AVESNES

. The Avesnes family of Hainaut became involved in dynastic quarrels there and in Flanders and Holland. Jacques d’Avesnes was a vassal of both Count Baudouin V of Hainaut and his brother-in-law, Count Philippe d’Alsace of Flanders, in the late 12th century. The family’s fortunes were made when Burchard d’Avesnes married Marguerite, sister and eventual successor (1244-78) of Countess Jeanne of Flanders (r. 1206-44). In 1219, however, he was imprisoned and his marriage to Marguerite declared invalid. After Marguerite’s remarriage to Guillaume de Dampierre, the Avesnes and Dampierre families quarreled over her inheritance. In 1246, Louis IX of France awarded rule of Flanders to the Dampierres and of Hainaut to the Avesnes, but neither party accepted the decision, and they continued to fight over imperial Flanders, which had been unaffected by it. During the struggles between the Flemish count Gui de Dampierre and King Philip iV of France during the 1290s, the Avesnes naturally followed France. Jean d’Avesnes had married Aleid of Holland, sister of Count William II, which formed the basis for the dynastic union of Holland, Zeeland, and Hainaut under the Avesnes in 1299. The direct line of the family was extinguished in 1345, when William II was succeeded by his sister Marguerite, the wife of the emperor Louis of Bavaria, and her son William III, whose rule unleashed civil warfare in Holland. The Bavarian Avesnes ruled Holland, Hainaut, and Zeeland until these principalities were absorbed into the Burgundian state in 1433.

David M. Nicholas

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