John II, Duke of Cleves

Who was John II, Duke of Cleves?

John II, "The Pious" or "The Babymaker", Duke of Cleves, Count of Mark, was a son of John I, Duke of Cleves and Elizabeth of Nevers. He ruled Cleves from 1481 to his death in 1521. He was called "The Babymaker" since he fathered sixty-three illegitimate children before his marriage with Mathilde of Hesse in 1490. She was the daughter of Henry III, Landgrave of Upper Hesse and his wife Anna of Katzenelnbogen.

They had three children :

John, his successor

Anna, married in 1518 with count Philip III of Waldeck-Eisenberg

Adolf, appointed by his father's cousin Philip of Cleves, Lord of Ravenstein and Wijnendale, as his successor, but died before Philip