmed in the county for life, paying a rent to Henry and Ermengard. Engelbert was assassinated on 7 November 1225 and Henry inherited Berg, inheriting Limburg a little while later. He then entrusted Montjoie to his brother Waleran, who already held Faulquemont. Grafzerken Van Berg Altena

Isenberg

His brother-in-law Frederik of Isenberg was held responsible for the death of the Archbishop of Cologne, Engelbert of Berg Remarkably, through the death of Engelbert, the

County of Berg Berg () was a state—originally a county, later a duchy—in the Rhineland of Germany. Its capital was Düsseldorf. It existed as a distinct political entity from the early 12th to the 19th centuries. It was a member state of the Holy Roman Empi ...

would come to him through his wife Ermgarde, Berg's heiress. After the execution of his brother-in-law Frederik van Isenberg and the death of his sister Sofia a year later, he was concerned about the fate of the orphans. They were brought up at his court in his duchy of Limburg. For the next 20 years he would also support their rights in armed hand against Adolf Earl of Mark, their father's cousin, who took much of their belongings to himself.

Emperor Frederick II

In 1228, took part in the

Sixth Crusade The Sixth Crusade (1228–1229), also known as the Crusade of Frederick II, was a military expedition to recapture Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land. It began seven years after the failure of the Fifth Crusade and involved very little actua ...

to the

Holy Land The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...

. Upon returning to Germany, he joined the

Stedinger Crusade The Stedinger Crusade (1233–1234) was a Papally sanctioned war against the rebellious peasants of Stedingen. The Stedinger were free farmers and subjects of the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen. Grievances over taxes and property rights turned i ...

. He also assisted Emperor Frederick II in his fight against the Pope; and was sent by him, along with the Duke of Brabant and the Archbishop of Cologne, as an envoy to England, to obtain for him the hand of the sister of

King Henry III of England Henry III (1 October 1207 – 16 November 1272), also known as Henry of Winchester, was King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine from 1216 until his death in 1272. The son of King John and Isabella of Angoulême, Henry assume ...

After their return, they were also present at the wedding ceremonies at Worms on 20 July 1235.

County Limburg Lenne

He also made war on the archbishop of Cologne,

Konrad von Hochstaden Konrad von Hochstaden (or Conrad of Hochstadt) (1198/1205 – 18 September 1261) was Archbishop of Cologne from 1238 to 1261. Konrad was a son of Count Lothar of Hochstadt, canon of St. Maria ad Gradus and of the old Cologne Cathedral, and Mat ...

between 1238 and 1241. He was counted among the partisans of the

Hohenstaufen The Hohenstaufen dynasty (, , ), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynast ...

. All the while he helped his two teenage cousins Diederik and Frederik of Isenberg junior with men and money in their battle to reclaim their lost county. The men built a wooden fort for the two cousins as a stronghold and later near a castle on the Schlepenberg on the Lenne, a high fortress they called Limburg. Henry (maternal uncle) and Engelbert of Isenberg bishop of Osnabruck (paternal uncle) stood as chief negotiators for their cousins on 1 May 1243 at the base of the new county of Limburg around the lower reaches of the river Lenne.

Duchy Limburg

Hendrik died on 25 February 1247 and was buried in the abbey of Altenberg. When his granddaughter Duchess Irmgard died in 1282, the

battle of Woeringen The Battle of Worringen was fought on 5 June 1288 near the town of Worringen (also spelled Woeringen), which is now part of Chorweiler, the northernmost borough (Stadtbezirk) of Cologne. It was the decisive battle of the War of the Limburg Suc ...

in 1288 was fought for succession in the Duchy of Limburg. The victor, the Duke of Brabant, merged the duchies of Limburg and Brabant. Duke Henry and Irmgard of Berg had 2 sons : * Waleran, his successor in Limburg *

Adolf Adolf (also spelt Adolph or Adolphe, Adolfo, and when Latinised Adolphus) is a given name with German origins. The name is a compound derived from the Old High German ''Athalwolf'' (or ''Hadulf''), a composition of ''athal'', or ''adal'', mean ...

, his successor in Berg.

Ancestry

References

Sources

* * * Droege, G., 'Pfalzgrafschaft, Grafschaften und allodiale Herrschaften zwischen Maas und Rhein in salisch-staufischer Zeit’, Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter 26 (1961), pp. 1–21. * Wisplinghoff, E.,''Zur Reihenfolge der lothringischen Pfalzgrafen am Ende des 11. Jahrhunderts'', in Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter 28 (1963) pp. 290–293. * Bleicher, W. Contributions in ''Hohenlimburgher Heimatblätter fűr den Raum Hagen und Isenlohn.'' Beiträge zur Landeskunde. Monatsschrift des Vereins fűr Orts- und Heimatkunde Hohenlimburg e.V. Drűck Geldsetzer und Schäfer Gmbh. Iserlohn * Reuter, Timothy, ''Germany in the Early Middle Ages 800–1056'', New York: Longman, 1991. * Bernhardt, John W. (2002). ''Itinerant Kingshiop & Royal Monasteries in Early Medieval Germany'' ,c.936-1075. Cambridge University Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Henry 04 of Limburg 1195 births 1247 deaths 13th-century dukes of Limburg Counts of Berg Christians of the Fifth Crusade Christians of the Sixth Crusade House of Limburg Lords of Monschau