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Aleide/Adelaide of Cleves

Overview

Title social-status
Contess of Holland
Date of Birth
1170's?
Date of Death
after 1216

Biography

Aleide/Adelaide of Cleves, was the daughter of Theoderic II, Count of Cleves, and Adelaide of Sulzbach.  In 1186, she married Theoderic/Dirk VII, count of Holland (+1203), the son of Floris III and Ada of Huntingdon, whose daughter, Margareta, had married Adelaide’s brother, Dirk III of Cleves in 1182.   Dirk and Aleide had three daughters, Aleide, Petronilla, and Ada.  Aleide and Petronilla died before 1203.  Ada succeeded her father as Countess of Holland, but rather than let Ada’s uncle William serve as her regent, Aleide had her swiftly married to Louis, count of Loon.  William, however, contested her rule and defeated and then exiled Louis and Aleide.  He captured Ada, who was detained first in Frisia, then in England, whose king John was an ally of William’s.