Dirk II, Count of Holland

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Dirk II of Holland
Count in Frisia
Dirk II as imagined in the 16th century
Reign	928/944 – 988
Born	920/930
Died	May 6, 988
Place of death	Egmond
Buried	Egmond
Predecessor	Dirk I
Successor	Arnulf
Consort	Hildegard of Flanders
Issue	Arnulf Egbert, Archbishop of Trier Erlinde, Abbess of Egmond
Father	Dirk I
Mother	Geva

Dirk II (born 920/930 - died 6 May 988) was Count of Frisia (west of the Vlie) and Holland. He was the son of Count Dirk I and Geva (or Gerberge).

[edit] Career

In 983 Emperor Otto III confirmed his rights to properties and territories in the counties of Maasland, Kinhem (Kennemerland) and Texla (Texel), thus stretching along the entire Hollandic coast (as well as inland). Count Dirk II built a fortress near Vlaardingen, which later was the site of a battle between his grandson Dirk III and an Imperial army under Godfrey II, Duke of Lower Lorraine.

He rebuilt the wooden church and abbey at Egmond in stone to house the relics of Saint Adalbert, the project starting in 950. Adalbert was not well known at that time, but he was said to have preached Christianity in the immediate surroundings two centuries earlier. The abbey was also to be for a community of Benedictine monks from Ghent, replacing the nuns, probably in the 970s. His daughter Erlint, who was abbess at the time, was made abbess of another, newly founded, convent.

[edit] Family

He married Hildegarde (thought to be a daughter of Count Arnulf of Flanders, based on the names of her children), and had three known children. His son Arnulf became Count of Holland and Frisia after Dirk's death. The younger son Egbert became Archbishop of Trier in 977. Their daughter Erlinde was abbess of Egmont, until that institution was changed by her father from a nunnery into a monastery, after which she became abbess of Bennebroek.

Dirk died in 988 and was buried in the stone church at Egmond, which he had built there. Hildegard died two years later and was also buried there.