Reginald II, duke of Guelders

Died: 12 October 1343 Buried: Monnikhuizen Arnhem

Reinald II officially succeeded his father on 9 October 1326. However, he had declared his father unfit to rule in 1316, and imprisoned him in 1318. In May 1332, now in his forties, he married Edward II’s elder daughter Eleanor of Woodstock at Nijmegen. Eleanor was not yet fourteen (born June 1318). She had previously been considered as a bride for King Alfonso XI of Castile and the future King Jean II of France, so marriage to Reinald wasn’t a brilliant match, especially considering her younger sister Joan was Queen of Scotland.

Professor Roy Martin Haines, in his King Edward II, recounts the legend that a non-murdered Edward II was a furtive guest at his daughter’s wedding. There was much rejoicing almost exactly a year later when Eleanor, not yet fifteen, gave birth to a son, also Reinoud (born 13 May 1333). He was followed on 12 March 1336 by a second son, named Eduard after his grandfather.

In 1339, the county of Gelre was ‘upgraded’ to a duchy, in honour of Reinald’s importance in European politics and the Hundred Years War. Emperor Louis of Bavaria granted Reinoud II in 1339 the title of Duke. In the meantime the power centre of the County/Duchy had moved northwards and for that reason Reinoud and his wife Eleonora founded the Carthusian monastery of Monnikhuizen, near Arnhem. This also became the burial site of the next few generations of the Dukes.

Reinoud II died in Arnhem on 12 October 1243 and was succeeded by his elder son Reinald III. Eleanor of Woodstock died on 22 April 1355, not yet thirty-seven, and was buried in Deventer Abbey, which she’d founded. As her two sons died childless, both in 1371, two of her stepdaughters succeeded as Duchess of Gelderland.

• EN: Reginald II, Duke of Guelders

Curriculum VITAE

• 1339 : Graaf van GELRE-nld

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Stamboom nr. : 823.072.

Generatie : 20.