Cologne

Who holds it

Name

Adolf of Altena (Adolf I)

Title

Archbishop of Cologne, arch-chancellor for Italy

Since

October 1193 (consecrated 27 March 1194)

Confidence

high

Son of Count Eberhard of Altena (died 1180) and Adelheid of Arnsberg, so kin to the counts of Berg, Altena-Mark and Isenberg; his cousin Engelbert of Berg will succeed him in 1216. A Cologne canon before 1177, dean in 1183, cathedral provost in 1191, elected unanimously in October 1193. He was close to Richard I of England, helped settle his ransom and won trade privileges for Cologne's merchants. He elected Otto of Brunswick on 9 June 1198 and crowned him at Aachen on 12 July 1198.

Later course, for reference: he goes over to Philip in 1204, crowns him at Aachen on 6 January 1205, is deposed by Innocent III on 19 June 1205, and dies at Neuss on 15 April 1220.

What it holds

• Cologne: the city lordship, exercised through the archbishop's burgrave, advocate and the Schöffen court, with the mint, tolls and market. The citizens began their great new wall in 1180 without his leave and Barbarossa made him accept it (settlement of 18 August 1180); the richest merchants' guild (Richerzeche) is a city government in waiting
• Deutz on the right bank: the old Roman fort that Archbishop Heribert turned into an abbey in 1003; a Cologne bridgehead (made a town only in 1230)
• Neuss: under archiepiscopal lordship since Anno II (1056-1075); called a town in 1190; Henry VI freed Cologne's and Neuss's merchants from the toll at Kaiserswerth
• Zons: the archbishop's manor (Fronhof) since at least the early 12th century (the toll castle comes only in 1373)
• Bonn: the archbishop's town around St Cassius's minster (named a town in 1211, chartered and walled 1243-1244)
• The castles of the Siebengebirge across from Bonn (Wolkenburg, Drachenfels and others, built by 12th-century archbishops and held by their castellans); Godesberg is begun only in 1210
• Andernach: lordship granted by Barbarossa to Rainald of Dassel in 1167, with its Rhine toll; stormed and destroyed in the fighting of 1198
• Rheinberg: Cologne's by 1106 at the latest (parish given to St Kunibert); a Rhine toll (first named 1235)
• Xanten: under Cologne's lordship since 953 at the latest; St Victor's chapter holds its own immunity; the counts of Cleves are advocates (town charter 1228)
• Rees: the foundation of Irmgard of Aspel (about 1040) and its lands, under the archbishop (town charter 1228)
• Offices: arch-chancellor for Italy (since 1031) and the right to crown the king at Aachen; the shrine of the Three Kings in the cathedral

How it was acquired

Secular power began when Otto I made his brother, Archbishop Bruno, duke of Lotharingia in 953. Heribert founded Deutz (1003); Neuss became a lordship under Anno II; Irmgard of Aspel's foundation brought Rees; Barbarossa granted Andernach to Rainald of Dassel (1167), and Rainald brought the relics of the Three Kings from Milan (1164). Philip of Heinsberg (1167-1191) bought castles and allods across the Rhineland and Westphalia and received the Westphalian duchy in 1180.

How things stand that morning

Adolf holds the city and the Rhine towns and is Otto's chief prince: Aachen and Cologne are the Welf heartland. The war of 1198 cost him Andernach, stormed and destroyed, and the church at Linz was burned in the same fighting. Inside Cologne the citizens are rich, armed behind their own wall, and for Otto, which for now suits their archbishop.

Wealth

Cologne's trade with England (merchants' privileges from Henry II and Richard I) and up and down the Rhine; the Rhine tolls at Andernach, Bonn, Neuss and Rheinberg; the Cologne mint, whose penny is the standard coin of the Lower Rhine; the shrine of the Three Kings and its pilgrims; wine from the Siebengebirge and the Ahr.

Threats

• Another Staufen campaign down the Rhine against Andernach, Bonn and Neuss, as in 1198
• The citizens of Cologne, armed with their own wall
• Adolf's own calculations: he is a Rhenish-Westphalian dynast first and Otto's man second
• Papal anger if he changes sides

Advocates and rivals

The citizens of Cologne, with their own wall and their English trade. The counts of Cleves (advocates of Xanten), Jülich, Berg and Sayn and the dukes of Limburg, all building their own territories around the archbishop's. The duke of Brabant, Otto's ally and the other great power of the Lower Rhine. On the Middle Rhine the Staufen hold the royal places (Sinzig, Kaiserswerth), though the count palatine of the Rhine is Otto's own brother Henry.

Places of note

• Cologne cathedral: Shrine of the Three Kings, relics brought from Milan in 1164
• Aachen: Royal city (not Cologne's) where Adolf crowned Otto on 12 July 1198
• Drachenfels and Wolkenburg: Archiepiscopal castles of the Siebengebirge
• Godesburg: Castle begun by Archbishop Dietrich in 1210 (not yet standing)
• Linz am Rhein: Church burned in the fighting of 1198; archiepiscopal lordship not pinned for 1200

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The archbishop's main towns and their grants are well attested; their status as chartered towns mostly dates from 1190-1250, so in 1200 several are still market places under his officers. Linz, Kempen, Lechenich, Zülpich and Brühl are left off: their archiepiscopal lordship is not pinned for 1200 (Ahrweiler and the Hochstaden county come only in 1246).

On the map: The Rhineland holdings are drawn as town territories capped at 5-6 km; the archbishop's estates, manors and vassal castles between them are not drawn. The Westphalian duchy is a separate card.

Primary sources for Cologne

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 Reiner of Saint James, Liège, Reiner of Liège (1197 to 1230, kept year by year). Contemporary annals kept inside Liège. Read online
• Chronicle of Burchard of Ursberg, Burchard of Ursberg (about 1229 to 1230, reworked by Conrad of Lichtenau). Written a generation later by a fierce partisan of the Staufen and a critic of Innocent III. Read online
• Chronicle of Otto of St Blasien, Otto of St Blasien (about 1209 to 1210). A Swabian continuation of Otto of Freising written from the Staufen side. 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
• Royal Chronicle of Cologne (in stages from about 1175 to about 1250; the section on 1198 to 1220 written soon after the events). The fullest German narrative of the throne war from the Welf and Cologne side. Read online
• Regesta Imperii V: calendar of the acts of Philip, Otto IV and Frederick II, 1198 to 1272 (calendar of documents of 1198 to 1272, published 1881 to 1901). A dated calendar of every known act of King Philip and King Otto IV, with the acts of popes and princes that bear on the Empire. Read online
• Register of Innocent III on the affair of the Roman Empire, Innocent III and the papal chancery (1198 to 1209, compiled as a separate register at the curia). The pope's own file on the German throne war: letters to and from Philip, Otto, the German princes and bishops, and the famous Deliberatio of late 1200 or early 1201 in which Innocent weighs the claims of Frederick, Philip and Otto before deciding for Otto. Read online
• The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online

2 more in the sources library for The Rhineland, the Low Countries and the Swiss Lands.