Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/234

 220 DATE OF EMPEROR HENRY VIVS BIRTH April brother, mourns the loss of the count of Luxemburg and his brothers at the battle of Woeringen in 1288 in these words : ' Hie ploratus et ululatus de tam parvulis pupillis, Henrico, Walramo, et Baldwino.' ^ Likewise John, canon of Saint Victor in Paris, in writing a life of Clement V, says, even of a period as late as Henry's election to the imperial crown in 1308, that he was * iuvenis, sed strenuus in armis '.^ It is obvious, then, that Mussatus in his statement quoted above must have been mistaken. Mussatus, indeed, himself mentions Henry's marriage with Margaret of Brabant in 1292 in the following terms : ' Mar garitam Ducis Brabantiae filiam adolescentem imberbis et ipse duxit uxorem.'* If Henry were bom in 1262, he would at this time have been thirty, and this remark could not have been applied to him. Mussatus is, then, confuted out of his own mouth. Though, as has been shown, there has always been a tradition that Henry succeeded as a youth, it was not until the history of Luxemburg came to be studied in more detail in the nineteenth century that any serious effort was made to find out the exact date of Henry's birth. M. Wiirth-Paquet, the first president of the Societe pour la Recherche et la Conservation des Monuments dans le Grand-Duche de Luxembourg, in his preface to the Table chronologique des chartes et diplomes relatifs a Vhistoire de Henri VII *, concludes that Henry was born in 1272. Hen* Hermann Brosien, who wrote in 1885,* set out to prove that 1276, not 1272, was the correct date of Henry's birth. Finally, M. Nicolas van Werveke has embodied his predecessors'conclusions in a scholarly and able article® written in 1892. He criticizes Brosien on several points, and adds further evidence to support his own contentions. In the first place M. van Werveke proves that Henry VI, the Emperor Henry VII's father, could not have had a son bom to him in 1262. From 1256 to 1264 there was war between Henry V of Luxemburg and Guy of Dam- pierre. In the latter year peace was brought about by the inter- vention of John II of Avesnes. The treaty of peace was drawn up in May 1264, and the words in which Henry V undertakes to get it verified by his eldest son are of the very highest importance. Et est a savoir ke j'ai promis et promet ke je ferai et procuerrai (sic) ke mes ainsneis fius dedans demi-an aprh ce kHl sera aagies, prometera et aura en convent par foi et par serement soUempnel k greer et a tenir fermement » Oesta Trevirorum, ed. Wyttenbach and Muller (Treves, 1836), ii. 192. • Vitae Paparum Avenionensium, ed. Baluze (Paris, 1916), i. 14. » Muratori, x. 125. * Publications de la Society for 1861. • Forachungen zur DevUchen CkschichU, xv. 476. • Deutsche ZeiUchrift far Oeschichisunssenschaft, viii. 146-54 (1892).