Lords of Westerlo
The exact date of the donation (which included apart from Westerlo proper, the nearby domains of Olen, Westmeerbeek, Buul and others) is not known.
The donation was intended to provide the chapters of Sint-Maarten and Sint-Salvator with the necessary financial means to organise the religious service.
[3] The knights of Wezemaal[4] however where gaining power and influence through the important functions they held at the court of the Duke of Brabant.
After some time the marriage was declared void on the basis of rumors that Ida's first husband Jan van Lier was still alive.
The Brabantic nobility and the Papal authorities in both Rome and Avignon recognized Jan II in 1417 as his fathers legal heir.
[7] But the children of Richard I de Merode and Margaretha van Wezemaal proclaimed themselves as the sole legitimate heirs and considered their cousin Jan a bastard.
They hesitated to give him Westerlo and Olen in fief and instead negotiated with his cousin Richard II de Merode.
Jan II ignored the allodial rights of the chapter of Utrecht and left Westerlo in his will to the Duke of Brabant, Charles the Bold.
However de facto illegal, the Duke accepted the inheritance ignoring in his turn the property rights of the chapter of Utrecht.
[10] There is evidence Guy de Brimeu lived in the Castle of Westerlo for a longer period of time between 1475 and his death in 1477.
On the 29th of March 1484 the Council of Brabant recognized the fact that the fiefs of Westerlo and Olen were the full property of the chapter of Utrecht.
[14] As a result of the Dutch Revolt in that year the Roman Catholic chapter of Utrecht formally seized to exist and Westerlo would become a fief of the Duchy of Brabant.
The subsequent Lords of Westerlo from the house of Merode are: x Marguerite de Melun (+1532) to their son: x Anne van Gistel-Dudzele (+1534) without issue.
To their son: x Anna de Merode-Houffalize (+1625) In 1626 Westerlo is elevated to the rank of marquessate by Philip IV of Spain, Duke of Brabant.
The title of 'Marquess of Westerlo' was recognized by King William I of the Netherlands in 1823 and will be inherited by his eldest son: x Louise de Thesan d'Espendaillan (1787–1862).
