Thierry de Heinsberg, Count of Looz

Thierry de Heinsberg (Theodoric of Looz, Dietrich) (d. between 17 and 21 January 1361), Count of Looz and Count of Chiny (1336-1361), son of Godefroy II, Lord of Heinsberg, son of Dietrich, Lord of Heinsberg, and Jeanne de Louvaine, and Matilda, daughter of Arnold V, Count of Looz and Chiny, and Marguerite Vianden.

In 1336, Thierry's uncle Louis IV, Count of Looz and Chiny, died without having had children. An agreement of 1190 stipulated that if the House of Looz were extinguished, the county would then be integrated with the Principality of Liege and a succession crises emerged.

The reaction of the Chapter of Saint-Lambert was immediate. The Prince-Bishop of Liège Adolph of La Marck moved to incorporate the County of Looz into the principality, while Thierry maneuvered to assume the title of count. However, since Thierry had married Adolph’s sister and the bishop was fond of their son, family relations won out. Until his death in 1344, the prelate used all of his influence to ensure that the county remained in possession of his brother-in-law..

But the death of the bishop did not terminate possession the Counties of Looz and Chiny by the Heinsbergs, because Adolph’s nephew Engelbert III succeeded him as Prince-Bishop of Liege. Englebert removed the threat of excommunication pronounced against Thierry and allowed him to remain at the head of the counties until his death.

In 1336, Thierry married Kunigunde of the Mark, (d. 1343), daughter of Engelbert I, Count of the Mark, and Kunigonde of Blieskastel, sister of Adolph of the Marck and Eberhard II, Count of the Mark (also his uncle through marriage to Matilda’s sister Marie).

Theirry and Kunigunde had one son:

Godfried van Loon-Heinsberg (d. 1347), married in 1336 to Mathilde of Guelders (d.1384), daughter of Renaud II, Duke of Guelders, and Sophie Berthout, Lady of Mechelen.

Upon his death in 1361, Thierry’s nephew and heir, Godfrey de Heinsberg, Lord of Daelenbroeck, claimed the counties of Looz and Chiny, while the Bishopric of Liege claimed it as fief of the church.

Sources

Marchandisse, Alain, La fonction épiscopale à Liège aux xiiie et xive siècles: étude de politologie historique, Bibliothèque de la Faculté de Philosophie et de Lettres de l'Université de Liège, 1998

Arlette Laret-Kayser, Entre Bar et Luxembourg : Le Comté de Chiny des Origines à 1300, Bruxelles (éditions du Crédit Communal, Collection Histoire, série in-8°, n° 72), 1986

Medieval Lands Project, Herren von Heinsberg (Sponheim)

Medieval Lands Project, Upper Lotharingian Nobility, Comtes de Looz

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