Hermann II, Count Palatine of Lotharingia

The imperial crowning of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor (left) by Antipope Clement III (middle-right). Between them stands the Schwertführer Count Palatine Hermann II of Lotharingia. Picture in the chronic of Otto von Freising, Codex Jenensis Bose q.6 (1157).

Hermann II (born 1049; died Dalhem, 20 September 1085), Count Palatine of Lotharingia from 1064 when reaching majority, until 1085. He was count in the Ruhrgau and the Zulpichgau, as well as count of Brabant. He is the son of Henry I of Lotharingia († 1061) and Mathild of Verdun († 1060), daughter of Gozelo I of Lotharingia.

In 1080 he married Adelheid of Orlamunde-Weimar († 1100), widow of Adalbert II of Ballenstedt. She was a daughter of Otto of Orlamünde, count of Weimar and margrave of Meissen in Thuringia, and Adela of Brabant. Together they had two children who died already in 1085.

He is assumed to be the last Count Palatine of Lotharingia out of the Ezzonian dynasty. He was killed in a duel with Albert III, Count of Namur, nearby Hermans castle in Dalhem (County of Limburg).

His widow married (3rd) with Henry of Laach, count in the Mayfeldgau, and who became the first count palatine of the Rhine between 1085/1087.

Further reading

• Frans J. Van Droogenbroeck, Het landgraafschap Brabant (1085-1183) en zijn paltsgrafelijke voorgeschiedenis. De territoriale en institutionele aanloop tot het ontstaan van het hertogdom Brabant (2004)