Battle of Worringen
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The Battle of Worringen was fought on June 5, 1288, near the town of Worringen (also spelled Woeringen), which is now the northernmost borough of Cologne. It was the decisive battle of the War of the Limburg Succession, fought for the possession of the Duchy of Limburg between Archbishop Siegfried II of Cologne and Duke John I of Brabant, and one of the larger battles in Europe in the Middle Ages.
The conflict arose after Duke Waleran IV of Limburg, a scion of the Lotharingian Ardennes-Verdun dynasty, had died without male heirs in 1279. His duchy was inherited by his daughter Ermengarde, who had married Count Reginald I of Guelders about 1270. Her husband claimed the Limburg heritage and in 1282 had his ducal title recognized by the German king Rudolf I.
The marriage of Reginald and Ermengarde, however, remained childless and when she died in 1283, Count Adolf VIII of Berg, Duke Waleran's nephew as son of his elder brother Count Adolf VII, also claimed the Limburg duchy. As far as the succession in the female line was denied, Reginald was unable to assert his claims. An agreement seemed possible; nevertheless, Count Adolf VIII of Berg preceded his Ardennes relatives when in September 1283 he sold his claims to the mighty Reginar duke John of Brabant.
Duke John intended to enlarge his Brabant territory and re-unite the former Duchy of Lower Lorraine in the northwest of the Holy Roman Empire. Limburg was also economically important as it stretched along the major Via Regia trade route to Aachen and Cologne on the Rhine river. Though Brabant held the title of Duke of Lothier since 1190, it had been solely honorific and did not imply any inheritance claims. The Limburg nobles therefore refused to accept John's overlordship, when his forces invaded the duchy.
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