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John II, Duke of Cleves

John II, "The Babymaker", Duke of Cleves, Count of Mark, (German: Johann II. "der Kindermacher", Herzog von Kleve, Graf von Mark) (13 April 1458 – 15 March 1521) was a son of John I, Duke of Cleves and Elizabeth of Nevers.[1] He ruled Cleves from 1481 to his death in 1521. He was called "The Babymaker" as he had fathered sixty-three illegitimate children[2] prior to his marriage with Mathilde of Hesse in 1489.

John II, Duke of Cleves

(1458-04-13)13 April 1458
Cleves

15 March 1521(1521-03-15) (aged 62)
Cleves

La Marck

Mathilde of Hesse

John III, Duke of Cleves

illegitimate

63 others

John I, Duke of Cleves

Elizabeth of Nevers

Pope Innocent VIII awarded John the Golden Rose of Virtue on 15 April 1489. This is remarkable in light of the fact that John, with his alleged 63 illegitimate children, had the dubious reputation of being a "child maker". From then on, John called himself "Johann von Kleve, Count of La Marck and Katzenelnbogen".

(1490–1539), succeeded as Duke of Cleves and Count of the Marck[5]

John

(1495–1567), married in 1518 with count Philip III of Waldeck-Eisenberg[5]

Anna

Adolf (1498–1525), appointed by his father's cousin and Wijnendale, as his successor, but died before Philip did in 1528

Philip of Cleves, Lord of Ravenstein

John married Matilda of Hesse,[3] daughter of Henry III, Landgrave of Upper Hesse and Anna of Katzenelnbogen,[4] on 3 November 1489 in Soest. They had:

Boltanski, Ariane (2006). Les ducs de Nevers et l'État royal: genèse d'un compromis (ca 1550 - ca 1600) (in French). Librairie Droz S.A.

Guenther, Ilse (1985). "John II, Duke of Cleves and Mark". In Bietenholz, Peter G.; Deutscher, Thomas Brian (eds.). Contemporaries of Erasmus: A Biographical Register of the. Vol. 1-3: A-Z. University of Toronto Press.

Morby, John (1989). Dynasties of the World: A chronological and genealogical handbook. Oxford University Press.

Ward, A.W.; Prothero, G.W.; Leathes, Stanley, eds. (1934). The Cambridge Modern History. Vol. XIII. Cambridge at the University Press.

Accessed July 28, 2008

Genealogy of Jülich-Cleves