John III of Bavaria
Duke of Bavaria-Straubing and count of Holland and Hainaut (1375–1425)
John III the Pitiless (1374 – 6 January 1425), of the House of Wittelsbach, was first bishop of Liège 1389–1418 and then duke of Bavaria-Straubing and count of Holland and Hainaut 1418–1425.
Family
John was born in Le Quesnoy. He was the youngest son of Duke Albert I of Bavaria and Margaret of Brieg. His elder brother was William II, who succeeded their father as count of Holland, Zeeland and Hainault in 1404. His sister, Margaret, married Duke John the Fearless of Burgundy in 1385.
Bishop
As the youngest son of three, John was destined for a career in the church. At the age of 15, he became Prince-Bishop of Liège, with the support of Pope Boniface IX. John's rule was a disaster. His authoritarian style clashed with the nobles and burghers of the Prince-Bishopric. He was expelled several times and saw even a counter-bishop being elected. John turned for help to his brother and brother-in-law.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “John III of Bavaria” is duke of Bavaria-Straubing and count of Holland and Hainaut (1375–1425). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through John, Bavaria and Duke, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q77252. VIAF identifies the subject as 305413466. The Library of Congress control number is n85125076. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1374, 1425, 1389 and 1418.
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This entry incorporates text from “John III of Bavaria” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.