Jutta van Limburg (?)

Jutta, the wife of count Baldwin of Bentheim, was mentioned only once, in a charter of Stift Wietmarschen dated 23 April 1246, where she is mentioned together with her son Otto. Otto established a memorial for his parents in Stift Wietmarschen on 9 May 1248, which means she must have died between 1246 and 1248.

In several studies she is either mentioned as Von Rietberg or Von Steinfurt, but this seems unlikely:
- her daughter Elisabeth von Bentheim married count Ludolf III of Steinfurt. That would have not been possible of her mother belonged to that same family because of consanguinity laws followed by the church at that time
- Baldwin’s mother was Alveradis van Arnsberg, erfdochter van Malsen. She was a sister of Heinrich I, count of Arnsberg & Rietberg, the first count of Arnsberg that also called himself count of Rietberg. Once again, a marriage of Baldwin with a member of the Von Arnsberg/Von Rietberg family would have led to violation of consanguinity laws

In 2002, in a discussion in the Yahoo Group for Dutch Medieval Genealogy (nowadays https://groups.io/g/MiddeleeuwseGenealogie), Hans Vogels and Guido van Benthem built upon each others arguments and proposed the theory that Jutta was a daughter of Walram III, hertog van Limburg and his first wife, Cunegonde van Lotharingen. The main arguments for this theory are:
- Walraven van Bentheim, heer van Heeswijk is considered to be a son of Graf Otto Boudewijn II (V) von Bentheim and a grandson of Baldwin and Jutta, although there only is indirect evidence for this filiation. However, the name Walraven is a very uncommon name that before 1400 only appeared in the family of the dukes of Limburg and their direct descendants. Therefore, it seems likely that Walraven van Bentheim also was a descendant of the dukes of Limburg. The most plausible way for this descendance would be a marriage of his grandfather count Baldwin with a daughter of a duke of Limburg
- the name Judith/Jutta is not uncommon in the family of the dukes of Limburg. He had a sister Judith von Limburg and he was a greatgrandson of Judith van Gelder Wassenberg. Therefore, it is not unlikely that duke Walram named one of his daughters Jutta
- in a charter from 1322 count Willem III of Holland called Walraven van Bentheim, heer van Heeswijk his cousin. Assuming that Walraven was a son of count Otto of Bentheim, there is a 5th/6th degree blood relationship because of their shared descendance of count Dirk VI of Holland. But if Walraven van Bentheim’s grandmother was a daughter of duke Walram III of Limburg, then there would also be a 3rd/4rth degree bloodrelationship between count Willem III and Walraven, since count Willem III of Holland was a greatgrandson of duke Walram III of Limburg himself. The 3rd/4rth degree relationship would be a much better explanation for the fact that Willem III called Walraven his cousin than the 5th/6th degree blood relationship

So, there are good arguments for assuming that Jutta was a daughter of duke Walram III of Limburg, but this should be treated with caution, since there is no direct evidence to proof this relationship

Jutta is volgens de Stichting (betrouwbare afstamming van) Karel de Grote in de publicatie van 1991 VAN ONBEKENDE HERKOMST, reeksen met haar als verbinding worden niet erkend!

Voorlopig worden de vermoede ouders vermeld met 600+ referenties op geneanet;
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