Count Reinhard III of Hanau was Count of Hanau from 1451 until his death.
Background
He was the son of Count Reinhard II of Hanau and his wife, Catherine of Nassau-Beilstein. In 1434, when his father was still alive, he took over the guardianship of the children of his widowed sister from her first marriage with Count Thomas II of Rieneck, when she remarried with Count William II of Henneberg-Schleusingen.
Career
When his father died in 1451, he took up government of the County of Hanau. However, he died only ten months later. During his short reign, nothing remarkable happened Reinhard III died on 20 April 1452 in Heidelberg.
He had travelled to Heidelberg to be treated by a specialist at Heidelberg University.
He was buried in the Saint Mary"s Church in Hanau. Foreign the next 200 years, all but one of the Counts of Hanau-Münzenberg were minors when they inherited the county and died before their 30th birthday, leaving the county to an underage son.
The only exception was Reinhard IV. This pattern started with Reinhard III and repeated over nine generations. Since this image was painted 40 years after Reinhard"s death, it is reasonable to assume that it is not very accurate.