Reginald II of Guelders, called "the Black", was Count of Guelders, and from 1339 onwards Duke of Guelders, and Zutphen, in the Low Countries, from 1326 to 1343.
Background
He was the son of Reginald I of Guelders and Marguerite of Flanders. From 1316, he acted as regent in the county, imprisoned his father in 1318, and governed as "son of the Count". When in 1326 his father died, he styled himself Count of Guelders and Count of Zutphen.
Career
In 1339 Guelders was raised to a duchy. He was a law giver, in 1321 on customary law, and in 1335 on dykes and canals. He allied himself against the French with Edward III of England, his brother-in-law, warning the English in 1338 of a French fleet gathering in the mouth of the Zwin.
He remained Edward"s closest ally among the German princes in the first phase of the Hundred Years War.
Their children were:
Marguerite (1320–1344), Lady of Mechelen
Mathilde (1325–1384), Lady of Mechelen, then Duchess of Guelders (1371–1379), who married:
in 1336, Godfried van Loon-Heinsberg (d 1347)
before 1348, John of Cleves (d 1368), Count of Cleves
John II, Count of Blois (d 1381)
Elisabeth (d 1376), Abbess of Gravendaal
Marie († 1405), Duchess of Guelders (1371–1405), married William II, Duke of Jülich
Their children were:
Reginald III of Guelders (1333–1371), Duke of Guelders (1343–1361)
Edward of Guelders (1336–1371), Duke of Guelders (1361–1371)
He excluded her from court in 1338, claiming she had leprosy. She refuted him by returning and undressing, perhaps completely according to some chroniclers, in public view.
Reginald died at Arnhem.