land ; for the earl confidered himfelf as lord there-of. If the Friezlanders had been people to liften to the legality and reafonablenefs of the claim, the^ earl was entitled to it: but, as they were obftinat^ he exerted himfelf to obtain it by force, and was flain, as well as a great many other knights and fquires. God have mercy on their.fouls ! Sir John of Hainault did not accompany his ner. phew, but went to ' another part- On, hearing of his nephew's death, he wanted to combat the Friez-landers like one out of his fenfes : when his fervants found the ftate he was in, they took him and car-ried him on board a veffel, whether he would or no. Sir Robert de Glewes, who was his body fquire, was moft afitive in faving him. They re-turned in fmall numbers, and in- diforder, ^to Ger-truydenberg in Holland, where the lady Jane his niece, the wife of the above-mentioned earl, was waiting for him. She was the eldeft daughter of the duke of Brabant, and from that moment with*-drew to the territory of Binch*, which was her dower. * The county of Hainault remained vacant fome time, and was governed by fir John of Hainault, until the lady Margaret, mother to earl Albert, came thither, and took poffefiion of the heritage^ to whom all the lords did homage and fealty. This lady Margaret, countefs of Hainault, was married to the lord Lewis of Bavaria, emperor of • Rome, and king of Germany. .. * Binch, near Mons, in Hainault* ' CHAP. . • 104-