View source for Emmo of Loon

{{Short description|Count of Loon}}
'''Count Emmo, Immo''' or '''Emmon''' (d. before 17 Jan 1078) is one of the first known [[County of Loon|counts of Loon]] (or Looz) in the region of modern [[Belgian Limburg]]. Before him one more count is known with confidence, [[Giselbert of Loon|Count Giselbert]] (or Gilbert), but it is not certain that Giselbert was Emmo's father. Verhelst for example has proposed that he was his uncle, and that Giselbert's brother Count Arnulf was father of Emmo and also a count of Loon.
His mother is named clearly as Ludgarde of Namur, a sister of Albert the count of Namur, in a work about the life of her cousin, Bishop Arnulf of Soissons.<ref>''Vita Arnulfi Episcopi Suessioniensis'', MGH SS 15.2, Holder-Egger ed. (Hannover 1888) [https://www.dmgh.de/mgh_ss_15_2/index.htm#page/879/mode/1up p.879].</ref>
On several occasions, Emmo and his brother [[Otto I, Count of Duras|Otto]] were jointly referred to as counts of Loon, though Otto's descendants became counts of the neighbouring castle of Duras. Emmo's family was probably descended from the 10th century families who, like them, had the rank of count in the local [[Hesbaye]] region. In 966 the lord of Gelmen was also named [[Emmo, Count of Hesbaye|Count Immo]].
As shown by Verdonk, Emmo married Suanhildis, who was probably the daughter of [[Dirk III of Holland|Dirk III Hierosolymita]], a count in West Frisia, and an ancestor of the counts of Holland. Emmo and Suanhildis had four children:
* [[Sophia (wife of Géza I of Hungary)|Sophie]] (d. 1065) married [[Géza I of Hungary|Géza I, King of Hungary]].  It is uncertain whether the subsequent dynasty of Kings of Hungary were the descendants of Sophie or Géza’s second wife.
* [[Arnold I, Count of Loon|Arnold I, Count of Looz]]
* Thierry (Dirk) de Looz (d. after April 1125), Count of Horn.
* Mechthilde, Abbess of [[Munsterbilzen]]<ref>See pedigree p.149 {{citation|year=2016|last=Vaes|first=Jan|title=De Graven van Loon. Loons, Luiks, Limburgs|isbn=9789059087651}}</ref>
Emmo was succeeded as Count of Loon by his son Arnold.
==References==
{{Reflist}}
== Sources ==
*Jean Baerten, Het graafschap Loon (11de-14de eeuw), Assen,1969 ([http://www.shclimburg.nl/sites/shclimburg.nl/files/maaslandse-monografieen/MM%2009%20def.pdf link])
*Souvereyns; Bijsterveld (2008), "Deel 1: De graven van Loon", Limburg - Het Oude Land van Loon ([https://www.academia.edu/6056722/De_graven_van_Loon link])
*Vanderkindere, Léon (1902), La formation territoriale des principautés belges au Moyen Age ([http://digistore.bib.ulb.ac.be/2006/DL2632839_002_f.pdf link]), Vol.2, Ch. 9, p.&nbsp;128
*Verdonk, "De herkomst van de heren van Herlaer" [http://ameide-tienhoven.nl/wp-content/uploads/2005/12/Nieuwsblad-HVAT-2005-4-klein_Deel2.pdf link]
*{{citation|last=Verhelst|first=Karel|year=1985 |title=Een nieuwe visie op de omvang en indeling van de pagus Hasbania (part 2)|journal=Handelingen van de Koninklijke Zuidnederlandsche Maatschappij voor Taal- en Letterkunde en Geschiednis|volume=39}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Loon, Emmo}}
[[Category:1078 deaths]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:House of Loon|Emmo]]
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