Philip I, Duke of Brabant

Who was Philip I, Duke of Brabant?

Philip I, Duke of Brabant, also known as Philip of Saint Pol, younger son of Antoine, Duke of Brabant and Jeanne of Saint-Pol, succeeded his brother John as Duke of Brabant in 1427. He had already been given Saint-Pol and Ligny as an appanage on the death of his grandfather Waleran III in 1415 at the Battle of Agincourt.

He commanded the Burgundian forces occupying Paris in 1419, but he returned to Brabant in 1420, where the populace complained of his brother's misadministration. He was declared ruwaard of Brabant. In 1421, he was reconciled with his brother, and resigned the regency. The citizens were pacified by John's "Nieuw Regiment" in 1422.

During his own reign, Philip was forced to grant concessions to the nobility in 1428. Wary of the rise of his cousin and heir Philip the Good in the Hook and Cod wars, he sought a marital alliance with Louis II of Anjou against Burgundy, marrying his daughter Yolande.

Because this marriage produced no children, his death in 1430 placed Brabant in the hands of his cousin Philip the Good, the next heir, whilst Saint-Pol and Ligny went to his great-aunt Joan, by proximity of blood. His wife was placed in the guardianship of Philip the Good, until she remarried in 1431 with Francis I, Duke of Brittany.