Reginald II, Duke of Guelders

Reginald II of Guelders (Dutch: Reinoud), called "the Black" (c. 1295 – 12 October 1343), was Count of Guelders, and from 1339 onwards Duke of Guelders, and Zutphen, in the Low Countries, from 1326 to 1343. He was the son of Reginald I of Guelders and Marguerite of Flanders.

Biography

From 1316, he acted as regent in the county, imprisoned his father in 1318, and governed as "son of the Count". When in 1326 his father died, he styled himself Count of Guelders and Count of Zutphen. In 1339 Guelders was raised to a duchy. He was a law giver, in 1321 on customary law, and in 1335 on dykes and canals.

He allied himself against the French with Edward III of England, his brother-in-law, warning the English in 1338 of a French fleet gathering in the mouth of the Zwin.^[1] He remained Edward's closest ally among the German princes in the first phase of the Hundred Years War.^[2]

Family

His first marriage (Roermond, 11 January 1311) was to Sophia Berthout (died 1329), Lady of Mechelen. Their children were:

• Marguerite (1320–1344), Lady of Mechelen
• Mathilde (1325–1384), Lady of Mechelen, then Duchess of Guelders (1371–1379), who married :
  1. in 1336, Godfried van Loon-Heinsberg (d. 1347)
  2. before 1348, John of Cleves (d. 1368), Count of Cleves
  3. John II, Count of Blois (d. 1381)
• Elisabeth (d. 1376), Abbess of Gravendaal
• Marie († 1405), Duchess of Guelders (1371–1405), married William II, Duke of Jülich

Widowed, he married, at Nijmegen, May 1332, Eleanor of Woodstock (1318–1355), daughter of Edward II of England. Their children were:

• Reginald III of Guelders (1333–1371), Duke of Guelders (1343–1361)
• Edward of Guelders (1336–1371), Duke of Guelders (1361–1371)

He excluded her from court in 1338, claiming she had leprosy. She refuted him by returning and undressing, perhaps completely according to some chroniclers, in public view.^[3]

Reginald died at Arnhem after a fall from his horse.

Sources

• Marek, Miroslav. "Genealogy of the Counts of Guelders". Genealogy.EU. External link in |publisher= (help)

Notes

1. Michael Packe, Edward III (1985 edition), p. 92.
2. Jonathan Sumption, Trial by Battle: The Hundred Years War I (1990), p. 459.
3. Alison Weir, Isabella: She-Wolf of France, Queen of England (2005), pp. 356-7.