Bremen

Who holds it

Name

Hartwig II (of Uthlede)

Title

Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen

Since

elected 1184, in office from 1185 (absent in exile 1190-1194)

Confidence

medium

Of a family of the Bremen church's ministerials at Uthlede; once notary and favourite of Henry the Lion, so his election counted as a Welf success. The burghers drove him out in spring 1189 over an extra tax; he went into exile in England and at the Welf court in Lüneburg, and the chapter elected Valdemar of Schleswig in his place in 1192. Back in office from 1194, after a deal with the chapter that he would not pledge revenues or fiefs without its consent; reconciled with Henry VI in 1195.

When the Bremen burghers withheld his revenues in 1194-1195 he excommunicated Count Adolf III of Holstein and laid Bremen under interdict. He went on Henry VI's crusade in 1197-1198. In 1198 he took the Staufen side against Otto. He launched the Livonian mission: in 1198 he raised the Saxon crusaders under Bishop Berthold, who was killed, and then named his nephew Albert bishop of Üxküll. In summer 1199 he was defending the Eider line against Canute VI's army.

Dies 3 November 1207.

What it holds

• Bremen: the cathedral city; lordship much reduced since the Gelnhausen privilege of 1186, which let the burghers govern the city with the emperor; in 1194-1195 the burghers refused the archbishop's revenues
• The county of Stade (Stade, Harsefeld and the Elbe marshes of the Altes Land and Kehdingen): the archbishop is liege lord and takes two thirds of the revenue under the settlement made at Gelnhausen in October 1195; Count Adolf III of Holstein administers it and keeps a third
• Dithmarschen: claimed as part of the Stade inheritance that returned to Bremen in 1144; a free peasant land that promised dues after Hartwig's invasion of 1187-1188 with Maurice of Oldenburg and then defied him with Danish backing
• Hamburg: the old metropolitan see and its chapter; the town is ruled by the counts of Holstein (not drawn)
• Spiritual lordship over the Livonian mission at Üxküll on the Düna, under his nephew Bishop Albert

How it was acquired

Bremen's lordship goes back to the 10th century. The Stade county and Dithmarschen came with Count Hartwig of Stade's inheritance (1144), were seized by Henry the Lion, recovered after his fall in 1180, ceded to the returning Henry by Hartwig II in 1189, and settled at Gelnhausen in October 1195. Archbishop Siegfried (1180-1184) had handed Dithmarschen to his brother Bernhard of Saxony, and Adolf III held it until Hartwig persuaded him to waive his claim before the campaign of 1187.

How things stand that morning

Hartwig is in office and recognised. Bremen's burghers hold their city; Adolf III holds Stade on the 1195 terms; Dithmarschen is out of reach and leaning to Denmark. The rival elect Valdemar has been a prisoner since 1192-1193, first at Nordborg and from 1198 in the tower of Søborg on Zealand; he will be released only in 1206, on oath never to meddle in Danish affairs again.

Wealth

Weser trade and tolls at Bremen; the Elbe toll and port at Stade; the drained marshes of the Altes Land and Kehdingen, settled by Hollanders; the archbishop's share of the Stade revenue.

Threats

• Denmark: Canute VI and Duke Valdemar pressing on the Eider and courting Dithmarschen; Adolf III will be beaten at Stellau and captured in 1201
• The Welfs' claim to Stade
• The Bremen burghers' autonomy
• A papal decision on the 1192 election, which Valdemar's partisans could still raise

Advocates and rivals

Count Adolf III of Holstein holds Stade's administration and the town of Hamburg. The Welfs claim Stade as Henry the Lion's heirs; the German Wikipedia table puts it in the hands of Henry the Count Palatine from 1202. The Danish crown (Canute VI and his brother Duke Valdemar) holds the rival archbishop and is pushing south over the Eider. The Bremen burghers are a power in their own right. The bishop of Verden built Rotenburg in 1195 as a bulwark against Bremen.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1200 (not pinned)Hartwig's nephew Bishop Albert sails for the Düna with crusaders recruited in Saxony (the campaign notes put his arrival during 1200).Depends on: Albert's recruiting and a sailing season. Stopped by: A Danish closure of the sea route, or Hartwig needing the men at home.

Places of note

• Bremen cathedral: Metropolitan church; Hartwig favoured St Ansgar's, where he was later reburied
• Stade: Port and county town on the Elbe, administered by Adolf III
• Søborg: Danish royal castle on Zealand where the rival elect Valdemar is held from 1198

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign notes give Valdemar's election as 1192 and his captivity as 1192-1193. The English Wikipedia dates his capture by Canute VI to 8 July 1192; the German Wikipedia says he was held 1193-1206. Either way he is a prisoner on 1 January 1200.

Evidence: Hartwig's career is told in detail on Wikipedia, which follows the older Bremen literature. The division of Stade in 1195 rests on that account; the Danish advance after 1200 is well known. Hartwig's 1198 allegiance rests on one statement in the German Wikipedia.

On the map: The Stade county is drawn around its core towns and Elbe marshes; its true 1200 limits, and whether Vörde castle belonged to it that year, are not pinned (the English Wikipedia puts Vörde under Bremen only from 1219). Dithmarschen is drawn as claimed. Hamburg is not drawn.

Primary sources for Bremen

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Annals of Stade, by Albert of Stade, Albert of Stade (about 1240 to 1256). A world chronicle written at Stade in the 1240s from older Stade and Bremen annals. Read online
• Chronicle of the Slavs, by Arnold of Lübeck, Arnold of Lübeck (about 1209 to 1210). Arnold continues Helmold and writes from Lübeck, close to Danish, Welf and Baltic affairs. Read online
• Chronicle of the Slavs, by Helmold of Bosau, Helmold of Bosau (about 1167 to 1172). Background only. Read online
• The Livonian Chronicle of Henry, Henry of Livonia (1225 to 1227). The chief source for the Baltic mission. Read online
• Charter books of Lübeck and of Hamburg (documents to 1226 (Lübeck vol. 1) and to 1300 (Hamburg vol. 1)). The charters of the two north German towns and of the archbishops of Bremen and Hamburg. Read online
• Charter book of Livonia, Estonia and Courland, volume 1, 1093 to 1300 (documents of 1093 to 1300, edited 1853). The documents of the Livonian mission: Innocent III's bull of 5 October 1199 calling for a crusade to protect the Livonian church, the privileges for Bishop Albert, Archbishop Hartwig of Bremen's acts for the see of Üxküll, and the later charters that settle who held what on the Düna.