Engelbert II of Nassau
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Breda
Breda is a municipality and a city in the southern part of the Netherlands. The name Breda derived from brede Aa and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. As a fortified city, the city was of strategic military and political significance...
, May 17 1451 – Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, May 31 1504), was count of Nassau
Nassau (state)
Nassau was a German state within the Holy Roman Empire and later in the German Confederation. Its ruling dynasty, now extinct in male line, was the House of Nassau.-Origins:...
and Vianden
Vianden
Vianden is a commune with city status in the Oesling, north-eastern Luxembourg, with over 1,500 inhabitants. It is the capital of the canton of Vianden, which is part of the district of Diekirch. Vianden lies on the Our river, near the border between Luxembourg and Germany., the town of Vianden,...
, lord of Breda
Breda
Breda is a municipality and a city in the southern part of the Netherlands. The name Breda derived from brede Aa and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. As a fortified city, the city was of strategic military and political significance...
and Lek
Lek (manor)
De Lek was a heerlijkheid and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the province South-Holland. It is named after the Lek River.-Heerlijkheid:...
, Diest
Diest
Diest is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant. Situated in the northeast of the Hageland region, Diest neighbours the provinces of Antwerp to its North, and Limburg to the East and is situated around 60km from Brussels. The municipality comprises the city of...
, Roosendaal, Nispen and Wouw
Wouw
Wouw is a village between the cities Roosendaal and Bergen op Zoom. It is situated in the southern Netherlands in the province of North Brabant. It is close to the border with Belgium....
. He was a soldier and courtier, for some time leader of the Privy council of the Duchy of Burgundy
Duchy of Burgundy
The Duchy of Burgundy , was heir to an ancient and prestigious reputation and a large division of the lands of the Second Kingdom of Burgundy and in its own right was one of the geographically larger ducal territories in the emergence of Early Modern Europe from Medieval Europe.Even in that...
, and a significant patron of the arts.
His father was Jan IV of Nassau
Jan IV of Nassau
Jan IV of Nassau was Count of Nassau, Dietz and Dillenburg. He was the son of Engelbert I of Nassau, Count of Nassau and Dillenburg, Lord of Breda and Johanna of Polanen....
and his mother was Maria of Loon-Heinsberg. On December 19 1468 he married Cimburga van Baden in Koblenz
Koblenz
Koblenz is a German city situated on both banks of the Rhine at its confluence with the Moselle, where the Deutsches Eck and its monument are situated.As Koblenz was one of the military posts established by Drusus about 8 BC, the...
.
He was lord of Breda between 1475 and 1504. In 1472 he concluded a treaty with his brother Jan V of Nassau-Vianden-Diez
Jan V of Nassau-Vianden-Diez
Johann V of Nassau-Vianden-Dietz was count of Nassau , Vianden and Diez, and Lord of Breda. He was the paternal grandfather of William the Silent....
in which he received the possessions left of the Rhine. Charles the Bold made him a knight in the Order of the Golden Fleece
Order of the Golden Fleece
The Order of the Golden Fleece is an order of chivalry founded in Bruges by Philip III, Duke of Burgundy in 1430, to celebrate his marriage to the Portuguese princess Infanta Isabella of Portugal, daughter of King John I of Portugal. It evolved as one of the most prestigious orders in Europe...
in 1473. After the death of Charles the bold, Engelbert entered in the service of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
Maximilian I , the son of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor and Eleanor of Portugal, was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1493 until his death, though he was never in fact crowned by the Pope, the journey to Rome always being too risky...
, who had married Charles's daughter Mary of Burgundy
Mary of Burgundy
Mary of Burgundy ruled the Burgundian territories in Low Countries and was suo jure Duchess of Burgundy from 1477 until her death...
. In 1487, he is captured by the French in the Battle of Béthune, and released for ransom 2 years later. In 1496 he was appointed stadtholder
Stadtholder
A Stadtholder A Stadtholder A Stadtholder (Dutch: stadhouder [], "steward" or "lieutenant", literally place holder, holding someones place, possibly a calque of German Statthalter, French lieutenant, or Middle Latin locum tenens...
of Flanders.
He died on May 31 1504 in Brussels and is buried in the Grote kerk in Breda
Breda
Breda is a municipality and a city in the southern part of the Netherlands. The name Breda derived from brede Aa and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. As a fortified city, the city was of strategic military and political significance...
. He had no legitimate children and appointed his nephew Henry III of Nassau-Breda
Henry III of Nassau-Breda
Count Henry III of Nassau-Dillenburg-Dietz , Lord of Breda, Lord of the Lek, of Diest, etc. was a count of the House of Nassau....
as his successor. Engelbert had two illegitimate children : Engelbrecht and Barbara.
His portrait by the Master of the Portraits of Princes, can be found in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. He was one of the last important patrons of Flemish illuminated manuscript
Illuminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations...
s, and commissioned perhaps the most sumptuous manuscript of the Roman de la Rose
Roman de la Rose
The Roman de la rose, , is a medieval French poem styled as an allegorical dream vision. It is a notable instance of courtly literature. The work's stated purpose is to both entertain and to teach others about the Art of Love. At various times in the poem, the "Rose" of the title is seen as the...
, British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
Harley MS 4425, which has 92 large and high quality miniatures, despite a date around 1500; the text was copied by hand from a printed edition. These are by the artist known as the Master of the Prayer Books of around 1500
Master of the Prayer Books of around 1500
The Master of the Prayer Books of around 1500 was a Flemish painter of illuminated manuscripts active in Bruges from about 1485 until around 1520. His name is derived from a collection of devotional manuscripts from the same artist dating to about the start of the 16th century...
. The "Hours of Engelbert of Nassau" (Bodleian Library, Oxford, Ms Douce 219-220), of the 1470s or 1480s is another well-known manuscript. It has been suggested that he commissioned The Garden of Earthly Delights
The Garden of Earthly Delights
The Garden of Earthly Delights is a triptych painted by the early Netherlandish master Hieronymus Bosch , housed in the Museo del Prado in Madrid since 1939. Dating from between 1490 and 1510, when Bosch was about 40 or 50 years old, it is his best-known and most ambitious work...
by Hieronymous Bosch.